In case you forgot...
Click. Kaveh stared down the barrel of the empty gun.
Mister Shankly's body lay on the floor, truly dead this time, killed by the final bullet from the security guard's gun. Kaveh had saved that bullet for himself in the bank but never had the chance to use it.
Lisa pulled the trigger again, but the only result was another click of the empty chamber. Next to her, Speedy was frozen with horror at the sight of his old friend as a zombie.
The other zombies moaned, clamoring for flesh, and pressed forward. Their pressure pushed Kaveh through the hole in his sister's front door. He let go of his suitcase of human heads and stepped inside. Hunger started to overwhelm his reason. The moans filled his ears, and he wanted to join the group. The emptiness he'd felt since becoming a zombie had to be filled by eating these people in front of him.
"Kevin?" said Lisa, the confusion in her eyes saying more than she could put into words. For the second time today, she'd been unable to shoot Kaveh, and she realized she was actually happy about it. It didn't make sense. He was a zombie. She wanted to smile and scream at the same time. She knew she should run, but she couldn't.
Lisa's voice stopped Kaveh cold. He'd never liked the nickname his coworkers had given him, so he focused his concentration into his rotting larynx and spoke. "Kaveh," he corrected.
Hearing his voice in response, Lisa's face let loose its smile. It transformed her features, illuminating her beautiful eyes. Memories rushed through Kaveh's mind from all the brains he'd eaten, men and women gazing into the eyes of those they loved. A dozen lifetimes of romantic memories were nothing compared to these eyes. She lowered the gun. "You're not like them," she said. "How?"
Speedy leaned forward and squinted. "You in there, boss?" he said, and Kaveh thought back on his own life. For years, Speedy had been his best friend in the world. They'd spent so long cooking together, but now things were different. One of Kaveh's new friends stepped over the suitcase of heads and into the house. The zombies had arrived, and Speedy was the meal.
Speedy shouted, "Look out behind you, Kevin."
"Kaveh," Kaveh droned again. His brain struggled to function over his hunger, but it was a losing battle. His hunger stayed with him no matter who he ate. His instincts were to eat first and contemplate later, but there was still a part of him that didn't want his new friends to eat his old ones.
He couldn't choose whose side he was on. He made his throat work again, told the humans to get out while they had the chance, before he needed to make that decision.
Lisa took a step closer. "He's trying to say something."
"No te entiendo, boss." Speedy waved his arms away from the door. "Come on." Why didn't they understand?
"It doesn't make sense," said Lisa. Her mind was working overtime. Kaveh contradicted everything she thought she'd known about zombies. He knew his own name. He looked at her like he recognized her. The zombies had worked together to smash the door, and seeing the chaos and blank expressions from every other zombie, she knew that'd been because of Kaveh. Some part of him was still there. Her relief overwhelmed her reason, and her face stretched to accommodate her goofy new grin.
There were three more zombies through the door now, but Kaveh held still, admiring Lisa's smile, as they stumbled around him towards the humans.
"Are you with them?" said Speedy. He backed away from his old friend, eyes wide. "No, he's with them. Vámonos."
Lisa shook her head. "Give me a second to figure this out." The zombies shuffled their tiny steps across the Persian carpet. Lisa took two strides backwards and stopped again, her eyes locked on Kaveh. "You understand me, don't you?" she said.
Kaveh nodded. He said he was only there for the kitchen, that she should leave before it was too late.
She shook her head again, her eyebrows curling at the corners. "But you're a zombie. It's just not possible." She still didn't understand.
Speedy was halfway out of the room. "No te dejo," he yelled at Lisa, his face looking like he'd just burned something important. "Ahora, vámonos!"
Speedy's brain switched to Spanish in stressful situations. It was what he'd grown up speaking. Kaveh only knew a few scattered words of it, but he suddenly realized why the humans didn't understand him. He was speaking to them in Farsi, his own native tongue. He'd probably been speaking it ever since becoming a zombie.
He needed more brains, needed more intelligence if they were going to understand. He ignored the other zombies in the room and turned back to the door, where the crowd was shoving to climb in over his bag of heads.
He shoved back against the disorganized mess, grabbed the handle of his suitcase and pulled. A tall zombie with one foot through the door toppled backwards into the mob.
His arms strained to lift the heavy suitcase through the small opening, but he heard another click of the empty chamber behind him. He turned to see the other four zombies surrounding Lisa as she stubbornly tried to squeeze more bullets from the empty pistol. "It doesn't make sense," she shouted, her features squeezed tight in anger. "Zombies don't understand."
"No, no." Speedy ran back from the safety of the hallway with the baseball bat above his head. "Como eso!" he shouted as he smashed the head of the nearest zombie. One zombie toppled under the blow, but the other three turned to eat Speedy. He tried to raise the bat again, but it caught on one of their outstretched arms. They closed the circle around him. He had nowhere to go.
With one last tug, Kaveh lifted his suitcase through the remains of the door. It bounced across the marble and knocked over his sister's umbrella holder. Her umbrellas spilled out onto the floor, but something else had been in there, a shamshir.
Lisa saw the sword on the pile of umbrellas. She saw Speedy about to be eaten by the zombies and more of them coming through the door. Her gun had no bullets, and she couldn't reach the sword without getting eaten, but Kaveh was right there. "Help him," she shouted. "If you can understand me, prove it."
Speedy started screaming as the zombies grabbed ahold of him.
Kaveh stopped thinking. His friend was in trouble. He let go of his bag, picked up the sword and went to help Speedy.
Kaveh tried to run across the room, but the stiffness in his legs forced him into tiny zombie steps. Speedy's screams were getting louder. Kaveh had to save his friend in time.
With a jerk of his arm, the shamshir's scabbard flew off, and he swung straight down.
The blade was sharp, and Kaveh's arm was strong. The zombie's body split down the middle, revealing the screaming cook.
Kaveh raised the shamshir again. A second zombie fell. These people had trusted him to find them food, and he was killing them.
He raised the blade a third time and froze. The final zombie chewed on a mouthful of arm, completely unaware that her life was about to end for the second time, that Kaveh had led her to it. He sliced her in two. Her organs dispersed without the benefit of a ribcage and tumbled into the pile of body parts on the floor. The delicate carpet was ruined. Kaveh remembered the argument he'd had with his sister, that such craftsmanship should be preserved on display, not trampled by everybody who came through the door. In the center of the pile, the expanding pool of blood soaking the rug wasn't from the zombies. Speedy had collapsed.
Lisa ran to Speedy and knelt down next to him. He was still alive but badly hurt. Speedy's blood covered her legs and soaked into her business skirt, still warm on her cold skin, but she was more concerned for the man who'd sacrificed his life for hers. "Speedy, I'm sorry," she said. She looked up at Kaveh, sorrow filling her voice. "I'm sorry," she repeated. From the corner of her eye, she saw more zombies already coming in through the door.
Kaveh let the sword fall to the carpet near Speedy's feet. He turned around and went against the flow of zombies back to the door. "What are you doing?" Lisa shouted at his back. How could he abandon his friend like that? The zombies filed towards her like a trail of ants.
Lisa picked up the sword. "Hey!" she shouted and followed Kaveh. Her hands were shaking, so she held them together on the handle of the sword.
She swung at the first zombie in line. Its head and body fell separately. There were half a dozen zombies between them, but if Kaveh could just run away like that, he truly was a monster. Lisa wouldn't let that happen.
Kaveh reached the big suitcase near the door and turned back. He watched Lisa facing down the line of zombies and started speaking his foreign language again.
Lisa didn't know what he was saying, but when he lifted the suitcase over his head and reared back with it, she got out of the way just in time. Kaveh hurled the suitcase full force into the line of zombies, knocking them off their feet. He had some humanity after all. She'd misjudged him again.
Kaveh stumbled across the floor to the suitcase, picked up the handle in one hand and grabbed Speedy's shoulder with the other. Speedy wailed in pain as Kaveh dragged his friend's body across the floor.
"What are you doing now?" Lisa demanded.
Speedy screamed at Lisa, "Don't leave me!"
Kaveh said something, but Lisa couldn't understand him.
She followed them across the marble floor, only ten feet from the pile of zombies struggling to get up, only twenty feet from the door that produced another zombie as quickly as they could squeeze through.
A left turn would take her down the hallway to the back door. If she hurried, she might still catch up to the other humans. Lisa knew she should follow that hallway, but abandoning Speedy now would make her more of a monster than Kaveh.
Kaveh dragged his friend through a big, solid looking door into what looked like the kitchen. She could follow the trail of Speedy's blood through that door, but she would be trapped in the house, surrounded by zombies. On the other hand, if she left and somehow managed to find the other humans, she would have to tell them what had happened, to explain whose fault Speedy's death had been. She poked her head through the heavy door, and a compromise presented itself. The kitchen had its own back door. She went inside and locked the door behind her.
Kaveh propped his friend against the counter while Lisa looked around the gaudy, futuristic kitchen for something to barricade them in.
Speedy lay in a pool of his blood moaning, "Why? They should have been there. They left me behind. Why?"
Kaveh moaned back, but it was little comfort to his dying friend.
Lisa pushed the rolling kitchen island to the door."We're right here," she said. "We didn't leave you." With the sword, she cut the wheels off the rolling countertop and wedged it against the door.
Speedy's head flopped from side to side. "Not you. My family. They should have stayed, waited for me to get home, but the house was empty. What did I do to them? How could they do this to me?" The bites on his arms and face had started to rot, and the blood flowing from his wounds had slowed to a trickle.
Kaveh struggled to speak. "Speedy," he managed, but his friend cut him off.
"Stop calling me that," said Speedy. He turned to Lisa, his eyes losing their focus. "You know my last name's Gonzalez, right? He's been calling me the name of a cartoon mouse for years, and I never said anything. I just wanted to fit in."
Kaveh had never heard of the cartoon mouse. He tried to apologize, but the words came out in a language Speedy didn't understand.
Speedy looked through his friend. "I always told you to keep your head down. Don't make a scene," he said. "What do you call that out there?" Through the door, they could hear the crowd of zombies moaning and scratching at the door. Speedy's head fell back against the counter. "I want my family."
The two cooks had been through this argument before, and Kaveh wanted to say his piece. He opened his suitcase and pulled out the smartest looking head he could find. He would tell Speedy not to be afraid to be different, that they should have pride in who they were. It was why he had asked his friend to help him open a Persian restaurant. He took a knife from the counter and split the skull. The gooey brains spilled out into his hands, and he started eating.
Lisa watched Kaveh closely. His eyes were changing as he ate. "Is that how you've been doing it, by eating brains?" She watched in awe as Kaveh fought to form words.
"Fidel Gonzalez," he finally said. Lisa smiled to hear him speaking again. The words came out in a dull monotone, but they were English. "Don't be afraid..." He looked at his friend. "Speedy?"
Lisa looked down, and Speedy was dead.
Her heart started beating like crazy. After bottling up every emotion for years, her heart was coming uncorked. Tears poured from her eyes. Seas of pent up emotion fought their way to the surface. "Oh, God. Oh, God. He's dead. I'm so, so sorry about your friend, Kaveh." Her body shook with each sob.
Kaveh nodded. "Thank you for saying my name right."
Lisa's sorrow was shaken. "Is that all you have to say? Your friend just died. I feel," she tried to name just one of the emotions bubbling up inside herself. "Guilty," she decided. "It's my fault. He could have run, but he stayed with me."
Kaveh didn't understand why she was so upset. It was his friend who was dead. The other zombies had started eating his sous chef, but Kaveh had stopped them before they'd gotten too far. Speedy would be a zombie soon, and they'd be together again. It was the best thing that could have happened. "You don't have to worry," he said. "We'll be zombies together. We'll eat brains and open our restaurant, just like we planned."
"No." Lisa paced the room frantically. "Don't you see? It's all over. You're not gonna get your restaurant. I can't go back to work tomorrow. Everything we've ever known is falling apart, and soon the only things left are gonna be the creatures on the other side of that door." She stopped and put her hands on the massive refrigerator. "We should be barricading the windows."
Kaveh couldn't explain himself to her. They were on different sides, humans against zombies. They were still speaking different languages.
Speedy would be back soon, and at least there would be one person on his side, but Kaveh looked at Lisa. Here was this woman he thought he could really share things with, someone who understood zombies. "Why don't you come with me?" he said. "I'll keep you safe. I can protect you." She was so beautiful, even now, a mess of blood and tears. He reached out and stroked her hair.
At Kaveh's touch, a wave of happiness washed every thought from Lisa's mind. She felt safe. Before she could keep the words from coming out of her mouth, she whispered, "I have epilepsy." Her secret was finally out, and it felt incredible to let it go. "I'm an epileptic," she repeated. Relief swelled up inside her, and her grin returned despite herself.
She was finally free of her secret, and it was all because of Kaveh. She moved closer to him. She wanted to feel his body against hers. He put his arms around her, and she felt something she'd never felt before. She didn't know what to call it. Love, maybe. She didn't have the words.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and put her head on his shoulder, but something was wrong. Where she'd expected to find warmth and comfort, he was cold. As she squeezed him, his intestines strained against the fabric of his Taco Shack apron.
She started to panic. "Wait," she said and pulled her head back. "I-- I can't do this." She looked into his eyes. There was recognition there, but they were still strangely empty. "Kaveh, I feel something. You make me feel something, but you," she let go of his waist. "What do you feel?"
Kaveh let go of her. His eyes darted back and forth as he considered the question. "I feel," he shrugged. "I feel hungry."
Lisa took a step back. "That's not enough. I know what that's like, and I can't go back."
Kaveh opened his mouth to speak.
"Don't try to talk," said Lisa. "Just listen to me for a second. I was on my medicine for a long time. They put me on drugs to stop my seizures. It took them years, changing the dosages, changing the medications, and they found one that controlled my epilepsy, but it affected my moods. They wanted to keep trying, but I told them to stop. They added another drug to control my feelings, but it made me," the words poured out of her, "far away from myself."
She put a hand on Kaveh's chest and bit her lower lip. "It let me live a normal life, to show up to work and do what I needed to do, but that's not enough. I know that now. The medicine's wearing off, and I realize I like this feeling. I feel good." She looked into his eyes, and the feeling of how much she wanted to be with him made her happy. "It feels good to feel, and I feel good when I'm with you. When I saw you were alive," she stopped. That wasn't the right word. "I mean, when I saw you were in there, my heart almost jumped out of my chest, I was so happy."
Kaveh could see her pulling away. He wanted her to stay. The emptiness was back, but this was more than hunger. He wanted to fill the emptiness, to eat something. He moved forward.
Lisa looked down at Speedy. "I don't know anymore what it is to be a zombie. Maybe it's not like I thought it was. Maybe you and Speedy, you two will be okay, but I'm starting to figure out what it is to be a human, and I need it. Whatever you have, you don't have that."
Kaveh put his hand on Lisa's shoulder. The hunger burned inside of him. "I used to feel something for you. I think you're beautiful," he said.
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Her words continued, "I was scared of losing control, and I decided to feel nothing, but now the prospect of feeling like a zombie actually scares me more. And not just a zombie like you, either. If the bank was open tomorrow, I wouldn't want to go back. I don't want to be the person I was. I don't want to lose this feeling, and I'm gonna fight to keep it."
Kaveh put his hand on her other shoulder. "I fought my own people," he said. "I promised them food, and I betrayed them. Doesn't that count for anything? I can't do this alone." He pulled her close. If he ate her brain, they would never be apart.
Lisa didn't fight to get away. She gazed into his eyes. "Why don't you come with me?" she said.
Kaveh heard the crowd of zombies still clawing at the kitchen door and remembered their mindless hunger. He thought of eating Lisa to make her stay, and he forced himself to let go of her shoulders. "No. You were right, I'm not human anymore. I won't betray my people again. They're all I have."
Lisa shook her head, smiling through her tears. "You're not a people," her voice cracked, "you're zombies."
Kaveh shook his head. "You just don't understand."
Lisa stroked Kaveh's cheek. "I have to go now," she said tenderly. "Your sister doesn't know anything about zombies, and I'm afraid she's gonna get herself killed." She went to the back door. She stopped without turning around. "The next time we meet, my gun might be loaded," she said and disappeared.
Lisa was gone, and Kaveh felt more empty than ever. He went to the stove. While he waited for Speedy to wake up, he could start his new recipe for brains.
Outside, in Chapter Eight - Shakes and Fries
And over here, zombies sing about love, and I complain how television has deadened my generation.
