Chapter One Recap...
The vault was small, barely large enough to fit the four of them comfortably. It wasn't filled with stacks of money, as Kaveh had imagined, but lined with hundreds of drawers of various sizes. The smallest would barely fit the severed arm that was left on the floor.
Kaveh felt lightheaded. He was still pumping adrenaline from the fire fight. As he caught his breath, he realized it was the first severed arm he'd seen since he came to America, then he noticed his own arm felt warm. He looked down. Blood was pouring from his shoulder, soaking the inside of his sleeve.
Speedy came over, and Kaveh showed him what'd happened. He and Kaveh had worked together for five years, and the only people they knew in town were like them, immigrants. The rest of the town pretended they weren't there, and Speedy insisted they play along. True to form, Speedy shook his head quickly and said, "Cúbralo."
Kaveh knew he didn't need to cover it up. He needed to stop the bleeding and clean the wound. He started to peel back his suit jacket, cursing Speedy for making him wear his best clothes for the loan application. Speedy shook his head again and took off his own jacket. He draped it over Kaveh's arm just as Lisa turned around.
"Can you help me with," she started, but she must have seen something in their faces. "What's wrong?"
Speedy said "nothing" in a way that made it obvious there was something serious. Lying wasn't his strong suit.
Lisa pulled Speedy's jacket away, revealing Kaveh's arm. "Get away from him," she told Speedy. Speedy shook his head, and Kaveh smiled at his friend's loyalty. "Do it now!" They heard her shout for the first time. The noise bounced off the walls. Even she seemed surprised at the volume of it.
Speedy looked at Kaveh. Kaveh wanted to know what was going on, so he nodded his friend to do as he was told. Speedy stood on the other side of the tiny room near the blonde, who was still in shock.
Lisa held out her hand. "Give me the gun." She spoke slowly, like she had during the loan application, as if Kaveh were stupid or didn't understand English.
He didn't need to be a linguist to say, "No."
She spoke even slower. "They bit you. You're gonna die. Then you'll be one of them." She pointed to the door. "A zombie."
Kaveh followed her pointing finger, thinking carefully. He knew what she was talking about, but he didn't believe it. Things like that just didn't happen. He was really getting dizzy now. He couldn't stand up much longer. He leaned against the wall and sank to the ground. He watched Lisa watching the gun. Something in her eyes reminded him of someone.
"Are there any bullets left in that thing?" She stood over him now.
He knew how many there should be, but he checked to be sure. He was right. "One left." He thought about the full clip still on the guard's belt on the bank floor, but there was no way to get it now.
"That's good," she said. "We can use it on you." He looked into her eyes again. She was serious. That's when he realized who Lisa reminded him of. That dark hair, those eyes that held insights he would never be able to understand, he'd seen them before in Fatima, the first girl he ever loved.
Speedy stepped between them. The baseball bat was in his hand, held limply at his side. "You're not shooting my friend," he said in his thick Mexican accent.
Lisa knew all about zombies from movies. She wasn't sure how long Kaveh had left, but when he turned, he'd eat them before they could escape, and he had the gun. She wished there was someone else to explain it to them. "Am I the only one who sees what needs to be done?" She turned to Helen for support, but her coworker was still dazed.
Kaveh peeked out from behind Speedy. "It'll heal," he said. She knew he was wrong, but she didn't want to fight. It would be easier if he realized it on his own. He didn't. "What if you need that bullet?" he said. "How are you gonna get out of here without bullets?"
She looked around. Hiding in the vault had been her idea, and she already regretted it. There was an air vent near the ceiling, but it wasn't quite 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 Shankly.
Lisa thought about all the people she'd known who had died in the last hour. She looked down at Kaveh, a man she'd just met today. He'd been bitten on his way into the vault. For some reason, that made her feel worse than her friends who were already dead. Hiding in the vault had been her idea. "At least we're alive," she said. She spoke slowly, her technique for keeping people calm. Working as a loan officer, she gave a lot of people bad news.
His 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 about everything that was happening and wanted to laugh along. A warm feeling came up inside her, but the 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. Circulation was the first thing to go. The same thing had happened to the security guard. She wanted to help Kaveh, but she could only think of one way to do it, and he still had the gun.
Kaveh 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," he told her. "Open one." She looked back. The gun was pointing at the keys in her hand.
Her face went cold. Jets of tension shot up her spine. The warmth she'd felt at his laugh drained out of her. She'd always been told to comply with gunmen, that the bank's insurance would cover it, but she'd never personally been held up. She tried to look away, but she couldn't. "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 some 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 for the first time saw the kindness in them. Even with the gun pointed at her, even when he could turn into a zombie at any minute, he didn't scare her.
She sat down next to him. The gun didn't move to follow. She said softly, "I'm sorry for what happened to you, Kevin."
Kaveh was confused. She'd called him Kevin since the beginning of the loan application. It was the name they used in the kitchen to make fun of him. He ignored the pain in his arm. "Where did you hear that name?"
Lisa shook her head. "I don't know, it was on the paperwork."
Kaveh frowned at his sous chef. He'd counted on Speedy to fill out the forms, and he didn't appreciate him trying to whitewash his background. He corrected her. "My name's Kaveh." Then he added, 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 spent most of his time in the kitchen of the Rajah's Surprise avoiding "camel jockey" comments.
"Oh," said Lisa with a blank look on her face. It was a reaction he was used to. People were immediately judgmental of where he came from. Lisa recovered. "My family's Ukrainian," she said.
Kaveh froze, considering European demographics. "Jewish?" he said, narrowing his eyes. He tried hard not to be hypocritical.
"Maybe," she said. "They never told me anything about where we came from. They wanted me to fit in." Kaveh relaxed. He was used to hearing this too. Everybody in America was from somewhere else, but nobody seemed to remember anything about it.
"I don't want to forget my past," said Kaveh "I want my restaurant to serve real Persian food. There's nothing like it around here." His lungs felt tight, but he forced himself to continue if there was any chance left of getting the loan. "I know where to get the best price on lamb." The wound on his arm was hurting more and more. He didn't understand how it'd gotten so bad so quickly. It wasn't behaving like an ordinary wound, but he refused to believe in zombies.
Lisa's mouth smiled, but her voice had sadness in it. "I wish you could have had your restaurant," she said.
Kaveh didn't move. His heart felt like it was in a vice. Speedy had given him more hope than he'd had in years. They could have made something great. He could have been proud of his culture again. Now the last chance for that dream was dying.
The anger rose up inside him. His lungs were getting tighter, and his throat hurt. He put the power of his diaphragm into every word. "I was never gonna get the loan, was I?" He wanted her to say he was right, to admit the system was built on bigotry. He wanted to show Speedy they'd never get what they wanted by keeping their heads down and playing nice.
"I don't make those decisions," said Lisa. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction, even when she thought he was dying. It felt like a knife in Kaveh's heart. "I told you," she said. "I fill out the forms, and I make a recommendation. That's all." Her boss was dead, but she was still hiding behind him.
"I don't want to hear that," Kaveh said. He tried to stand up, but his limbs felt like rubber. He hadn't been hurt that bad. He couldn't understand it. There was no rational explanation for what was going on, only Lisa's insane ideas about zombies.
When Kaveh had first seen the creatures a week before, one of his neighbors was pushing some of them off her porch with a broom. Now he'd seen those things tear people apart. He'd shot them through the heart and watched them keep coming. His arm smelled like spoiled beef. He shuddered. His skin was pale. So was theirs.
Fuck, he thought, Lisa was right. He couldn't fight it anymore. He was gonna be a zombie. He was dying. Everything he'd ever known or done was about to disappear. His head was spinning. He looked at Lisa. "What if it was your decision?" he said. "What if you could grant loans?"
She looked at him. Her eyes were so sad and beautiful. "I would have loved to have some of your cooking," she said. "You deserve that restaurant."
With his good arm, he put the gun on the ground between them. "There. You make the decisions now."
"What the hell are you doing?" Speedy shouted much too loudly for the tiny space.
"I don't wanna be a zombie," Kaveh said, but the magnitude of what he'd just done was sinking in. His adrenaline spiked. He tasted blood. He fought the urge to reach for the gun. He wished she would pick it up, but she didn't.
From the corner, the blonde's weak voice tried to catch up to the situation. "He's a zombie?" She stood up, her blue eyes trying to focus. "What are we gonna do?"
Finally, Lisa picked up the gun.
"Don't do it," said Speedy.
Kaveh held up his hand. His throat felt like a brick. "Speedy. No. They got me."
Lisa stood up, using the wall for support.
"So?" said Speedy, moving again between Kaveh and Lisa, the baseball bat held high.
"So stay back!" Kaveh forced the air out of his lungs. He was still Speedy's boss, and Speedy was still loyal. The sous chef soldiered up and did what he was told. Kaveh slumped against the wall.
Lisa stepped to the center of the vault speaking slowly, her voice cracking. "It's the way zombies are," she said. "They don't have any sympathy for us, so we're not supposed to have any sympathy for them." She raised the gun.
Kaveh looked down the barrel, thinking what a shame it was to waste their only bullet on him. He thought again about the full clip outside the door, but there was no way to get to it. He looked into Lisa's eyes. She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. "Wait," he whispered, "I have an idea."
Find out what it is in Chapter Three - Disgorging the Survivors
Or read some background on the phrase be still, my beating heart.
