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

- eight

act i, chapter viii
december 18-19, 2018
gila claw, arizona

THEY RODE THE BOAR UNTIL SUNSET.

Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it. Needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti.

After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed, belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," Percy guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of them was a two-lane road covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town; a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked older than Rose's grandma, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but Rose noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Holy shit," Rose said.

"Something tells me we won't find a rental car here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you've got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

Grover was nervously sniffing the wind. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to Rose, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us," he said. "Those six nuts right there."

"Which one is me?" Percy asked.

"The little deformed one," Rose said, pointing at one of the acorns.

"Oh, fuck off."

"That cluster over there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. our next challenge..."

He pointed toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

They decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of them wanted to go dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoë and Bianca produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. The night got chilly fast, so Grover and Percy collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon, they were as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

"How's your arm?" Percy asked Rose.

"Better. Still hurts, but not as much. Sorry about your sweater."

"Don't worry about it. You can keep it."

"The stars are out," Zoë said happily.

Rose looked up. Zoë was right. There were millions of them.