Land of the Blind, Part 10

10 – Cosmonaut If his adrenaline wasn’t surging before, it was now, as Roan plunged into the front room, a beehive of panicked activity as people ran, hid, fought, or just desperately tried to escape. The place smelled of fear and blood, and the lion was dying to burst out of his skin and join the party. The leopard was long but scrawny, suggesting he’d been  a thin male, but not so thin that he couldn’t throw around two hundred pound men like beanbags. Roan had to fight his way through the throng and roared, as much a challenge as the cat version of “Get out of the fucking way”, and he made some women scream while the panic ratcheted upwards. He was aware the bathroom door was hanging by a single hinge, and right in front of it the...

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Land of the Blind, Part 9

9 – The Blind House Roan knew he had to act. The problem was, what could he do? Seb was definitely not at work now, he was off shift, and if he called him at home he’d just wake him up. There probably wasn’t anything he could do until daylight. Too late. Dylan noted his restlessness, and said, “You might want to get dressed first.” Somehow he’d forgotten he wasn’t wearing anything except for a towel. “Oh. But a naked man ranting gets a lot of attention.” “Okay, I’ll give you that. But probably not the kind of attention that would be helpful.” He then turned towards the opposite nightstand and grabbed a magazine he hadn’t noticed there before. “Speaking of which, the article’s out.” He held it towards him...

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Land Of the Blind, Part 8

8 – I Drive The Hearse Roan stopped by his office and sat there for an unmeasured amount of time – maybe thirty minutes, maybe three hours. He took a handful of pills, uncounted as well and also unknown, and when he didn’t fall into a coma, he figured he ought to go before Fiona showed up. If she showed up. He had no idea if she was coming in today, mainly because he wasn’t sure what day it was. He should have headed home, but he couldn’t face Dylan. He had no clear plan where he was going, but time and place seemed to slide by like an unconvincing dream, and when he was more aware of things, he was in the hospital lobby, wondering why he was here. “Roan?” The voice was somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t place it. He looked at the...

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Land of the Blind, Part 7

7 -  The Buzz Kill Since he had an “emergency key” to Holden’s apartment, he went there and used it, finding the place to be in general order. (Should it bother him that Holden was a better housekeeper than he was? He wasn’t sure …) Figuring Holden was beyond caring at this point, he used his computer, and found Judge Garver’s address in minutes. (Lloyd Garver, to be precise.) He thought so called “activist judges” needed to protect their addresses, but then he remembered that only applied to judges who made any decision that could be considered left wing. The right leaning activist judges never had to worry about harassment, even if they made a ruling that made Sharia law seem far too lenient. Thanks to Google street view, he was...

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Land Of the Blind, Part 6

6 – Transitions From Persona To Object By the time Roan wandered home, Dylan was asleep upstairs, and Roan watched him for a while, wondering if he should just sleep downstairs on the couch. It was almost morning, and exhaustion had finally gotten the best of him, along with the pills. The upside of the fact that he was on the verge of near collapse, the lion was too. Even the beast needed to sleep from time to time. Figuring he was being stupid, he crawled into bed beside him and braced himself for bad dreams, but of course since he was ready for them, none came. But he did have a really bizarre one, full of the smells of color and the roar of blood, and it made him wake up, a sense of doom pressing down on him and smothering him. It was just the blanket, which...

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