[1] 𝐼𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑠 - 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑦 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑜𝑛

2.03

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THERE WAS NO MORNING IN THE MAZE, but once everyone woke up and had a fabulous breakfast of granola bars and juice boxes, they kept traveling.

The old stone tunnels changed to dirt with cedar beams, like a gold mine or something. Annabeth started getting agitated.

"This isn't right," she said. "It should still be stone."

They came to a cave where stalactites hung low from the ceiling. In the center of the dirt floor was a rectangular pit, like a grave.

Grover shivered. "It smells like the Underworld in here."

Then Percy saw something glinting at the edge of the pit— a foil wrapper. He shined his flashlight into the hole and saw a half-chewed cheeseburger floating in brown carbonated muck.

"Nico," Percy said. "He was summoning the dead again."

Tyson whimpered. "Ghosts were here. I don't like ghosts."

"We've got to find him."

Standing at the edge of that pit gave him a sense of urgency. Nico was close. Katniss would be with him too.

He started to run.

"Percy!" Cass called.

He ducked into a tunnel and saw light up ahead. By the time Cass, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover caught up with him, he was staring at daylight streaming through a set of bars above his head. They were under a steel grate made out of metal pipes. Percy could see trees and blue sky.

"Where are we?" He wondered.

Then a shadow fell across the grate and a cow stared down at him. It looked like a normal cow except it was a weird color—bright red, like a cherry. Percy didn't know cows came in that color.

The cow mooed, put one hoof tentatively on the bars, then backed away.

"It's a cattle guard," Grover said.

"A what?" Percy asked.

"They put them at the gates of ranches so cows can't get out. They can't walk on them."

"How do you know that?" Cassiopeia said.

Grover huffed indignantly. "Believe me, if you had hooves, you'd know about cattle guards. They're annoying!"

Percy turned to Annabeth. "Didn't Hera say something about a ranch? We need to check it out. Nico and Katniss might be up there."

She hesitated. "All right. But how do we get out?"

Tyson solved that problem by hitting the cattle guard with both hands. It popped off and went flying out of sight. They heard a CLANG! and a startled Moo! Tyson blushed.