“Minho, we gotta head back!” said Thomas.
“Why?” said Minho.
“The girl just told me she triggered the ending,” said Thomas.
“Told you?” said Minho.
“She can talk to me in my head,” said Thomas.
“Good to know I’m not the only one that happens to,” said Minho. “That weird guy Brian from Box Forest keeps asking me in my head to have dinner with him.”
“Shall we?” said Thomas, and started running back toward the Sausage Fest.
“Whoa, hold on,” said Minho.
“But we need to get back now!” said Thomas.
“If we go back now they’ll know we didn’t run that far to begin with,” said Minho. “Just wait a little bit.”
Thomas sat back down next to Minho. Three hours later, Minho gave Thomas the thumbs up and they headed back.
Even though it took only ten minutes to get back to the Sausage Fest, when Minho ran through the opening he collapsed to the ground and lay there gasping like he’d just finished a marathon.
“Sorry it took so long to get back!” he shouted to no one in particular. “Tom said we had to return immediately, so we ran the 12 miles back here as fast as we could!”
Minho noticed that Thomas was still standing and threw a pebble at his head. Thomas immediately collapsed and acted like he was exhausted.
“Yeah, I’m also so tired from running!” Thomas shouted.
Thomas lay on his back and looked up at the sky. Suddenly, he saw the sky completely change.
The blue sky that had been there disappeared, and a multicolored TV test pattern filled the sky. Words began scrolling across the bottom of the pattern, saying, “The sky is experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by.”
The Sausage Fest became a big commotion as everybody started shouting and pointing at the sky.
Tom, come meet me at Box Forest! We need to talk.
It was Teresa. Apparently she’d woken up.
Be right there, said Thomas in his head, and took off for Box Forest.
Tom, come meet me behind the Frat House! said another voice in Thomas’s head.
Sorry Brian, said Thomas. I already have other plans.
