BEER RUN

Chapter 2 Run, Boy Run!

Jason was heading down the freeway at about ninety-five miles per hour when his mobile phone began to ring through his truck radio. Seeing it was one of his buddies he pressed the call button to answer it.

"Hey, where you at, bro?"

"Dakota! Look out the window, man."

"What? There's nothing out there."

"You don't see a bunch of cracks in the ground with demons pouring out of them?"

"I ain't that drunk yet, bro. I need those brewskies for that."

Jason began to slow down and then he exited the next off ramp he came to. "Look behind us?" He said to Penny. "Are we still being chased?"

Penny surveyed the area. "I don't see anything."

"Hey man, get your ass back here. The game is already going, and we are parched."
"Yeah, we're thirsty, man! Where's the beer?" Jason heard another one of his buddies in the background shout out.

Perplexed, Jason crossed the under the underpass and entered the freeway heading back toward the University. "We couldn't have both been hallucinating, could we?"

"I saw them!" Penny said.

Jason held the phone perpendicular to his mouth, "I'm almost there." He said and then pressed the red end call button with his nose. He felt his pocket for the figurine of the demon and did not find it.

"What?" Penny asked.

"That demon thing, the figurine. Do you see it anywhere?"

Penny searched the floorboards. "It's under your feet."

"I must have dropped it when we rushed to get into the truck. Could you get it for me?"

Penny smirked, "I am not going down into your lap. I wasn't born yesterday."

"Fine, I'll get it when we get back to the dorms. He felt for the wad of ones and found they were still in his pocket. "Right after I get the beer."

"Hey, I forgot your name." Penny said. "Or did you give it to me?"

"I did. My name is Jason."

"Okay, look Jason, it's been real fun, but I need to get back to my job. Now that we have lived through that weirdness and you seem sober enough, I need you to take me back."

"Oh yeah, sure. Let me get the guys their beer and then we can head out."

Penny sighed.

"What?"

"You want to show me off to all your friends. I understand."

"Well, I wasn't thinking about that but now that you mention it, I wouldn't mind introducing you." He turned down the street where his dormitory and corner store were located, there were no demons or chasms in the ground anywhere in sight. "I kind of forgot who you were for a moment." He parked and jumped out of the truck. "Wait here, I'll be right back." He entered the store and went to the beer isle, grabbed a twelve pack, and put it on the counter to pay.

"You boys' must be watching the game. Has it started yet?" The clerk said. He was a little older than college age but not by much. His freckles and red hair made him appear younger, but Jason knew him well enough to know he was in his late twenties if not his early thirties.

"I don't know. I just got back." He looked out into the field where the demons had been before. "Say, you didn't see anything weird happening out in the field earlier, did you?"

The clerk rang up the beer on the cash register, "Dude, this is a college campus. Weird all day long."

"Oh, so you saw those things running around out there?"