Blinded

Rapha thought it was time to decide, he certainly was not going to the emergency room, why? There would be no one there to help. He decided to take her home and hide the fact that he had been her patient the night before. When she got off the bike, Alice, who was surprised, told him that it had taken too long to get to the emergency room. She asked what was happening, after hearing the cries for help from the people who were clumsily heading towards them, following the noise of the motorbike. He hastily informed her that they were not safe there and were in danger. Then he would explain everything to her more calmly because it was imperative to go out there, he implored her for a little confidence and after overcoming Alice’s suspicions, he got her home.

He sat her down on the sofa, Alice asked for water, Rapha went to the kitchen to get a glass and surprise! The neighbor’s cadaver was still there. Because of the frenetic succession of events, he had completely forgotten about it.

He felt sorry for him and lamented his bad luck, the killer understood that because of his blindness he had entered his flat by mistake. The remorse punished him because that situation could have been avoided if he had acted differently, if he had tried to scare him, if he had tried to dialogue… Of course, everything became clearer after that but there was no solution.

Rapha returned to the living room and after giving the glass of water, Alice asked for her colleague who was waiting in the hospital car park. Rapha, first of all, gave her a brief explanation of the current situation, where everyone had lost their sight, where no public service was working, and told her, with great exaggeration to horrify her that gangs of survivors were looting, pillaging and killing. He told her that because he was sleeping completely in the darkness when the phenomenon occurred, he got no affection. He suddenly got the idea that more people like her partner might not be blind. But the tricky man saved that problem for later.

He asked Alice to wait for him there, while he went to pick up her friend. He closed the door of the room for safety and so that she would not notice that he was taking the killed neighbor’s body out. After dragging the heavy neighbor to the street, he placed him next to a wall.

Well, he had to start getting organized and setting priorities. He had to think about food, security, medicine, how lucky he was to have a doctor at home. He would solve any problems that arose by improvising as only he was good at.

He went into the supermarket under his house, where he met his neighbor, the manager. Under protest and a struggle, he took him out to the street, took away his keys, closed the doors and lowered the security shutters. The manager was left outside helpless, banging on the door and shouting.

“He’ll get tired very soon,” Rapha said.

He made a small inspection; the market was fully stocked with food and all sorts of products. All the freezers were working and replete of goods. It had a back door with independent access to the block’s aisle, he could enter and leave the store comfortably without having to go outside.

While walking by the grocery store, he had an unexpected encounter, the supermarket assistant, a young blonde girl was lying in a corner. Rapha approached her stealthily and found that she was asleep. Rapha did not count on this setback. Now he would have to open the heavy metal blinds of the big door again to get her out of there or he could take her out through the back door and go out through the entrance of the block. He thought about it for a few moments as he watched her. The truth was that the young woman was attractive, she wore a short gown that left a smooth, soft thigh in the air, and her lips were fleshy and pink. He thought better about it and after a lewd smile, it occurred to him that her situation was ideal for satiating his base instincts repressed for years. Now was his moment and he was not going to waste it, his imagination evoked the pleasant instants of a sultan with his concubines, his particular harem. He felt powerful, strong, and euphoric and a surge of self-esteem encouraged him.

There was plenty of food there, he could feed her as well. Determined not to expel her he thought he could not leave her there, she would put his pantry at risk, and could spoil something, break it, or cause a fire by accident. He could lodge her in his house next to Alice, although he thought about it more carefully, perhaps later. Rapha had to think, consider, he came up with a brilliant idea, the house of his neighbor, who died “by accident", was the house next to his own, because of its proximity it was much more practical for such plans.

He needed those house’s keys, so he went out the front door of the building, approached the body of his dead victim. He looked for the keys and when he found them, he went up to the flat which it was empty. Quickly he prepared it, tidied it up a bit, removed the elements dangerous for a blind one, and went down again to get the girl. She was still asleep, he had to make up a coherent story to get her to come up to the flat without any problem. He looked in the office and found a portable radio, he tuned in to the station he was listening to, there was still that announcer with his short piece of news, more exhausted, but there he continued. Rapha gently woke the girl, who after a few moments reacted sharply:

“I still can’t see, I can’t see anything, who are you, what happened?” the girl asked nervously.

“Calm down, my name is Rapha, I am a friend, listen to the radio for a moment and you will understand the situation.”

The girl heard the news and fell silent in surprise. After a brief cry, she asked for her manager, Rapha told her he didn’t know, that there was no one else there, but the girl heard the knocking on the door and asked for them. Rapha explained to her that they were gangs that wanted to enter the supermarket to rob it and that they had to leave from there since they were not sure. The girl nodded and they both went up to the neighbor’s flat where he placed her as comfortable as possible.

Rapha gave her a long talk about the new situation, the world had changed and they had to survive. She was blind, weak and defenseless, unable to fend for herself. The outside had become dangerous, because of the gangs and because for her, now, the outside was a new and unknown world, with its architectural barriers and its difficulty to get food, medicine, welfare. He told her not to worry, that he would take care of her, feed help and protect her. For the time being, this would be her home, which she would have to memorize and learn the location of her belongings to be able to move around safely.

The girl was very grateful for the help, saying that she did not know how she could express her gratitude; Rapha took the opportunity and in a friendly tone, took the girl’s hand and let her know that he was single. That he needed company, that he had needs, that she could become a great burden and a great responsibility, but he would make a great effort to comfort her. He bent over her and gave a kiss, but she was startled, turned around and walked away getting scared. She let him know going into shock confessed that did not like that situation, the girl begged the man to let her go and take her home.

Rapha was furious, he shouted at her that there would be no one in her house, or they would be blind or dead. What did she want, to be left all along right in the street, at the mercy of the troublemakers, sure that they would rape her among all of them and then kill her? Rapha told her that he had already seen many bodies lying in the street, and if this did not happen, she would die of hunger and thirst anyway. While she was sobbing the young girl made an ultimatum, what she perhaps needed was some time to consider and to learn what lay ahead of her being alone, without any help. He would lead her to experience a similar situation, suffering from hunger, thirst and need. He turned off the water and removed all the food and drinks which were found in the kitchen cabinets from the apartment. He slammed the door, turning the key so she couldn’t get out.

He continued with his plan, he needed to secure his place, so he decided to go door to door to see if anyone was still alive there. In one of the houses, an overweight, frightened, mature woman opened the door, asking for help. Rapha reacted quickly and told her that he was from the ambulance service, which would take her to the hospital emergency room for treatment. The confident lady followed him, but before that Rapha asked her for the keys to her house to close the door and after putting them in his pocket, he lied to the lady indicating that he had put the keys in her bag. They went down to the street, he turned two corners, made her confuse a little and let go of her arm, stealthily leaving the woman there, while she, surprised, called out to him insistently.