Pasta Heroes (4) - 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.

Part 4

The kitchen seemed as usual and Vincent saw with relief that the door to the pantry was closed. Since the pantry was a cooled chamber, the door was air tight and no rat would be able to get through as long as it was closed. Vincent put the board on the ground and opened one of the cabinets with pots. He wondered if a rat was capable of lifting up a pot and hide under it, but then he remembered that those were mutant rats and it was a wild guessing game what they were capable of and what not. After he had lifted all the pots and had found nothing but smaller pots under them, he was just about to open the next cabinet, when he heard a low munching noise. Vincent turned around and saw the rat gnawing at the rubber isolation of the fridge in which all the cheese was stored. The picture of the four pound Parmesan that he had chosen himself from Mama Finelli's appeared in front of his eyes. It was the best cheese he had ever tasted in his life and the thought that the rat was just a few inches away from it made his blood boil. Unfortunately he had put the board down next to the door and didn't want to get up and scare the rat away. Still on his knees, he opened the drawer above him and grabbed a knife. It was one of his favorites, so he put it back and felt around until he found the meat knife. He wanted to replace that anyway and it seemed perfect for the job. With the knife lifted over his head he started crawling towards the rat, but just when he was almost close enough the rat turned it's head, looked at him and started running. Vincent chased it twice around the kitchen before it chose the door, sped through the storage room and out the window. It ran rightt through Michael's feet who jumped up and didn't even have a chance to swing with the oven peel before it was gone.
"We have to board up the window as fast as possible," said Vincent.
"Glad you found the rat. Did it try to hide like they said on the news? I've heard that they don't just eat whatever they can find, but actually wait until someone starts cooking."
"No, it tried to chew open the door of the cheese fridge."
"Oh my god, the Parmesan. At least those little guys have some taste," said Michael with a smile that faded quickly.
"A bit too much taste. Is Lenny still on the roof?"
"Yeah, he said the rats are hiding under a car."
Vincent heard the smash of glass coming from the street. He looked at Michael and they both started laughing.
"Once again this will be a very interesting report for the insurance company," said Vincent, "but let's board up the window first."

Lenny soon ceased his air strikes and came downstairs. As if it was a magic trick, he pulled out fitting boards out of the pile in the storage room. Vincent kept standing guard in front of the window while the other two started hammering. Some of the rats came back and watched the constructions from a safe distance. Once it was done, the three men launched a final attack on the rats. Vincent and Michael were armed with their bats while Lenny had his pockets filled with stones, dragging his pants almost all the way down, and shot from the site. It only lasted a second, but Vincent could have sworn that the rats looked at each other and nodded their tiny heads before starting to flee into the street. This time they didn't seek safety under a car but slipped through a door of the Belgian restaurant called "Potato Box" across the street.
"That's Alexander's place," Michael said.
"I better go call him before he's in for a big surprise tomorrow." Vincent had shared a supplier for a while with Alexander before removing potato dishes from his menu. It took a while to explain to Alexander, who had been sleeping and was mumbling swear words in Belgian, that a bunch of mutant rats had just entered his restaurant and were setting up an ambush, but in the end he muttered a thank you and got up.

Vincent and Michael walked around the building several times while Lenny kept scanning the area with his binoculars. After an hour without seeing any rats they declared victory. Michael went home to his wife who was always suspicious when he wasn't home on time, meaning he had quite some explaining to do and this time the truth sounded like the kind of excuse men made up when they stumbled through the door at four o'clock in the morning, being drunk as hell. Lenny went to sleep on the roof, and Vincent decided to play it safe and sleep on a blanket that he put in front of the cheese fridge.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

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

Comments and criticism are always welcome!