You know how one event can trigger a chain reaction that massively alters the future?
As one college student wrote in their bluebook during a history exam, "The First World War was caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, and ushered in a new error in the annals of human history."
The Third World War was caused by one nutjob killing a leading candidate for the Presidential nomination. That started a spate of violence on both sides. Within 10 days, no fewer than 600 prominent politicians, including the President and Vice President, were dead as a result.
The new President ordered the military to round up all the fomentors of the violence and declared about 20 violent groups to be domestic terrorists. The leaders of those groups were tried, convicted and executed within a week. The followers were given life sentences without parole, and to free up space in the prisons for the 10 million new lifers, people who had been serving time for smoking dope or stealing a loaf of bread to feed their families were given a blanket amnesty and their records were scrubbed.
And in the course of the investigation, it turned out that a lot of the groups had been given backing by the criminal organization in Russia masquerading as a government. The new President showed more balls than any of the men who had held the position before her had. She ordered the Russian government exterminated.
Strategic and tactical surprise were complete. Two weeks later, the Russian fascists and anyone in a position of power in Russia who had supported them were gone, replaced permanently by freedom-loving leftists. The Russian propaganda machine was completely destroyed.
The fascist puppet governments in other countries who had been put in by the Russian fascists knew they were doomed. But they weren't going to go down quietly. Rather than wait for the Western democracies to destroy them one by one, they launched a global war against freedom and democracy.
As a friend of mine put it, "Just like in the 1940's, the Zees won handily."
It only took us nine months instead of five years to take out all the Not Zees. The forces of good had triumphed much faster this time due to advances in technology. And we weren't going to make the same mistake twice. After the war was over, a world government under the auspices of the EU was set up, and all countries on the planet were forced to join it and give up their own individual governments. All global organizations were forced to submit to it. For example, the Catholic Church was allowed to continue existing, but everyone in their hierarchy who either was a pedophile or had protected pedophile priests was given a dose of truth serum, confessed their crimes on globally broadcast television and was then executed. The people in the hierarchy who were merely haters and bigots were forced to resign their positions and were quietly executed, and all preachers were required to preach the actual philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth. The focus was on love and helping the poor and treating others well.
All corporations were seized by the new world government and merged into it. Hatred, bigotry, fascism, greed, selfishness, sexism and racism were made crimes with a mandatory penalty of death without trial. This law was most strictly enforced. All resources of every kind were equitably distributed to everyone on the planet. And everyone who needed medical care was given it, with no waiting, no copayments, no rejections by insurance companies (which no longer existed), and one-on-one care was given to all.
That's where I come in. See, I was a soldier in the final war. I fought on the side of goodness and freedom. And I had developed PTSD in addition to suffering a wound in my left leg that required daily physical therapy.
"Hello, Johnny."
It was my nurse. She was with me eight hours a day.
"Hello, Angela."
"Ready to do your physical therapy?"
"Yes."
She directed me for three and a half hours as I did the proper exercises to help my leg recover from the wound. Then we took an hour for lunch, and I got a chance to just talk with her. We were both in our late 20's.
"How did you become a nurse?"
It was a question I hadn't yet asked.
"I always wanted to help people, even before this new government came around. Being a nurse seemed like a good way to do that."
"I never wanted to have to fight, but I knew we needed everyone we could get, so when all the crap went down, I volunteered."
"You have a nice soul."
That was an unexpected compliment, and a unique one.
"Um, so do you."
"We both know you also think I have a nice body."
Angela was as tall as I was (five-foot-nine), with a wide frame, curly blonde hair, blue eyes, a very pretty face, a charming smile, E-cup breasts (I estimated), and a gorgeous round butt. She had all the right curves in all the right places and not an ounce of superfluous fat.
"I wasn't going to say that."
Sexual harassment was a very serious crime.
"I know. You're trying to keep things professional. But you know something? You're a good-looking guy, yourself."
I was in good shape. Toned and muscular from being a soldier. Military-style short black hair, and clean-shaven. Aside from the leg wound, I was actually pretty nice looking, now that I thought about it.
"Well..."
"That's a hole with water in it." Angela gave me a smile. "I have to keep it professional while I'm helping you recover. But after you're healed, I'm free to ask you out on dates."
"Best incentive yet for me to heal quickly."
The afternoon was spent doing psychological exercises to aid me with my PTSD.
"See you tomorrow." Angela flashed me one of her 500-watt smiles. She could melt a glacier with one of those.
"Sounds good."
Over the next six months, Angela did stay strictly professional. But as winter became spring and then summer, she dressed for the weather, meaning instead of bulky outfits that covered as much skin as possible, she was wearing a light sundress, or a T-shirt and shorts. I couldn't help but admire her figure, though I kept my lip zipped.
Finally, my leg was as recovered as it was going to get.
"We both know that there's no actual CURE for PTSD. So I'm afraid you'll have to put up with me every day for the rest of your life as I act as your therapy human."
"Gee, what a shame. I can't possibly imagine a worse fate than having to be close to you."
"I hope you don't mind me staying over here 24 hours a day. After all, you never know when your PTSD will be triggered, and I would be remiss in my duties if I wasn't present to help you through the episode."
"I suppose we'll have to move your things in, then."
No human had very many material things anymore. Everything was electronic now. It only took three days for Angela's stuff to be transferred to my house.
"I understand that one method of dealing with PTSD is to have a pleasant experience you can use as a memory shield to keep the bad memories from surfacing."
