LUNACY; percy jackson

03.14

[act three; chapter fourteen     -     dam]

At the edge of the dump, they found a tow truck so old it might've been thrown away itself. But the engine started, and it had a full tank of gas, so we decided to borrow it.

Thalia drove. She didn't seem as stunned as Zoë or Grover or Percy or Donnie, and especially not Andromeda.

This is something Percy understood without a doubt.

"The skeletons are still out there," Zoë reminded them. "We need to keep moving."

She navigated them through the desert, under clear blue skies, the sand so bright it hurt to look at. Zoë sat up front with Thalia. Grover and him sat in the pickup bed, leaning against the tow wench. The air was cool and dry, but the nice weather just seemed like an insult after losing Bianca.

Donnie was sitting beside his sister, leaning his head on her shoulder with a blank expression on his face. His dark eyes were devoid of emotion and his face against the sun, looked paler than before. Percy remembered Andromeda telling him about Donnie's mood swings; how he could go from being incredibly happy to impossibly sad. He guessed this was one of his low moods.

The son of Poseidon watched the redheads hand close around the little figurine that had cost Bianca her life. He still couldn't even tell what god it was supposed to be, but he thought maybe she knew by the look on her face. Nico would know.

Oh, gods...what were they going to tell Nico?

Percy wanted to believe that Bianca was still alive somewhere. But he had a bad feeling that she was gone for good, like a pit in his stomach or a hole in his heart. Something like that.

"It should've been me," he said. "I should've gone into the giant."

"Don't say that!" Grover panicked. "It's bad enough Annabeth is gone, and now Bianca. Do you think I could stand it if..." He sniffled. "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"