Chapter Seven: A Monsters' Understanding.
— Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I
should know !
They were desperate and hungry.
Scrambling through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank with the glow of New York behind them, making the sky yellow behind them, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in their noses. They sought the nearest shelter as they wandered. Out of nowhere, the rain stopped and it made them curious. They shared confused looks, shrugging when they couldn't come up with a plausible explanation. Colette Victoire had never been so glad to have ignored her best friends command. Usually, ignoring Annabeth's advice was a hit or miss. This time, it was definitely a hit. Colette still clutched onto her backpack tightly, she took a sip of ambrosia to help with the pain in her upper arm where the lightning had grazed the skin. She sighed, knowing it would scar eventually. She was the calmest of the group. Percy seemed to be reeling by what had just happened, fighting back any shock that lingered from witnessing a bus explode. Annabeth was breathing deeply, also in deep disbelief from the recent events. Grover had the worst reaction of the quartet.
The satyr was shivering and braying, his large goat eyes turned into slit-pupils and were glazed with terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once." He kept muttering under his breath.
"We need to keep moving," Colette said, despite the fact that her ears were still ringing from the closeness of the lightning strike. "The farther away from there we get, the better."
"All our money was back there." Percy realized. "Our food and clothes. Everything." He was speaking so blankly that it was concerning. His shock hadn't worn off yet, that much was blatantly clear. He also seemed in the mood to argue, it was a good thing Annabeth was too.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—" the brunette began.
The boy cut her off, just as heated as she was. "What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" He downright scoffed at the idea.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover inputted, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy." Annabeth snapped at him. "Besides, Lettie had it handled. She just needed the right opportunity, she would've had it if you hadn't turned the wheel." She spat at the son of the sea, turning the argument back onto him.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
"Are you all finished?" Colette snapped, eyes flashing in agitation. She didn't mean to, but her eyes were glaring at them. She'd stopped walking for a second to turn around and look at them. Their incessant whining and arguing was getting on her nerves. "My arm is burned, the rain water is not helping with that either, and I'm hungry. So, please, shut up and keep walking. Gods' sake, you're not five year olds, you're about to be teenagers; Act like it." Her harsh and stern tone sent the three behind her into quick silence, falling in line and walking quietly. She hoped they realized where she was coming from. She wasn't necessarily angry at them, just frustrated by the events and her most recent wound. Lightning strikes were a pain in the ass.
The four sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry. After a few minutes, Annabeth opened her mouth to speak again. Rather than speaking harshly, however, her voice was quiet and mumbled — almost sheepish after being so viciously scolded by her best friend. "Look, I ..." her voice faltered as she searched for the right words to say to him. She didn't want to insult him. "I appreciate you coming back for us, okay? It was really brave." She admitted.
