Population Zero

Chapter Three

The weeks went by quickly after that meeting. It was pretty much filled with the usual. We all had chores to do, dishes to wash, laundry to fold, classes and homework. I became very disenchanted with life after I got a taste of what could be. Tired of walking past the flashing "Let's destroy the human race" sign at the front of the cafeteria. Tired of the environmentalism and anti-human sentiments I was constantly being bombarded with in all my classes. Tired of the constant reminders of the importance of sexual repression. I was beginning to suspect that some of the boys weren't doing so well in that realm anyway. There were numerous occasions when I would hear two or more of the boys in the cottage wresting around after lights out. I always took out my hearing aids but not everyone was lucky enough to be nearly deaf like me. Elijah came to me once unusually at a loss for words and in hindsight I think he was trying to confess something to me, but he never got the words out. I was always afraid of him getting some abuse because of his small stature and bold and brash nature, it just seemed inevitable. We didn't really the sort of relationship where we could talk about that sort of thing unfortunately, and I couldn't imagine what I could have said or done to help him if he had been on the receiving end of any type of abuse. I had pretty much escaped that fate after I won over the boys' favor. Either way, anger and resentment began spreading in the East Wing. Fights began breaking out between guys who weren't particularly aggressive. Level 4's who never once caused a problem or broke any rules were being demoted. Sexual repression just didn't seem to be working and as I inched closer to my 13th birthday, I found myself desperate for intimacy and touch. One night before lights out I tried to start a conversation up with Asher, who was beginning to be a very close friend to me and someone I sort of looked up to. He was still a level 4 like me and hadn't succumbed to the fury of pending adolescence.

"Asher, do you realize that you, me, and Elijah are practically the only level 4's left in the whole wing?"

"Yeah. I guess so. What's your point?" He didn't look up from reading his textbook and in his right hand he held a pencil, ready to take notes. He wasn't interested in me at all but I pressed him further.

"Well. We kind of have a trust built, us and the youth officers. We could use that trust to our benefit don't you think?" I leaned in to him and put my hand down on top of his textbook to block him from reading.

"What are you getting at Lucas? I'm working really hard over here not to get demoted and we have a duty to fulfill. Remember?" His head snapped up and he pulled my hand off his book squeezing my hand tight causing me to wince.

I grabbed my fingers and held them tightly trying to ignore the pain. "But don't you wonder? Don't you want to leave these walls some day and have a real chance at meeting a female? If I have to go one more day without doing something I think I might completely lose it like all the other guys here.." I trailed off feeling defeated. He wasn't listening. I thought for a moment about what I could say to him. He clearly has desires just like the rest of us. How could I get him to see that we need some sort of plan?

What he didn't understand was that I knew where they kept the females. The truth is I've always known. Because of my compliance and behavior I was always let in to places that were ordinarily not meant for youth. I was always a favorite in the west wing among the officers and like I mentioned before, I was always sickly so I was always being carted back and forth between the hospital on site and the specialty clinics. I was always the first in my classes to stand up for the environment and insist upon the necessity of human destruction. Humans are bad for the earth. We need to stop reproducing and essentially make ourselves extinct so that the earth and all its innocent inhabitants can flourish once again. Being raised with this sort of mentality made it extremely difficult to shake off as I got older and began to understand the consequences of this way of life. When I was young it never occurred to me I may one day grow up and actually want to meet a female. I was a star pupil too, always the first among my peers to be called on and a model student in all my classes. I participated in all the extra curricular activities including choir and theatre. Who was ever to suspect that allowing me on occasion to leave the compound could ever backfire? Perhaps they were trying to groom me to be a youth officer but I can't know for sure.

I was 7 when I was first allowed outside of the compound. I knew it at the time that this was a very rare thing to occur. Youth boys just didn't leave, ever. It wasn't a thing. It was Frank who took me, a particularly young guy for a youth officer and although I was just a child, I sort of felt like he was a friend. He took me out without registering me or reporting me or anything. He took me out just me and him on an all-terrain vehicle meant for traveling across compounds which were spread out pretty significantly. I figured it was just a joy ride but he probably took me a little too far and when we circled back to our quarters he made me promise to never tell his superiors.

We went out several times after this and each time he would take me farther and farther until we almost reached the second compound. I asked him who lived there as we stopped and stood out against the sky. He told me that I would never meet the ones who lived there. He said it was best, anyway. Their lives were far worse than ours. They had been born the wrong sex.

I'll never forget those words. They struck me with such intensity that my curiosity began. We have always been taught that males are the dominant and most important sex. We are bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter. Females only have one role to play and that role is an evil one, procreation. I was so tired of hearing this over and over throughout my life and I somehow sensed that it simply wasn't true. Females must have so much more to offer and I refuse to believe they are solely responsible for the destruction of our planet. They don't deceive men into propagating the human race. There must be something there that compels men to have sex with them, even knowing the side effects of breeding. They must have some magical essence about them that draws us. How could someone be born the wrong sex anyway? For the first time in my life, I had questions. Though I never mentioned it to anyone, ever. I always kept my promise to Frank. Until now.

I got up and went over to my bed. Under the mattress I kept a treasure trove of stolen items that I took out of compulsion, usually for no reason at all. I pulled out a laminated yellow card that read "Frank 739" with a barcode directly below. I dropped the card on top of Asher's textbook and the color drained from his face. "How did you get this?" He demanded. This was a card that only youth officers could carry. A card that allowed them to access other compounds and had to be scanned each time they entered or exited any compound. I swiped this off of Frank so many years ago and I never had any intent of doing anything with it, until now. After I finished explaining everything to him, Asher's jaw practically hit the floor.

We became closer than ever after this night as we began hatching our plan for an escape. Every evening after lights out we would bunk together under the light of a flashlight Benjamin had left behind and used notebooks and loose leaf paper we saved from our classes to write down our thoughts and ideas. In whispered voices we discussed the known parts of the compound and drew a makeshift map of where we suspected most things were located and where the edge of the compound would be in the direction of the females. We talked about the youth officers and where they slept, ate, and worked. We knew a surprising amount of information between the two of us because we had enjoyed so much privilege and favoritism within the compound. We even knew where the ATV's were located and when they would most likely be in operation or vacant. When it seemed like we were getting closer and closer to setting up "operation find the females" I was hit hard with a reality check. Asher was turning 13 in one week. It usually takes Dustin the longest time to transfer out the teenagers over to Eric and I suspect the two men have a lot of animosity between them but something had changed after the whole Benjamin debacle and now the boys were being transferred out immediately on their 13th birthdays. If Asher gets the same treatment, even considering his high status, he could be out in a matter of days. I know I would still get to see him during the monthly meetings but it would be next to impossible to communicate much with him during an hour once a month. If we are going to get anything done it needs to be soon.