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18: My Brother is so Stupid...

Why didn't they tell me the skeletons were so freakin' hard to kill?! I huffed as I kicked some snow off a peak of a mountain.

We were outnumbered by the skeletons and they couldn't die!! We got to these statues dedicated to Zeus and Thalia pleaded to her father to help us. The statues sprung to life, swooping us up and taking us somewhere. I'm not sure where.

I would say the statues that were flying us were quite stupid (and they were), but they're saving my butt so I'm not gonna judge. They could easily drop me into the plummets below if I pushed too many of their buttons.

"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to us so we couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine," I promised.

"Are... are we very high?" She stuttered.

I looked down. Below us, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. I stretched out my foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks again.

"Nah," I lied. "Not that high."

"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoe yelled. She, Grover, and Percy were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," my brother's angel said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Percy asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And-"

"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, I swear Hank did. "Back to flying."

We sped up, so I could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as we flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store-and we passed dozens of them-she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour. I have to say... I was somewhat impressed.

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying. Poor girl.

After another hour or so, I was annoyed and P.O.ed at everyone, I could kill Medusa with my bare hands.

"Where you guys want to land?" Hank asked, waking Percy up from a nap.

He looked down and said, "Whoa."

I'd seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. It was probably the most beautiful city I'd ever seen: kind of like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan, if Manhattan had been surrounded by green hills and fog. There was a huge bay and ships, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog. I felt like I should take a picture or something. Greetings from Frisco. Haven't Died Yet. Didn't Wish You Were Here.

"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."

"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons." We all looked at him.

"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humor?"

As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. We freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when we landed. It was kinda funny. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.