Heartache || Percy Jackson

Cassie Learns How to Grow Zombies

The thing about flying on a pegasus during the daytime is that if you're not careful, you can cause a serious traffic accident on the Long Island Expressway. Luckily Percy could talk to Blackjack, and let him know our plan. He had to keep Blackjack up in the clouds, which were, fortunately, pretty low in the winter. They darted around, trying to keep the white Camp Half-Blood van in sight. And if it was cold on the ground, it was seriously cold in the air, with icy rain stinging Cassie's skin.

She was wishing she'd brought some of that Camp Half-Blood orange thermal underwear they sold in the camp store, but after the story about Phoebe and Sasha and the centaur-blood T-shirt, Cassie wasn't sure she trusted their products anymore.

The ride was pretty disorienting for Cassie. She always got super confused when Percy was talking to Blackjack, because she thought he was talking to her. He usually wasn't. Cassie really wanted to become better friends with Percy, because Annabeth really liked him and so did Grover. She had managed to start a couple of conversations and learned that the two of them were actually really similar. Like scarily similar.

They lost the van twice, but Percy had a pretty good sense that they would go into Manhattan first, so it wasn't too difficult to pick up their trail again.

Traffic was bad with the holidays and all. At least that was what Percy told her. Cassie didn't really remember much of her life before camp. She probably didn't know what heavy traffic was at seven years old anyway.

It was mid-morning before they got into the city. Percy landed Blackjack near the top of the Chrysler Building and watched the white camp van, thinking it would pull into the bus station, but it just kept driving.

"Where's Argus taking them?" Percy muttered.

Blackjack the pegasus then started grunting...Or whatever it is pegasi do.

"Which girl?"

Cassie really wished that she could understand horses. It was really confusing to hear Percy having a one-sided conversation with Blackjack. She had no idea what he was talking about. And of course, he wasn't filling her in on what Blackjack was saying.

"Zoe?"

Cassie looked at Percy. He shrugged at her as though he couldn't understand what was going on either. Cassie rolled her eyes. She knew that he would tell her what was going on in a minute, but you would think he would be able to use his Son of Posiden powers to make her understand horse or something.

The conversation got somewhat heated until Percy started to explain to Blackjack that taking a flying horse to a donut shop would give every cop in there a heart attack. Cassie had quite literally never been more confused. They were supposed to be following the van, not stopping for snacks! Although Cassie was hungry. But that was beside the point, the van they were supposed to be following kept snaking its way toward the Lincoln Tunnel.

"Well," Percy finally said. "Let's get after them."

After stretching their legs for one more minute, Percy helped Cassie onto Blackjack, and then he scrambled on in front of her. Once Cassie had a good grip on Percy's hoodie Blackjack got ready to fly. They were about to leap off the Chrysler Building when Blackjack whinnied in alarm and almost threw them. Something was curling around Cassie and Percy's legs like a snake. Cassie reached for her sword, but when she looked down, there were no snakes. Vines— grape vines—had sprouted from the cracks between the stones of the building. They were wrapping around Blackjack's legs, lashing down their ankles so they couldn't move.