Soon there came the sound of a vans engine. Through the trees and on the narrow roadway two headlights shone out.
The white van came to a halt outside the prison gates and Kate looked out of the window. ‘God, this place looks a bit dodgy.’
‘The pictures don’t lie, do they?’ gulped Mark nervously.
‘Come on guys,’ said Alex, getting out of the van, ‘don’t chicken out on me now.’
Tom clambered out of the drivers seat and slammed his door shut. ‘I don’t want anybody getting scared.’
‘I thought being scared was what we were doing this for,’ said Joanne.
The others looked blankly at her.
‘Y’know? The thrill of being scared?’
‘I’m not scared of anything,’ said Tom.
Kate shook her head and crossed over to Alex. ‘He needs his head sorting out.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Alex.
‘It needs reducing in size.’
Alex rolled his eyes and locked up the van as the group walked over to the large iron gates.
‘Anyone got any keys?’ asked Mark.
Kate put her hands on her hips and laughed out loud. ‘The ghostbusters do it again! We can’t even get in the damn place.’
‘We go over the wall,’ said Tom blankly.
‘You’re joking! That wall was built to keep prisoners from getting out, how the hell are we gonna get in?’ She pointed to the top of the wall. ‘Look – it’s even got razor-sharp barbed wire.’
Tom looked angrily to Alex. ‘You should have thought about this.’
‘Hey, don’t blame me, Tom!’ protested Alex. ‘We all should have thought about this.’
‘So do we go back?’ asked Mark. ‘I don’t fancy camping out in these woods.’
‘No,’ said Tom. ‘I’m going into that town we passed. We can get some crowbars or bolt croppers or something; force the gates open.’
‘And get done for criminal damage?’ said Joanne, raising her eyebrows.
Tom was about to raise his voice to her when there came a mechanical scraping from the gate. The five of them went silent. The sound was coming from the actual lock. After a few seconds the sound stopped with a clunk.
Alex stepped forwards and pushed the gate. It opened a little way.
‘Looks like it was open all along.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ said Kate. ‘That gate was locked when we got here. Someone opened it from the inside.’
‘Hello?’ called out Alex. There was no reply. ‘You see. It must have been open. And if there was someone on the other side then they would have popped there head out and said hello.’
‘Does it matter?’ asked Tom, pushing in front of them all. ‘We’re here now and we best get in before we get locked out again.’
Tom and Alex slipped around the gate. Mark and Joanne looked nervously around at Kate.
‘Any problems and you’ll back me up, won’t you?’ asked Kate.
‘Of course,’ said Joanne. ‘We all know what Tom can be like.’
Kate smiled at the couple and they followed the other two inside the prison walls.
Searching eyes watched the teenagers, concealed in the trees nearby.
The prison grounds were in darkness. Back before the place had been closed, floodlights would have lit the place up, but now the darkness was all that remained.
Alex got the large torch from out of his rucksack and switched it on. The beam lit up a little pool of light in front of them.
Alex moved it around. ‘Looks like that’s the main building over there,’ he said, indicating a dimly lit building.
‘Well we’re not staying in there,’ said Joanne. ‘To be honest I’d prefer to sleep in the van.’
Tom looked back at her. ‘We have the camper beds. We’ll just find the chapel and set up camp in there.’
‘The chapel?’ asked Kate.
‘Yeah,’ continued Alex. ‘These places always had a chapel - a safe house - for the prisoners to go for religious reasons.’
‘I bet they didn’t get much chance to go there,’ said Mark gloomily. ‘Not with the way they treat the prisoners.’
‘Never the less,’ said Tom, ‘it should be a safe place should any of our ghostly friends get up to their tricks.’
Kate shivered in the wind and looked around her. ‘Well can we get there now, please. It’s getting cold and I don’t like being out here.’
Tom leant in to Alex. ‘Shut her up, Alex. She’s starting to really get to me now.’
Tom took the torch from Alex and wandered off into the darkness. Alex frowned and motioned for the others to follow.
In the TARDIS console room the Doctor, Caroline and Danny were gathered around the console. The Doctor flicked a switch and the scanner switched on.
‘Can’t see much,’ said Danny. ‘Is that thing on the blink again?’
‘Don’t be silly,’ said the Doctor, ‘it’s just dark out there.’
‘But is it safe?’ asked Caroline.
‘Caroline, it’s one of the most haunted places in America. Apart from that, it’s safe.’
Danny crossed the room and took three torches from a large oak chest. He handed one to the Doctor, one to Caroline and took the third for himself.
‘I didn’t think you’d be the type to actually believe in ghosts and stuff like that,’ said Caroline.
‘I show a keen interest in all things unexplained. I might not believe in ghosts with clanking chains and white sheets, but I certainly believe their to be something that causes these manifestations.’
‘Imaginations,’ said Danny with a laugh.
‘I suggest you two put some coats on. It’s a summer night but the wind has reduced the temperature somewhat.’
After they were kitted out in their coats, the Doctor opened the double doors and they stepped out of the TARDIS.
The Doctor locked up the TARDIS doors and then joined his companions.
‘It’s a bit bleak,’ said Danny.
The three travellers shone the torches around. The TARDIS appeared to have landed next to one of the large walls on the inside of the grounds and over in the distance was a huddle of buildings surrounding a larger one.
‘That looks like the main building,’ said the Doctor, aiming his torch in the direction of the big building.
‘It looks a bit gloomy,’ said Caroline, pulling her coat tighter around her. ‘Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea.’
Danny winced.
‘You okay Danny?’ asked the Doctor.
Danny suddenly snapped back again. ‘What? Yes of course. Let’s go.’ And with that he strode off into the darkness, shining his torch ahead of him.
‘What‘s up with him?’ muttered Caroline.
‘Come on,’ said the Doctor, taking Caroline’s hand, ‘we’d better follow him.’
Danny had already gotten halfway across the grass covered grounds when the Doctor and Caroline caught up with him.
‘Slow down,’ said the Doctor. ‘There’s no rush.’
‘Doctor!’ said Caroline, gripping his arm. ‘There’s a light over there.’
The Doctor and Danny turned to where Caroline was pointing. In the darkness there appeared to be two windows with a dim light coming from them.
‘I don’t like the look of that,’ said Caroline.
‘It’s signs of life,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s better than signs of death.’
‘And it’ll be a lot warmer in there,’ said Danny.
‘Yeah, but suppose it’s the...you know?’
‘The what?’ asked the Doctor.
‘What if it’s the ghosts?’
The Doctor and Danny burst out laughing. ‘Of course it’s not ghosts,’ said the Doctor. ‘Why would ghosts want to light up a room?’
‘To tempt us in?’ suggested Caroline.
The Doctor laughed again. ‘Come on, let’s go and see who’s at home.’
The two of them had almost reached the building when a sound came to the far right of them.
‘What was that?’ asked Caroline.
‘It sounds like rustling trees,’ said the Doctor, dismissing the thought.
The sound came again.
‘But there are no trees in the prison grounds,’ said Caroline.
The Doctor looked at Danny. ‘Well then, perhaps we better take a look.’
The three travellers changed direction and slowly walked towards a five foot wall with an opening to allow people to walk through. The Doctor shone his torch beyond the wall and it lit up a small, white cross. He shone his torch around, revealing more crosses. A few rows of them in fact.
‘Relax everybody, it’s just the prison cemetery.’
‘Cemetery?’ asked Caroline.
‘Yes, well they had to have somewhere to put the executed ones.’
‘Why not just send them back to the families?’ said Caroline.
‘Some of their families had no doubt disowned them. Some of them probably didn’t have any family to speak of.’
The rustling sound came again. The Doctor leaned forward to look at the cross more closely, but was distracted when he heard Danny yell behind them.
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