Chapter 21 - The Camp

"I think it's this way…" Artie whispered, beckoning to the girl behind him. Sam simply stared at the crouching figure, refusing to move a step closer.

"Are you sure this time, or is this just another guess?"

Artie shot the ghost a hurt look. "I don't guess. I know. And I know that it's this way." He jerked his head in the direction he'd earlier indicated.

Sam restrained herself from mentioning that mere seconds ago the older ghost had only thought that it was that way. Whatever 'it' was, of course. All Artie had really said was that there was a camp of scientists somewhere in the middle of nowhere and that she'd really want to see it. The ghost girl didn't usually follow teenage boys out into 'the middle of nowhere' in a golden sunset, that she'd only met a few days ago. That's the thing about being a ghost though – you never have to worry about getting brutally murdered. Well… her type of ghost anyway.

The girl rolled her eyes. "All right, we'll have a look." It wasn't like she had anything better to be doing.

Artie instantly brightened up, standing so that he rose above her by just over a foot. For a sixteen–year-old he was surprisingly fickle.

"Awesome!" He held out his hand for her to take and after a moment's deliberation, she did.

Seconds later, the pair found themselves in the middle of a barren field. That was it. A barren field.

Sam groaned and pulled herself away from Artie. "What happened to you knowing?"

"I do know!" The taller ghost wiped his hands on his jeans, looking around him in agitation. This wasn't going at all how he hoped it would.

"Is there even anything out here?"

Artie blinked, turning to face his company. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Are you sure you're not just making it up? I know you've been on your own for a long time, but if you wanted someone to talk to, you could have just asked."

Artie scoffed. "I'm not that desperate, Goth-girl."

Sam sighed before shaking her head and making to leave. She could do without the temperamental teenager act today. Subconsciously, a hand rested on the medallion around her neck. Something had happened to Danny yesterday, she wasn't sure what, but she could feel it. It was all she could do not to skip over there right that second and check on him. She wouldn't even allow herself to connect to his thoughts and find out exactly what was going on. It wasn't right. It wasn't healthy. As far as she knew, she'd feel a shift in the medallion's energy if anything went very wrong and she had to intervene. Actively seeking him out and watching him live his life with other people? It hurt. It hurt a lot. She couldn't keep it up and she knew, despite being his 'guardian', she had to distance herself from him.

"Ah! Wait!" Artie called out, catching Sam just as she was about to skip. The 'Goth-girl' rolled her eyes and turned back to him.

"What now?"

"Over there! I see smoke!"

Sam narrowed her eyes before following the general direction of Artie's wild gestures. Sure enough, somewhere in the distance was a thin trail of black smoke. Maybe the boy wasn't as out of it as she'd originally thought.

"All right, don't go looking too proud of yourself. We don't know what it is yet."

"It's a camp of scientists! I told you!" Artie shook his head in exasperation before vanishing on the spot.

"Wait up!" Sam yelled, a small smile making its way onto her face before she too disappeared and reappeared in close proximity to a smallish camp of caravans and oversized trucks. The camp looked pretty impressive, not one of the vehicles looked in any way cheap and the caravans had to have cost a fortune. But there was something else that caught her eye – a discrete shimmer in the air that on closer inspection looked a tad green – that told her that this was no ordinary camping trip.

"Told you," Artie whispered, coming up behind her. "Scientists."

"What makes you so sure?" Sam asked, still distracted by the shimmer.

"Come on! I'll show you." With that, the ghost-boy shot forward.

"Wait! You can't go in there - there's a ghost…" Sam blinked as Artie passed straight through the green shimmer. "… Shield…" The girl frowned, staring at the other ghost like he was some sort of freak of nature.

Artie simply looked back at her with an inquisitive gaze and shrugged. "Can't be a very good one then."

"No… It can't be…" Hesitantly, the teenager made her way to the shimmering force field. She slowly pushed her hand forward into the dome… Nothing happened. She passed straight through it. There was no denying that this was a ghost shield though – she'd seen enough of them in her life through fighting ghosts. So… why wasn't it working?

"Hurry up then!" Artie called, bounding into the maze of makeshift buildings. Sam sighed and forced herself to break from her musings. She had an over-excited teenager to look after.

If these people were ghost aware, they might not be very hospitable to two dead kids roaming their camp.

She followed behind the older ghost as he made his way through the site.

"How did you even find this place?" She asked, catching up to him. Artie shrugged distractedly.

"I'm an explorer."

"Right... yeah..." Artie the explorer-adventurer-super-spy. How could she forget? A door slammed somewhere off to their right, causing both of them to jump. When they looked back, there was no one to be seen.

"Eerie..." Artie winked before carrying on his carefree trot. "This way."

However, Sam felt a sudden wave of unease. Something about this place seemed familiar. It wasn't so much the situation or the mobile buildings themselves... more the atmosphere. For a camp in the middle of a muddy field, it was far too... pristine.

There wasn't a single mud-splatter to be seen.

"Stop!" Artie announced, throwing out his arm to prevent his companion from going any further.

"What is it?"

"We're here." He pulled Sam to the side so that a tree stood between them and whatever Artie was talking about. "The heart of the scientists' lair."

Sam raised an eyebrow at the boy's antics before peeking around the trunk of the tree.

Her heart froze.

Standing less than ten metres ahead of her was a huddle of men, all dressed in white suits and sporting a silver ear piece.

The Guys in White.

But it couldn't be... Vlad had diverted them all towards New Mexico a week ago. What were they doing in Ohio?

Unless she'd missed something.

"Artie," Sam spun around to face her new accomplice. "I'm going to need your help."

AN: Really, really short update this time but I wanted to get something out before 2014... I plan to post another chapter within the next few days to make up for it!

Wow... Hello! Long time no see! Hope you've all had a great Christmas/New Year - I know I have! If you're wondering where Artie has come from all of a sudden... he's a character I've been working on for a while for one of my original stories and I had an horrific case of 'the block' so he ended up here as well... *whistles innocently*.

For anyone wondering about SB (Spellbound), I'm going to have to make a confession. I don't like this up coming chapter - don't like as in, I'm on the seventh rewrite (no exaggeration). Basically, I can't give you a concrete answer on when it is going to be updated. I'm guesstimating late January/early February. Don't kill me! O.o

So yeah... I'll see you in a few days for chapter 22!

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

~Mea