“You still have 30 more minutes on lunch” the 47-year-old man looked at his watch while he talked. “I'm just going to leave early today” replied Samuel, “gonna meet up with some friends tonight for dinner and drinks” He wasn’t leaving early out of excitement, it was more of a let's just get this over with move. Dinner with friends stopped being so exciting years ago when all of his friends started getting their life together and he was stuck making excuses or lying as to what was going on with his life.

“Sounds good to me, well I'm taking an early lunch then” Jon was halfway out the door and already ringing his wife as soon as he clocked out. He always called his wife while at lunch. He would find an empty office and talk for an hour then clock back in and eat his lunch at his desk. Sam would have made fun of him for that if they were closer.

The helpdesk tickets weren’t too bad today, usually Fridays were more rough but he wasn’t complaining, it was a nice change of pace. Sam sat at his desk and finished responding to a few emails. He heard a knock on his desk. “Hiya Sam!” He immediately knew both the voice and the purpose of the visit. Mary was always super upbeat when she greeted Sam AND she had a request. “got any weekend plans?” Mary’s tone would remain upbeat for the rest of the conversation. “Not really, just dinner with some old friends today, how bout you?” Sam’s tone also hit a slight upbeat tone, it was always hard for him to not match someone’s energy, and he was pretty sure what Mary’s visit was for. Sam noticed the upstairs water dispenser was empty while he was on lunch, he already knew that it was going to be a 50/50 shot on whether Mary would come as him or ask Steve in the Facilities department to help. “Oh nothing too big really. I might go to the Ft Worth stockyards, my sister is in town and has never been, have I ever mentioned that she is single?” Mary had a giant smile on her face. “Well, You haven’t mentioned it today” Mary leaned in and slapped Sam’s shoulder. “Oh Sam!, im going to find the right friend one day for you” Sam politely smiled, he knew Mary meant well but he was sure that things wouldn’t work out with any of her potential matches, he could tolerate Marys chipper attitude for short bursts spread out through the week, he couldn’t risk any of her friends being on the same level as her. “Hey Sammy, could you do me a HUGE favor please. Would you mind swapping out the water jug? Can you please be our Hero? We are parched!” She put her hands together as if she were pleading, she was always very extra with her mannerism. You always knew if Mary was on your floor, 5 minutes into any conversation she was screaming with laughter or gasping at a very non-gaspable statement. “Sure thing Mary I will be right up, let me just finish up this email”. “Oh my god You are AMAZING!” Mary screamed across the room, the rest of the floor heard it.

Sam was immediately annoyed as soon as he saw the white paper on the elevator. He didn’t even need to walk closer to read it. “Fucking 3rd time this month” he said to himself. The elevator was out of order and that meant that he would have to take the stairs. “Fucking water jug”. This would normally be fine since the total amount of steps taken could be counted on two hands. 5 steps from the outside of the IT room to the elevator and 5 steps from the outside of the 4th story elevator to the break room. Sam started walking to the other side of the building right to the stairway.

He grabbed the railing and started taking the steps two at a time, it was like he was trying to trick his brain into thinking that there were less steps than really existed. He reached the top of the first flight of stairs and could feel his heart pumping. He did not slow down and kept the same pace going up the second flight. Breathe he thought to himself. He was actively trying to keep his breathing at the same rhythm. He reached the 3rd story and his heart was ramping up faster he could feel the thumps increasing even when he paused for a moment. His nostrils flared as he moved up the next flight, he couldn’t trick his body anymore, he was taking deep breaths and it showed. He started slowing down taking each step one at a time, making sure he held on tight to the railing and using his to help move himself further up, by the time he reached the 4th story his heart was racing in his chest. He kept walking to the break room and sat down on the first empty chair. Making sure to keep his breathing steady as he waited several minutes for his pulse to settle and the beads of sweat on his temple to dry off. Fuck that was even harder than the last time he thought about how he only had to wait a minute on the chair last time he took the stairs.

Sam had always been overweight, not like now but definitely big. As long as he could remember he was a big and tall kid. When buying clothes with his mom, he already knew that he needed to look for ‘husky’ sizes, but he was never affected by being a big kid. His aunt would always tell him that he ‘carried the weight well’ he never knew what that meant until he got older and realized it meant that you don’t have a giant belly. Once his belly started growing he didn’t hear about how he carried his weight well. He always knew that he was fat but it was like he never noticed it, until another kid saw fit to remind him of it, but these last few years were starting to bring his size into the forefront of his life. Small things were turning into not soo small things. Clothes shopping was becoming a challenging chore. He would have to find 3x shirts and he would realize that not all 3x shirts were the same size. Some of them were meant for tall guys with small bellies and the other kind were blankets. He started having difficulties with things like tying his shoes, the back of the server room was magically shrinking as time passed by. All of those things were happening but they didn’t concern him, it was the physical changes that scared him. The increases in blood pressure, the feeling tired as soon as you wake up, the racing heart beats over tasks that should not raise your heartbeat.

“I gotta lose weight” Samuel said to himself. He had done it before, right before college he decided that he wanted to start fresh in a new town and he lost a ton of weight in his senior year. Surprisingly it lasted for several years and after he graduated he found himself back in his old body.

“You okay bud” Sam snapped himself out of his train of thought and looked up at Jon.

“Yeah sorry I was just taking a quick break, I have to swap out this water jug” Samuel went to stand up.

“I can take care of it if you’d like” said Jon, “its no big deal I’m already up”. Jon made his way to the water jug and started bending over to pick it up. As soon as he applied force to the jug he winced.

“Ahh” Jon cried out. “My back just spasmed” He placed the water jug down on the ground, he made it about 4 inches off of the ground.

“You alright?” Samuel asked feigning concern, he was a half annoyed and half grateful at Jon trying to help him out.

“Yeah I think so, Im always pulling my back these days” Jon looked at Samuel in the eyes and paused for a second. “Hey Sam, make sure you don’t get old like me”.

“I’ll try not to” Samuel pulled up a chair for Jon to sit on, and he then reached down to grab the water Jug with one hand lifted it to his waist and used his other hand to pop the top off, he placed the jug into the water fountain with ease, it was like watching someone put a lattee into a cup holder. Jon looked at Samuel like he just finished first place in the worlds strongest man competition.

“How did you do that?” Jon was not even trying to hide his astonishment.

“What? The jug?” It had been awhile since someone has seen Sams strength but it was the one thing he at least kept up with from when he lost weight in college. He loved powerlifting and strength training. Not many people know just how strong they are, they just need to teach their muscles. The lessons require several hours of lifting heavy things up and down but nevertheless it can be taught.

Samuel smiled at Jon “I like to lift weights so 40 pounds isn’t too rough, but I really should have stretched before I lifted it. “

“Next time I need to change my tire im calling you” Jon laughed and winced at the same time.

…

“Turn right in 15 feet, you have arrived at your destinate” Sam was pretty sure he knew where the restaurant was at but out of habit he still used the GPS. He pulled into the Cheesecake Factory parking lot and saw Kerry and Alex walking in. He parked and scrolled on his phone for a few minutes trying to come up with a good excuse to leave early, nothing sounds plausible. These are times when having a kid would really come in handy he thought, you can always say the sitter called.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Knock, knock” he heard the tapping first, he looked up and saw Mel at his passenger side windows, Chris was getting the stroller out of the trunk of their Jeep. Samuel immediately smiled.

“eyy, whats up!” he got out of the car and went in for a hug and kiss on the cheek. Mel finished helping Chris get the whole crew out of the car. Sam awkwardly watched as each kid started marching out. 3 came out of the car and 1 was soon to come out of Mel in a few months, they kept busy.

“Hey Sam did you catch the game last night?” Chris asked

“Not Unless the game was Apex Legends and it was being streamed on Twitch” Chris and Mel laughed. They knew that Sam was never into sports but that did not stop them from bringing their favorite teams up all the time and always trying to get Sam to support them. Every once in awhile you would catch Samuel wearing a Texas Rangers shirt but that was mainly because it was the perfect size and it was free courtesy of Mel and Chris.

There was nothing special about this dinner, it was loud it was hectic and for the most part Sam was playing his part. Laughing at the various jokes, chiming in and being clever at right moments. Not one of his friends would have noticed that he was turning into quite the sad sack, spending most of his free time surfing the internet until he was bored and went to bed, eating way more than his due at every meal. Food has always been an escape for him, he just wasn’t sure exactly what he was escaping.

The only noticeable difference was that Paul was missing from dinner, so instead of sharing the role of the fifth wheel, Sam was playing the part solo this time.

“I thought Paul was coming this time” Mel said to no one in particular.

“He said he was coming, let me shoot him a text” Alex replied, “hes usually the first one to show up, maybe he got caught up”.

Sam ordered an unusually average sized dinner and finished it before anyone else, as soon as he was done he looked up and saw Paul walking in.

“There he is” Sam told the group “Let me go grab him, I don’t think he sees the table”

As Sam was waking toward Paul he noticed the distressed look on his face. His eyes seemed heavy, he was jittery and kept alternating his glances toward the exit and then toward his bright phone.

“Yo Paul!” Paul’s eyes darted straight to Sam as he was slightly startled.

“Heya Sam, how’s it going? You alright? Hey listen I cant stay really long I just needed to talk to you guys really quick, do you guys have a quick second!..” Paul’s barrage of questions surprised Sam.

“Uh yeah, hey are you alright bud? You seem a little wired, come have a seat” Sam led Paul to the table, the rest of the group took about as long as Sam did to notice Paul’s peculiar behavior. Before anyone could begin to voice their concerns Paul started talking a mile a minute.

“Hey everyone, I know I look like shit, I’ve been pretty much on 4 hours of sleep for the last 3 days, stuck at home on my pc, I was going to just bail on tonight but I started to feel like I needed to talk to someone about what’s been going on,”

Paul started to settle down a bit as he talked. “I know I am going to sound crazy but the reason I have been glued to my computer is that I have been looking into some crazy shit that’s been going on several forums, there are dozens and maybe hundreds of people online speculating as to a huge event that has occurred that is going to impact the globe as a whole” Paul did not notice the several glances the other members of the group were giving each other, this would normally seem funny but the state of Paul’s appearance led the rest of the crew to show concern with each glance.

“Look, I’m just going to say it.” he paused before his next sentence. “I think that world was 3 has begun or will begin in the next week..” Paul paused as if his revelation would immediately have the group as concerned as he was. Everyone else stood still.

“Paul, can I get you something to drink buddy” Mel said in a soothing voice.

“Guys, I don’t have time to eat dinner and frankly you don’t either, I love yall but this is happening feel free to look into it. Okay” he started to stand up “Im not the only one who is talking about this, there are dozens of us. Maybe we don’t know for sure that what is going on is World War 3 but there is something going on and there are people in the highest rungs of government who are talking about it.” He grabbed the nearest cup of water and took a giant swig “Just, please guys look into it yourself I know you don’t believe me, but you need to prepare before the panic starts” He took out a piece of paper and placed it on the table, Sam would have believed it to be gibberish if not for the .ru at the end of the site.

I guess hes going on Russian sites and scaring himself to death over fanfiction Sam thought to himself. Paul was already walking away before the rest of the crew could really stop him. Mel and Chris were too preoccupied with the kids to run after him and Alex and Kerry weren’t even sure if this was a prank or not.

“Let me go talk to him and make sure this isn’t some performance art” Sam told the group and got up after his friend.

Outside, he saw Paul walking toward his car his eyes were glued to his phone the entire time he walked.

“Yo Paul! Hold up a second, can we just talk for a minute” Paul paused the video he was watching on.

“Sam, I really don’t have time. You don’t either, once they announce what's going on people are going to freak out, I'm already freaking out and Im not a hundred percent sure what is happening.” Paul started to go back to his phone, Sam placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Just take 1 minute right now and tell me why you think World War 3 has started, please if you really think its going on then just tell me why” Paul looked away for a second, his tone shifted.

“Well, I'm convinced its World War 3 and I actually hope its World War 3 but it could be something else, right now the consensus is that its between World War 3 and …" Paul stopped himself before continuing. “well, some people think its aliens but that’s too wild even for me.” Sam looked at Paul with a little relief, he could see that he was worked up over some random piece of fake news that was probably going around the internet, but at least he didn’t completely lose his mind and was not running around screaming about aliens.

“Okay so why do You think World War 3 has started? What's got you soo convinced?” Sam stood patiently while Paul was gathering his thoughts.

“about a week ago, I got a notification from an old coworker, we were pretty close before she moved back to South Korea, she said that her dad worked in the Presidents office and that he got wind of something that happened a few weeks back that was being kept secret between several of the world governments.” He started leaning against the red sedan next to him. “She said that there was a meeting between the heads of state where they coordinated when to release the information and that when it comes out there will be mass panic, her dad doesn’t know what the information is but he suspects that North Korea could be planning to unleash a nuclear attack on a certain date and that will trigger everyone else to retaliate and go to war” Paul pulled out a cigarette, Sams eyes widened he hadn't seen Paul smoke in 3 years but he wasn’t going to say anything about it right now. He continued.

“So I thought it was bullshit but she made me promise to take it seriously. So I did, and I looked into it you don’t have to believe me Sam, just start searching investigating it. “ Pauls started getting ramped up again.

“Go online and look at the evidence yourslef, there are troop movements all over the globe but CNN or any of the media isnt covering it. If the leakers are right we are going to hear the truth from the president soon and then all shit is going to break loose” Paul finished his ciggarette and hugged Sam.

“Just go gather supplies and prepare to hunker down and promise me you will make the other guys do the same” the desperation was obvious on Pauls face.

“Sure Paul, I promise to look into it, but only if you promise me to get some sleep tonight when you get home” Sam held his hand out.

“Alright man, I promise” the two friends shook hands and Paul started walking back to his car with his eyes right back on his phone.

As soon as Sam finished updating everyone, the looks of concern were obvious, not one of them was going to look into what Paul said but they were definitely concerned for their friend.

“Does anyone have his sisters number?” Kerry asked the group.

“I think I have her on Facebook” Mel replied, “Well, I'm going to message her just so she reaches out. He probably just needs rest but better safe than sorry.”

It took a few minutes for everyone to get back into the rhythm of the night, after desert Sam realized that he never ducked out early. His mind was caught between keeping up appearances with his friends and thinking about Pauls words. There was surely nothing going on except a guy who should get more sleep and less internet, but Sam was starting to get more antsy as the night continued. It was hard for him to not pull his phone out and start googling even if only to reassure that what Paul was saying was bull.

Sam stood up as soon as he signed the bill, he hugged his friends one by one and then started picking up each kid and giving them a hug and then a dollar each. He couldn’t remember who asked him about that but he did remember that he specifically carried cash when he was going to see Mel and Chris he wondered to himself; When did we stop giving kids dollars, he remembered always getting the odd dollar or so from his relatives or friends of his parents and it was always awesome.

He was halfway to the front door when he got a noticeably loud alert on his phone, he heard the alert again and then again six or seven times but it was coming from the staff behind the Cheesecake displays. He pulled his phone out and read the message to himself “This is an Emergency Broadcast Alert, the president of the United States will be addressing the Nation tonight at 8PM Central on all major networks”

He read the message 3 or 4 times and then looked back at his friends table, they were all stuck to their phones.

Paul must be freaking the fuck out, he thought.