Lisa looked around. There was an air vent near the ceiling, but it wasn't big enough to fit a person. The only way out was the way they'd come in.

The vault door stood strong, its circle of dead-bolts keeping them safe for now. If they opened it and the zombies were still out there, they'd be as dead as Vince and Logan and Mister Ballard.

Lisa realized all the people she'd known who had died in the last hour, and she felt sick. She looked down at Kaveh. She'd just met him today, but this man had been bitten on his way into the vault, and that made her feel worse than the people who were already dead. Hiding in here had been her decision, and she already regretted it. She spoke slowly, her technique for keeping people calm when she had to give bad news about their loans. "Monsters are kind of a hobby of mine."

Kaveh's eyes changed, and he did the last thing she expected under the circumstances. He laughed. It filled the cold metallic room with a new energy, and for a second, she forgot everything else that was happening. A warm feeling came up inside her, but her own laugh never reached her mouth.

"It stopped bleeding," said Kaveh, looking at the bite on his arm. His laughter was gone. Speedy knelt down to examine the wound. It was already starting to rot.

"It's starting," said Lisa. She ran her fingers through her hair. The same thing had happened to the security guard. Circulation seemed to be the first thing to go. She wanted to help Kaveh and keep him from turning, but he would need to give her the gun first.

He looked up at her. His face was turning pale. "You don't really believe in zombies, do you?" The first hint of worry crept into his voice.

"What do you think those things are?" said Lisa. "How else do you explain everything that's been happening lately? That restaurant you wanted to buy, why do you think they went out of business?"

"Rats," said Kaveh. "But I'm gonna clean them out." His eyebrows arched. She realized he was still talking about the loan.

Lisa shook her head. "I don't think it was rats." If he still wanted the loan, it meant he didn't believe in zombies. She was alone.

"What's in all these?" he said, looking at the walls of drawers.

Lisa followed his eyes. She didn't have the keys to the safety deposit boxes, only the bank's drop drawers. "Money," she said.

"Let's see," said Kaveh. "Open one." She looked back. The gun was pointing at her. Her body went cold as the last of the feeling she'd had at his laugh drained out of her.

She'd always been told to comply with robbers, that the bank's insurance would cover it, but she'd never personally been held at gunpoint. She tried to look away, but she couldn't move. "They got you already," she said. "What are you going to do with money?"

"Same thing I was gonna do before, buy a restaurant," he said. He was getting paler, and speaking seemed to take effort. "If I die, Speedy can have it." He said the last part gently. Could he be accepting the inevitable? He was nice when he wasn't so angry.

Speedy smiled at his friend's words. "Thanks, boss."

Lisa stared closely at Kaveh's eyes, and she saw the kindness in them. Even with the gun pointed at her, even when he could turn into a zombie any minute, he didn't frighten her.

She sat down next to him. The gun didn't move to follow. She tried to speak gently. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, Kevin."

#

Kaveh was confused. She'd been calling him Kevin since the beginning of the loan application. They called him that in the kitchen to make fun of him. Also, the wound on his arm hurt more than it should have. He didn't understand how it'd gotten so bad so quickly, but he refused to believe in zombies. "Where did you hear that name?"

Lisa shook her head. "I don't know. It was on the paperwork."

Kaveh frowned. He'd counted on Speedy to fill out the forms, and he didn't appreciate his friend trying to whitewash his background. He corrected her. "My name is Kaveh Hisami." Then he said, to make sure there was no confusion, "I'm Iranian." He'd come to America to be with his sister after their parents died, but he had gotten stuck making this town's version of Indian food in the kitchen at Rajah's Surprise and trying to avoid any "camel jockey" comments.