I had breakfast on the boat. It was so hard to wake Dylan up, but eventually, I succeeded. We went and finished our breakfast. Ernest wanted just to watch the ocean, so we went to the deck. I was suspicious when Dylan went to hang out with Ernest instead of the rest of us. I noticed Jacy frowning with her head hanging and I assumed that the thought of her parents kept coming back to her. 

“Hey, Jacy,” I said. She looked up at me. 

“Huh?” she asked. 

“I’m sorry,” I said sympathetically. 

“For your parents an’ all. I feel what you feel. I’m pretty sure my parents were killed by the Nazis, too.”

She stared at me and said, 

“Your parents are most certainly not dead. Franz uses that yellow gas stuff to take their minds and control them. I overheard two Nazi soldiers talking about how the serum could turn them back to normal after he got the file. Franz doesn’t care for anybody other than his family, so he just kills them just like his ancestor.” 

I felt a flare of anger and hate towards Franz. Then, Dylan shoved Ernest towards us. He looked like a ripe tomato. He explained how he tripped on his shoelace. There was an awkward silence, but eventually he just turned and went back to “studying the ocean”. After that, I knew something was truly wrong.

At lunch, I asked Dylan what was with Ernest. He thought for a moment, then eventually decided to tell me. 

“You promise not to tell anyone?” he questioned. I nodded.

“Ok,” he said in a low tone. 

“Ernest has a crush on that kid, Jacy.” He pointed to Jacy who was talking to Mary. I looked at her. Then, I looked at Ernest. Ernest was on the opposite side of the table to Jacy. Every once in a while, he would look at Jacy. I took pity on that geek. He was so lonely, playing those weird card games with Wyatt all the time. That nerd almost had no chance in a social life. I was not trying to be mean, but everyone agreed. Dylan tried to defend him a few times, but got run over by my arguments (If you didn’t know, I am really good at persuading.).

Ernest always got bullied in school as a nerd. Kids would say mean things to him. Dylan always had to save Ernest from getting beaten up. Eventually, Ernest would have to stop being a defenseless kid. He would have to step up one day. Dylan can’t always help him.

The afternoon was boring. Nothing happened. Eric was talking to General Lang, so we went wherever we wanted to go. I was wandering around with Mary looking for something to do when we came across a shiny metal door. It looked suspicious and important. I didn’t think we should go in, but Mary persuaded me to help her sneak in. Mary quietly opened the door and walked into the dark room. There was a map that had some sort of plan. It had circles and arrows everywhere. I took a quick glance at it every once in a while as I crept around the room.  

There were crates all over the room. I thought food would be in them, but there were weapons! Guns, cannons, and bombs. Lots of bombs. One crate was bigger than the rest. It could fit myself, Wyatt, Dylan, Finn, Mary, Ernest, and Jacy. It could probably fit even more people! I opened it and found a huge bomb! I could not take my eyes off it. 

Eventually, my wonder was broke when Mary said, “Hey come look at this.” 

I went over to her and found her looking at a letter pinned to the wall. The handwritten text was small and scribbled, but I could still read it. 

“Well, what’s so special about it?” I asked.

“Look at what it says,” Mary insisted with a scared look on her face. 

The back read, 

Dear General Lang, 

Here is the explosive you requested. 

Once my scouts see the explosion, they will send for you. 

When we meet again, I will have your money. 

You must detonate the bomb first.

Thanks, 

Klaus Stefan

Who is this Klaus guy? I took the note and ran. Mary and I split up. I nodded to Mary and ran without looking. I was so focused on Mary that I accidentally ran into General Lang.

“Oh, sorry, General!” 

“Daijōbudesu (it is alright),” he said with a smile. Then, he looked at what was in my hand. He wisped the paper out of my hands. When he read it, he went red hot angry and started yelling something in Japanese at two soldiers nearby. I got up from the ground and ran in the opposite direction. Finally, I found Dylan. I told him about Lang’s secret.

“We have to find the others, to tell them about Lang,” Dylan said. 

We ran around, gathering the others. Ernest was particularly hard to find. He was hiding for some reason. We found him hiding in some crates. He is the weirdest person ever. We ran and tried to decide what to do. When we came to Jacy, she said she didn’t believe us. 

“The General was so kind,” she insisted. 

“Look, you have to believe us, Jacy,” I said. Finally, we convinced her. After a while, we came at the door where I had originally found the secret room. 

“In here,” I insisted. 

Dylan shoved the door open and we ran in. We huddled in a corner and waited. Eventually, we heard someone come around and stop by the door. He then pushed the door open and came in. It was General Lang. 

“Children,” the Japanese general said in fluent English, surprising us. This whole time he had been acting like he was a kind man working for the Japanese, when he was actually working for Franz. Or at least I assumed that.

General Lang held a small pistol with a rubber case just like the pistol Franz had. It was a Pressurized Gewehr! 

“You kids have seen this thing before, haven’t you?” he showed us the gun. 

“You really think you can hide from me?” General Lang held the pistol toward us. 

Finn tried to escape by running to the left and right beside the bomb, but the so called “Japanese” general was quick. He turned and shot in the direction of Finn. Finn ducked just in time. The thing is, since it passed Finn, it flew right through the wooden crate and hit the bomb. 

“Oh, n—” I started but the light came and everything went dark.