2002 4wd auto brake light short

Hello everyone, I havnt posted here In a while because my lady has been driving my truck for the past year and its sort of depressing looking at all the other tacos. we will get her a new car as soon as I'm finished with my tech program and can work full time again.

Anyway last night it wouldn't shift out of park. Checked fuses, turned out the stop light fuse was blown, It blows after about 5 mins every time. I'm sure it's a short somewhere In between the fuse block and the brake lights but my Hanes manual is always coming up short when I really need it (pun actually not intended but I'll keep it).
Does anyone have a factory tail light diagram for automatic trans?
Help would be much appreciated as she will be using it to get to work Monday and I'd like to figure this out over the weekend.
Thanks in advance yall.

 

So I've got 1k ohms at the driver side connector for the brake light circuit. I followed the wires up the bed a bit and it looks like the plastic harness cover is full of dried up mud, sand pours out when I pull it apart. I'm guessing that's my problem..
My next question is, how heavy is the bed? Can me and a friend lift it off so I can access the wiring easier or do I need a few people?

 

I couldn't find a picture for you so I hope my descripion will do. On the top left of shift cover there is a little white piece of plastic that sticks through the cover, push that forward, I think, and that will release the shifter out of park. You dont "need" the brake light system to work to get it out of park, if you did all of the tow truck drivers would revolt.

 

Lol thanks for the reply. I do know about the button though so we were able to get it home Friday, I just don't want her driving in phx traffic without brake lights.
I broke open the harness housing under the bed and all though it was full of dirt, all the wires were intact and zero copper showing. My passenger brake light is showing over 1k ohms though so I'm going to go ahead and replace that as the lens is cracked anyway.

It doesn't make much sense to me that it would pop fuses just because the ground in the tail light had a bunch of resistance. To me it seems like it would just cause the tail light to be dim, if anyone else knows more than me please chime in. Everything in the cab is working fine. I can hear whatever solenoid releases the shifter when I push the brake, I never noticed it making that much noise until now, the Hanes manual doesn't have a wiring diagram that shows the shift lock.