You know what that is.

An ice cold beer.

What's different?

It's Budweiser, a perfect beer for party season.

Best enjoyed with your best buds.

Cheers to that.

Budweiser, like no other.

Please drink responsibly.

For the facts, visit drinkaware.co.

com.

Dale snores in the driver's seat, head propped back and mouth wide open.

A shotgun rests across my lap as I sit in the passenger seat

of the pickup truck, looking out at the neighborhood. Widely spaced houses sit back from

the road, all dark on the inside. It's nearly two in the morning, and the only lights on at

the low cottage-style homes are the porch lights,

shining weekly. Despite the lack of illumination from the windows, I doubt the people

inside the houses are sleeping. I imagine my friends and neighbors lying awake in their dark

bedrooms, staring at the ceiling, listening for any sound they don't recognize.

Wives and husbands speak in whispers, trying to calm each other's fears.

Maybe the kids are asleep, blissfully unaware, maybe not.

My own kids are too young to know what's going on.

They're the reason I'm out here, staying up all night, trying to protect my town from the

...