It was then that Keith realized just how thirsty he was.
“HANG ON!” ETHAN SHOOK his head. “You’re telling me that in the middle of this epic fight, you stopped to get yourself a glass of water?”
“Hey, man, fighting is thirsty work. The fight was over — the nearest zombies were like a hundred yards away and not even looking towards my place.” Keith thought about it for a second. “Maybe I just needed a glass of water to settle my nerves.”
That seemed to satisfy his audience, and they urged him to continue.
Keith had gone into his kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He was just lifting it to his mouth when a small bloody chunk fell from his hair and into the cup. That grossed him out. He spent the next minute washing his hair, face, arms, and hands before sating his thirst. He saw the blood spatters on his shirt and was just about to change when his phone rang. It was in the living room.
Lunging into the living room, he spent several frantic moments finding his phone. Before the fourth ring, he did.
“Hello, is this ... last name Huang?” The guy spelled his name.
“Yes, it is.”
“I am confirming the evacuation for a ‘Keith’?”
“Correct.”
“My name is Corporal Garcia, and we are on our way. Can you verify your address?”
Keith told him.
“Keep the phone near you and get close to your front door. Be sure to stay inside! I will call you again when we are at your location. We are about three minutes out.”
“Okay.”
But Garcia had already hung up.
Keith went back to his hallway and carefully extracted his first hammer from the zombie’s skull. He gave both hammers a quick rinse in the sink and slotted them back into his belt.
He had a peek outside and could see a zombie closing in on his house. Keith wanted space to swing his hammers, so he grabbed his duffel bag and stepped outside.
“I REMEMBER WHEN WE pulled up in the bus, and you were taking down zombies in the street.” Ethan said excitedly. “Man, you were something else. That Garcia soldier was calling you when we came around the corner and the next thing I heard was him going, ‘What the fuck?’”
“Well, you know how it ended. And that’s my story,” Keith said.
Everybody thanked him for sharing his story. Jack jumped to his feet and gave Keith a high five.
“Boosh!” he said with a grin. Keith had to smile at that.
Ethan was still bothered by something, though. He looked like he was going to speak; his face screwed up and he opened his mouth, only to snap it shut again.
“What’s on your mind, Ethan?” Keith asked.
Ethan looked troubled. “I was just wondering. ... You mentioned right at the beginning that you had an accident at work. What happened?”
“Oh.” Keith chortled. “I was hoping not to tell that story. It’s a bit stupid and embarrassing.”
“Well, now we definitely want to know,” Melissa declared.
“All right.” Keith held up his hand in submission. “Well, I was at work — this was a few days before the story I just told you; I needed to do some drilling and decided to use Sparky.”
“Huh? Sparky?”
Keith laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I said the first time they mentioned Sparky to me at the site. Sparky is a power drill. On steroids. We got this guy at work; we all called him Hopps. Hopps is a bit of a tinkerer, and he messed around with that drill so that it had more power. It went from being a regular 24-Volt drill to ... Well, I don’t really know. Maybe double. Anyway, that drill kicked ass. The only drawback was that every once in a while, the user would get a shock.”
Ethan shook his head and frowned.
“Hey, having a drill that works twice as fast is a good thing in our industry. Guys would get into arguments about who could use Sparky.”
“Anyway, that day I managed to snatch Sparky. If you grabbed it fast enough and got to your work area, then usually nobody would bother to go find you. I was working away from the rest of the crew. I always liked working on my own. At first, all goes well with Sparky. Then about fifteen minutes before the coffee break, he shocks me.”
“Maybe it’s a girl,” Nat stated dryly.
Keith chuckled. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. Sparky shocks me, but usually that means you’re good for a while — no more shocks — so I plow ahead into my work. I was working on something low to the ground. ... huh. Can’t remember what it was. In any case, it was a good thing that somebody came to find me when I didn’t show up for the coffee break. I guess I was lying on my side, Sparky still going, while the current ran through my body.
Keith showed the palms of his hands.
“I burnt my hands pretty good — you can still see the lighter patches. But other than that, I wasn’t too badly hurt. Couldn’t move too well. Like all my muscles had been cramping. The guys sure gave me the business. Hopps was seriously pissed off that I killed his baby. Bob checked me out and made Nate drive me to a clinic to get fixed up. Then he had to drive me home. By the time I got home, I was able to walk on my own again. I remember Nate bitching me out about being all better now that I was home.” Keith chuckled. “Nate had to practically carry me around like a baby up to that point.”
Keith looked at his audience. “And there you have it. ‘You got to play it safe around ’lectricity!’” He grinned but was only met with confused stares.
