The Secret: A Thriller by David Haywood Young Read Free Book Online

too open. It’s not safe. And lots of people could know we’re all here.”
    I put an arm around his shoulders, proud of him for figuring it out. I hadn’t seen him handle himself in a crisis before. “Good call, kid.” Then, just to see what he’d come up with: “So where do you think we should go?”
    He gave me his patented retarded-adult look. “The old basement. Obviously.”
    Everybody spent a few minutes thinking that over. But we didn’t bother arguing about it. He was right.
    “Dad?” Rachel asked Tim. “What happened to your arm?”
    “Oh. It was that kid.” Tim took a moment, looking into each of our faces. “I tried to help him later. He was lying against a wall, still tied up, and I got a chance to sneak in and take a look at him. I thought he was asleep, or unconscious, but when I tried to move his arm out of the way he grabbed mine. I don’t think it’s broken, though. Lucky, I guess.”
     
    * * *
     
    G reat-Granddad’s basement, all that was left of his house, was off in the scrub woods. There was no road anymore, and barely a trail, so we couldn’t carry any supplies to it in a vehicle. But the basement was almost entirely underground and most people didn’t have any idea it was out there. Or at least I thought they didn’t—once in a while I’d check the place out and find discarded underwear or condoms lying around. But it had to be better than the house. We’d seen just how safe our home was last night, and what we’d seen and heard today hadn’t improved things.
    Best of all, we could get to the basement from our backyard without crossing any roads. If we were lucky, nobody would see us trekking off into the woods.
    I still wanted to try to get online, and to get out of town entirely if we could. But first we had to get through today somehow, and see what we could learn afterward. I wanted our families to be safe. Or as safe as we could get them.
    We loaded everybody up with whatever we thought they could carry for the first trip. The plan was to leave Rebecca and Abby at the basement while the rest of us came back for a second load—or maybe a third. The pile of stuff we absolutely had to take kept getting bigger. It was nearly funny.
    But Tim pulled me aside. “Ash…two things. First, that kid who’d been shot? His wound? It was closed up, almost healed. I know it sounds crazy but it’s what I saw.”
    “Okay,” I told him after a moment. “I don’t know what’s crazy or not anymore. But I believe you. Only, where does that leave us?”
    “No idea. I just wanted to tell you, because…because we should tell each other what we see. The other thing is, I want to stay here. I think somebody should watch the house, just in case the police come back.”
    I shook my head. “So you want to stay where they might look for you? When you’re at least half of the reason we need to leave in the first place? Come on, man. You’re tired. Let’s just go.”
    He bit his lip, then looked over my shoulder. “Okay. You got me on that one. It’s just…what if Susie comes back? We can’t leave her a note telling her where we are. Going off like this feels like giving up.”
    I put my hand on his shoulder. Carefully, because he seemed pretty fragile just then. “She might figure it out.” But I didn’t think she would, any more than he did. “Tell you what. You go ahead. I’ll stay here with Abby, until the last trip. And Tim? She may not figure out where we went, but maybe she can leave us a note. We’ll leave one asking her to do that, and we’ll keep checking. Okay?”
    I didn’t really believe coming back to look for notes, and potentially leading people to our hideout—or even telling anybody who got into the house that all they had to do was wait inside if they wanted us—was a great idea. But if it had been Rebecca I’d have tried anything.
    Tim nodded slowly, and headed to the garage to grab some tools we might need. I watched him go—he drooped. The guy needed