He stood up, remembering where to find the spices, and went to the stove. The shelves were empty, except for a sprung empty rat trap. All the ingredients were gone. What had happened here? He had these memories of the room being full of tomatoes and flour and hundreds of strands of slowly drying homemade pasta. Wait, this wasn't his restaurant, it was the place he wanted to buy. He worked across town. This was Tony's.

Tony. That was it. He went back to the corpse on the ground. It was Tony, the man who was selling him the restaurant. What had he done? He tried to apologize to the man, but he could only moan.

Kaveh looked at Tony's face and waited for the guilt to drag him down, but he didn't feel that either. He saw the look that was frozen in Tony's eyes, the look he'd always gotten from him, that Kaveh was something different, something to be feared. Kaveh had wanted to show Tony how wrong he was, but there would never be a chance for that now, and those intestines were looking tastier by the second.

A distant moan caught Kaveh's ear. He stood up, some instinct awakened. He had to follow the noise. The moan continued, making the same noise Kaveh's throat made when he tried to communicate. Someone else was out there with the same problem.

He left the restaurant and stumbled down the street in the direction of the moans. He followed the noise for blocks. His limbs didn't seem as heavy anymore, and the world didn't seem as far away. Tony had raised his spirits, the way a good meal usually did, but he wanted more. Wherever the voice led him, he hoped there would be something good to eat.

As he got closer, he realized it wasn't a single person moaning but an entire group going at the same pitch. He rounded the corner and saw dozens of them, limbs rigid, dragging their feet as they wandered in meaningless circles. These people were just like him, except they were fighting to get into Earl's Taco Shack. Kaveh wouldn't be caught dead eating in a place like that.

Still, he was hungry, and seeing everyone else trying to get inside made him want what was in there. He stumbled forward. The neon "open" sign was lit, but the windows were boarded up from inside. There was a crescent moon shaped hole in the door, and a gun barrel poked out of it. Everyone was so eager to get in, they didn't seem to care.

The gun went off, and the person in front of the door fell to the ground. Kaveh was shocked, but the crowd kept pushing forward and moaning.

Kaveh shuffled along the edge of the group. The gun went off again, and someone else went down. Whatever was happening to him was happening to them, too. He hadn't been part of a community this large since leaving Iran, and he'd be damned if anyone was going to threaten these people. He called out to the others, and his throat made the same moan. It was the only sound he could make, so he gave it all the strength he could.

A woman turned her head and moaned back in his direction. She followed the noise, and their combined voices lured more people from the crowd. Gradually, a new group formed around Kaveh.

Kaveh rounded the edge of the building, still moaning, and the rest of them followed. There were no entrances or windows to board up along the side of the building, but when they got to the back, they found the loading dock. Kaveh grabbed the doorknob and pulled, but he ripped it out of the door. He tried to get his finger into the hole it had left, but his hands wouldn't work right.

The group he'd gathered shoved in behind him and pushed him against the door. It needed to open out, but they clustered in close, pounding with their hands. He shoved back, but they outnumbered him. He slammed his shoulder against the door, but it held fast.

He reached through the disorganized mess. He found another man and rotated him, then rocked back and forth until they slammed into the door together, which the man continued to do mindlessly when Kaveh let go. He grabbed someone else and pushed them to slam their weight against the door. The two of them formed an uneven rhythm, something familiar, but Kaveh couldn't place it.

He did the same with others. More of them heard the rhythm and started to follow it. They were good at following. Soon, the whole group was smashing into the door together, and it started to buckle. Kaveh went to join them, but he stopped when something fell out of his stomach.

All thought went out of his head.

He stared at a pile of ground meat covering his shoes. He was so hungry.

There was a rhythmic beating coming from nearby. He heard a crash and looked up. A doorway was open, and the others were going through. He followed their moans.

There were people inside, but they weren't like Kaveh and his group. When he looked at them, all he saw was food. He moved forward, keeping pace with the others. A loud noise rang out, and one of his new friends fell, but the rest moved forward together. When they closed in on their targets, Kaveh thrashed with his arms, and the meal didn't move anymore. He started eating.

It wasn't bad. From the apron, this girl had worked the grill, and he appreciated the light basting of grease it gave her, but he wanted more. He noticed there was a gouge in her head, so he reached inside and took a bite of her brains.

Incredible. This brain was different. It had more gristle, more white matter. Every bite was a new taste experience, like fireworks going off in his mouth. He kept eating. It made him think of France, of cordon bleu and beouf en daube. He needed another brain, to see what other flavors he might find. He went to another Earl's Taco Shack employee, where his new friends were eating the muscles and torso. They were missing the best part. These people had no taste at all.