[ WP ] A 4-D star collides with Earth , causing it to `` unroll '' into a seemingly infinite plane . Though satellite images from orbit appear normal , on the surface , everything has changed . There are suddenly new continents , new seas , stretching endlessly onward . A new age of exploration begins .

Billions of people, families, friends, lovers. All separated by no more than a days travel at most. THat was it, that's all it took to see any person you might want to. Technology had shrunk our world to almost nothing. Now, it was massive, incalculable. New landscapes had been added randomly. Oceans now separated people who were once neighbours. While in some places entire cities had been untouched. 
 
 
 And there was me, a single dad, my kids had been with their mother when the star had rolled across our world. Satellites were all toasted by the electromagnetic interference, at least that's what most of us had guessed. No more landlines stretched between cities to make a old fashioned phone call, and to top it all off, a brand new landscape, of indeterminate length stretched between me and my kids. Sam was only 5, Jane even younger, and they were the only reason I got up every morning. 
 
 
 It took me a week to scrounge together every piece of outdoor equipment I could fit onto my back and a dirt bike. It used to take me an hour to drive my kids to their mothers house. Everything ahead of me looked passable, but binoculars and a high hill revealed what looked like a new range of mountains to rival the rockies ahead. There were a few groups that had started ranging into the new wilderness, mostly for usable farmland, timber, and hunting. But nobody had even thought of going more than a days travel out. 
 
 All I knew was that I had to head west. West was where my kids were.
