Drops of warm, bitter alcohol fell from Danny's lips like the first flakes of snow in winter, and splattered on his dirty shirt, nestling themselves among various other stains and splashes. The bark of the birch tree he sat against was rough and hurt his back to lean too heavily against it, but the shade created by its canopy was welcome on a day like today in Florida; a hot, muggy, sluggish day with humidity in the 80's and the temperature increasing by the millisecond. He let his head rock back into the trunk of the tree, and allowed himself to relax into the soft, mossy ground under him, the can was too light to have liquid in it any longer he decided, and so discarded it over a nearby fence into a neighbouring wheat field. Fingering the ground for the other two in their holder, he couldn't open his eyes for all the strength in the world, and eventually found them before struggling with the ring pull, popping the seal, and lifting another, sun-warmed can of cheap beer to his cracked lips. Despite the massive, sweaty, wet-heat, Danny enjoyed the absolute loneliness of days like these, and a day spent alone, getting drunk as anything, listening to the birds and crickets blurting inconceivable noises into the sky, somehow appealed to his British nature. In England, he had gone through his life as lazy and drunk as he was now in the gorgeous Floridian sun. In his twenty-forth year now, he wondered if he'd wasted his time doing as he had done, but right here, right now, it just didn't matter.
"OI! Numb-nuts!" A familiar voice trailed across from the house "You've got to see this…" Slowly, Danny attempted to solidify his thoughts and make his legs work again, before getting up with the remaining can in its collar, and the other in his free hand. He stumbled with pace toward the wooden-panelled house and the white outline of the door, trying hard to thread his seemingly massive body through the door, even though he knew he could easily fit through. "Finally, was wondering if I was going to have to help you in this time". Jay had been Danny's best friends since the beginning of High School, and when one of his Uncles had left an enormous, hand-built house, and barn out in the middle of the Floridian heartlands, Danny had been the first person to call and get on out of his hum-drum life in England, jumping at the chance to put his past indiscretions behind him, and leaving for Jay's uncles' farm at once.
The News that Jay was directing Danny to; was another report on the so-called 'Bath Salt Zombies' – people trying to get a legal high from eating cheap bath salts, however a high was not the only thing people had developed since the crazes' humble beginnings. Two-hundred-and-fifty-two recorded cases of 'unexplained cannibalism' in the southern-most states of America had been reported since the year 2012, everything ranging from an unprovoked, naked attack on a homeless man, in which the victims' forehead, cheek, brow and nose had been eaten to the bone, and had taken three shots to put the man down, to smaller attacks on animals and butchers' freezer rooms, leading to 'cannibalistic injuries to the upper body' of victims. The latest such news report has said: "~a forty-five year old male was seen stumbling down Main Street in the town of Meridian in Mississippi, police officers trying to help the man ordered him to stop and answer a few questions. The man ignored their requests and headed toward a twenty-seven year-old female waiting at an ATM machine. He gathered pace, before leaping at her and attempting to bite at the women's' shoulders and neck, he was then fired upon four times before he released his grip and slumped to the floor, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene through excessive blood-loss although the coroner could see 'no way that a person should behave this way, and bite with such pressure' ~" Jay flicked the TV off and walked over to a large, full-colour map of Florida and several other southern states, backed on a corkboard over the fireplace and placed a red-headed pin into Meridian. "Another one Dan, I'm starting to get a bit jittery about all this, I mean Meridian isn't THAT far away from us, where will it strike next" His nerves beginning to get the better of him, as his words began to speed-up and come out of his mouth faster than he could makes sense of them. Calmly, Danny attempted to talk and reassure his dear friend that everything would be okay, but instead belched loudly and said rather louder than he expected; "Well, that's the thing about a mut… muuut… mutatatation, they're a bit random".
"Could you try that sentence again, hopefully when you're a bit more sober" Jay retorted, coming to sit in his chair and inviting Danny down to his.
"Aye" Danny somehow managed to form in his drink-addled mind, gesturing to Jay with his last beer. "If you're offering" Jay reached out and grabbed the warm vessel before cracking it open and pouring the bitter fusion of 'hops' and American tap water they tried to pass off as beer here in America, down his gullet. "Do you ever miss England, Dan? I mean I know you always said you hated it, hated yourself there. How it made you pretend to be intelligent to seem like you fitted in, and how the weather always sucked and all that, but, do you ever miss the smell of kebabs on a Saturday night? Not even the sound of a crowd of football supporters singing on the way home from the pub that night? What about the taste of REAL Cornish ice cream not just yellow vanilla?" Jay sighed loudly into the can and looked out at the sun setting over the Floridian forests, realising that Dan was asleep long before he had even started talking. Taking another swig, Dan snorted in is sleep and Jay chuckled to himself; "yeah, me too. Goodnight man."