Days of Boom: Chapter 14

Daniel Redson

XIV

I Am a Dead Man

I looked behind at the sea turtle that was just attacked from the chariot that was pulled by storm spirits. Soon the turtle was no longer seen and the only thing visible was the stars and clouds.

"What happened to you?" April asked. She was next to me with a worried pale face.

"Nothing" I lied.

"Don't lie to me" she replied worried now. She looked at me in the eyes waiting for me to answer but I simply turned away from her and looked at the stars.

"Fine" she growled then turned the other way. In front of us were two chariots with the rest of our team. One was being pulled by two horses while the other one by two griffins.

I stayed looking at the stars for a couple of minutes then turned my view towards my arm. I had one small needle hole in my thumb and index finger of my left hand. You couldn't really notice them unless you paid close attention. Each needle hole was caused by the bombs and I knew that the rest of the bombs will inject me like the others did. At first I thought it was to see my DNA or something but now I doubt they are extracting something from me. At first nothing happened after I deactivated the first bomb but later when I was close to deactivating the other bomb a huge pain ran through my body like if it was all on fire. It happened once again a couple of minutes ago and I was beginning to get worried. What if I am dying? What will happen to my girlfriend Rose at Camp Jupiter?

I had a million questions but I decided to not be so worried about it yet maybe when we deactivate all bombs the pain will go away. The pain wasn't the only thing that happened to me after the injections, my reflexes have been slower too and my fighting skills. It was like my power was being taken from me. Was that it?

"Hey Dan, you doing alright there buddy?" asked Nolan as his chariot slowed down a little to be next to us

"Yeah I am fine" I answered. "I think I am going to rest a little, wake me when we get there so we can start planning"

"Okay" he said.

I closed my eyes and sat there leaning on the chariot so I could sleep and after a couple of minutes of finding the right position, I fell asleep.

"Give up" a loud echo voice told me.

I opened my eyes and found myself in a dark room. In front of me was a man seated on a chair with a dark suit and perfect black shoes. I tried to see his face but it was in the shadows hiding from me.

"Who are you?" I growled. I tried to stand but couldn't. It was like I was glued to the chair were I was seated or simply my body wasn't in the mood to obey me.

"I am just a businessman" he finally answered.

"What do you want?"

"The same thing you want Daniel" he answered then moved his hand and placed it in front of me. He had an hourglass. "I want peace"

"W-What?" I didn't understand anything of what the guy was saying. I wasn't even sure if he was on the good side or bad side.

"Your time is running out son of Hephaestus"

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean Dan" he told me.

I knew exactly what he meant when he said I was running out of time. I somehow knew the time wasn't about the bombs, it was about me. "H-How much time?"

"Well, it all depends on you but I say you have at the most a week" he told me. "Each day the pain will grow even more, it is up to you to fight it"

"W-Why are you telling me this?"

"Like I said before, I am a business man and business man always like good business"

"What can I do?"

"Well continue with your mission and try to deactivate the bombs" he said slowly. "Its either you or millions of people"

I had to admit I did consider it for a second but I knew it wasn't right of me to let thousands die because I wasn't ready to face death. I felt angry and everyone. I wanted to stand and stab the guy a million tines but I couldn't...I was so angry that I swear I felt flames coming out of my body.

"It'll be easier if you just give up" he finally whispered then I woke up.

I saw smoke all around me then I noticed the smoke was coming from me. The rest of the team were looking at me like if I were to attack them. I was still in the chariot but alone. April was on Nolan's chariot next to mine and El was looking at me tired.

"W-What happened?"

They explained everything that happened after I fell asleep. How the tattoo on my face started glowing and how the temperature of my body started rising. El tried to cool me down with water but they said that the water evaporated when it touched me. They started asking me a lot of questions but I ignored them all and told them I was fine. They didn't buy it but at least they decided to stop asking me questioning.

"We're here" Jarred finally said.