Jim couldn't believe what he was hearing, now his friends have never been the sharpest tool in the shed but believing that the earth was flat was about as stupid as it gets. It didn't matter that no actual science backs this theory but apparently basketball players and actors are clear authorities on the Earth being flat. His friend Steve had definitely been in an airplane but according to him it was the planes curved windows that appeared to make the earth round. No matter what was said they had an answer. NASA pictures, time zones, sailing around the world, none of it mattered they had learned it from the internet. Steve pulled out his trusty smart phone to do some fact checking. Jim noticed his phone had no signal. Of the ten or so people at Steve's house nobody had a signal. You could see the frustration and what seemed to be panic setting in. They didn't all have the same phone company but phone companies share towers so maybe the tower had been damaged. Steve's kids informed us that the television had also gone out. The kids were now teenagers and probably don't remember a world before cell phones. Jim finished his beer and listened to the rest of Steve's rant about the Earth being flat. After a while the crowd began to thin out, people were clearly concerned about their cell phones shutting off. Hardly anyone had a land line and pay phones no longer existed in the small hick town. Steve's phone was plugged into the radio and playing his MP3 files and he didn't seemed concerned about the service distribution. He had probably been drinking since earlier and wasn't going to let anything get in the way of his buzz. Jim decided to head home. He noticed people outside of their houses with the same concerned looks on their faces. Jim turned the radio on in his pickup only to hear that annoying tone before the whole "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system" except for it wasn't a test. The information that came next indicated that there was a problem with satellites. Everyone's satellites had quit working and were no longer in communication with the earth. Jim thought maybe North Korea had shot down some satellites but it would have taken longer to have the effect. According to conspiracy theories the Chinese had shot down a satellite in the past to create a bunch of small fragments that would eventually take out the satellites creating rings like Saturn but made of technology instead of gasses. According to the conspiracy theory this was so that China would have the advantage in war because of their population. The Chinese have more satellites in space than we do so it probably wouldn't make much sense. The only ones that would likely be unphased is the tribes that have been running around in the remote regions of the world. There was definitely going to be panic from all developed nations. Was it a crazy person who was suspicious of technology and decided to take it out or was there some kind of invasion by a foreign government or something extraterrestrial? It hadn't been that long since the phones and television shut off but people were starting to panic. Jim just wanted to get out of town to his home in the country before people started getting irrational. Some of these younger generations don't remember a life before technology and who knows how they would react. Jim wondered how many doomsday preppers were climbing into their bunkers and locking the hatches. Who knows what was going to happen next. Jim had plenty of fuel, weapons, and generators big enough to run the well at the house. The power was still on it just seemed to be the satellites that were out. It is amazing how many things depend on satellites. Most of our modern technology relies on satellites. The world may as well have been flat at that point. Were we going to send people to space to see what happened? All Jim knew is he wanted to be home.
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