Andy Jackson: Child of Land & Sea

And Our Regrets

Act III — Deep Blue Sea

Part VII — There will be times in this journey, all you'll see is darkness. But out there somewhere, daylight finds you.

They reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight. "Whoa," Bianca said. "This stuff... some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia said looking around cautiously. "Like Andy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Look!" Bianca said. She raced down hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in the moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!" She yelped in surprise as the bow shrunk and became a hair clip. "It's just like Andy's sword."

"And you call this junk?" Grover commented.

Zoë's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay here. It is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca set the clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. "Zoë's right. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now, come on. Let's cross this yard."

After several hours of walking—and stopping to check out the cool stuff around—they saw the edge of the junkyard. "We're almost there," Zoë said. "Thank the gods."

But at that moment there was a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal. Andy whirled around. Behind them, a bronze giant in full Greek armor, impossibly tall, gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at them, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off.

"Talos!" Zoë gasped.

"What the hell is a Talos?" Andy asked.

"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia said. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model."

The metal giant drew his sword.

"Someone took something," Zoë deducted. "Who was it?" and she stared accusingly at Andy.

"Hey! I may be a lot of things, but I am no thief!"

Bianca also glanced at Andy, but her expression was different. It seemed almost... guilty.

Talos took a step toward them. "Run!" Grover yelped.

They split up, drawing their weapons. Andy rushed to Bianca's side. "It was you," she accused. "You took something!"

"No!" Bianca lied, her voice quivering.

"Give it back, Bianca! Throw it down!"

"I... I didn't... I'm sorry. I think it's too late!"

"What did you take?" Before Bianca could answer a shadow blotted out the sky. "Move!" Andy tore down the hill, Bianca right behind her, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where they'd been hiding.

Bianca brought out of her pocket a trading card. "It was for Nico," she said. "He doesn't have this one!" There were tears in her dark eyes.

"Throw it away!" Andy shouted. "Maybe he will leave us alone!"

Bianca dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened. The giant kept coming. Thalia made a blue arc of lightning shot out of her spear and hit the monster. But it didn't matter. It raised its foot to stomp and Andy saw that his sole was threaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole.