VIDEO GAMES! (p. jackson) (#1)

- seven

act i, chapter vii
december 18, 2018
cloudcroft, new mexico

ROSE AWOKE TO THE TRAIN LURCHING TO A STOP, forcing her to slide forward in her seat. She opened her eyes, white light flooding her vision. She glanced out of the windshield and saw snow flurrying down.

Percy had tossed his arm over Rose's over the center console in his sleep. She slowly pulled her arm out from under his, doing her best not to wake him. She sat up and grabbed her phone from the cup holder as Percy shifted in his seat.

"What time is it?" he asked, rubbing at his eyes.

She glanced at the clock at the top of her screen. "Nine-thirty."

He groaned and sat up. "The others up?"

"Dunno," she mumbled. "I just woke up."

"Is there anywhere we can like, brush our teeth and shit?"

Rose opened the map app on her phone. Her one bar of service told her that the train had stopped in Cloudcroft, a village in southern New Mexico.

"Jesus," she said. "We're in a fucking village. Um, I guess we could go into town and look for a diner or something."

"Sounds good," he said.

"You get Grover and Thalia, I'll get Zoë and Bianca," she said. She didn't give Percy time to respond before sliding out and slamming the car door shut behind her.

Rose thought it would be hard to find the two Hunters, but there was a red Prius a few cars behind hers that was emitting a silvery glow.

Rose walked back to it, squeezing between the cars. She knocked at one of the windows, accidentally scaring Zoë and Bianca.

Zoë rolled down the window. "What?"

"The train stopped. Percy and I are gonna go into town to do... I don't know, hygienic shit? Either way, we're going into town, Do you guys want to come?"

Zoë looked to Bianca, who shrugged.

"Okay," Zoë said. "We will meet you outside."

The fact that it was snowing in New Mexico was really throwing Rose off.

"It's because we're in the mountains," Grover explained. "It snows in the mountains. It doesn't matter what state it is."

Rose was shivering. She had accidentally left her jacket on the Metro, so she'd had to layer a long sleeved shirt and a fleece quarter-zip that Percy had let her borrow.

Finally, Zoë and Bianca arrived.

"Jesus," Rose said. "Took you long enough. Let's go, I'm cold."

They trudged through the snow, which soaked through the holes at the bottom of Rose's converse.

You could see pretty much everything in town from where they were standing: a school, and small neighborhood, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, a grocery store, and a sign for Big Papa's Diner.

"Great," Thalia said. "No bus station, no taxis, no service to call an Uber. No way out."

"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.

"Yes," Zoë said, teeth chattering. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."

Thalia sighed. "Fine. You two get us some food, and the rest of us will go check out the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a bit uncomfortable going without Zoë, but she went with them nonetheless.