{1} 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐒𝐄𝐘𝐄 | p.jackson

c h a p t e r - t w e n t y - n i n e

( chapter twenty-nine )

in which nia falls in love with a cow serpent 
( bessie is adorable, okay? sue me! )

THE CAFE WAS PACKED WITH KIDS ENJOYING THE BEST PART OF THE TOUR -- the dam lunch. Thalia, Zoë, and Grover were just sitting down with their food. 

"We need to leave," Percy gasped once he and Nia reached them. "Now!" 

"But we just got our burritos!" Thalia said. 

Nia tried to catch her breath. "Forget about your burritos, Thalia! We need to get the hell out while we still can!"

Zoë stood up, muttering an Ancient Greek curse. "They're right! Look." 

The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave them all a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill them. 

Nia counted two on the east side of the dam road, blocking the way to Arizona. Three more on the west side, guarding Nevada. All of them were armed with batons and pistols. 

But the immediate problem was a lot closer: the three skeletal warriors who'd been chasing Nia and Percy in the turbine room now appeared on the stairs. They saw Nia and her friends from across the cafeteria and clattered their teeth.

Elevator!" Grover cried out, pointing. They all bolted that direction, but the doors opened with a pleasant ding, and three more warriors stepped out. Every warrior was accounted for, minus the one that Bianca had blasted to flames back in New Mexico. The five of them were surrounded.

If only Bianca were here, Nia thought.

Then Grover had a brilliant, totally Grover-like idea. "Burrito fight!" he yelled, and flung his Guacamole Grande at the nearest skeleton. 

Now, if you have never been hit by a flying burrito, consider yourself lucky. In terms of deadly projectiles, it's right up there with grenades and cannonballs. 

Grover's lunch hit the skeleton and knocked his skull clean off his shoulders. Nia wasn't totally sure what the other kids in the cafe saw, but they went crazy and started throwing their burritos and baskets of chips and sodas at each other, shrieking and screaming.

The skeletons tried to aim their guns, but it was hopeless. Bodies and food and drinks were flying everywhere. 

Thalia and Percy tackled the other two skeletons on the stairs and sent them flying into the condiment table in the chaos. Then they all raced downstairs, Guacamole Grandes whizzing past their heads. 

"What now?" Grover asked as they burst outside. 

Nia shrugged. "The hell if I know!"

The warriors on the road were closing in from either direction. Nia and friends ran across the street to the pavilion with the winged bronze statues, but that just put their backs to the mountain. The skeletons moved forward, forming a crescent.