Lights

Chapter 4

The warm and genuine sounds of laughter and giggling rising from the river echoed into the night sky as Tara and JT come up from the river onto to the bank to gather their stuff.

"...And then there was one time when I was in Coldwater and I was just kinda vibing in the water talking to the guys grilling on the bank and a fish scared me by nibbling on my bracelet." JT was recounting with his arm around Tara.

"You got scared by fish?" Tara and laughing heartily. "Some Florida man you are." Tara continued.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting it and it freaked me out." JT nudged her playfully.

"You're still a pussy. Scared by a fish. I've never heard of something like that." Tara giggled and snickered. 

The two get to their stuff and JT grabs his shirt and begins to put it on when he looks down and sees his gun still holstered. He internally gasps and his eyes widen to the size of the moon itself. Oh shit! I hope she didn't notice it. JT then quickly puts on and starts buttoning up his shirt from the bottom up. "Hey, let me see if I have a towel in my bag, you've gotta be cold." JT started to rummage through his backpack, an olive green Molle bag from SOG. 

"I hope you have one. We didn't think this through did we?" Tara giggled through a shivering breath.

"Not really, but that's what happens when you live in the moment. You stop thinking and you start feeling." JT pulled a towel out of his bag, neatly Ranger rolled to fit in the compact bag. "Here you go. Nice and warm." JT drapes the towel over Tara's shoulders.

"Oh my God. Warmth! Thank you." Tara exclaims as she snuggles into the towel. "Say that's pretty handy. Most people don't go and carry stuff like that in their backpacks, but you're not like most people now are you?"

"I guess not. Down in Florida, a lot of us usually like to try and be prepared for everything. Especially if you liked to be outdoors, you would carry as much as you can to be ready for anything. It wasn't uncommon to have a backpack with all kinds of gear." JT pulls out a first aid kit and a bag of toiletry items. "Case in point. We like to be ready for when shit hits the proverbial fan." JT said with a smirk before putting everything back into his bag.

"Can things really be that bad down there? I've heard stories and seen memes about it, but how bad is it really down there?" Tara asked before turning around and started to dry her hair the best she can with just a towel.

JT stops and stares off for a moment before answering. "Well there was one time I was in Naples and I watched a guy smoke a meth pipe then start a fight with a cop, who then called for more cops, who called more, and it was by then he was fighting off 15 cops. Oh while jerking off. I don't understand why no one just shot him at that point. Then again there was also the Miami zombie incident so that might be a reason why." 

"First off, that's fucking gross. Ugh. Why? Miami zombie? Zombies aren't a thing. Are they?" Tara questioned him with a worried tone.

"No zombies of course aren't real, but that's what they called it. It was some dude high on bath salts and he was walking the streets of Miami naked and attacked some homeless dude and was literally eating the man's face. The police were trying to get him to stop and when he started charging at them, they started shooting him. I think he took like 12 bullets to the chest before they put one in his brain pan and out like a light he was." JT looked down and shook his head. "Yeah, Florida is a bit more of a hellhole than people thing. Shit was wild."

"Ugh. That's sick and awful. What the fuck?" Tara covers her mouth in disgust. "I can see why you moved up here, but it's still not that much better. Apparently people get bit here more than there are shark attacks. Something I read about a couple years ago."