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had to remember that the monsters were right outside the vault. Real monsters, with real teeth. Knowing she would need someone cogent and alert by her side, she pushed the terrifying images from her mind and helped Rick regain his senses.
    “I … I think so,” he finally answered.
    “Where are we?”
    “We’re in the bank vault. You … dragged me in here.”
    “Do you remember anything that happened?”
    He nodded. “Those things attacked us. They were all over the place.”
    “What else?”
    He looked at her. “And our friends … turned, changed into something else. You’re going to think I’m crazy. Hell, I think I’m crazy for even considering it, but I think they were turning into werewolves.”
    As she looked around the tight, claustrophobic room, she thought,
Werewolves
?
    “What about getting out of here?” he asked. “Do we have to wait until someone comes and sets us free?”
    She shook her head. “No, it’s on a timer, remember? It’ll unlock from the outside at eight-thirty. We can use the emergency lever to release the other locks, but I’m afraid we’re stuck here until morning.”
    “I’m not very good in small, tight places.” Rick eyed the cream-colored metal walls of the vault, a soothing shade, probably chosen by some poor slob in a cubicle somewhere. Smaller safety-deposit boxes, each with its own set of locks, lined one side. At the back of the vault was a rectangular door.
    “You’ll just have to live with it,” Chesya said, sitting down on the floor and leaning against the door at the back. “We’re in here for the night. And, honestly, I can’t think of a safer place right now. That door is ten inches of steel. The walls of the vault are more than a foot thick. I doubt anything can get in here. Especially those animals.”
    “Werewolves.”
    “Whatever. They looked more like bears to me. You think a bunch of bears maybe got loose? No, that wouldn’t explain why Gloria and the others started changing. Don’t werewolves have to be scratched or bitten before they turn from people into monsters? That’s how it always worked in the old movies.”
    “Maybe the movies lied.”
    “And only most of the people changed. You didn’t turn into one of those things, and neither did I. Everybody else out there did. Why not us?”
    “I don’t know.” He had a thought, a dark, malignant thought that seared itself into his mind. “Hey, what if someone hits a power line out there and the electricity goes off? That door going to open if there’s no electricity?”
    “It’s got a backup battery that’ll work for a couple days. I think I read once that it can last seventy-two hours. We’ll get out of here just fine.”
    He said, “Okay. That’s good.”
    “If they really are werewolves,” she continued, “why are there so many of them? And what was going on with Gloria and Roger and all your partners in crime? How come they were affected?”
    “Well, they didn’t get scratched. Not that I saw.”
    “No. But they still changed.”
    “It looked like they had stomach cramps when it all started. You remember Jones said that he wasn’t feeling so good? You think … no, it’s too crazy.”
    “What? There isn’t much I wouldn’t believe right now.”
    “You don’t think it was some kind of disease, do you? Like, they caught some weird werewolf virus?”
    “You’re right. That’s crazy.”
    “No, listen.” He was getting excited about his theory, moving his big hands in the air, gesticulating wildly. At least he wasn’t obsessing over the enclosed space of the vault. Small favors were welcome right now. “Think about it. They all got sick and started changing into those animals. Some of us didn’t. We could be immune to this werewolf disease, kind of like those people who never catch measles.”
    “I don’t know,” Chesya said. “I still don’t think they’re werewolves. They didn’t really look much like wolves.”
    “No, they didn’t. They were