Chapter 16: We Take A Zebra To Vegas

Ares was waiting for us in the diner parking lot. He said, "Well, well, you didn't get yourself killed," I said "But you knew it was a trap. Then he gave me a wicked grin. I shoved the shield at him and said "You're a jerk." Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. The shield changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. "See that truck over there?" Ares pointed to the eighteen wheeler parked across the street from the diner. Then he said " That's your ride, it will take you to L.A, with one stop in Vegas." On the back of the eighteen wheeler, there was a sign that said Kindness International: Humane Zoo Transport. Warning: Live Wild Animals. "You're kidding." I said. Then when Ares snapped his fingers, the back door of the truck opened. "Stop complaining," Ares said and Ares gave us blue bag, inside there were fresh clothes for us, twenty bucks in cash, pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double stuff Oreos. I was going to tell Ares that I didn't need his stuff, but then Grover interrupted, and said "Thank You, Lord Ares. It was probably a really bad insult to refuse something from a God, but I didn't want to accept his things. Anyways, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I still wanted to punch Ares, I just couldn't stop the feeling. The funny thing was that, Ares reminded me about every bully I faced, and all the jerk's that called me stupid when I got expelled. When I looked back at the diner, I noticed the waitress who had served us dinner was watching us nervously, almost like she was afraid that Ares was going to hurt us or something. Then the waitress took out a disposable camera and took a picture of us. Great, I bet those pictures will be at the front pages of the newspapers. I just remembered, I told Ares that he owes me the information about my mother, then Ares said "You sure you can handle the news, she's not dead." Then he left on his motorcycle. Annabeth said to me, "That was not smart." "I don't care." I said. Grover interrupted us and pointed toward the diner, it was the two men that were going to drive the truck, "If we're going to take the zoo express, we need to hurry." I didn't like Ares idea, but it was the only good idea, we ran across the street and climbed on the back of the big truck.

The very first thing that bothered me was the horrible smell. It smelled like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. The trailer was really dark inside until I uncapped anaklusmos, and there was light everywhere. Then someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a hamburger meat. Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around the small space he had. Grover yelled "This is kindness?" I could tell that Grover wanted to go outside and beat the drivers up with his reed pipes. Then we thought about splitting up and helping the animals feel better. I found a water jug and refilled all the animals bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the tulips to the zebra and antelope. In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions, then Grover said "I should have told you the truth from the beginning, I thought if you knew that I was a failure, you wouldn't want me to be with you," I tried to cheer him up by telling him, "You were the satyr that tried to save Thalia, the daughter of Zeus." And I thing that cheered him up a bit. But, Grover still thought about what happened to Thalia, me and Annabeth tried to cheer Grover up, but it wasn't working, he was still guilty about everything. We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip, and the lion licked the last bit of the hamburger meat, then he looked at me happily. Then I saw Annabeth rubbing her necklace like she was thinking deep strategic thoughts. I asked her what she was doing, but she didn't seem to know what she was doing, but it looked like she was thinking about her parents. I told her to write a small letter to her dad and she thought it was a good idea. I was going to tell Annabeth something but then, when I looked at her, she was asleep. So, I closed my eyes trying to sleep.

While I was sleeping I had another nightmare, and it looked like the same nightmares that I had always had before, all I remember was that I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. The other kids that I saw were going out for recess, and the teacher kept telling me to pick up my pencil and start writing. Then, I think the dream strayed from the usual, I know that I looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. Somehow I know who that girl was, it was the daughter of Zeus, Thalia, she looked like she was really frustrated, and she was trying to get out of the straitjacket. Then the straitjacket melted off me, and I fell on the classroom floor, The teacher's voice changed until it was an evil voice telling me all sorts of things, she started threatening me, until I suddenly woke up. Grover was shaking my shoulder telling me that the truck stopped, then the trailer doors opened and we hurried somewhere to hide at. Then the two people went in and they were talking about sawing the animals in half. Grover told me that, the lion said the two people were animal smugglers, Grover told us "We need to get the animals out of here!" But I thought "How are going to do that?" So Grover used his animal language and tried to communicate with the animals. So, we got all the animals and started running away from the two drivers at the right time, A good thing was that the police started chasing the two smugglers. Then we freed the other animals that were in the trailer. We kept running until we made it to Las Vegas. But, I think we took the wrong turn because we found ourselves at a dead end standing in front of Lotus Hotel and Casino. There was some weird things in the hotel, the lobby was a giant game room, with old arcade games in it. Then we checked it and the man told us to go to room 4001, the man also gave us LotusCash cards, they work for everything in the Hotel. Then after we settled in our hotel rooms, we went for a little tour around the hotel. Well, things were a little weird, I asked people what year it was and people said random years, like 1977, another said 1993, another said 1985. I was kind of getting scared about everything that is happening right now. but I wished it wasn't true. I called Annabeth and told her that we had to leave because it feels like a trap to me. But she was so in to everything she didn't want to leave. Until she realized it was a trap, she asked "How long have we been here?" Then we started running, looking for Grover. Grover was playing a video game, I told him everything that was happening, then I ran to the nearest newspaper stand, and looked at the date. Good thing it was the same year, until I looked at the date, it was June 20. We had been at the Hotel for five days! That means that we only had one more day to our Quest! How were we supposed to finish our Quest Now!