The year is 2035.
Fifteen years after a global pandemic gave 70% of the population the flu and wiped out five thousand elderly with underlying or pre-existing health conditions globally, the world has finally recovered.
The country wide lock downs in force across the globe were lifted after just six months, but their effects lasted years. People washed their hands for twenty seconds with a zeal rarely seen among humans, they wiped down everything they touched within thirty seconds of touching it and social distancing became such a habit governments were forced to instigate mass gatherings every two months.
Gatherings such as these became festivals, multi day affairs that saw a rekindling of the close relationship one human could have with another. After a couple of years, music groups reformed after members attended one of these events, and slowly the music festival was reborn, though none were ever to bear the name Woodstock again.
The world righted itself and the human race realized just what it had let happen during the pandemic. A new entity had emerged, one that had co-opted governments, religious leaders and big business. A rather unexpected development to most people, but to those who saw the signs, those who used just a modicum of brain power to look around during the pandemic, it was obvious. Inevitable.
GoJo industries, makers of the hand sanitizer Purell, among many other cleaning products, experienced a decade of unprecedented growth and sales dominance. Their products became the single biggest selling household items of all time, with every home on the planet containing the firm's wares in some form.
The company’s value rose from $74.4million to over $3 billion in just over two years, and that growth continued over the course of the decade. The company expanded and diversified, buying up what was once considered untouchable giants of tech, manufacturing and entertainment. Amazon fell first, closely followed by Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others.
GoJo folded these acquisitions into the whole, but kept the brands separate. The money kept building with each new firm they bought, and the once relatively small firm became the only name that mattered. No one could compete at the same level anymore.
In 2032, and facing little to no resistance from anyone, let alone the modern governments of the world, Gojo declared itself the first of a new breed of company. The first Mega Corporation. The truth was it was the only real corporation still in existence. It formed it’s own police force to patrol the area’s around its massive corporate structures, and later its own private military force.
The megacorp crushed all opposition. Terrorism has been all but wiped out, though rumblings of a rebellion have started to swell in the last couple of years. Government officials run every decision through the Gojo board, and nothing changes without their approval. The world became governed by fear, but also saw an unprecedented era of peace. No country has escaped Gojo’s influence, fewer still its wrath.
Still, as a planet, Earth has thrived. Plans to expand to the Moon, and Mars have accelerated, and scientific breakthroughs abound. Medicine and technology have produced wonders in the last decade, that is of course you can afford Gojo’s prices.
So it is that in 2035, fifteen years after a global pandemic gave 70% of the population the flu, a hand sanitizer manufacturer took control of the world.