We road the boar until sunset. After having to deal with riding on blackjack, and now a boar, that was all my poor backside could take. I don't think I could walk after this, but I managed to. We left the boar quietly as it ate, careful not to disturb it and sneak away. When it finished, it squealed at what was before us, before running off back to the mountains.
"It likes the mountains better," said Percy.
"And I can't blame it," said Thalia. "Look."
Ahead was the town that won the award for being the saddest ever. The two-lane road was half blown over with sand. On the other side the road was a cluster of buildings too small to even be a town: a boarded up house, a taco shop—for some reason—that looked like it hasn't been open in years and a while stucco post office with a sign that said Gila Claw, Arizona hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills that weren't even hills. The countryside was littered with mounds of old cars, appliances and other scraps of metal and trash. The junkyard seemed to go one forever.
"Whoa..." Percy muttered.
"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"
Grover was sniffing the wind, looking rather nervous. He fished out his acorns and played them out onto the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to me, but whatever it was, Grover looked deeply concerned.
"That's us," he said. "Those six nuts right there."
"Which one is me?" Percy asked.
Zoë and I seemed to have the same idea, for we both said at the same time, "The little deformed one."
"Oh, shut up."
"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."
"A monster?" Thalia asked.
Grover was uneasy, "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."
He pointed straight across the junkyard. I shared a nervous glance with Bianca.
