“Alice. Now that’s a nice name,” Matilda said as she pinched her cheek.

Alice stared into this woman’s brown eyes. She noticed her wrinkles, all the lines from all the weathered years. Her yellow teeth shined on her crooked smile. Matilda backed away, still staring intently at her. She then turned and noticed their food was burning on the greasy griddle. Flipping the burnt burgers, and letting the fries air out a bit from the grease, she served the three their milkshakes.

Mr. R and Max had been talking about some unimportant subject on the sport of drone racing. Max had taken a liking to it.

Alice turned back to Matilda as she finished making food. She gave a forced smile as she placed the food in front of Max and Reginald. They were pleased even though it was a little burnt.

They were about to dig in, but Max asked, “Where’s your bathroom?”

“Oh, well it’s down the steps. Just follow the voices of Frank and my son. They’ll lead ya.”

Reginald spoke up, “Yeah, now you mention it, I gotta take a piss too.” They both went down the stairs. The door shut.

Matilda fixed Alice her food. “Sorry, darlin’ I got distracted. It’s comin’ right up!”

“It’s no problem, Miss.”

“Miss!? Whew! It’s been a long time since anyone called me that!” She cackled, roaring with excitement. Alice felt at ease but uneasy at the same time. She pushed her blond hair in the back and put it up in a ponytail.

Matilda turned, placing the burger and fries in front of her. Alice took a sip of the milkshake. She closed her eyes while sipping it and it was divine. It was one of the best shakes she had ever tasted. She didn’t have many in the orphanage but just enough to know a bad one from a good one.

Alice grabbed her burger but then the phone rang loudly, rattling on the wall. Matilda took the wall phone out and answered.

“Hello… yeah this is she...whadya want...yeah...yeah.” The call was a strange one. Alice heard her say words like ‘cook’ and ‘beef’ and ‘delivery next week’. She didn’t know what to think of this place. Matilda didn’t say much but listened mostly.

“No! You can’t do that!... We gotta eat somehow!” After a few curses, she slammed the phone down, gathered herself, and turned.

“Sorry darlin’. I gotta tell Frank something. I’ll be right back. Don’t go nowhey.” She shut the door again.

Alice sat there by herself. An eerie silence came upon the whole diner.

She gazed at her greasy hamburger and had a sudden urge to look around, to explore. Spinning around on her stool, she jumped off and her gaze went toward the pictures on the wall behind the bar. Deciding to take a closer look, she walked behind the bar and panned the photo gallery of the family.

Frank and Matilda and their son, Randy, she guessed, were all doing different things in the pictures: vacationing, hiking, playing football, and cooking. Then she saw a bill sticking out behind one of the pictures for a meat grinder. It looked recent. Her gaze came across more recent photos. Their son, now older and much stronger, was cooking on the griddle. Then she saw another one. It was Randy loading a flying ship with supplies, but Alice noticed something odd. It was barrels of some kind with a substance swirling inside, some kind of liquid. She felt uneasy again. She knew what it must be. Her heart stopped for a moment.

She saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned quickly to her right. It was a man staring at her outside of the diner. Staring right at her.

He didn’t move, but stared, emotionless. It unnerved her. She went to look for Matilda and went for the door handle.

It was locked.

Now something was definitely up. Alice went for something to try and break the handle. She got a bottle and started slamming it against the knob. Just then another man came around the left side of the window walking slowly and staring down Alice strangely. Her stomach churned as she raised the bottle high and it came down smashing the knob off.

The knob being busted, she kicked the door down and went racing downstairs. She saw Mr. R and Max tied up and gagged with Frank violently tightening the bonds with Matilda. Then with disgust, she saw Randy standing over them about to dig into them with a chainsaw.

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Shocked, they all turned and stopped motionless staring at Alice.

Randy looked rugged with blood stains on his apron and surgical mask. His hair was matted and sticking all over the place. His eyes were like fire and he smelled of death. His voice was strange and robotic.

“What are you doing, Missy? You will have your turn.”

“What are you doing here? What are you doing to them?” She asked, horrified.

Frank spoke up, “Ya see, Alice. We gotta get business somehow, well not only business but… We gotta eat too. The ships have stopped coming in. The supplies have been running short. Around here, any food is few and far between. Nothin’ grows anymore. There’s no earth to grow anything around here, just in the City. Don’t you see? We can’t get any food anywhere!”

Frank was coming closer. Alice stepped back.

“Don’t come any closer,” Alice said.

Frank stopped. Mr. R and Max began squirming relentlessly and murmuring loudly.

Frank said, “So, this is where we get our food.” Alice looked around the basement. It looked like a butcher shop. Everything had its place and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But then Alice saw the terrible sight.

She saw the new meat grinder covered in blood stains. Human bones were dumped in the garbage. There were knives all lined up on the wall. Human remains in barrels all lined up like the ones she saw in the picture.

Now she knew.

“Why?” Alice asked, disturbed.

“Oh, don’t you see? We must feed the patrons! If we feed them, they’ll spare us.”

He approached her with his hand reaching out to welcome her to her death, “Come on, honey. It’ll be quick.”

Alice froze, but just then she knew what she had to do.

She swatted his hand away, took out her knife concealed in her back pocket, and lunged. Swinging at Frank first, she missed as Frank grabbed her hand. He managed to grab the knife, but Alice had the upper hand. She was stronger than the old man. She directed his whole body with the knife stabbing Matilda. Matilda was impaled and dropped to the floor.

Alice then swung Frank around. He was brought to the concrete floor. She punched him in the face as he roared with anger. He was stunned, but not knocked out yet.

Alice regained her footing and came face to face with Randy. He was menacing. Raising the electric saw up, he beamed wickedly at her.

“You don’t understand. Alice, is it? We must do this... For survival.”

Alice didn’t care why they were doing such a horrific thing. They needed to be stopped.

Randy saw his mother on the ground impaled and writhing.

“You are going to ruin everything!” He snapped sternly. “You have brought enough destruction here. Now, you must die.”

“Oh, no. You’re the one who’s gonna die!” Swinging the saw, she ducked. Alice looked up as he kicked her down on the floor and proceeded to cut her in half. Alice rolled to one side as the saw barely missed her. Randy grabbed her by the back and threw her across the room. Alice got back up stronger than ever, her adrenaline racing through her body, throwing two shots to the head and one in the body. She knocked the saw out of his hands and kicked him in the testicles. Randy dropped down to his knees. Alice punched him in the throat, and he choked as he dropped to the floor and passed out.

Max managed to get his mouth free from the gag but screamed, “Watch out!”

Just then Frank pushed Alice on the floor. He picked her up by the throat and slammed her against a refrigerator. She was pinned.

“You hear that, Alice?” Frank said as he shushed her groaning, “That is the sound of hunger.”

She could hear shrieks of rage upstairs. She heard profanity and angry shouts.

“The patrons must be fed and soon…” He turned his head back to face her menacingly, “Have you ever tasted human flesh? The first bite, and you don’t want another one. But then the second one is intriguing, strangely satisfying. The third and fourth bites are even better. By the time you have eaten your fill, it’s heavenly. You’ve struck gold!” Pushing her head harder against the metal surface, he grinned with malice.

“Either way, they’re gonna be fed. Whether it's you or me.” At this saying, Mr. R, came swinging with a chair and brought Frank to the ground, unconscious. Alice dropped to the floor. Mr. R picked her up and made sure she was unharmed. He went over to free Max.

All could hear the screams coming from upstairs. Mr. R frantically told the two to follow him closely behind. Max didn’t move.

“Max, you gotta come! Now!” Mr. R screamed.

But Max was crying now. “I can’t go now! Leave me! This is too crazy!”

Alice wanted to do something, compassion sprang in her to help. She had to calm him down, but Mr. R was about to lose his temper.

“Max, look at me,” Alice said as she grabbed his face. “Get a hold of yourself! You have to calm down. Take a deep breath, OK? Breathe with me.” Max breathed in and out with Alice. It calmed him down. “Better?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t ready for this,” as he wiped his eyes.

“Nobody was, Max,” Mr. R chimed in urgently. He knelt to his level, “But now we gotta get outta here, OK, son? We must go. This is what a man does. He does what he does not want to do.” With this, Mr. R arose and led them out.

They came to the door and stopped. Mr. R. peeked his head outside and saw a crowd of zombie-like people all blankly staring in the direction of downstairs as they all wandered helplessly around the diner.

Mr. R, taking a shotgun from downstairs, cocked it ready. He jumped out and screamed leading the way for the kids.

“Whoever comes close, I’ll take your head clean off!” There were about ten folks of varying sizes, ages, genders, and classes all staring into nothingness and all turning in his direction.

One let out a whisper, “Food.”

“Downstairs,” Mr. R said horrified, pointing to the door. They all rushed with eagerness downstairs as the three avoided any contact with the crowd. The three rushed outside as they saw more and more people clambering into the diner. Soon there were hordes. Outside, they made ready to board the ship when one man suddenly grabbed Alice by the hand.

“Don’t look at the light, it burns! Don’t look! It will blind you! Stay in the night! Come, join us!” She screamed with terror. Max froze for a second as she was right behind him. But then he felt a rush of courage come upon him.

Max kicked him in the face and he fell off the ship into the utter darkness below. Mr. R started up the ship as the propellers swirled to life. They flew high in the air. They didn’t look back. Not even once.