Time frame: 2 years before the outbreak
POV: Ellis
Main event: Doing fireworks on the 4th of July
Did I ever tell you about the time Keith blew his car up?
It was the 4th of July and we were doin our own thing by the edge of the lake before we were gonna meet up with some friends to watch the main event in the center of town. This was something we did every year. Keith would buy some fireworks…or make some, and we would blow shit up beforehand, so we'd be a little less excited and a little more focused when it came to seeing our friends.
Everything was going fine at first, until Keith pulled out a box full of "boom balls". What you're supposed to do with them is stick em in a tube and they fire up into the air, but Keith managed to tip the tube over on accident and the boom ball fired off into the makeshift coast. It blew up and it was glorious. So we just ditched the tube completely and started lightin up boom balls and throwin them. They'd blow up like a colorful grenade and light up the whole edge of the lake. It was truly a beautiful moment.
Keith tossed one but he had one of his muscle jerks during his throw (this was after he was tear gassed so he was still sufferin the effects), and the boom ball bounced off a tree and went right into the rolled down window of his car.
He was like, "SHIT!" and went runnin over to his car to try getting the boom ball out before it blew up. Bad idea, so I made a hasty decision and tackled him onto the sand. We watched the boom ball blow up on the inside of the car. Lit the whole thing up, and then we ran to the car and put out any fires that might start.
The damage was all centered around the driver's seat. The whole seat was blown open, the window was broken, windshield had a split up it but was fine otherwise. The steering wheel was bent, but the inside of the car survived the explosion. Whole thing smelled like sulfur and Keith had to ride around with a burlap sack coverin his seat so he didn't sit on the springs. They still poked through sometimes. One time me and Dave had to help him get out of the car because he hit a bump and a spring wove into the back of his thigh. Then he upgraded to wrappin a leather coat around his seat. Never had a problem after that. The car ran until the day of the outbreak.
By the way, he was still goin out with that girl he almost drowned in front of in the tunnel of love. She was not at all impressed with the state of his car when he pulled into the park to meet her.