The Undead Heroes (The first part of The Reiteration of Olympus)

Chapter 8, We get attacked by evil pigeons

JAKE

Did I think that these people were crazy? Yes. Did I care? Not at all. Was I thankful that I had a girl with a sword with me when monsters started chasing us? Yes, yes I was.

The train ride from Richmond to Long Island wasn't that eventful. I got to know people's names and who their godly parents were (which I still thought was an absolute lie then by the way) and general facts about how these gods functioned in modern society. It didn't make sense at all but I decided to go with it. Most people probably wouldn't have followed some strangers who rambled about gods but I'm not most people. I had nothing better to do,  so why not do something stupid. That's what I told myself anyway.

I was not prepared when some massive birds attacked us.

When we got to the train station we bought tickets for a bus that Beckendorf said would take us to this 'Camp Half-Blood'. We got onto the bus and things went pretty smoothly. There weren't a lot of people and those who were there were tourists who were on their way to the Montauk Point lighthouse. I was really hungry so I hoped that they had some good food at camp. Silena and Beckendorf talked in low voices about the people at camp and I heard things that sounded like 'wonder if the harpies have eaten anyone' and 'I hope they fixed the dragon'.

I decided not to ask what that was about.

Dylan sat close to the window and she looked out of it, seeming to be lost in thought. I'm not gonna lie to you; she scared me. A lot. She was tall and she had this aura of 'Mess with me and you will not see the end of the day'. From what I had gathered so far she wasn't actually going to this camp but was instead just Desirée's escort. I was kind of jealous of Des. Who wouldn't want Dylan as their bodyguard?

I got dragged out of my thoughts by the bus swerving off the road. It was around midnight so I couldn't see anything which meant that I had no idea what was going on. I would have probably stayed on the bus if it wasn't for Silena dragging me out of there. We all got out of the bus and saw what had made it go off the road. A flock of massive birds with bronze beaks were tearing through the walls and ceiling. They were looking for something but I couldn't figure out what. Until they spotted us that is. One of them made a beeline for me and I would have been bird food if Dylan hadn't impaled it with a sword. The bird exploded into a cloud of gold dust which I did not expect. Another bird flew towards us and Dylan destroyed it once again, this time giving me a better look at her sword. It was mostly white but shifted into different colours when she moved it. It was smooth and seemed almost transparent, like a seashell or a pearl. It was also covered in monster dust.

I wanted that sword.

"Silena!" Dylan screamed over the sound of the shrieking birds. "How far is it to camp!?"

"Only like 600 feet!"

"Hurry up then!"

We all started running as fast as we could away from the birds. Silena led the way with me and Des close behind. Dylan and Beckendorf were occupied with keeping us safe from the birds so they were a bit farther behind.

"What are those!?" Des asked. She seemed to be a bit out of breath and I couldn't blame her. We had been sitting still for the last 6 hours and now we were suddenly running for our lives.

"Stymphalian birds!" Silena said, running even faster. How could she run that fast!?

"Stym- what now!?"

"They're birds with beaks made out of celestial bronze!" Silena explained. "Their beaks are strong enough to tear through flesh so if you don't want to get skinned to the bone I suggest that you run even faster!"