Dead and Alive

natural-born or made by Helios, could get through that two-foot-thick steel barrier.
    A camera in the isolation room revealed that the inner vault door remained shut, as well.
    He doubted that the Werner thing was loose in the building. The instant someone saw it, an alarm would have been sounded.
    Only one possibility remained. At some point, the inner door might have cycled open long enough to allow the creature into the transition module before closing behind it. In that case, it waited now behind not two steel barriers, but behind one.

CHAPTER 4
    BY THE TIME Bucky and Janet Guitreau reached the front porch steps of the Bennet house, they were rain-soaked.
    “We should have used an umbrella,” Bucky said. “We look strange like this.”
    They were so excited about killing the Bennets that they had not given a thought to the inclement weather.
    “Maybe we look so strange they won’t let us in,” Bucky worried. “Especially at this hour.”
    “They’re night owls. This isn’t late for them. They’ll let us in,” Janet assured him. “We’ll say a terrible thing has happened, we need to talk to them. That’s what neighbors do, they comfort one another when terrible things happen.”
    Beyond the French windows and the folds of silken drapes, the front rooms were filled with soft amber light.
    As they climbed the porch steps, Bucky said, “What terrible thing has happened?”
    “I killed the pizza-delivery guy.”
    “I don’t think they’ll let us in if we say that.”
    “We aren’t going to say that. We’re just going to say a terrible thing has happened.”
    “An unspecified terrible thing,” Bucky clarified.
    “Yes, exactly.”
    “If that works, they must be amazingly trusting people.”
    “Bucky, we aren’t strangers. They’re our
neighbors
. Besides, they love us.”
    “They love us?”
    At the door, Janet lowered her voice. “Three nights ago, we were here for barbecue. Helene said, ‘We sure love you guys.’ Remember?”
    “But they were drinking. Helene wasn’t even half sober when she said that.”
    “Nevertheless, she meant it. They love us, they’ll let us in.”
    Bucky was suddenly suspicious. “How can they love us? We aren’t even the people they think we are.”
    “They don’t
know
we aren’t the people they think we are. They won’t even know it when I start killing them.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Entirely,” Janet said, and rang the doorbell.
    “Is the Old Race really that easy?”
    “They’re pussies,” Janet declared.
    “Pussies?”
    “Total pussies.” The porch light came on, and Janet said, “Do you have your camera?”
    As Bucky withdrew the camera from a pants pocket, Helene Bennet appeared at a sidelight to the left of the door, blinking in surprise at the sight of them.
    Raising her voice to be heard through the glass, Janet said, “Oh, Helene, something terrible has happened.”
    “Janet killed the pizza guy,” Bucky said too softly for Helene to hear him, just for his wife’s benefit, because it seemed like the kind of thing you would say when you were having fun, and this was as close to fun as they had ever known.
    Helene’s face puckered with concern. She stepped away from the sidelight.
    As Bucky heard Helene opening the first of two deadbolts, he said to Janet, “Do something spectacular to her.”
    “I hate her so much,” Janet replied.
    “I hate her, too,” Bucky said. “I hate him. I hate them all. Do something really amazing to her.”
    Helene disengaged the second deadbolt, opened the door, and stepped back to admit them. She was an attractive blonde with a pleasing dimple in her right cheek, though you couldn’t see the dimple now because she wasn’t smiling.
    “Janet, Bucky, you look devastated. Oh, God, I’m afraid to ask, what’s happened?”
    “Something terrible has happened,” Janet said. “Where’s Yancy?”
    “He’s out on the back porch. We’re having a night-cap, listening to some Etta James. What’s happened, sweetie, what’s wrong?”
    Closing the front door behind him, Bucky said, “A terrible thing has happened.”
    “Oh, no,” Helene said, sounding distraught. “We love you guys. You look stricken. You’re drenched, you’re dripping all over the parquet. What happened?”
    “An unspecified terrible thing has happened,” Bucky said.
    “You ready with the camera?” Janet asked.
    “Ready,” Bucky replied.
    “Camera?” Helene asked.
    “We want this for our album,” Janet