I watched a man kill himself today.
I want you to take a moment and let
that really sink in. Keith Morris was a twenty-year-old kid who was going to
school to be a professional welder. He split time working for his dad’s dock
building business (highly profitable on Grand Lake) and ACE Hardware. He had a
girlfriend and a little dog named Spooner. He liked to ride his motorcycle and
the music of Gary Allen. Apparently, he also had a bit of a hetero man crush on
Mark Wahlberg. (Hey, who doesn’t?) He was a good friend of Brad Chambers and was
supposed to be a groomsman for Brad and Kasondra’s wedding. He helped Brad take
control of the situation at ACE when Zero Hour struck. And, quite
unapologetically, Keith had the intestinal fortitude to put down quite a few
zoms that breached their defenses. If it wasn’t for him, the other members of
his party would not be with us.
Brad parked as close to our produce
dock as possible and Keith was freaking hustling to slide all of their acquired
supplies inside: ammo, weapons, tools, things we would need for our survival.
The zombie that tagged him was hidden underneath our scissor lift dock. What it
was doing under there, I cannot say. There was no way our spotters could have
seen it. It got him on the calf, breaking skin with its fingernails and taking a
bite from his leg. But he had the wherewithal to shoot that beast in the head
three times and then limped inside.
After that, the whole quarantine plan
kind of went out the window. Before they made it over, everyone was healthy.
They all breathed the same air, drank the same water, and ate the same food.
Then, Keith got bit and one hour later started showing symptoms. The five other
survivors agreed to a total 100% strip search and examination for wounds by
same sex examiners. Everyone came back clean. So apparently, the movies have it
right.
Everyone began to whisper, wondering
what we should do.
So, without any aggrandizing here, he
asked and Brad provided. He asks his friend for a pistol and he took the
decision out of our hands. For those that may look down upon this, Keith made
it quite clear. In his eyes, this was not suicide. He was dead the second that
zom bit him. And his argument was that we might not have “the stones” (as he
put it) to put him down after he changed. So he said he was doing all of us a
favor.
We fully intend to give him a proper
burial in the field we have out back behind the store. Until we get a clear
enough section, we have put his body in the ice cream freezer. But I don’t want
to talk any more. I just want to sleep and try to forget about this nightmare
world. I think I am going to hit the pharmacy and see if I can find a Xanax or
a sleeping pill or something.
This sucks. And as much as I hate it,
I know this will not be the last time we will have to deal with this…
LOST MEMBER: Keith Morris – 20,
Disney, OK
