THEY RODE THE BOAR UNTIL SUNSET,  which was about as much as Selena  could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was.

She had no idea how many miles they covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were galloping (do boars gallop? I guess it's more like a trot.) across the desert.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover told the group, "We need to get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best they could with their saddle sores.

After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," Percy guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoe Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but then Selena noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Whoa," Percy said.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia commented. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to Selena, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us," he pointed. "Those six nuts right there."

"Which one is me?" Percy asked.

"The little deformed one," Selena snapped, crossing her arms,

"Oh, shut up."

"You shut up." She replied, rolling her eyes,

"Guys!" Thalia snapped at them and they got quiet.

"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..." He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

They decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of them wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoe and Bianca produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. Selena don't know how they did it, because the packs were tiny, but must've been enchanted to hold so much stuff. She'd noticed their bows and quivers were also magic. She never really thought about it, but when the Hunters needed them, they just appeared slung over their backs. And when they didn't, they were gone. It was pretty cool.

Selena sat off in the distance as they started a fire. She didn't mind the cold wind at the moment.

She was upset. Upset at Zoe, upset at the prophecy, upset at the boar for dropping them off in the middle of nowhere, and especially upset at Percy Jackson. 

"Hey." Speak of the devil, "You'll be more comfortable by the fire."

"I'm fine." Selena snapped.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked,

"Just buzz off, Jackson. I'm not in the mood." Selena huffed, bringing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on top.

Percy sighed and sat next to her, "I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."

"You're what's wrong, Percy." Selena glared.

"What do you mean?" He asked, suddenly looking offended,

"You jumped in front of those bullets." She stated, "And if your stupid coat wasn't bulletproof, you would've died."

"But I didn't."

She turned to face the son of Poseidon, "Percy, you didn't even know it was bulletproof. You willingly sacrificed yourself for me!"

"That's because I care about you and don't want you to get hurt." Percy said,

"How do you think I feel?! I would've been devastated if you died because you took those bullets! I would've never forgiven myself or you for that matter." Selena could tell the others were looking over at them, "Don't you ever do that again, Percy Jackson."

Percy shook his head, "I can't promise that, Selena. If I can prevent you from getting hurt, I will."

Selena sighed, looking out within the junkyard once again before standing up, "You can't prevent everyone from dying, Percy." She told him before joining the others.

There was an awkward silence as Selena walked over and sat down on the sleeping bag. She stared at the fire, thinking about today's events.

"The stars are out," Zoe stated, breaking the silence as Percy walked back over,

Selena looked up. She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.

"Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoe replied, "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

"You talk like you're not human," Percy stated,

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"

"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee"

Selena rolled her eyes, prepared for another verbal fight between the two girls.

"But you use you for the beginning of a sentence."

"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you"

Zoe threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"

Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here, he would set things right."

Zoe nodded sadly.

"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover stated. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee..."

Selena was pretty sure coffee had nothing to do with what had happened in Cloudcroft, but she didn't have the heart to tell Grover. 

"Grover, do you really think that was Pan?" Percy asked, "I mean, I know you want it to be." 

"He sent us help," Grover insisted. "I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."

"What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."

Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."

"Maybe there's something special about your knife," Percy said.

"It is the same as mine," Zoe responded, "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."

"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," Selena said,

Bianca looked uncomfortable with everybody paying attention to her.

"Never mind," Zoe told her. "We will find the answer. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."

Selena shivered. She didn't want to think about the last time she was in Las Vegas a few years ago. 

"No!" Bianca exclaimed, "Not there!" She looked really freaked out, like she'd just been dropped off the steep end of a roller coaster.

Zoe frowned. "Why?"

Bianca took a shaky breath. "I... I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember..."

Selena swallowed nervously and looked at both Grover and Percy, who seemed to have the same idea as her,

"Bianca," Percy started, "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"

"Oh, great," Selena sighed,

"Wait," Thalia said. "What is the Lotus Casino?"

"A couple of years ago," Percy exclaimed, "Grover, Selena, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."

"No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."

"You said somebody came and got you out," Percy remembered.

"Yes."

"What did he look like? What did he say?"

"I... I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this." Bianca frowned,

Zoe sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said that Washington, D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."

"Yes, but—"

"Bianca," Zoe said, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"

"Don't be silly," Bianca said. She told them the correct name of the president.

"And who was the president before that?" Zoe asked.

Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."

Zoe swallowed. "Theodore or Franklin'?"

"Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."

"Like FDR Drive?" Percy asked. 

Selena rolled her eyes. What an idiot.

"Bianca," Zoe said. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."

"That's impossible," Bianca replied. "I... I'm not that old." She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.

Thalia's eyes turned sad. Selena knew that Thalia knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca, The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out."

"But how?" Selena asked, sitting up, "We were only in there for an hour and we barely escaped. How could you have escaped after being there for so long?"

"I told you." Bianca looked about ready to cry. "A man came and said it was time to leave. And—"

"But who? Why did he do it?"

Before she could answer, they were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. Selena was half hoping it was Apollo, come to give us a ride again, but the engine was way too silent for the sun chariot, and besides, it was nighttime. They grabbed their sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of them.

The back door of the limo opened right next to Percy. Before he could step away, the point of a sword touched his throat.

Selena quickly got her dagger while Zoe and Bianca drew their bows. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, Percy moved back very slowly. 

He smiled cruelly. "Not so fast now, are you, punk?"

He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes, but Selena knew what was behind those glasses—hollow sockets filled with flames.

"Ares," Percy growled.