Shattered

Night

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

"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!"

Percy chuckled at her expense. The conversation had gone down exactly as last time.

"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 bluffed.

He had no way to explain how he knew Bianca's father was Hades...

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

"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," he argued.

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 may hitchhike to the nearest city."

Percy perked up at that.

"Bianca. I need to talk to you about something. Could you please follow me?" Percy got up, a motioned her to follow him.

Bianca nodded and complied.

The rest of the group fell into a comfortable silence around the flames of their campfire.

Zoe could make out certain aspects of the conversation between Percy and Bianca.

She could only make out a few words from her distance from them.

"–Las Vegas"

"How did–"

"A couple years– ... –makes time speed up."

"–not possible!"

"–got you out."

"Yes."

"–look like– ... –say?"

"–don't remember. Please– ... –about it."

Zoe sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. She knew where the conversation was heading. Percy was confronting Bianca about her past.

"–Washington– ... –changed– ... –subway."

"Yes, but–"

"–president–"

"Don't be silly,"

She mentioned the name of the current President.

"–president before that?"

"Roosevelt."

"Theodore or Franklin?"

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

Zoe leaned in further.

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

"That's impossible," Bianca said. "I... I'm not that old."

She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.