a/n: I know, loooooong overdue..

_ _ _ _ _

“Seulgi!” Sungjae’s voice cracked badly, his throat was already raw from too much shouting but he tried to ignore the insistent pain. “Yeri! Where are you guys!?”

As soon as they entered the woods on the side of the highway, they’ve lost each other. The night was dark and the woods was darker. They didn’t know where they were going, they didn’t know where the trees started and where they ended. He just happened to look away for a second and then the girls were gone.

It was bad enough that they’ve been running for about a couple of weeks now – three weeks when he first started but two weeks since he met the girls and they all decided to stick together – and that’s not even the worst part; the worst part about all of these was that there are actual monsters chasing them. But no one, not even the police officers could see the otherworldly creatures that were ever so persistent in following their tracks. It’s as if they got some sort of built-in GPS or something, it was insane.

In the end all they could do was run and try not to get killed.

During the first week, the group didn’t have a concrete plan on where to go or where to hide, but after a mysterious lady gave them a map that pointed to a certain location, they’ve been following it religiously.

And now they’re here.

But now he’s alone.

“Yeri! Seulgi!” Sungjae could feel impending tears on both eyes as frustration mounted and threatened to devour his last remaining hope of surviving this ridiculous situation. Still, he refused to give in and cry. “Guys! Please…”

A large cracking sound of a tree trunk splitting in the middle caught his attention, but what he saw when he searched for the sound shook him to the core.

It was a huge grimy Cyclopes, dressed in nothing but furs and rags and hundreds of scars in full display. He was grasping a battle axe on one hand, and he used the other to crush pine trees like they were toothpicks.

“I’m so sorry, guys…”

Sungjae knew that he wouldn’t be able to outrun the monster, nor fight it and live to tell the tale. He knew he was done for. He pulled a deep breath and started to make peace with his life as the monster boomed closer.

“Don’t just stand there.”

But maybe not today.

The voice belonged to a teenage boy wearing a plate and carrying a broadsword, he emerged from the darkness behind Sungjae. Another teen – a tall girl with a spear and a shield came to view. Both have determined eyes and defensive stances.

“Step back,” the girl told Sungjae without looking at him. “Things might get a little messy.”

Sungjae nodded and scurried to the nearest fallen tree he spied. He was confused but he’s certainly not going to get in the way of people with scary weapons even if they don’t seem much older than him.

“Ladies first,” the boy told the girl, he even bowed a little and calmly shouldered the sword.

The girl laughed at the display of feigned chivalry but expertly twirled the spear on her hand. “Such a gentleman.”

The Cyclopes apparently didn’t like small talks because he suddenly roared and charged at the twosome, the trees on his path were either flattened by his feet or slaughtered by his axe.

“Whooops!” the boy hardly avoided a human-sized boulder that came out of nowhere and got thrown in his direction. The girl was also quick to parry a very rusty sword that a smaller Cyclopes ed at her. Suddenly, they were monsters everywhere, not just Cyclopes but harpies and large beasts with even larger teeth.

Sungjae was no soldier but he knew an ambush when he sees it. And this was a planned ambush. They were outnumbered ten to one.

“Watch out!”

He felt a hot-white pain as a tree branch mercilessly connected with his temple, and then he dropped to the ground, out like a snuffed candle.

_

Seulgi ran and stumbled and ran again, barely noticing the scratches on her skin where her pants ripped open. She swallowed hard but and throat stayed dry. After a couple of minutes, she stopped running and panted with her hands resting on her knees, then heaved a dry cough.

“Guys,” Seulgi’s voice came out as a broken note, she raised her head and her lips and called again. “Guys!”

Nobody answered, of course.

A drop of water came down her cheek. She wasn’t sure if it was a tear, sweat, or precipitation from the trees. Seems like an inappropriate time to worry where it came from.

“Yeri! Sungjae! Anyone?”

A sound thundered behind her and she jumped aside in reflex, nearly falling down again.

“Pssst!” a barely audible but very familiar voice tried to get her attention. “Right here! Unnie, I’m over here!”

“Yeri?” Seulgi hunkered down and wildly looked around for the direction where Yeri’s voice was coming from. Yeri welcomed her with a tight hug which hurt her already hurting body but she didn’t mind one bit when she finally found her behind a tree.

“Are you okay?” Seulgi felt like crying from relief but held her tears, she smoothed Yeri’s hair and patted her cheek.

“I’m fine, I’m good,” Yeri grinned and glanced back at the three teenage girls standing just a few steps away from them, Seulgi didn’t even notice them. They were well-armed with bows and pairs of sharp-looking daggers. “They found me and they say they’re from a camp nearby.”

“We should move,” one of them said and motioned with her hand away from whatever-it-is-making-that-noise.

Another one put a finger to her lips and whispered: “This way.”

Seulgi is filled to the brim with trust issues especially with the stuff they’ve been through for the last couple of weeks but she didn’t have a choice, and Yeri seemed okay with them. The kid is generally a good judge of character.

“Let’s go, we don’t have much time.”

Yeri tugged at her hand and Seulgi nodded, then took a step towards the unknown.

_

Sofia was rapidly spitting a very long string of Greek swearwords when the camp rescuers finally reunited at the designated rendezvous point hours later. The darkness of the sky was already breaking and the stars were beginning to disappear in the early dawn.

“I should’ve known,” the head counselor of Athena’s cabin said, plopping down beside Wendy who was busily tending to a wounded Bradley. “I knew something was going to happen, I was too confident and got cocky.”

“We were caught off-guard, it wasn’t your fault,” Wendy offered consolingly as she did her best to wrap a bandage around Bradley’s arm. “Where’s the boy we found?”

Bradley winced in pain as he tried to move his body after Wendy was done patching him up the best she could. “Silver and Raven took him to the infirmary; he was roughed up pretty badly. Think he got a cracked skull or somethin’.”

After the new boy was hit with a branch and passed out, Sofia’s team sent out a signal for reinforcements when monsters started to overwhelm them which almost never happens whenever Ares’ and Athena’s kids are in charge of the vanguard. But this time it was different. The monsters were more organized, more military-like beyond the usual you’d expect from them.

It took all of Cabin 7’s most proficient archers to thin out the horde with their special arrows tipped with celestial bronze – with Wendy leading them. While the remaining healers teamed up with Hephaestus’ and Hermes’ cabins to take and transport the injured out of the woods. Raven and her handpicked members from Hecate’s provided support wherever needed.

But even if most of the battle-abled campers joined the fray, it still took them awhile to turn the tide over. And by the end of it, they were all sweaty, bloo