“Lamar said to come through and he can hook you up” there was a noticeable look of relief on Sams face when he saw Jacksons text. He spent the last 3 weeks looking for supplies and food to stock up for him and his family and even though they weren’t exactly starving just yet, Sam did start to feel a bit slimmer due to the food shortages and rationing that started right after everyone realized the arrival was a very real thing that happened.

He was more worried about his mom and sisters, he didn’t want them going into the large crowds filled with frightened and jumpy people, he decided that he would go out about 3 times each day to several grocery stores all along the DFW metroplex. He would buy what he could find and then bring it back home immediately. The first few days he was just leaving the food in his car in between trips but after someone broke in and stole his days run he couldn’t risk it anymore. Tonight was the ‘The Submission’ as everyone agreed to call it and based on the hour long wait to get into the parking lot of both the last grocery stores he went to, there was absolutely no way he was going to get anything to last for his family. They were down to a few days’ worth of food and he was nervous that after tonight things would only get worse.

“Actually he said he will bring a bunch of stuff to todays recording so just meet up at my place” Jacksons second message slightly annoyed Sam, he was planning on skipping the recording for today and just be with family but he didn’t want to protest since Lamar was doing him a huge favor.

“Sounds good, tell Lamar I owe him bigtime!” Sam shot off the message and laid back in his chair feeling a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.

Jackson had of course planned another mass watch party for ‘The Submission’ although this one seemed to have had about a fraction of the people responding. Most people probably wanted to just stay home like Sam planned to.

There were about thirty people at Jacksons parents house, its funny that Sam still referred to it as Jacksons parents home when he had not even met the couple yet, according to the limited updates that Jackson would receive; his parents were in full ‘prayer mode’ during all of their waking hours. Their pastor had apparently invited all of his flock to live at their church compound. Jackson mentioned a few days back that he only sees them when he drives past the church every once in a awhile to make sure they haven’t drank any kool aid. Sam felt like it was only half a joke when he mentioned it, there were already news reports of mass suicides in certain parts of the world, sadly some people couldn’t bear to have their reality shaken to such an extent.

The podcast studio had been moved to a more permanent location inside of the home, a few additional cameras were added to provide a video version for YouTube, as well as some extra high-end monitors and XLR microphones that Sam borrowed from his workplace. In the three weeks since the first episode they managed to crank out nearly forty episodes of their podcast; of course half of the episodes where solo shows that Jackson would record and publish most nights. Sam was actually a bit proud of the podcast, he was never a very creative guy except for once in middle school when he tried out for the school play and got to recite about six lines in front of his whole grade, he botched two of the lines on the opening night and decided that was pretty much it for his acting career.

The podcast however was different, he wasn’t one of the main ‘hosts’ but he would speak for at least five to ten minutes each episode when one of the hosts (usually Jackson) would ask for his input and he didn’t have any nervousness or anxiety. He felt pride when he would see their latest episode go up on Itunes or Spotify, and then he would share it on Facebook and Instagram to his seventy eight followers, honestly if the Alkanii went away tomorrow he would be okay if his little crew still got together every once in awhile for their podcast.

Sam also didn’t mind having an excuse to see Kay nearly everyday, she stopped icing him after their third episode and he made the most serious mental note to erase the word ‘Karen’ from his vocabulary.

“Yo Sammy, you ready for the full ‘SubStream’?” Jacksons voice tore from across the room as soon as he saw Sam.

“Uh, yeah Im ready to record for a little while bro but I kinda wanted to be home for the actual Submission announcement” Sam looked away from Jacksons hoping not to see the disappointment in his eyes.

“BRO! You’re killing me, we got the whole live episode, we have our first live studio audience and you want to duck out before the main event? Come one Sam what if we have technical issues with the setup?” he was now holding Sams shoulders in feigned desperation.

“Im sure if something happens or four hundred subscribers will live”

“That’s actually five hundred and seventeen as of this afternoon” Lamar interjected from behind the kitchen counter. “And we are now in the top three hundred of podcasts related to ‘The Submission and Invasion’’

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Jacksons eyes lit up “whoah, top three hundred? That’s huge! And Sam wants to abandon us during what is for sure going to be our biggest event”

Just then, Sam felt someone whisper in his ear “just tell them you are staying and I will find you an excuse to leave early.” He didn’t have to turn to recognize the speaker. Even a few weeks after meeting he still felt something stir in him when he heard that voice.

“I owe ya Kay”

“Fine, I will stay, your powers of persuasion convinced me” he threw both hands in the air.

In these strange and dangerous times, it was still a relief for Sam to see that the good human nature was still present in some people. He barely knew Lamar for three weeks, he was friendly to him and enjoyed recording the podcast with him but by no means was this man one of Sams close friends at this point he was barely an acquaintance, so when Sam saw the amount of supplies that Lamar brought for Sam and his family he was dumbfounded, he almost thought that maybe Lamar carries his entirety of supplies with him in his vehicle, or maybe Lamar was dropping off supplies for several other families, but no the nearly half pallet of various foods was provided to Sam free of charge.

“This, is all for me?” Sam asked Lamar wanting to make sure he understood him correctly.

“you and your sisters and mom, Jackson mentioned that yall only had a couple days left”

“this is too much man I don’t know if I can take it, this is going to last us a long time man, how much of your stash is this”

Lamar smiled a big wide smile trying to hold in his laughter “man, Ive been getting ready for a minute, thanks for asking Sam but you better believe that I am good, plus this way you don’t have to reach out and ask me again in a week” he patted Sam on the back.

“Youre a good dude Sam, you take care of your mom, I get that, we gotta look out for family.” He paused “anyway lets load this stuff up before the crowd gets here and thinks it’s a community stash”

As soon as the last ten pound bag of rice was loaded Sam turned to Lamar and gave him a giant bear hug, lifted the similarly sized man right off the ground.

“Damn Sam, youre strong as hell I haven’t been picked up since I was in diapers” Lamar said while in the air and the two men shared a laugh.

This was the moment where Sam and Lamar became friends, they would remain friends for the rest of their respective lives.

“Alright folks, we are now exactly one hour away from the start of The Submission, the livestream from the white house shows the countdown at fifty nine minutes. Kay, can you fill us in on what we expect to see in an hour?” Jackson was in full presenter mode, checking twitter in between his updates to the live stream, and stepping away every ten minutes or so to make sure the crowd of strangers in his home weren’t stealing the few items he had.

“So… according to the latest white house press release, the Alkanii delegates, the president, select congressmen and ambassadors from several major nations are all expected to come on screen when then hour finishes. We are going to hear from the president for a brief moment and then the Alkanii will present the list of ‘The Submitted’ to the president” Lamar interjected.

“Wait a second, so they already have the list? They are just going to hand it over at eight?” Kay looked annoyed at Lamar.

“Well, Lamar thanks for the question, let me get my Alkanii bff on the line and I will get you an answer to that as soon as she gets back to me” Kay returned to her prepared statement.

“Okay so, they will give a list of the selected which I assume they already have or are making in real time or something, this has not been clarified by the White House; once the President has the list, he is going to read the list out loud on the live broadcast. The individuals chosen should expect to hear from government officials within minutes of their name being spoken by the president.” Kay put her piece of paper down with all of her handwritten notes on it.

Sam spoke up this time “Wait, why aren’t they just contacting the people first and then reading their names later” Kay once again looked a bit annoyed

“Okay guys, none of this has really been cleared up by whatever is left of our government but I will say this. They have reported that ALL aspects of this are being delegated by the Alkanii, so if they are doing something in some specific way that does not make sense to our tiny human brains, we can chalk it up to the Alkanii made them do it that way, probably some weird alien tradition from ten billion years ago that if they don’t do they need to blow up a star or something!”

“ah right, that makes sense” Sam said while giving a bit of a wide eyed look to Kay hoping she would keep her word from earlier and find him a proper exit. She picked right up on his subtle signal and just then she leaned over and whispered something in Jacksons ear.

Jackson stood up “What? Where? What did he look like”

“I think he had curly hair and a white tee he was walking toward the backyard” Kay replied.

“Lamar take over the stream I gotta see whose stealing my shit” Jackson rose and started speedwalking away.

“Alright Samwise, make your trek out of here” Kay looked at Sam smiling.

Sam stood up, looking at Kay in her auburn eyes. He smiled back at her and didn’t immediately leave like he knew he should. He felt something deep in his chest. He knew that he needed to do this before his body would allow him to leave. In one fell swoop he picked up Kay from her waist, standing her up to face him. She was tall but still about a foot smaller than him, He tilted his head and kissed her while still holding her waist, he felt her pull herself toward him and after a what felt like a millisecond she pushed away from him and smiled. “You really have to go if you plan on escaping big guy” Kay said while grinning.

Sams body finally let him head home.