We Hitch a Ride With Dead Confederates

**We Hitch a Ride With Dead Confederates** is the eighty-eighth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on May 17th, 2019.

## Chapter

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**Annabeth's POV**
“Thermos!” I heard Percy scream as we hurtled toward the water.
“*What?*” I thought he was crazy, because I had no idea what he was talking about. I was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, my hair flying straight up like a torch.
But Tyson seemed to understand. He managed to open Percy’s duffel bag and take out Hermes’s magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat.
Arrows and javelins whistled past us.
Percy grabbed the thermos. “Hang on!”
“I *am* hanging on!” Annabeth yelled.
“Of course we are!” Jasmine agreed. “This isn’t Disney World! And even if it was, I’d still be holding on!”
She was holding onto the straps with one hand and Will with her other arm, her hair flying up also, and Will was only holding on to the straps with both his hands.
“Tighter!” Percy said.
He hooked his feet under the boat’s inflatable bench. Tyson grabbed Percy and me by the backs of our shirts, and Percy was about to open the thermos when Jasmine interrupted.
“Wait!” she called. “Toothless!”
I almost forgot about him. He zipped down from above quickly and right into Jasmine’s arms.
She let her arm fall from around Will so that she could hold onto him. “Ok. Now!”
Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn. Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled us sideways, turning our downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing.
The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As we hit the ocean, we bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then we were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in our faces and nothing but sea ahead.
I heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind us, but we were already out of weapon range. The *Princess Andromeda* faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.

As we raced over the sea, Percy, Jasmine, and I tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. We figured it was important we let somebody know what Luke was doing, and we didn’t know who else to trust.
The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight—perfect for an Iris-message—but our connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show us Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.
We told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the *Princess Andromeda* and the golden box for Kronos’s remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on our end, I’m not sure how much he heard.
“Percy,” Chiron yelled, “you have to watch out for—”
His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him—a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.
“What?” I yelled.
“Curse my relatives!” Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his hand and shattered somewhere out of sight. “Annabeth, Jasmine, you shouldn’t have let Percy leave camp! But if you *do* get the Fleece—”
“Yeah, baby!” somebody behind Chiron yelled. “Woohoooooo!”
The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate.
“—Miami,” Chiron was yelling. “I’ll try to keep watch—”
Our misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.
Jasmine looked at us, then chuckled. “That was . . . really weird. I never thought I’d ever see Chiron at a party. Especially *that* kind of party.”
I shook my head in agreement.

An hour later we spotted land—a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on our starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look. I guess it isn’t every day they see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by five kids. But I recognized the place.
Jasmine grabbed my arm. “Annabeth—”
“That’s Virginia Beach!” I agreed as we approached the shoreline. “Oh my gods, how did the *Princess Andromeda* travel so far overnight? That’s like—”
“Five hundred and thirty nautical miles,” I said.
Jasmine, Toothless, Will, and I stared at him.
“How did you know that?” I asked.
“I—I’m not sure,” he replied.
I thought for a moment. “Percy, what’s our position?”
“36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west,” he said immediately. Then he shook his head. “Whoa. How did I know that?”
“Because of your dad,” I guessed. “When you’re at sea, you have perfect bearings. This is *so* cool.”
“It actually kind of is,” Jasmine agreed.
He didn’t seem to like that very much.
Tyson tapped his shoulder. “Other boat is coming.”
I looked back. The coast guard vessel was definitely on our tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.
“We can’t let them catch us,” Percy said. “They’ll ask too many questions.”
“Keep going into Chesapeake Bay,” I said. “I know a place we can hide.”
“You two been here before?” Will asked.
“Three, and yes,” Jasmine replied.
Percy risked loosening the thermos cap a little more, and a fresh burst of wind sent us rocketing around the northern tip of Virginia Beach into Chesapeake Bay. The coast guard boat fell farther and farther behind. We didn’t slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on either side, and we entered the mouth of a river.
“There,” I directed Percy. “Past that sandbar.”
We veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass. Percy beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress.
Vine-covered trees loomed above us. Insects chirred in the woods. The air was muggy and hot, and steam curled off the river. It was exactly as I remembered it, except I wasn’t sure if it was a happy or sad memory anymore.
“Come on,” I said. “It’s just down the bank.”
“Toothless, scout ahead and meet us there,” Jasmine told him.
He nodded and fly off.
“What’s down the bank?” Percy asked.
“Just follow.” I grabbed a duffel bag. “And we’d better cover the boat. We don’t want to draw attention.”
After burying the lifeboat with branches, the boys followed me and Jasmine along the shore, our feet sinking in red mud. A snake slithered behind us and disappeared into the grass. Jasmine gasped and shot fire into where it went. I heard a hissing sound that slowly became silent.
“I hate snakes,” Jasmine said.
“I know,” I replied.
We continued on.
“Not a good place,” Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet line on his arm.
Another few minutes, we spotted Toothless near a patch of brambles.
“Here,” I said.
I moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and revealed a camouflaged shelter.
The inside was hardly big enough for five, especially with Tyson being the fifth. The walls were woven from plant material, like a Native American hut, but they looked pretty waterproof. Stacked in the corner was everything you could want for a campout—sleeping bags, blankets, an ice chest, and a kerosene lamp. There were demigod provisions, too—bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword, and a box of ambrosia. The place smelled musty, like it had been vacant for a long time.
“A half-blood hangout.” Percy looked at me and Jasmine in awe. “You two *made* this place?”
“Thalia, Jasmine, and I,” I said quietly. “And Luke.”
That seemed to bother him, mentioning mine and Jasmine’s adventures with Thalia and Luke. He seemed uncomfortable. I couldn’t tell why.
“So . . .” he said. “You don’t think Luke will look for us here?”
“Probably not,” Jasmine replied.
I shook my head in agreement. “We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or cares.”
Believing he doesn’t care about what the five of us did together during those long, hard months before arriving at camp was like a shot to the heart, but I knew it was true.
I threw myself down on the blankets and started going through my duffel bag. Jasmine had Will sit a few inches away from me and she sat down on his lap, and held Toothless in her arms so that she could hold him to make more room for Percy and Tyson.
“Um, Tyson?” Percy said. “Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store or something?”
“Convenience store?”
“Yeah, for snacks. Powdered donuts or something. Just don’t go too far.”
“Powdered donuts,” Tyson said earnestly. “I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness.” He headed outside and started calling, “Here, donuts!”
“Good luck finding them,” Jasmine murmured.
Once he was gone, Percy sat down across from me. “Hey, I’m sorry about, you know, seeing Luke.”
“It’s not your fault.” I unsheathed my knife and started cleaning the blade with a rag.
“He let us go too easily,” Percy said.
Jasmine, Will, and I nodded in agreement.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I said. “What we overheard him say about a gamble, and ‘they’ll take the bait’ . . . I think he was talking about us.”
“That was obvious,” Jasmine stated.
“The Fleece is the bait?” Percy asked. “Or Grover?”
I studied the edge of my knife. “I don’t know, Percy. Maybe he wants the Fleece for himself. Maybe he’s hoping we’ll do the hard work and then he can steal it from us. I just can’t believe he would poison the tree.”
Toothless shook his head in agreement.
“I can’t believe he would either,” Jasmine said. “I mean, you and I thought he liked her, you know.”
“I remember,” I said.
“What did he mean,” Percy asked, “that Thalia would’ve been on his side?”
“He’s wrong.”
“You don’t sound sure.”
I glared at him. “Percy, you know who you remind me of most? *Thalia*. You guys are so much alike it’s scary. I mean, either you would’ve been best friends or you would’ve strangled each other.”
“Let’s go with ‘best friends.’”
“Eh, I wouldn’t say that,” Jasmine said. “Remembering how Thalia was, anyway, I definitely wouldn’t say they’d be best friends like you and me, and I think they would strangle each other sometimes.”
“And why don’t you think they’d be friends like we are?”
She glared at me and slapped my shoulder.
“Percy, Thalia got angry with her dad sometimes,” I continued. “So do you. Would *you* turn against Olympus because of that?”
Percy stared at the quiver of arrows in the corner. “No.”
“Okay, then. Neither would she. Luke’s wrong.” I stuck my knife blade into the dirt.
“So what did Luke mean about Cyclopes?” Percy asked. “He said you two of all people—”
“I know what he said. He . . . he was talking about the *real* reason Thalia died.”
Percy waited. Jasmine and Toothless looked at me to answer. Of course they would leave *me* to explain.
I drew a shaky breath. “You can never trust a Cyclops, Percy. Six years ago, on the night Grover was leading us to Half-Blood Hill—”
I was interrupted when the door of the hut creaked open. Tyson crawled in.
“Powdered donuts!” he said proudly, holding up a pastry box.”
Jasmine laughed like it was funny. “You actually found some? That is incredible.”
I stared at him. “Where did you get that? We’re in the middle of the wilderness. There’s nothing around for—”
“Fifty feet,” Tyson said. “Monster Donut shop—just over the hill!”

“This is bad,” I muttered.
We were crouching behind a tree, staring at the donut shop in the middle of woods. It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot. We could see one employee reading a magazine behind the cash register. That was it. On the store’s marquis, in huge black letters that even I could read, it said:

**MONSTER DONUT**
A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the *O* in *MONSTER*. The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts.
“This shouldn’t be here,” I whispered. “It’s wrong.”
“What?” Percy asked. “It’s a donut shop.”
“Not exactly,” Jasmine said.
“Shhh!” I exclaimed.
“Why are we whispering?” Percy asked. “Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him.”
“And why do you think that is, Percy?” Jasmine asked.
“*He’s* a monster,” I said.
“Aw, c’mon, Annabeth,” he said. “Monster Donut doesn’t mean monsters! It’s a chain. We’ve got them in New York.”
“A chain,” I agreed. “And don’t you think it’s strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?”
He thought about it. Even he had to agree how weird it was.
“It could be a nest,” I explained.
Tyson whimpered. I’m not sure if he understood anything I was saying, but it was clear that I was making him nervous. He’d plowed through half a dozen donuts from his box and was getting powdered sugar all over his face. Toothless, who was now back to full-size, was looking around us for any monsters, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.
“A nest for what?” Percy asked.
“Haven’t you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast?” I asked. “One day there’s nothing and then the next—*boom*, there’s a new burger place or coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four—exact replicas spreading across the country?”
“Um, no. Never thought about it.”
“Percy, some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed—”
The hairs on the back of my neck tingled. Toothless growled, probably sensing what I was feeling. Jasmine slowly put her hand on him, calming him down.
“What?” Percy demanded. “They breed what?”
“No—sudden—moves,” I said, knowing my life depended on it. “Very slowly, turn around.”
I heard it: a scraping noise, like something large dragging its belly through the leaves.
I turned and saw a rhino-size *thing* moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing at first. Then I realized the thing had multiple necks—at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I’M A MONSTER DONUT KID!
I noticed Percy taking out his ballpoint pen, but I locked eyes with him—a silent warning. *Not yet*.
He understood. A lot of monsters have terrible eyesight. It was possible the Hydra might pass us by. But if he uncapped my sword now, the bronze glow would certainly get its attention.
We waited.
The Hydra was only a few feet away. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and the trees like it was hunting for something. Then I noticed that two of the heads were ripping apart a piece of yellow canvas—one of our duffel bags. The thing had already been to our campsite. It was following our scent.
My heart pounded. I’d seen a stuffed Hydra-head trophy at camp before, but that did nothing to prepare me for the real thing. Each head was diamond-shaped, like a rattlesnake’s, but the mouths were lined with jagged rows of shark-like teeth.
Tyson was trembling. He stepped back and accidentally snapped a twig. Immediately, all seven heads turned toward us and hissed. So much for staying quiet and still.
“Scatter!” I yelled. I dove to the right.
Percy rolled to the left. Toothless jumped up and spread his wings out. He grabbed onto Jasmine and Will and took flight. One of the Hydra heads spat an arc of green liquid that shot past Percy’s shoulder and splashed against an elm. The trunk smoked and began to disintegrate. The whole tree toppled straight toward Tyson, who still hadn’t moved, petrified by the monster that was now right in front of him.
“Tyson!” Percy tackled him will all his might, knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged and the tree crashed on top of two of its heads.
The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.
“Move!” Percy told Tyson.
Percy ran to one side and uncapped Riptide, hoping to draw the monster’s attention. It worked.
The sight of celestial bronze is hateful to most monsters. As soon as his glowing blade appeared, the Hydra whipped toward it with all its heads, hissing and baring its teeth.
The good news: Tyson was momentarily out of danger. The bad news: Percy was about to be melted into a puddle of goo.
One of the heads snapped at him experimentally. Percy, idiotically and probably instinctively, swung his sword.
“No!” I yelled.
Too late. He sliced the Hydra’s head clean off. It rolled away into the grass, leaving a flailing stump, which immediately stopped bleeding and began to swell like a balloon.
In a matter of seconds the wounded neck split into two necks, each of which grew a full-size head. Now I was looking at an eight-headed Hydra.
“Percy!” I scolded. “You just opened another Monster Donut shop somewhere!”
He dodged a spray of acid. Toothless, now with Jasmine and Will on his back, shot his fire at it while Will and Jasmine shot their arrows, not really doing much damage but annoying it.
“I’m about to die and you’re worried about *that*?” Percy asked me.
“He’s got a point there, Annabeth,” Jasmine agreed.
“How do we kill it?”
“Fire!” I said. “We have to have fire!”
Remembered the story, the Hydra’s heads would only stop multiplying if we burned the stumps before they regrew. That’s what Hercules had done, anyway. Toothless lifted his head up at the word fire. His plasma blasts would definitely be enough to burn the stumps.
Percy backed up toward the river. The Hydra followed. I moved in on his left and tried to distract one of the heads, parrying its teeth with my knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked me into the muck.
“No hitting my friends!” Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and me.
As I got to my feet, Tyson started smashing at the monster heads with his fists so fast it reminded me of the whack-a-mule game at the arcade. But even Tyson couldn’t fend off the Hydra forever.
Percy and I kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, Toothless and Jasmine shooting their fire at them to help, but I knew we were only postponing our deaths. Eventually, we would make a mistake and the thing would kill us.
Then I heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that at first I thought was my heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.
“What’s that noise?” I shouted, keeping my eyes on the Hydra.
“Oh, great,” I heard Jasmine grumbled from the air.
“Steam engine,” Tyson said.
“What?” Percy ducked as the Hydra spat acid over his head.
Then from the river behind us, a familiar female voice shouted: “There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!”
I didn’t dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who I thought it was behind us, I figured we now had enemies on two fronts.
A gravelly male voice said, “They’re too close, m’lady!”
“Damn the heroes!” the girl said. “Full steam ahead!”
“Aye, m’lady!”
“Fire at will, Captain!”
“No!” Jasmine screamed.
I understood what was happening. I was about to yell, “Hit the dirt!”, but Toothless already beat me to it. He dove as fast as the speed of light toward us, spreading his wings out wide and knocking the three of us to the ground, Jasmine and Will diving down next to us just as an earth-shattering *BOOM* echoed from the river. There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of us, showering us with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do. Except, Toothless’s body covered most of me and Percy, but I can’t say the same for Tyson, Jasmine, and Will.
“Eww!” Jasmine screamed. “My hair. Eww.”
“Steamship!” Tyson yelled.
I stood, coughing from the cloud of gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks.
Chugging toward us down the river was the strangest ship I’d ever seen. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. A flag waved from the top—a wild boar and spear on a bloodred field. Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms—dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls I’d seen in the Underworld guarding Hades’s palace.
The ship was an ironclad. A Civil War battle cruiser. I could just make out the name along the prow in moss-covered letters: CSS *Birmingham*.
And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed us, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.
“Losers,” she sneered. “But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard.”

Again, sorry the late update. I meant to update two days ago, because for those of you who pay attention (or have looked at the headline of this story), we're at the third anniversary of this story. And I gotta say, I'm disappointed by the progress of this story after three years. I know, I know, it's all on me. I just hoped I'd be farther than this by now. But I'm working on it! Slowly, but surely! I'm not stopping, but my life is standing in the way.
**Please review** here**.**

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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday
* Percy Jackson
* Will Solace

### Minor Characters

* Tyson
* Clarisse