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  • It’s 7am, and the sound of your alarm wakes you up.

  • You reach over to the nightstand to pick up your phone.

  • With your eyes half-closed, you notice you don’t have any new notifications.

  • Hmm, that’s weird.”

  • But mostly, youre more concerned with getting some coffee in you first!

  • So, you get up, grab a quick shower, and head downstairs.

  • After youve gotten some breakfast and coffee, you grab your tablet and see the same thing:

  • no notifications.

  • You also notice there’s no Internet connection.

  • It wasn’t just on your phone but all your devices.

  • Before checking your router, you try the ol’ “turn it off and on againtechnique.

  • Of course, that didn’t help.

  • So, you head over to the router and see a blinking red light.

  • The 4G isn’t working either.

  • Ugh, great.

  • Gonna have to call the service provider.”

  • Eventually.

  • For now, it’s 7:45, and youre already running late for work.

  • You decide to take a cabmaybe itll save some time.

  • You automatically open the app on your phone.

  • Oh yeah, it doesn’t work.

  • No connection.

  • Could this day start out any better?” you think sarcastically to yourself.

  • So, you run to the nearest bus stop, which is about 20 minutes away.

  • 20 minutes that you really don’t have right now.

  • Winded, you get to the stop only to see the timetable screen blinkingNO SERVICE.”

  • Now, that’s either because they can’t track the buses and the servers can’t access

  • their schedule, or because there aren’t any today to begin with.

  • You notice the people around you for the first time.

  • Theyre all looking at their phones in frustration, some have even struck up a conversation.

  • Nobody has Internet

  • That’s the first moment when you feel panic rising in your chest.

  • If it’s not just me, then it could be serious…”

  • You spot a cab a few feet away and hop in.

  • But GPS obviously isn’t working, and there’s mad traffic on the roadeven with all

  • the signs around to help!

  • Horns are beeping from every direction, and it’s as if the chaos is getting worse right

  • before your eyes as you stare out the backseat window.

  • When you finally get to your office building, the cab driver’s voice almost jolts you.

  • “$16.50!”

  • You reach for your card without even thinking.

  • But guess what!

  • That doesn’t work either.

  • So, you have to dig in your wallet and hope youve got some cash on you.

  • You have a 20.

  • Yes!

  • At least some luck!

  • It’s almost 8:30 – yep, youre half an hour late.

  • Everyone else is already there when you walk into the office.

  • Right from the get-go, youre already not that surprised to hear the talk of the day,

  • Internet’s down.”

  • Someone’s talking about the stock market being at a standstill.

  • Another is talking about how hospitals everywhere are struggling to access medical records since

  • everything was online.

  • You head over to your desk and sit down to start your computer, wondering if you shouldve

  • bothered coming to work in the first place.

  • You can’t send any emails or reports, and you can’t download anything.

  • With impatient clients ringing everyone’s phone off the hook (because their Internet

  • and emails are down too), you and your coworkers bust out the old dusty fax machines to send

  • and receive documents.

  • The only problem with that is there aren’t enough fax machines for everybody!

  • That’s when you notice another problem: with the whole world calling each other on

  • their landline phones, theyre overloading communication systemsto the point that

  • you can’t reach anyone.

  • It’s almost 10am, and everybody’s up by now.

  • With the office becoming more of a circus with every passing minute, the boss decides

  • to let everyone just take the day off.

  • Hopefully, things will be back to normal by tomorrow

  • It’s close to 11:15 in the morning.

  • Traffic is still congested, but there’s no point going home and just staring at the

  • wall.

  • So, you walk around until you find a place to grab some lunch.

  • You can’t remember how much money you have in the bank, and there’s no way to check.

  • Both your credit and debit cards are now useless pieces of plastic.

  • So, you take a 10-minute walk to your local branch.

  • On the way, you hear people’s theories on what happened.

  • Some are talking about a global cyber-attack, others are talking about something happening

  • to the satellites.

  • That’s when it hits you: what about all your pictures, videos, and data?

  • You had your whole graduation video on the cloud.

  • All those pictures of your backpacking trip across Europe?

  • Are all the memories lost?

  • You feel your heart racing.

  • It’s both your fast-pace walking and the thought of losing all those precious records

  • of the best moments of your life...

  • On your way, you stumble across a newsstand.

  • All the papers are nearly goneyou grab the last one.

  • The headline reads: “THE END OF THE INTERNET!”

  • You read briefly that social media companies have already lost billions, and the market

  • is collapsing.

  • You get to the bank at 11:45.

  • You and everyone else.

  • There’s a line extending outside the entrance.

  • You take your place at the end only to hear the faint sound of the teller announcing,

  • Were about to run out of cash, youll have to come back tomorrow.”

  • Luckily, your turn comes right before they start sending people away.

  • You take 400 bucks out of your account to keep yourself afloat.

  • Who knows if itll be enoughthere’s no way of knowing how long this nightmare

  • will last!

  • As you step outside, someone runs and snatches a guy’s wallet from his hands.

  • People are already getting desperate, and thieves are taking advantage of the situation.

  • You quickly hide your money in your front pocket.

  • It’s 12:30, so you head out for lunch.

  • Most places have hung handwritten signs on the door: CASH ONLY.

  • Well, good thing you made it to the bank.

  • You find a diner and notice theyve got the news on the TV hanging in the corner.

  • There’s no Internet across the ENTIRE globe!

  • Airports are at a standstill, along with ships, trains, and commercial trucking.

  • Panic has broken out in major cities.

  • That’s when you remember your folks should be flying home from their vacation in Ireland!

  • You try to call themno answer.

  • You have no idea if their flight was delayed or canceledhow can you get hold of them?!

  • It’s fine, theyre ok.

  • Hey, who wouldn’t wanna be stranded in beautiful Ireland?”

  • For now, youve got other things to worry about.

  • You need to stock up on food just in case this Internet thing lasts longer than anyone

  • expectsor is ready for

  • It’s 2pm, and the streets are packed.

  • Looks like everyone else has also taken the day off work.

  • You naturally start heading to the nearest supermarket, but you figure itll either

  • be chaotic or just closed since their POS systems need an online connection.

  • And big places like that aren’t about to bust out the pen and paper to keep track of

  • sales.

  • You ask a passerby if there are any little family-owned stores in the area.

  • You wouldve just googled that before, now you have to talk to someone!

  • You take the woman’s directions and find the place.

  • They don’t have a lot, but you grab whatever you can carry in two hands and head home.

  • As you walk, you start thinking about how everything you do revolves around the Internet.

  • You scroll for hours through your social media feed, you watch everything on YouTube or streaming

  • services, you have cable TV, but you rarely watch it.

  • You feel so isolated not having heard from any of your friends

  • You finally get home at about 4pm.

  • You know it’s a waste of time, but you check the router anyway.

  • Still no Internet.

  • Since you can’t stream anything, you decide to watch good old-fashioned TV channels filled

  • with old movies and shows.

  • What a feeling!

  • Granted, you won’t be able to google the actors or any spoilers, but that’s the joy

  • of it!

  • The commercial breaks, not so much

  • At about 6pm, the phone rings, and it’s your parents.

  • They’d been stuck at the airport all day only to see their flight being delayed further

  • and further until it was finally canceled.

  • Theyve just settled into a hotel for the night with plans of flying out in the morning.

  • But at least theyre ok!

  • And you don’t make it much longer yourself.

  • After a hectic day, youre ready for bed.

  • At about 10pm, you fall asleep to the thought that youll face the same chaos tomorrow,

  • and youre already stressed about work.

  • It’s 3:15 in the morning.

  • You wake up to multiple notification sounds on your phone, and as you turn over, your

  • screen is flashing with pop-up boxes left and right.

  • Phones all across the cityacross the globe! – are lighting up as if on command.

  • You take a look and let out a sigh of relief: the world is back online!

  • Phew!

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It’s 7am, and the sound of your alarm wakes you up.

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