10. Hope

I've spent some long hours in the prison yard just waiting for the end of the day. When you wait around with nothing but your thoughts, time can draw out like a blade. That was the longest day of my life.

About ten minutes before Annabeth was supposed to meet Percy in the basement, she snuck into Chiron's office. She walked around behind his desk and knelt down in front of the safe.

As she entered the code to unlock the safe, she muttered to herself, "Damnit, Percy, I hope you know what you're doing because I sure as hell don't."

Annabeth opened the safe and began pulling out stacks of one hundred dollar bills and stuffing them into her jumpsuit. Once she had all she could carry, she closed the safe and headed toward the basement.

Annabeth saw Percy opening an access panel on a large pipe that ran horizontally through the hallway. She was relieved to see him alive. She half expected to find that he had killed himself.

Annabeth ran toward him, "Percy."

"You made it," he said.

"What's going on, Percy?"

"We're getting out of here," he smiled.

"What?"

"Did you get some cash?" Percy asked.

"I broke into Chiron's safe," she said as she began to pull the money out of her jumpsuit.

"Gods, Annabeth, that was risky."

"Tell me about it."

"Here," Percy said handing her a plastic trash bag. "Put it in the bag."

"How are we getting out?" she asked as she put the money into the bag.

"Right here," he said as he patted his hand on the pipe. "This is a drainage pipe. The water will push us out."

"Water?" Annabeth asked with concern as she tied the trash bag shut.

"It's okay. I'll breathe for you," he said as he climbed into the empty pipe through the access opening. "Come on, get in."

Annabeth handed the bag to Percy and climbed into the pipe with him. It was a tight squeeze so Annabeth had to lie on top of him.

"How are we gonna do this?" Annabeth asked.

"You're gonna have to hold your breath for the first thirty or forty seconds until we get past the mystical barrier, then I can breathe for you. Normally, I would just create an air bubble, but the water will be moving so swiftly that it would just pop."

"But how are you going to breathe for me?" she asked.

"Like this," Percy said as leaned his head forward and touched his lips to hers.

He pulled his lips away and asked, "Understand?"

"I get it," Annabeth nodded. "Percy, is this gonna work?"

"If it doesn't, I want you to know something," Percy stared into her eyes. "You're my best friend, the best friend I've ever had."

Annabeth smiled, "You're the best friend I've ever had, too."

The pipe began to vibrate, and the sound of rushing water was closing in on them.

"Right on time," Percy smiled. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Annabeth said.

Percy closed the access hatch, and they were lying in complete darkness waiting on the rushing water.

The water had almost reached them when Percy's hands grasped Annabeth's cheeks, "Kiss me, Annabeth."

She took a deep breath and touched her lips to his just as the water overcame them. They were completely submerged as the water swiftly carried them through the pipe. Percy held onto Annabeth tightly so she wouldn't be separated from him. Annabeth had her eyes closed tight and concentrated on keeping her lips locked with Percy's in the strong current. After about thirty seconds, Annabeth felt Percy's lips separate slightly as he blew fresh oxygen into her mouth, and she pulled the air into her lungs.

Percy breathed for me as the water rushed around us. Our lips were locked the entire five hundred yard length of the pipe. Five hundred yards, that's the length of five football fields…just shy of half a mile.

Percy and Annabeth shot out of the end of the pipe and splashed into a gray water canal half a mile away from the prison. They both went under then quickly popped up. They stood in the waist deep water just looking at each other in shock.

"Did that really just happen? Did we really just…" Annabeth gasped.

"We did," Percy smiled.

They began laughing in celebration as they waded toward each other in a mad rush then embraced. Percy spun Annabeth around in the water as they laughed and smiled. Once the shock wore off and reality set in, they waded out of the canal, and Percy began to take off his orange prison jumpsuit. He stripped down to his tank top and boxers.

He tossed Annabeth the plastic bag and said, "Strip. There's a tank and boxers in the bag."

Five years after Percy was captured, and ten years after I was, Percy and I escaped from Prison Half-Blood. All they found of us was two muddy prison jumpsuits.

Percy loved the water. I imagine it was due to being the son of the sea god. As I said before, in prison, a person will do most anything to keep their mind occupied, and as it turns out, Percy had used the blue food coloring to track how the water flowed through the pipes in the prison. He would dye the water in a main line to see where it went. Once he found the drainage pipe, he'd found his way out. I guess after his mother and Nico were killed, Percy decided he'd been there just about long enough. And out of a kindness I haven't seen in years or maybe ever, he decided to take me with him.

"What now?" Annabeth asked once she had changed clothes.

"We get the hell out of here."

Percy grabbed the bag of cash and Annabeth's hand. They took off running away from Prison Half-Blood and never looked back.

That evening, about the time the guards would've been doing roll call before lights out, Percy and I had already bought new clothes and bus tickets, and we were riding a Greyhound southwest toward Mexico. All told, we blew town with over two hundred and twenty thousand dollars of warden Chiron's money, severance pay for our combined fifteen years. Me and Percy, two demigods who had part of our lives stolen away. Me and Percy, headed for the Pacific. I wish we could've taken the rest of the gang with us. I have to remind myself that we were so very lucky to get out ourselves, but I will miss my friends. I promised Percy I would meet him in that hallway, and I'm so glad I kept that promise. It's like Percy said, get busy living or get busy dying, and that's damn right. For the second time in my life, I'm leaving the place I called home, but this time, it's different. This time, I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free person can feel, a free person at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope Percy and I make it to Mexico. I hope we get to sit on the beach together. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope...

I want to thank all of the readers and reviewers for taking the time to read Prison Half-Blood and for all of the wonderful reviews. I never expected this fic to get the response that it did. I basically wrote it to combat writer's block. I never imagined I could make an adaptation that was such a stretch work, and I never imagined it turning out the way it did. Again, thanks for reading and be sure to check out my other fics.

-dmac

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, HoO, or The Shawshank Redemption.