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Rory hadn't seen many horror movies, but walking through the New Jersey woods reminded her of the few she had seen.
She, Annabeth, Grover and Percy were walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in their noses.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
Rory was still in shock from the whole ordeal. Less than an hour onto their quest they were attacked by three of Hades' worst monsters. She couldn't believe she had killed one of them. It was like her brain was working on auto drive and her body on muscle memory.
Annabeth kept pushing the three along, saying, "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."
"All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
Rory put her hand on his shoulder. "That was very brave of you, G."
He smiled gratefully at her.
The four sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to Percy and started a quiet conversation, while Rory and Grover trailed behind.
The stars were out and shining, but Rory could barely see any behind the trees' canopy. But it didn't matter, the night sky almost made her feel invigorated. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes to try and pretend that she was still in the woods in Camp Half-Blood rather than a forest off of the New Jersey Turnpike. But instead of the smell of dewey grass and juniper bushes, all Rory got a nose full of was something wretched.
Grover looked over at his friend, noticing her blank stare and her hands as she picked at her fingernails. "The whole country isn't like this," he told her.
She looked over at him but didn't say anything.
He continued, "Around the city is pretty nasty. Lots of pollution and urbanization." He said that last word like it was a curse. "But not even all of New Jersey is like this. The south is nice, lots of big farms and country."
