Pasta Heroes (9) - A short novel about noodles, rats and courage

Mutated rats with a taste for gourmet food escape from a laboratory in New York. While fast food chains remain untouched by the rats, restaurants like Pasta Heaven are getting overrun. Time for it's owner, Vincent, and his employees to grab a gun and go to war.

Vincent and his staff worked like never before, the music from the radio barely noticeable under all the sizzling, chopping, boiling and clanking mixed with shouted one liners for coordination. There wasn't even time to talk about the upcoming rat invasion, everyone just asked about it upon arrival, and Vincent replied to everyone the same, that he simply didn't know and his only plan was to close early and send everybody home. The miracle of that day was that Lenny managed to complete his forty minutes as a waiter without any incident, and even later, when he was washing dishes, he didn't drop anything.
At around six o'clock the orders kept getting less, and Vincent felt relieved. He and his staff hadn't been overly keen on maintaining this pace much longer, and now he didn't have to disappoint the guests and send them home. It didn't take long until it became so quiet in the kitchen that you could hear the radio again. Instead of music, a special program informed about the rat situation. Vincent turned to his staff:
"Thank you all for coming so early, but as I said, I would like to ask you to go home now. There were several casualties throughout city last night, and tonight it will probably be much worse. I, Michael and Lenny will try to fight of the rats in case they attack us. We have fortified the windows and got us a dog and a cat, we'll make it. If we succeed, and if it's possible for you, it would be good if you come in at twelve o'clock tomorrow. That would be everything." Vincent turned to Ramona. "Could you tell the last guests that they have to go now?"
"Yes, but I can help to fight of the rats too."
The other staff members nodded, but Vincent shook his head.
"That's out of the question, and arguing over it will only cost us valuable time. The more we are, the more dangerous it is that someone will get shot. Please just go home and stay there until tomorrow."
"But if we're ..." began Albert, but Vincent interrupted him with a gesture.
"Lenny has a shotgun, we can't lose track of anyone at any moment. The three of us and no more."
As Vincent had expected, these words took the wind out of the sails of his employees. No one wanted to be around when Lenny had a shotgun, which was understandable, just yesterday he had managed to demolish a car with a slingshot. Vincent obviously didn't mention that he would ask Lenny to pass the gun to him or Michael. When the last bill was paid and the staff went home, four guests volunteered to join the battle, but Vincent sent them home as well and promised them a free meal tomorrow.

Vincent quickly cooked the dinner for Mrs. Harper and brought it up to her. In return she gave him a cut out article from the newspaper about the rats. She expressed some concern about the restaurant, but Vincent assured her that the situation wasn't so bad. As usual he had to shout everything at her because otherwise she couldn't hear him. He advised her to stay away from the window. As he walked down to the kitchen, he wondered if she would hear the gunshots.
Michael filled the remaining sauces into plastic boxes while Lenny was patrolling around the building with Jack, which is why Vincent went to the sink and did the rest of the dishes, something he hadn't done in a long time. On the radio they were still broadcasting the special program about the upcoming events of the night. Fortunately, there wasn't much to report yet, except for a few scattered restaurants which had started operating in the late afternoon and had been infiltrated by rats.

Investigations and research with captivated rats hadn't delivered any usable results. The rats seemed to have a sixth sense for detecting poison, even outsmarting humans, one scientist was in critical condition after having eaten a poisoned salmon filet that had been meant to be for the rats. The only glimpse of hope that all the research had brought was that the rats didn't breed. It was believed that their sex drive turned off during captivity, unlike humans, which was something a lot of people learned the hard way when dropping the soap in a prison shower.

Vincent had almost finished washing the dishes and started to feel more and more anxious; an uneasy feeling was growing in his stomach.
"I'd love to change the channel and listen to some music," he said to Michael, who was scrubbing off burned tomato sauce from the stove.
"Me too, but we might miss some important information."
"Yeah, I meant I would like to, not that we should actually do it."
The radio played several statements by politicians and organizations. Some called for the immediate shut down of all restaurants, others wanted to use the military and declare New York City a disaster area. Despite many special meetings and discussions, nothing had been done except an increased police force and the search of vehicles leaving New York. The Chief of Police issued yet another warning that the rats did not justify the use of firearms, prompting a spokesman of the N.R.A. saying that weapons were our last hope, and that the deaths were tragic accidents because of misuse by untrained citizens.
"Does Lenny have the shotgun?" asked Vincent.
"No, don't worry, it's in the storage room. I've already asked him to leave the shooting to us, he was fine with it and wanted to take care of Jack."
"Good, that's really good."

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

About the author: From riches to ragz: The story of a gambling nomad

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