The Secret: A Thriller (3 page)

“But sir! Orders! We can’t—”

Eisler raised a hand. “Let ’em go home. We have plenty of people here.”

Plenty for what? What did that mean?

Tim hurried into the auditorium, calling for all three of the kids. I stood outside in the rain with Eisler. He glared at me. “This is the last break you get, Ash. And only for your brother’s sake. Things are changing around here. Best you get home, fast as you can, and stay there.”

I nodded slowly. Was Eisler losing his mind, or was something really odd going on? Either way, we were getting what we wanted. I wasn’t going to argue with him right then.

“Thanks, Mike.”

Robbie came out first, looking a little scared. He saw me and his face relaxed, but I shook my head when he wanted to talk. Tim’s girls—Felicia and Rachel, sixteen and fifteen respectively—came out together right after.

Tim and I herded the kids into Susie’s Forester. Rebecca had an almost identical model…but hers hadn’t started, so we’d had to leave it in the garage. I was driving, because Tim was a better shot.

Which I could barely believe we were even thinking about. But we were.

I started up the car, and breathed a sigh of relief when the engine caught. Not that I had any reason to expect otherwise. But just then I wasn’t comfortable making any assumptions.

In my rearview mirror I saw Eisler still standing outside the auditorium. He glared after us. What was he so mad about?

* * *

T
im shushed the kids as soon as we got into the car. “We need to concentrate,” he told them. “Ash has to drive. I need all of you to watch out the windows. Everybody pick a direction. Keep an eye out, but don’t talk unless you see something dangerous, somebody in trouble, or somebody moving toward us. Got it?”

I figured something must have happened in the school: The kids were spooked enough to do what they were told.

But we got back to the house a lot faster, since we knew which roads had been blocked earlier. The rain let up a little, too—which meant there were more people outside, looking around and talking in impromptu gatherings. Some of them waved, and I waved back, but this wasn’t a day for stopping.

By the time we got back to the house, a sense of returning normalcy was hard to fight. I had to actively remind myself that we still didn’t know what was going on.

Tim got out of the car first, opened the door to my house, and said something I didn’t hear. Soon after, he laughed and waved us over.

“Go on in, kids,” I told them. And then I stood outside, watching the street, until they had. Trees, waving in the wind…nothing unusual.

How much of this paranoia was justified? The kids normally bopped all over town on their bikes. I’d rarely been concerned for even a moment, but suddenly I didn’t want to let them out of my sight at all.

Shaking my head, I went inside.

* * *

“P
ipe down!” Rebecca yelled. Robbie laughed, but she was right: everybody had been jabbering at once. “We need to come up with a plan. But first we need to share what we know. I’ll go first, then either Ash or Tim. Then you kids can pick a spokesperson. Okay? Good.

“I was downstairs vacuuming when the power went out. I went up to check on Abigail and saw a…well, a man…on the roof.”

“Holy crap, Mom!”

“Quiet, Robbie. Let me finish this. I yelled at him and he jumped—backward—right off the roof. An acrobat or something. Or…he was really hairy, too. A circus performer?” She shook her head. “It was
bizarre
. I tried to call the police, but my cell was dead and so was the landline. Abby and I went next door to borrow their phone, but Susie’s cell and landline were dead too. We figured it’d be better to stick together, so we did. Okay—other than that we’ve just been hanging out at the house.

“Who’s next?” she asked. “Tim or Ash?”

Tim looked like he wanted to talk, so I flapped my hand in a “go ahead” gesture. I was busy wondering what Rebecca had left out—she hadn’t mentioned either the shotgun or that the guy on the roof was naked. What else was she editing?

Tim looked around. “It’s been less exciting for us. Basically we saw a flash and heard a sound like thunder, and a lot of electronic devices stopped working. All over town, it seems like. Ash and I were at Walmart, and the police were there too. Stocking up on supplies, as if they expected an emergency. Some people’s cars are working, some aren’t. No phones as far as I know—”

“Mine’s okay but there’s no signal,” Felicia put in.

“Fine,” Tim continued. “That’s a good thing. So anyway, most phones are dead, and maybe cell towers are out. Maybe not all of them, though, and it might be worth checking that out later. People all over town are looking a little nervous. I think that’s about it for us—the police said they were putting together some sort of shelter at the high school, but you kids were there. Which one of you wants to tell us about it?”

The kids, all sitting on the couch—although we adults were standing—conferred using gestures and glances. They’d known each other for most of their lives, and they’d always been able to carry on a whole conversation without words if they wanted to. Felicia won the battle, if there was one, and cleared her throat.

“Guys, it was totally strange,” she started. “The police came about an hour before the power went out, and they were already talking about a shelter. Mr. Donnelly said our rehearsal was canceled but told Chief Eisler we kids would help with whatever they needed. The thing is…there wasn’t much we could do. Rachel and I helped get an inventory of the food in the cafeteria—which was almost none—and Robbie helped carry gym mats and stuff so they could be used for beds. But…nobody told us what the shelter was
for
.”

Susie was shaking her head. “None of you thought you might need to call home?”

Silence. Of course they hadn’t, though. They were teenagers. Hadn’t she met them before?

I raised a hand. “Okay, everybody. We all know most of it. I think…I think the power went out, and the phones, at least partly because of something called EMP. It’s—”

“Dad! That’s dope!” That was Robbie, excited but skeptical. “You mean like from a nuclear bomb?”

I winced as the level of tension in the room rose. “Yes,
theoretically
, but it didn’t have to—”

“Ash!” Rebecca interjected. “I was looking outside and saw a really bright light, like lightning but…different…just before the power went out. You’re actually telling me an atom bomb went off in the air? Above
Henge
?”

That sounded ridiculous. Which I guessed was her point. “No. I’m saying what we know is consistent with that explanation. For all I know the EMP came from lightning and this is just a bad storm. Um…nobody’s mentioned this yet, but Rose’s husband Hank was called in to the prison early this morning. And Chief Eisler told me there’d been riots. That the National Guard was being called in. But Doc Tim here,” I gestured toward him, “says there was something strange about a couple of patients he saw from the prison. Oh, and Eisler also said there had been some escapes. So we all need to stay close to home for a while.”

Tim was shaking his head. “I can’t put all that together, Ash. So…maybe it doesn’t fit? Maybe there’s something going on at the prison, and the EMP is separate?”

Susie laughed sadly and took his hand. “Oh, honey. And the police decided to make a shelter at the high school too, which they’ve never done before, for some other unrelated reason?”

“Mom?” Robbie asked. “Do you think the guy on the roof might have been an escaped convict?”

His eyes were gleaming. I guessed this was more fun than your typical Saturday afternoon in small-town West Virginia. But my gut clenched whenever I thought of someone—a stranger, on our roof—looking in on my daughter. Making him an escaped felon didn’t help. I thought about saying something…but Robbie would think of that angle on his own fairly soon, I was sure.

Rebecca pursed her lips, thinking, and I could see she was editing again. “I doubt it, Robbie. This guy was…really hairy, all over. I’m pretty sure the prison requires haircuts and—”

“All over?” That was Rachel.

“He didn’t have any clothes on!” Abigail contributed, and buried her face against Rebecca’s stomach.

I closed my eyes for a moment. I hadn’t realized she’d seen him too. “Okay,” I said, “so if he’s not from the prison he’s one more unrelated…weirdness. We’ll figure it out eventually. Meanwhile, though, I’ve got two ideas: First, we need to get the supplies out of my truck and into the house. Second, I think we should all stick together until this thing is over. That means overnight, at least.”

Susie pursed her lips, but Tim was nodding. I didn’t bother asking which house we should use. Ours was bigger, and at the end of our cul-de-sac. And it had been a natural gathering spot for family, friends and neighborhood kids since long before I was born.

“Susie?” I asked. “Can you make a list of things you’ll need? We ought to stay in groups of at least three people, one of them armed—”

“Dad? Can I get a gun too?”

I looked at my son. Coming right out and saying I wasn’t sure his judgment was up to it would not go over well. “Robbie…this isn’t the best time to practice. How much shooting have you done?”

Rachel raised her hand. “Uh—we’ve done some plinking out in the woods. He’s actually pretty good.”

She and Felicia were both blushing. I hadn’t been expecting that answer. From the expression on Tim’s face, he hadn’t either. “Good to know,” I told her. “We’ll talk about it. Later, after we get our stuff.”

Robbie’s eyes were shining again, and I saw Rachel’s hand in his. Were they dating? They’d had an on-again, off-again thing for the last four years. And if so, was she being truthful about his marksmanship? Would Felicia back her up in a lie? And regardless: was this situation really bad enough that we needed to trust our lives and futures to the teenage version of decision-making?

Not…yet, I decided. God, not yet. Hell, maybe not ever. I remembered some things I’d blithely done as a kid, and my stomach hurt.

“Okay, let’s get moving,” I continued. “Susie, can you work on the list? And…hmm. Tim, I was going to ask if you’d stand guard while I get stuff from the truck, but you should probably help her figure out what you need?”

Robbie stood up and met my eyes. “I’ll carry stuff in, Dad.”

“I’ll help!” Rachel threw in.

I tried not to sigh. “Let’s get to it, then. And Rebecca, can you check out our food situation? See what’s in the fridge?”

She nodded. “I already tried starting the generator,” she told me. “No go on that.”

Great. I’d put it in last year, and this was the first time we’d needed it. “Fine. I’ll see if I can fix it later.”

* * *

O
utside, the rain had stopped. The sky was still gray, but it was moving toward that uniform blandness that meant thunder and lightning—and tornados—were unlikely.

I saw some of our neighbors milling around out in their yard. Three houses down, and they were new people. I didn’t know them yet.

We walked to the truck and I unlocked the camper top. “You guys just grab stuff and shuttle it in,” I told them. “I’m old and feeble, so I’ll stay out here.”

They didn’t argue the point, which made me sigh a little. But it didn’t take them long to get it done.

Meanwhile one of our unknown neighbors…ponytail, ragged beard, wife-beater, faded jeans…seemed to be watching us closely. I didn’t like it but couldn’t think of anything worth doing about it.

C
rash!

I started awake, then tried to disentangle myself from Rebecca. But her eyes, barely visible in the moonlight streaming through our window, were open.

“What was that?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” I stood up, still dressed in my pants—I hadn’t known what to expect tonight, and the Sullivans were still around—and shrugged on one of Tim’s shoulder holsters. “It sounded like it was on the roof. Like somebody threw a rock?” Only it had been louder than that.

“The kids!” she said, and climbed out of bed too.

“Stay here,” I told her. “I’ll see what it is. But somebody needs to watch the downstairs.”

Tim stuck his head in the door. “On it,” he said. “Susie’s still asleep.”

As I started up the stairs I heard something that sounded like rapid footsteps—from something large—on the roof. I ran up and opened the door to Abigail’s bedroom, where the girls were all spending the night. It seemed calm. Robbie was sleeping, too, in his room.

Cautiously, I walked into Robbie’s room and twitched his curtain aside. But I saw nothing unusual. The full moon lit the front yard and the street with a milky glow. Streetlights were still out, and I could see a few stars. So the rain had stopped, anyway.

I stood quietly. Robbie mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over.

I went to check the girls’ window. Nothing there either.

Suddenly, from behind and above me, I heard a loud screeching—it sounded like some sort of primal challenge. But to what,
from
what? And why was…whatever it was…on top of my house?

Another screech answered it from down the street, and footsteps came over the crown of the house. Right in front of me, a naked man jumped from above the window.

I gaped. What the hell? The guy dropped two stories and I lost sight of him…but then he scuttled forward toward the street. His head went back, his arms shot toward the sky in some sort of display, and he screeched again.

Slowly, I backed up from the window. I didn’t think he could see me, but I didn’t want to take any chances. But his head whipped around and I froze.

He screeched again, looking right at me, and my gut clenched. I was no longer sure he was human. Though…I
was
certain he was male. And in a mood to prove it.

But an answering screech came from down the street. The…creature…took two quick steps and jumped up onto a neighbor’s roof, then from there to the next house, and was gone.

“Hon?” Rebecca called from downstairs. “Is everything all right?”