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In many ways, farmland was more dangerous than the city. There were miles of barbed wire, packs of feral dogs, mortals with guns, and many, many other dangers. But if you could find a field ready to be harvested or a chicken coop unattended or get close enough to a calf to steal it off into the night, then the benefits were worth the risk. Stealing from a farm meant you could eat for days. If only you were clever enough and fast enough to get away with it.
That night Luke dug a hole beneath the fence of razor wire, just big enough for two starving kids to fit through one at a time. They crept through fields of unripe corn, heading toward a chicken coop. Catching a chicken in a coop was easier than catching a feral pigeon...and the chicken would feed them longer too.
It was not a big farm. Not one of those factory ones that took up acres of land and held all of their animals in stinking warehouses. This was a farm just trying to get by. They probably sold their meat and eggs and milk and produce to the farmers market. They were probably starving too.
Luke had never been here before but he didn’t need to be. He had a sixth sense for where to find what he was looking for. They cut straight across to the chicken coop.
Thalia stayed close beside Luke. Her stomach growled.
Luke found a loose section of chicken wire and pried it off the post. He held it open for Thalia to slip into the coop, then followed her.
Chickens weren’t quiet birds and they didn’t like intruders. Hens were bad. Roosters were worse. The rooster heard the commotion and went out to see what was going on.
“Kill him before he wakes up the farmer!” Luke whispered.
Thalia caught the rooster first. He put up a valiant fight but even as weak as she was, Thalia snapped his neck with ease. The rooster went limp and still.
Luke slided up to the henhouse. The hens inside were unsettled and starting to make a racket. He only needed one. He unlocked the door and eased it open.
A light flooded the chicken coop. Chaos ensured, hens loudly clucking and feathers going everywhere as they tried to get away from or attack the predator.
Luke panicked, grabbed a hen and broke her neck. “Time to go!” He said.
The two demigods ran for the hole in the fence. They slipped out without any issues and ducked into the corn. They waited, side by side, hearts racing. Was the farmer going to come out?
The chickens were loud and the lights were bright. It felt inevitable that the farmer was summoned. He carried a flashlight in one hand and a rifle in the other.
Luke swallowed. He’s never been shot and he never wants to be.
The farmer shone his flashlight in the stalks of corn. The light caught on Luke and Thalia’s eyes, lighting their eyeshine up yellow. “Damn coyotes!” The farmer cursed. His footsteps were heavy as his boots clunked down the stairs.
Luke heard the sound of bullets sliding into a rifle. “Run!” he hissed to Thalia and shoved her.
Thalia broke into a run, still clutching her prize rooster. She was a daughter of Zeus, a child of lightning and lust. Subtlety was not Thalia’s forte. Her footsteps were loud, her breathing ragged.
Luke loped beside her, utterly silent. He was the son of a thief, the son of Hermes, and Luke could steal anything without being caught. Mentally he cursed himself for bringing Thalia with. She needed to become a better thief in case they got separated but stealth wasn’t her thing and they often got caught when Luke brought her along.
Braying alerted them to the farmer’s hounds being set loose.
Thalia crackled with electricity as she ran, setting the nearby stalks of corn on fire.
The farmer behind them shouted in surprise and confusion. The rifle shot echoed with a bang!
Thalia veered away, no longer going straight toward the hole in the fence.
Luke cursed and followed her. Thankfully it was easy to follow her; she was loud and she left a trail of burning embers in her wake. Even if Luke had been deaf and blind, he’d be able to track Thalia based on the scent of ozone and pine smoke. “Thalia!” he whisper-shouted as he caught up with her. “This way!”
They ran parallel to the barbed wire fence.
The dogs suddenly burst from in front of them.
Luke shoved Thalia toward the fence and threw his hen at the dogs.
The dogs weren’t expecting fresh meat to be thrown at them and they tore into the chicken, giving Luke and Thalia time to escape.
Bullets whizzed through the corn as the farmer kept shooting. If he wasn’t careful he was going to shoot one of his dogs...which wouldn’t be a bad thing for the two demigods.
Thalia wiggled under the fence and popped out the other side just fine. Her rooster’s neck was still clutched in her fist. “Hurry, Luke!”
Luke dropped to his stomach. He tried to wiggle beneath the fence like Thalia had but he was just a little too big to clear the lowest rung. It caught in his hair, pulling until Luke’s hair ripped from his scalp. Tears blurred Luke’s vision as pain raced along his head and back. His shoulders caught next, the barbed wire cutting through his t-shirt like butter. He felt the metal slice his flesh and scrape across his bones. He yelped and whined and scrambled to pull himself through all the way.
“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” Thalia chanted, dancing around the ditch on the other side of the fence. They had to clear the ditch and then dive into the forest to hopefully lose the farmer and his dogs.
Luke tried to get to his feet too soon. The barbed wire scratched along his lower back and butt. His jeans fared a little better than his shirt, catching Luke and trapping him halfway beneath the fence. “I’m stuck!” Luke cried, scrabbling at the dirt for leverage.
Thalia came back to him. “Stop moving!” She ordered as she tried to unhook the barb from Luke’s jeans.
A bullet shot past Thalia’s ear.
“Go!” Luke said, trying to shove her away. “Go, go, go!”
“Not without you!” Thalia snapped back. She grabbed the hem of Luke’s jeans with both hands and gave it a hard yank down. The fabric tore, taking Luke’s belt loop with it.
Luke didn’t care. He shot to his feet, grabbed Thalia by the arm, and ran for the ditch. Every movement hurt like fire licking down his flesh. Something hot and wet ran down Luke’s scalp. “Jump!” he said.
They leapt over the ditch.
Both of them landed hard on the other side, rolling in the dirt, before hauling themselves to their feet and running again.
They ran for a long, long time.
Long enough for the blood on Luke’s head to grow cold. When Luke judged that they were far enough that chasing them wouldn’t benefit the farmer, they stopped. “We have to get to our shelter.”
Thalia had been running with the rooster in her mouth. It dangled from her jaws as though she really were a fox raiding the henhouse. She spat it out. Feathers and blood stuck to her mouth. Her eyes flashed but Thalia was no longer setting things on fire. “I don’t know where we are.”
Luke paused, looking around. “I do.” He didn’t but he knew how to get back to their little shelter.
They walked in silence.
Thalia kept sneaking looks at Luke but she didn’t say anything.
Luke wanted to rub the tears from his eyes but his hands and shirt were both covered in dirt. His whole back hurt and his head was even worse. He was afraid of what he looked like now, afraid of what he would find when he next looked in a mirror.
It was an hour before they arrived at the den they’d dug out between two close-growing trees. There were blankets strung up over the shallow hole to make a roof and walls, and thorny plants and bushes were put over top to hide it from casual view. An animal could find it but a human would have trouble. The entrance was a very small tunnel by the base of one of the trees.
It always brushed against Luke’s back and shoulders when he had to crawl in but now the simple act of seeking shelter was agony. By the time he could collapse in the middle of the shelter, Luke’s whole body was shaking with pain and exhaustion. He lay on the dirt by the entrance and shook so badly that he wondered if he was having a seizure.
Thalia squeezed in after Luke and carefully crawled over him. She pulled Luke’s dagger from its sheath and used it to cut away the remains of Luke’s shirt. Without being promoted, Thalia sacrificed one of their water bottles to wash out Luke’s wounds. “Get up, Luke. You’re lying in mud.”
Luke forced himself onto his hands and knees. He thought he might throw up.
Once his wounds were washed of dirt and debris, Thalia opened their canteen of nectar. She poured it over his wounds, starting with Luke’s head and ending with his tailbone. “There. That should feel better. Although I’m not sure your hair will grow back.”
Luke didn’t care about his hair. He sighed in relief as the nectar did its job and knit his skin back together. With luck, it wouldn’t even scar. He knelt in the mud and tried to catch his breath. “That was too close.” Luke glanced at the rooster.
It wasn’t even a big rooster. Either one of them could have eaten the whole thing in one meal.
Luke moved to get up. “We have to cook that.”
“We can do that later.” Thalia put her hand on Luke’s chest. She wasn’t crackling with visible electricity anymore but her touch made Luke’s hair rise and his heart skip a beat. “I almost lost you.” Thalia slid her hand to Luke’s shoulder and pulled him to the sleeping bags they shared.
Luke was too tired to argue with her...and he liked it when she touched him. And she was right; she’d almost lost him. Luke let Thalia push him onto their zipped up sleeping bags. His eyelids were heavy. His brain kept telling him that he was still hurt, and kept replaying the tearing of his flesh. It made him tremble.
Thalia curled up against Luke’s back as though she could protect him from the world. She was warm and her heart beat fast against his skin. “I don’t think we should do that again,” she whispered. Which was her way of saying that she was scared.
Luke let himself relax in Thalia’s embrace. He held her hand. “Okay,” he said softly even though he was already planning to raid another farm without her.
“Luke, promise me we won’t do that again,” Thalia demanded. She nuzzled the back of his head.
Damn. “I promise, Thalia.”