Survival Story Part 1

Three people seated in a semicircle, one standing and a candle on a table receive Iñaki. The man standing is the one in the black jacket he saw by the pool.

Rambo smells around him. Sofia's eyes rest on one of the two women, she seems not to understand her image.

"So you finally found survivors."

"Yes," Mike replies, "and they won't be the last."

"An optimist...What is your name?" he asks Iñaki.

"Iñaki."

"Well, Iñaki, what did you do, what skills do you have that can serve us here?"

"Victor!" exclaims the older man sitting to the left of Iñaki "Come, sit here, have some water and dry yourself."

When he sits down, his legs send a signal of pleasure to Iñaki's brain like he had never experienced before. He grabs the bottle and towels offered by the man, then wraps them around Sofia and offers her water.

"Always so hospitable, Eduardo," Victor says, breaking the silence."My answer?"

"I was about to finish my medical degree."

"A doctor?" Victor asks and all hostility disappears from his tone.

"Yes."

"I see...I'm sure people here will appreciate your help. Welcome. I have things to do, we'll talk later. Martina?"

The young woman stands up and, without even looking at Iñaki, leaves the apartment with Víctor.

" Hi, Iñaki, my name is Maria. Welcome."

"Thank you."

"We have a room in Mike's apartment for you and your daughter."

"My daughter? Sofia?" it is the first time that someone calls it that, but Iñaki prefers not to make too many clarifications for the moment.

"By the way, what's your name, beautiful?"

Sofia does not answer.

"His name is Sofia," adds Iñaki.

"Hi, Sofia, welcome!"

"Don't worry about him," Mike says after sitting down, "barking dog...well, that."

Eduardo kneels next to Rambo and caresses him.

"I guess you won't have much energy to tell us about yourself," Maria says."What do you say we tell you about your new buddies?"

"Please."

"All right, what do you want to know?"

"How did you survive?"

"Very well," says Maria, "my story is that of this urbanization since I lived here when everything happened."

"It all happened so fast. During the first weeks of the infection, an elderly man in block one - in which we are now - was bitten a few feet from the door. The measure we took then, proposed by the majority of the neighbors, was to leave him locked up in his house and that all the people with apartments in the central block be transferred to the two side buildings."

"You have to understand, Iñaki, that I am talking about the first days; the information we had was scarce and we acted by instinct."

"As I told you, we all ended up evacuating this building. The scene reminded me of a Jewish family being forced to leave behind everything they worked on for years to end up in a ghetto during World War II. And so only Clemente, the old man, remained. How were we supposed to know that then our two shelters would turn into a death trap?"