DESPAIR – Ryan Rosales

BOOK ONE - THE TROJAN ON SOCIETY

CHAPTER ONE - HOW WAS IT?

‘How was it?” I asked to him.
“Life is now hell, even here, to be honest,” he described.
Ever since the pass of the year 2045, the whole world was
like he described – hell on the surface. For God knows how long,
the US isn’t the dominant country now. Eastern Europe is in
shambles, as ever since the nineties, it has been fighting and
violence being the norm. East Asia is dominated by China and
Korea – North Korea, that is, with pockets of democracy
scattered everywhere.
I may quote Charles Dickens’ The Tale of Two Cities as
having a shadow to this world. Basically, “It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times” has truth, as humankind had
seesawed – we re-visited the moon, but the economic crash of
2035 doomed us a lot, especially when the climate of Mother
Earth took for the worst. Now even Paris had that foggy dew like
in India, or in China.
We were at a pub in London, I think it was in Westminster
or Chealsea, but we were talking around that area. The UK was
a pocket of democracy from the tide of reds in Europe. Prince
Andrew was the new king, after Charles III died of a stroke a
month ago. We were safe, but Britania is still endangered.
Like I said, the UK was a pocket of democracy. NATO is
just a weak trio, France fell to socialists in a general election in
the thirties – if anything, at least Mr. Macron had his head spared
with this new revolution, after trying to change France to what he
wanted. Germany, Poland, the Benelux – practically every
country was red in Europe, except Ireland and the UK, I guess.
 How about Asia? It’s a hellhole also.
The Middle East lost her luster, because they dried up the
oil there, now it is barren, and the OFWs left back to where they
came.
India? Ruined. The BJP aggravated the Muslims there.
They turned violent and formed terrorist groups in the Kashmir
and Bengal. Backed with Pakistan, Bharat is dead inside-out
(due to Hindutva, I guess)
Australasia? Nearly same. I think only the Philippines
remains democratic. Juan’s neighbors are enemies with him, all
backed by China.
Only the Americas remain free, albeit very weak against
Russia and China. Africa has collapsed with multiple warlords
fighting against each other. South Africa has collapsed with a
civil war with the local Africans and a group called the Boer
Resistance Front in the 2030s.
Now, who is this man I am talking?
He was Yonan. Yohanan Darlan, to be specific. He was my
cousin (mother’s side), from the Philippines. He left from
thereafter when a super-conservative coalition was elected after
President Leni Robredo was ousted in 2026, and eventually the
country fell into near anarchy. It was done, but he left. It’s still like
hell there.
We were talking in that London pub, because I had been in
a meeting with a broker from a company called GaiaThea Inc. I
had recently heard them on the news after announcing Project
Genesis. In great detail, it was the first attempt for GaiaThea
since the 2036 failed Project Aleph to start mining on Martian
moons.
I brought the GaiaThea topic to our conversation with
Yonan. And he reacted it nearly volatile.
 He ordered a pint of Guiness when I brought it up, and he
spat the drink out.
“How on earth do you brought up that up? HOW
COME!?!?”, he said. In such an alarming way, everybody inside
immediately stared into Yonan like they had heads of birds. I
don’t know why he had this disdain, I mean, why?
GaiaThea seemed like a normal company that sell shares.
It was founded in 2023, by some woman named Thea
Schwarzmann, in the city of Basel, in Switzerland. Switzerland is
still immune from the red tide, with Austria and Italy, after a
coalition of the Red Union forces (those countries that fell to
socialism) invaded in 2037. They still stand, albeit severely
weak.
“GaiaThea is about making a refuge in the cosmos, for
humanity can start his newer adventures, one step at a time”
was the words I saw in its website when Yonan showed it up to
me. He said it was ‘merely a scam’ to take advantage on the
situation, and it was the reason the economic crash of 2035
happened, when GaiaThea became a massive tumor, by making
projects that are ‘trojans to society.’ Companies start collapsing,
and causing demand to skyrocket, leading to companies ‘digging
their own graveyards.’ This left the ‘free world’ not being ‘free’.
“GaiaThea has dominated the world. It’s the reason why
the world is fractured. The company is very secretive on its
inners, and uses media to downplay or blame other factors for
blunders it makes. It abuses its power to gain upper hands, and
by destroying companies, it forces what remains to cooperate
with it and survive or be harassed.”
He said some more negative words, saying that
GaiaThea’s Project Genesis and others were made to distract
‘how oligarchic the remaining free nations were now’ and ‘how
powerful governments became toy dolls to corporations.’
 Without a doubt, he was a member of a centrist-liberal
political pressure group, the Reform Britain Party. His mother
and father were second-generation British-Irish citizens, and they
went back to the Philippines, where they came from, for a while,
until they went back before their Philippine naturalization papers
were finished, because of the violence. So technically, he could
run in parliament.
“The UK is very weak now” he said. He was in London
because for an annual meeting in the nearby Chealsea area. By
that point, the Labour Party (his party before Reform) had
disbanded after rumors circulated that they were plotting to start
a ‘worker’s revolution.’
I asked him what was Reform Britain all about, when we left
the bar and we went to Westfield Park. Then he answered:
“Our party is for reform in the UK. I was born as a British
citizen in Ireland of Filipino blood. We want change now.
Britannia is too small to run herself without danger and hardship
today.”
He does have a point on that. We were on Westfield for his
convention, though I refused his offer to attend it. I mean, who
attends a convention, without having an idea on it – especially if
it is political?
I had some other plans today, and I went to Liverpool for a
small meeting the next day after meeting Yohanan in…
Chealsea, Westminster? I still get confused… I wasn’t even
drunk!
In Liverpool, before even the meeting in the city… (hell,
before even reaching there!) I already spotted that the airport
was expanded, and a majority of that space was used by the
Royal Air Force.
 I then descended off and then called a cab. I questioned
the gentleman on what in God’s name was happening, he replied
that rumors of Britain being invaded were circulating, and Prime
Minister Audrey Loralei Pennes said in a recent event that
‘Britain will enter to another blitz; not by the Nazis, but by a
revived Soviet Union, ever larger’. My goodness that woman
dares to become the second Churchill! It’s a coincidence that it
was a century ago when the blitz happened, only to possibly
return.
Given how I got a bit light-minded in the plane, now I
understand.
I went to the meeting of ours. It wasn’t political, it was
discussing my purchase of land, somewhere in Derry. I was
moving there from the Philippines, with those same reasons. I
was luckier, because I was an investor and I was fairly money-
heavy.
The meeting had ended with some negotiation deals
fulfilled and/or rejected. I had some other business to do, but the
current political weather suggests that I should stop for a while,
considering the fact that the continent I am currently on is filled
with hostile countries, against the government of this soil.
Might as well long for the storm’s end.
CHAPTER TWO – THE TRUTH OR NOT
Now it concerns me that the situation in the world has
deteriorated. In my views, the air in London was dirtier than hell
and I see heightened tension in the channel. Apparently, patrols
have led to skirmishes in the region and the UK government is
initiating diplomatic operations to try to ease the pressure
diplomatically. I might as well move away from the UK sometime,
as something bad is tingling on my marrow. Something’s wrong,
I can feel it.
I met up a woman near Pembroke, in Wales. We drove to
Swansea, and when we were driving in a middle of a field I can
already see army trucks with soldiers with loaded rifles, and the,
and they had stopped our vehicle. The tension was high now, as
Britain seemed ready to fight. Hell, the soldiers looked they were
ready to fight! We were let inside the proper, and with caution,
drove slowly, as the town was heavily fortified.