XX Chronicles Chapter 1
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Chapter 1
The Man-Eater
My sisters are in the room. Beryl stands the tallest and the oldest of us. I'm the only boy, the middle child. She has her gun at her hip and her hair tied in a long twisted ponytail that goes all the way down her back. She was the fastest shooter in these shooter in these parts and everyone knew it. We meet at the old Saloon. It reminds me of Scorpion tail. Beryl is the most dangerous of my sisters and that's saying a lot. They call my oldest sisters the stingers. Beryl, Pearl and Ruby have always been the law Enforcement and the protectors of New Florida. Right now though...they'd called the rest of us to meet and that was something that I wasn't used to.
“Thank ya'll for coming.”
Diamond is the only one who speaks out against it, “If the Grandmother finds out we're here...”
“She's weak as fuck. Old as dust. She's become useless. The Convention is coming and he will be gone. This will be our one and only shot. He's fertile. We need him. We need his sperm.”
“This could mean war,” Diamond warns.
She's pushing it. She's getting the eyes but that won't make her back down.
“We'll take his sperm. We'll kill him after. Dead men don't tell stories...” Beryl lets us know.
The others are listening to her. 6 of my eight sisters are in this room with me. We live in the highlands of what used to be Florida and parts of Georgia. The closest states are the Carolinas. There are no more North Carolina and South Carolina. They merged. Now they are just the Carolinas. Georgia doesn't exist anymore. Neither does Alabama. They were all blown off the fucking map with an atomic bomb. That doesn't matter anymore. That was a long time ago. Now this land is called something else and there's no more peace. The country is in civil war and Beryl knows it. I can see it in her eyes.
“This is treason,” another one of my sisters says.
My younger sister Opal shakes her head, “I agree with the stingers. Sperm is the only thing that matters at this point.”
“Let me talk to her first,” I suggest.
They all look at me. I've always been the reasonable one. I've always been the diplomatic one. My sisters wanted war and they'd stop at nothing to get sperm. Beryl isn't the type to really change her mind about things but I can tell she knows that she hasn't convinced all the others. The silence wasn't something she expected when she brought up this plan to our sisters. She expected unwavering support. Maybe that's why she seems to reconsider her strong-armed stance.
“He comes tonight. If you can't convince the Grandmother by then. We'll take it...one way or another...”
I nod.
“I understand.”
The others walk out of the room and I know that the fate of my family and my people are at stake here. We needed sperm and we needed it desperately.
==
Guess you wonderin' what's all this talk about sperm?
“There is a problem with our men...”
My name is Gem Zoe. I know Gem isn't the normal name for a boy but I wasn't exactly the normal kind of boy. I'm not sure where I should start. I guess at the beginning. The very first time I heard that there was a problem with our men.
I was 4 years old when the news came. My family lived in the country of South Georgia near Macon. My grandfather was a wealthy oil guy back then running for Governor of Georgia and we had all the luxuries money could afford. When you live like that, you think you're untouchable until you're touched. Until every man you know in your life is touched.
A strange disease took over America. America was quarantined from the rest of the world. Canada stopped trade.
Mexico closed it's boarders to us almost immediately. Funny how that shit happened huh?
No one knows where it came from.
No one knows who started it.
It just spread like wildfire. The called it the Man-Eater Outbreak. The first thing it did was kill off 80% of all men in the country. The Government toppled because clearly men ran the country at that time for the most part. Families were destroyed. America itself was on the brink of complete loss.
The remaining men were saved by the Districts. The Districts were really Maryland, Virginia and what used to be DC. They all came merged because that was the area where most of the remaining senators or what not lived. I guess they had the most control when shit started getting crazy. New York was the first to secede from America...then the Districts came next. New England became a swampland as everyone migrated south. The West Coast united to bring the seceding nations back but a nuclear attack by DC stopped that shit fast and in a hurry.
The West Coast was a waistland now and the Midwest nations started to break off. When Texas left and became it's own Nation the America was no more.
“There's something very wrong with our men.”
The District was the only nation that stayed whole when they developed the XY immunization. I guess after taking out the West Coast they felt like shit so they decided to usher in peace. Good news is with the immunization, disease stopped killing off men. Bad news was it left the rest completely infertile.
The year is 2050.
“This could lead to war. Fertile men are the most important asset to a country. Attacking another country's fertile man and stealing his sperm is just...it's wrong,” Diamond follows me out of the saloon.
Diamond is innocent. She's the closest to me in age and she looks like me. A lot of people think we're twins. We are both 27. We're both tall and slim. We both have long curly hair. The sad thing about all of this is that we both even have the same mannerisms. I'm a boy...but I've been around all women all of my life. Since the Man-Eater outbreak my family rose to prominence due to grandfather's natural immunization and money. When what remained of Georgia came together with Florida under my grandfather's rule and they made him President.
“Unless you want us to be the last generation...we need sperm,” I explain to her.
Diamond assumed I was on her side when she gives me a strange look, “Maybe you shouldn't convince Grandmother to change her mind. Beryl is power hungry.”
“The country is dying and I refuse to die off without a fight.”
“Grandma...”
My grandfather is on his deathbed when I walk into the presidential chambers. It's not really saying much. The mansion estate is a private area away from the city. We had to move because a terrorist group attacked the old estate. The terrorist group were feminists. Feminists were a big problem in our country particularly. They believed that we didn't need men to survive and wanted to overthrow the Zoe family rule to secure that.
“Is he ok?” I ask her.
Grandmother shakes her head at me, “Not much longer now. Not long at all.”
“People are assuming Pa Zoe is already dead,” I tell my grandmother, “They think you're trying to hide it.”
“People think a lot of things. Let them think,” My grandmother explains at that moment, “I have other things to worry about.”
“Like the Districts?”
She looks over at me. She doesn't tell me much nowadays. She doesn't tell anyone in the family anything. I don't think she's wrong for it. You never know who you can trust in our world. Things have become...complicated to say the least.
“Your tone doesn't seem too glad that the Districts are coming,” she explained, “They are our allies. With the Carolinas threatening to bomb us to hell...they are all we have.”
“They rob us every year of more and more resources.”
“You've been talking to your sisters.”
It's not a question when she says it. She's right. I have been talking to my sisters. I know she is referring to Beryl and the other stingers particularly.
“I've been listening to them,” I correct her, “I've also been listening to the people. There are protests in every city. People don't trust the Districts. They want war. They want to take back what belongs to us. By force...”
“What belongs to us?” she asks, “You mean like Rahmell.”
The name sends shivers down my spine.
“Everything.”
My grandmother smiles a long time. She looks down at my grandfather. He's stopped speaking for almost a week now. He lays there more a lemon than a man. I wasn't sure what sickness took over him. I guess it really didn't matter. My grandfather just got sick one day and he slowly started fading away. With him our way of life was changing. My grandmother was caring less about my grandfather's believes of isolation. She seemed to have other goals and I wasn't sure what they were.
She smiles a little bit, “Patience is a virtue. And there are other paths less violent with the same outcome...”
“So you won't do anything when they get here?”
“I'll entertain them.”
That's not what I meant.
“What has happened to you?” I ask my grandmother, “You were once proud. Now we are the fucking walking carpet of the WORLD. Is this how you want us to end up? Is this your goal?”
“Your grandfather gave away our fertile men. I'm just dealing with it.”
That's when I realize it. My grandmother wasn't going to do anything. I'm about to argue. I think she can tell by the way I'm looking at her.
“Ma Zoe...” I say sternly.
“I've arrested Rahmell's mother,” Grandmother lets me know, “She's been sentenced to two years.”
She's a tricky old lady. She can see it coming a mile away.
“Why would you...”
I can't even finish the words. Rahmell's mother was a teacher. She taught girls in the city about higher learning and being strong not in the body but in the mind. I can't believe that my grandmother would just throw her in jail like that.
Ma Zoe doesn't give me the chance to explain, “She's been working behind my back with the stingers hoping to get her son back from the Districts. I know she's been starting those protests. If you and your sisters continue to feed our women these thoughts of war...you'll be joining her in a cell. Is that understood Gem?”
“Yes ma'am.”
“Good. You can leave.”
There is a heavy weight on my shoulders as I walk out of the room. I walk into the hallway. In the darkness I see the three stingers. They were waiting for me. They must have followed me. They must have known that I was going to talk to our grandmother now.
It's Beryl whose eyes glint with a sense of recognition.
And I can't hold it back any longer.
I shake my head, “You were right.”
“And?” my sister says.
“She's soft. Let's do what we need to do tonight.”
=========================================================================
The hovercraft arrives at 5pm. It has the District Flag on it. One time the District Flag had 50 stars but now there is just 1 star on it. I'm pretty sure it looks exactly like the Liberian flag. I guess they figured the country of Liberia would never find out about it since the United States were quarantined from the rest of the world. It's just like the Districts to take what doesn't belong to them....just like taking so much of my country's wealth.
I'd never seen a hovercraft before. I stand next to Diamond keeping my head up. I have to be proud. Grandmother is standing just a few feet ahead of us and the last thing she would want is for us to act as though we are impressed by District technology.
“I'm scared,” Diamond tells me, “Some say the Districts have robots that go in your brain and control your thoughts.”
“Nothing to be afraid of,” I tell her, “That would probably be nice not to think for awhile.”
I put on a brave face but truth is I'm terrified. I'm not a peace-loving person like Diamond. I'm not a war monger like Beryl. I'm moderate and I feel like I'm becoming the last moderate person in the fucking world.
They dock and walk out of their hovercraft. I've can't remember ever seeing so many men. The Man-Eater Outbreak was so quick that I'd only known about two or so men. They were called the Fertiles. Grandmother kept the Fertiles safe. Fertiles were a country's most natural possession. Now that my grandfather was on his deathbed we'd only had two fertile men left. The other men who survived in our country weren't allowed in the capital. Over the years Grandfather ended up trading all our infertile men. Even infertile men were possessions to the country. They were used as vessels to please rich women whose husbands died from the Man-Eater Outbreak.
“So many beautiful women, I must say the Amazons have a legendary status for their beautiful women,” a man says.
The Amazon was the nickname of my country. It was directly inherited from the ancient Amazon...warrior women who fought like men. I was sure it came from the fact that the Climate change has caused much of our land to look like the Amazon jungle. Really it just seemed like the Everglades were everywhere now. The Amazon was the nickname thing that stuck. At first it was because we were the country with the least men, fertile or infertile. Soon it became a curse. The lack of men made us not very valuable on the world stage. The only reason that we survived is because of the Amazon had a discovery of vast natural resources including precious stones. The stones were the reason that my grandfather named all his grandchildren what he did.
I recognize the man as a popular District Senator who was possibly running for president in the upcoming election. Chances were he was going to win too especially since he was running against a woman. Nowadays a male leader was rare but if any country would have one it'd be the District. He looks like the leader. He's followed by a couple dozen other men that load out of the hovercraft. This man is tall, dark and handsome. He has to be in his 30s. When he looks around he doesn't notice me. I fit in with the females naturally.
My Grandmother allows him to kiss his palm and she smiles at that moment, “Senator Redd, nowadays the only commodity that matters is a handsome man.”
“Ma Zoe...you flatter me.”
“I can do more than just that,” Ma Zoe smiles, “Follow me. Your men have traveled a long way. We've prepared meals for you.”
The Zoe family remained in a separate area. No one joined Ma Zoe and the men save Ruby. Ruby was one of the older girls and the most beautiful. I look on as I see some of the men gawking at how pretty Ruby is. Some of them even squeeze her ass a couple times as she serves them plates of local food.
Ma Zoe doesn't do anything but laugh on.
“She's so weak,” Beryl states.
Beryl is in my ear before I know it. Truth is she's saying what the rest of us are thinking. My grandfather was on his death bed and Grandmother chooses to invite Districts here. Beryl is holding onto a hunting knife. She was deadly with it. These men had weapons and advanced weapons at that. They'd kill her but not before she took down a good number of them. The look in my oldest sister's eyes makes me think she'll do it.