Population: Women

The year is 3011. We made it here – but barely. The world had crumbled heavily into a cataclysmic environmental crisis about 4 years ago. We knew it was dark before this, we even knew back in the early 2000’s but action was too delayed, and now we have ended up here…

Environmental agencies, trillionaires and the like took the earth's cry for help into their own hands.

An enzyme was released into the atmosphere that resulted in mass population loss. The resulting devastation shocked everyone, it was truly terrible. Lives and families were completely torn apart. The tragedy was that 90% of men on the planet lost their lives, but comparatively only half the population of women were lost.

Women around the globe started creating camps and using the power they now held to try and create a better and more resourceful world for the future. The world we knew was gone, and the past years had been dire and grim. Nobody wanted an event like that to happen ever again.

All the camps were heavily guarded, armoured, and almost tribal. Men were not allowed to set foot into the camp sites, unless permitted by a camp leader, and only then for the sole purpose of reproducing. In fact fit and healthy young men became a commodity and were traded between camps, almost as slaves. Women volunteered for reproduction programs, and the men had no choice but to oblige as well. Refusal was not tolerated well. Only children were kept in the camps, and sadly the older males were sent out into the wilderness, often to pass away. It was a sad and bleak lifestyle that offered little hope of a better future for anyone.

The camp leaders were rough and gritty. It was a harsh justice system completely unlike anything you could ever even imagine.

My name is Josie. I have always dreamed of being a mother and decided to volunteer myself for the reproduction program. In my dreams, I would have brought my child into a much better world, but now I find myself here. I have prepared myself mentally, physically, and emotionally for this next step. It is not ideal, but nothing about the world I live in is ideal anymore.

I had not seen a man in what felt like such a long time. He was directed into my camp with guards and guns. I could see his stare as he passed; it was cold and sharp; he had striking brown eyes that I felt pierced my soul. I gripped my necklace tightly as they walked past, it was a heart shaped locket my mother had passed down to me, it grounded and calmed me, and I often unconsciously played around with it when I got nervous. He was tall, looked slim but also strong. My heart was pounding at the sight of him.

It had been so long since I had seen a man, to be in the same vicinity as one. I could even smell him as he passed, I felt an insatiable aching to be close to him, and I felt strangely out of control. I was attracted to him but fearful at the same time. The guards continued past and took the man to a holding cell. Our eyes locked as they were closing the cell door, he looked so sad.

That night I lay awake just thinking about him, tossing and turning. I yearned to connect with him, I needed to know more about him. I was restless. I threw my blanket off in a fit of frustration. I had to find out what was happening to me. I left my room, and tiptoed down corridors, making sure not to make a sound. Slipping effortlessly and lightly past all the guards until I got to his holding cell.

There was a small, barred window high up in the door, I had to stand on my tiptoes to try and get a peek, or just catch a glimpse of him at all. He was lying on the bed facing away from me. I was trying to see as much as I possibly could, as quietly as I could, and then I slipped and hit my nose on the door.

“I can hear you” I heard coming from the room. My heart skipped a beat, surely, he didn’t mean he could hear me? I was torn between running away and screaming my lungs out for help. But I didn’t do either of those things. I just stood at the door frozen, and then I saw his face appear in the window, and our eyes locked. I couldn’t help myself “You have beautiful eyes, you know?” he just grimaced at me. His first words to me were “Do you know how easy you have it in here? The world is a mess for men out there. There’s no sense of purpose or order, we have no homes or families, we’re dying every day, none of us can see any sort of future, let alone any sort of future for the children we might father.” I averted my eyes, I knew it would be hard out there for them, but I had no idea the extent of it. I was happy living in mild ignorance, I had lost people too as well, and camp life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. “I’m sorry” I winced. “The world isn’t fair the way it is now, is it?”

I took a few steps back, I was surprisingly at ease, but I didn’t know what to expect from this man yet. “You don’t have to be scared of me,” he said through the window. “I know” I said with mild exasperation “It has been so long since I have seen a man, I’m just getting myself used to the idea of you”. He looked at me and laughed playfully “Well am I everything you expected then?”. We both stopped for a moment, I could almost feel his body temperature through the door between us. There was an electric, uncontrollable chemistry in the air, a buzzing, and then, I did something I cannot explain…

***CLICK. I unlocked the door. He heard this and pulled the door open with a calm but precise force. He took some measured steps toward me, putting both hands on the wall over my head. He was leaning over me and I could feel the heat from his body. He leaned in and kissed me. It was passionate and heavy.

I knew in my bones, right this minute, that this was a turning point for this new world. Do I follow my instinct? Do I continue being locked in this camp with no end or future in sight? What did I want? It took only a second to choose recklessness, or was it reckless? Perhaps I will never know why I made the decision I did. I knew nothing about this man; but I did know it felt right. “Let’s get us both out of here”. I know now I chose hope.