The old woman lives in the apartment below the girl with the dark glasses. After the hospital burns down and the blind inmates escape, the group led by the doctor’s wife decides to visit each of their homes in turn, starting with the closest: the apartment where the girl with the dark glasses used to live with her parents. When they arrive, they find the building empty except for one blind old woman living downstairs, who managed to hide out when the Government took everyone else to quarantine. However, the old woman has lived the last several weeks isolated and covered in filth, eating anything she can find in the back garden—including raw rabbit and chicken meat, which is strewn around her apartment. The old woman helps the visitors get into the girl’s apartment, and in return they give her some of the food they have managed to collect. The old woman is perpetually suspicious of the visitors, and particularly of the dog of tears, who kills one of the woman’s hens. However, the old woman is also incredibly grateful for the food that the visitors provide her, and the others realize that her crankiness is the result of her isolation and the dangers that have surrounded her since the Government quarantined everyone who surrounded her. In fact, when they leave, she cries for her own future, and readers might wonder if the doctor’s wife is cruel to leave the old woman behind rather than caring for her as part of her new family. When the doctor, the doctor’s wife, and the girl with the glasses return to visit the girl’s old house, they find the old woman dead outside the building, holding the girl’s keys, as though being part of the girl’s family was her dying wish.