The Day The Internet Died

It seemed that people were in fact believing this crap. At school, Alex was once again surrounded by conversations about the outage. But this time, all anyone was talking about was the flier.

As Alex waded through the crowded halls towards her locker, Katie ran up from behind. “Alex! Hey Alex!” Katie, looking perturbed, held up the flier. “Look at this creepy flier that was taped to my door last night!”

Alex skimmed the flier, confirming that it was the same as hers. Yet again, she was confronted with that face. “Yea, I got the same one too. Creepy mug.”

“Do you think it’s true? About Telecom and the government?”

“Of course it isn’t true. It’s probably just some guy trying to take advantage of the situation to rile people up.”

Katie frowned, before continuing, “But still, everyone at school seems to have gotten one. That would be pretty hard for just ‘some guy’ to do!”

Alex had to agree with her on that one. Though their town was pretty small, going door to door in one day would have taken a lot of work.

Katie continued, “Anyways, my parents were pretty freaked out about it. You know how they get about these… things.” Alex knew what she meant. Katie’s parents were very susceptible when it came to conspiracy theories. Katie held up the flier again. “As soon as they saw it they were all doom and gloom. I mean, they’re already super anxious. And now this! They haven’t been able to work for like three days now!”

Alex could see how torn up all this was making Katie, how her parents’ anxieties were starting to map onto her own. Alex wished she could comfort her, but didn’t know what to say.

Just before lunch, the principal came over the intercom announcing an impromptu school-wide assembly to take place before third period. As Alex filed into the packed gymnasium along with the rest of the students, she noticed several teachers huddled together in the corner talking excitedly, as if something big was about to happen.

After the students had all crammed in, Principal Moreno took his place at the podium in the center of the basketball court. He carried with him a loose stack of papers, which he briefly thumbed through before addressing the crowd.

“Hello students. I hope you are all doing well today. As you know, a few days ago our town experienced an outage of all phone, internet, and cable TV services.”

The crowd of students murmured in agreement.

“Well, I must inform you that we have just received an official letter from the federal government. It seems that the outage is in fact across our entire country.”

Immediately the students erupted into conversations. Alex nervously looked around to see if she could spot Katie.

From the podium, Principal Moreno raised both his hands, “Now now, please! I haven’t finished yet. Because of this national outage, the President has decided to declare a national State of Emergency…”

The students erupted again before he could even finish the sentence. This was not the news they wanted to hear. Alex finally managed to spot Katie on the other side of the gym, busily speaking to those around her.

Again, Principal Moreno tried to calm the crowd. “Please everyone! Please settle down. It will all be okay. This is just a formality so that the government can distribute aid where it is needed. There is no need to panic.” But to Alex, his tone seemed more like he was trying to convince himself than them. “That being said, since it appears that the government is preparing for this to become an extended situation, we have decided to cancel school tomorrow in order to hold a school-wide faculty meeting to address adjusting certain procedures going forward. So, please let your parents and guardians know about the situation and make sure to…”

—

It was safe to say that if the students weren’t anxious before, they were now in a full blown state of panic. The flier, coupled with the unfortunate timing of the announcement, had everyone convinced they were in the middle of some kind of giant conspiracy in motion.

Katie, most of all, seemed incredibly shaken after the assembly. “This isn’t good. This is not good,” she said, pacing back and forth in front of Alex in the crowded hallway. She stopped and turned to face Alex. “A national emergency… Alex, my parents are going to freak out when they hear this!”

Alex could feel the anxiety pouring out of Katie. In truth, Alex was just as anxious as well. Alex started, “I’m sure… maybe…” but was unable to find the words needed to calm down Katie. Why this? Why now?

“You don’t understand!” Katie shouted, resuming her pacing. “My parents… you know what our situation is like. You know how hard it’s been. They can’t be out of work for this long… I can’t be the only one feeding us on my shitty McDonald’s minimum wage!”

At this point, Katie was reaching mass load and looked like she could break down at any moment. And if Katie broke, Alex knew she was sure to follow. Think of something to diffuse the situation. Think Alex. Think. Think think think!

Katie began to whimper, “Why is this happening to me…”

“What if we went to that protest?”

“What?” Katie looked up at Alex, sniffled, and rubbed her eyes.

Alex grabbed Katie’s bag and dug around until she found the flier. “That protest. From the flier.” She held up the flier so that Katie could see it. “See, it says it’s tomorrow at noon. And now we don’t have school tomorrow.”

“You want to go to the protest?” Katie said.

“Well…” Alex reread the flier. Stand with us and demand answers. “Maybe if we go, we can get some answers. Maybe if enough people show up, they’ll be forced to explain what’s going on.” Already, Alex realized that the reasoning seemed far-fetched at best, but right now she wanted more than anything to get Katie out of this mess. After all, it had been Katie who had helped her so much during her lowest lows.

Katie stopped rubbing her eyes and focused entirely on Alex. “You think if we go to the protest, things will get better?” At this point, it looked like Katie was ready to believe anything.

Alex reached out and put her arms on Katie’s shoulders. “I think it’s a good idea.”

Katie leaned in to turn it into an embrace, sniffled, and faintly smiled. “I missed my old Alex.”

—

On the ride home, Alex could only think about how this was definitely a bad idea. She was sure that nothing good would come of it, and that a bunch of angry people grouped together did not often lead to great results. But, perhaps a bit selfishly, she too wanted answers. Alex stared out the window, watching the buildings pass by.

Day 4… and it’s out all over the country… and no one knows what’s going on? How is that even possible? There’s got to be something. SOMEBODY has to know what’s going on. They must just be keeping quiet to cover their asses… But day 4. DAY 4! Alex’s thoughts continued to spiral more and more. And cards don’t work. Do they expect us to just pay for everything in cash forever? Do people even have that much cash? Does Sonya? What are we going to do for food next week? Can you even withdraw from the banks if their networks are down as well?

The frustration continued to build as Alex arrived home to find a very tired Sonya sprawled out on the couch. It looked as if she had only recently gotten home, like she had been working straight through since yesterday. Get yourself together.

Sonya rubbed her tired eyes. “Hey Alex. I heard at work that we’re in a State of Emergency. What’s school saying? Is there anything I can get for you? Any way I can help?”

“No.” Alex’s frustration continued to rise. I am not a baby. I can take care of myself.

“Are you sure? Maybe I can—”

“I don’t need your help!” Alex snapped back. “You are not my Mom!”

Sonya sat up on the couch. “Alex, I know I’m not your Mom. But it’s my job now to take care of you—”

Alex slammed her fist on the counter. “I can take care of myself!” Her voice rose louder and louder, the pent up frustration pouring out of her. “I didn’t ask you to come back after they died! I could have taken care of myself! I’m not a baby!” At this point, tears were welling up in her eyes.

Sonya rubbed her temples. “Alex, please. Can we not do this again right now? I’ve just had a double shift at the hospital and am running on, like, max 3 hours of sleep.”

“Then leave me alone! Stop trying to butt into my life! Stop trying to baby me and pretend that you’re Mom when we both know that you aren’t!” At this point, Alex’s yells were at peak volume.

“Alex—”

“No! Don’t Alex me!”

Finally, Sonya couldn’t take it anymore. Standing up, she shouted back, “Do you think I wanted to come home Alex?! Do you think I wanted to drop out of med school to move back to our shitty town to take care of you?! To deal with how much of an emotional wreck you’ve become?! Do you think their deaths didn’t destroy me just as much as it destroyed you?!” Tears streamed down her face.

Instantly, Sonya knew she had gone too far. “Alex… Alex, I didn’t mean that—”

But by then, Alex had already slammed her bedroom door shut.

Breathing rapidly with tears still streaming down her face, Alex ran to her commuter and began to click around frantically. “Please be back on. Please. Please… please…” But no matter what she did, the internet was unyielding in its silence.

Tears rained down on the keyboard as Alex desperately tried to get anything to work. “Please… please… I need to see them. Please…”

Alex collapsed into a full sob at her desk. No matter what she did, the tears would not stop.

“Please…”