Surprise Me.

Chapter 23- Third Time's a Charm.

Our tour guide felt...off. He wasn't overly friendly, but he wasn't cold and hateful either. He seemed cautious when he showed us around. The large building we'd seen earlier was the main building. It had a mess hall, barracks for soldiers, holding cells for prisoners of war, everything it needed. It was massive, and we didn't even explore the basement. Chance thought it was more important to show us the graveyard. It was small in comparison to most graveyards nowadays. Most of the stones were unkempt and had moss growing over them. I was only able to make out a few names.

"So are these soldier's graves?" Sam asked.

"No, these are the graves of the townspeople. This and the school are the only things here besides the fence line that shows that there was an actual town here before the government tore it down." Chance answered. He kept shooting looks around as if he thought we were being watched. To be fair, we were being watched by ghosts, but he didn't need to know that. We all agreed that we would get dinner somewhere and come back for our investigation. Chance politely bowed out, choosing to go home instead. He seemed unnerved to say the least.

"Dude, I'm starving." Sam announced as we sat down for dinner. I plopped down in between Colby and Kris as he whined.

"We had lunch." Adam replied.

"Being scared makes me hungry."

"Since when?" Colby asked, a grin planted on his face.

"Since we've started doing ghost investigations."

"Sam, I feel like you're always hungry." Kris teased.

"I am. Ask Maddie, she cooks for me all the time."

"It's true. I make him food five or six times a day." I sighed.

"Your cooking is to die for, though." Colby replied. "If I didn't have the metabolism of a sixty year-old, I'd probably eat it a lot more often."

"That's what he said." Kris blurted. Celina choked, her eyes going wide. Sam slapped his forehead and sighed.

"I already have to live with them, don't make me think about that, too." Sam groaned.

"Oh like you and Kat are any better about being 'sneaky.'" Colby deadpanned.

"Boys, I love you two." Kris said, pointing to them. "But I'm abstinent and I don't wanna hear about your sex lives."

"Thank you. Someone agrees with me." I sighed.

"Oh please, Maddie. You gave me a hickey last night." Colby shot. I glanced at him, my face going beet-red. Everyone else looked at us in disbelief. "Look, I'll prove it." Colby yanked the collar of his shirt down to reveal the purplish-red mark on his collarbone. I buried my face in my hands, all eyes on me.

"Well damn." Kris said, examining it. "That's a rough one."

"Kris!" I stuttered, scandalized.

"I'm just saying."

"Frozen spoon trick, my dude." Celina sighed.

"Celina!" I hollered.

"Where am I gonna find a frozen spoon, Celina?" Colby asked, gesturing to the town out the window. Celina shrugged as Adam chuckled.

"I hate all of you." I mumbled.

The conversation-and my face-eventually returned to normal. We shared stupid ghost hunting stories, I gave them insight about college, and we just hung out. Colby met my eyes once and offered me a soft smile. I grinned back, unable to resist his stupid charm. He laid his hand on my thigh, his fingers brushing my kneecap.

"I wanna teach you something." I said quietly. Everyone else was occupied with their current debate.

"What's up?" Colby replied.

"Three squeezes means 'I love you.' This way if you wanna say it but not out loud, you can."

"I'm gonna use that for the rest of our lives."

"I figured as much." I chuckled softly and returned my attention to the conversation the rest of the table was having. I felt three light squeezes of my knee and I smiled.

When we made it back to Bloodland after dinner, an entirely different feeling washed over the land. The ghosts were active now, faceless blurs running in formation and doing drills. Occasionally, there would be a strong scent of chlorine and something sweet wafting over the area. Sam picked up on it once.

"Does anyone else smell chlorine?" He asked, drawing everyone's attention.

"I thought it was just me." Kris answered. "I'm getting flashbacks to Crescent Hotel."

"Chlorine was used as a component in chemical gas during World War two, was it not?" Colby added.

"Yes, it was." I replied, googling compounds of poison gas. By now I must be on a watchlist somewhere. "Look at you, history buff."

"World War two training base plus ghosts, boom, phantom scents." Celina announced.

"Hey check this out. Apparently there were zombies during the war at one point."

"Zombies?" Sam asked, confused. "That's sci-fi, there's no way they learned how to make zombies."

"A group of Russians were gassed while they were defending a fortress in Germany. The Germans walked in thinking they'd killed everyone with their gas, they even poked at the bodies. All of a sudden, the Russians got up, aimed their guns, and kept fighting. Apparently, they were coughing up blood and parts of their lungs through their gas masks. The Germans were so scared that they got stuck in their own traps while running back to their bases."

"Well I would be scared too if a fucking corpse stood up and pointed a gun at me." Kris chuckled.

"That's kinda sick when you think about it though." Celina added. "That would have been so cool to see."

"That's badass." Colby agreed. "Russians will die when they fucking want to."

"Cool except for the fact that eighty percent of those Russians died just as they made it back to their base. Only three of them ever made it home and they all died before they hit fifty."

"Okay, less badass, more sad."

"Ghost gas or not, I'm going inside." Sam announced.

"I'm with him." Adam said. We all followed him into the building, becoming shrouded in darkness as soon as we closed the front door. I guess darkness is a recurring theme here.