The Walls of Lemuria by Sam Sisavath

office at the bank, and I always wanted a big desk like this one, too. One day, I told myself, I’d be running the place. I guess that’s not going to happen.”
    “The bank’s still there.”
    “Yeah, well, not exactly the same anymore, is it?”
    Keo looked back into the lobby at Lotte, sitting with Christine. They were eating chips that the younger girl was pulling out of a pink Hello Kitty backpack.
    “How is she?” Keo asked.
    “Lotte?”
    “Yeah.”
    “She’s handling it well. Or as well as can be expected.”
    “What about you?”
    “I’ll be fine. Mostly.” She stopped going through the drawers and closed them back up, then leaned her elbows on the desk and put her chin in her palms. “What time is it?”
    He glanced down at his watch. “Almost four.”
    “It’ll be dark soon.”
    “Uh huh.”
    “No more sunlight.”
    “That’s usually what happens when it gets dark, yeah.”
    “They’ll be out again.”
    He nodded.
    “I’m scared,” she said, and looked past him out into the lobby. “At least last night I didn’t know what was coming. This time, I know exactly what’s going to happen. They’re going to come out and we’ll be the only ones here.” She shifted her green eyes over to him. “Does that scare you, Keo?”
    “It’s natural to be scared. You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t.”
    “But are you scared?” she pressed.
    He nodded. “I am.”
    “You don’t look scared.”
    “I hide it well.”
    She watched him for a moment. Then, “Okay.”
    “Okay?”
    “I believe you. You’re scared, too, which makes me feel a little better. If a big, tough guy like you gets scared…”
    He chuckled. “Who says I’m a tough guy?”
    “You look like a tough guy. Where are you from, anyway?”
    “San Diego.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
    “My mom was Korean.”
    “South Korea?”
    “God, I hope so,” Keo said.
    *
    The rain stopped ten minutes after four, when Keo climbed up to the roof. He walked through puddles and a lingering drizzle. The still-dark clouds gave the impression the day’s rain hadn’t completely given up on flooding the town just yet, and that it could return at any moment.
    The highway beyond the police station parking lot was covered in water, as were large swaths of the town that he could see from up here. Leftover rainwater dripped from the rooftops of businesses and signs along the street, the tap-tap-tap filling the quiet air.
    Keo kept waiting for something to happen—an explosion of activity, of violence—and when nothing did, it just made him more anxious. He wasn’t used to seeing and hearing the world like this.
    “On second thought, we might end up wishing we had braved the rain,” Norris said. He was already at the edge of the rooftop. “I’m definitely not looking forward to nightfall. We got real lucky last time. I always hate pushing my luck.”
    “Doors and windows are covered. There’s no way in.”
    “Doesn’t look like it.”
    “So what’s got you worried?”
    His thick eyebrows furrowed in thought. “I told you we found the station empty, right?”
    “You did.”
    “So where’d they go? The deputies?” He shook his head and ground his teeth together. “Something about this place doesn’t sit right with me. Who leaves a solid location like this? And that back room with the steel door; there’s no way these things can get through it. So why did the sheriff and his deputies abandon the place?”
    “You think we might have missed something? A weakness in the construction somewhere?”
    “Don’t you?”
    “I’ve gone over the building twice already. Top to bottom. Side to side. Front to back. We didn’t miss anything.”
    “Yeah, but it doesn’t make any sense.” He shook his head again. “Maybe I’m overthinking it.”
    “That happen a lot?”
    He grunted. “Not since I wore a uniform in Orlando.”
    “When was that?”
    “Last time was about ten years ago. I hung it up after