Time Frame: One year before the outbreak

POV: Ellis

Main event: Keith to the rescue

Did I ever tell you guys about when Keith saved a girl from gettin mugged? This isn't so much a funny story as it is pretty scary. It was funny at the end, but at the time it scared me to the bone.

See, we were out drinkin, like we did when we were off work on the weekends. It was right around Halloween, so it was cold but not below zero. It never gets that cold around here.

Now, the bar we went to pretty often had an alley between it and another building. There was dumpsters and stuff back there and it went back quite a ways, but if you traveled that alley for two blocks, the other end opened up to a shortcut to a place with a bunch of apartments. I didn't go in there at night, but it was pretty safe in the daytime.

So we're leavin the bar, right. We're both too drunk to drive so my mom comes to get us home after work. We're on our way through the parking lot, and Keith stops. I'm about to say, "what" but he holds up a hand to get me to be quiet. He starts lookin around and he's actin weird. I don't hear anything but I don't doubt that he does. Keith has the hearin of a bat. Then I start to hear a hushed man's voice comin from that alley.

"Hold my beer and go get in the car, Ellis." Keith tells me, with his eyes locked on the darkness between the buildings. I do what he says and he makes a B-line for the alley. My mom is confused just like I am and we can't see a thing in there. He's gone for about three minutes and I'm about to go after him and he comes out. He's leadin a girl out of the alley and has his coat wrapped around her. She looks shook up and he asks my ma if we can give her a ride to the police station.

When he gets in the car and the light comes on, I can see the girl's face. She looks like she been cryin on account of the makeup all over her face. I can also see that my buddy has blood on his hands and shirt. I freak out right away and I'm like, "Keith, what the hell did you do?!"

Him and the girl go into the police station and I still have no idea what's up but he tells me he'll talk to me tomorrow and my mom takes me home. I don't sleep all night.

The next day, he's at my house before the sun comes up and he tells me what happened.

He heard the noises and when he ran into the alley, he said that he was on autopilot. He seen a plank of wood and grabbed it up, because he sees the shadowy figures of a guy and girl. He just got there in time to see the guy throw somethin onto the ground (turned out to be her handbag that he just took all her money out of) and he starts puttin his hands on her. So, Keith swung the board as hard as he could and knocked the guy dizzy before jumpin on him. He beat the guy unconscious, which is funny on account of him not havin full fists on either hand), and the he took the guy's wallet out of his pocket and took his ID out, threw the rest in the dumpster, and offered to help the girl get to safety.

He told the cops what happened and with the girl bein a witness, he didn't face any assault charges. He gave the cops the guy's ID so they could find him and the girl got to go home to her husband and daughter without bein the victim of any more than a robbery. And apparently she learned to take the damn long route home rather than shady shortcuts.

Turns out when they hunted the guy down, he was already wanted for "several assaults on women and girls as young as 12."

So in all, happy endin, but I thought for sure he killed a person back there on account of the blood. He's a good guy, through and through.