Post-Human

When I look at Jake it takes me back to a much simpler time. I’m reminded once again of what it was like to be 13 years old— getting drunk when my parents went for a night out, chasing girls around, going to the movies, and my first kiss with Heather Bankley on a park bench and then getting teased the next day because she was taller than me. I’m reminded of what life was once like, before all this. 

Jake is the only thing I have to hold onto from the ‘real’ world I once knew. There are many things I’ve refrained from telling him about how life used to be, but he’s a smart kid and Im not sure there’s any use hiding it anymore. 

Jake has never seen a female before.  Aside from what I’ve shown him in old movies or the stories I’ve told him, females are as mythical as dragons— and perhaps as frightening. 

Each day, I give Jake his daily math, science, philosophy and literature lessons, and then we go out to hunt. We live in an isolated little village off in a remote part of the United States. I can’t say any more than that without risking our safety.  There are some other father and son survivors among us, and a few other villages set up like this one. 

Jake has a few playmates who are the sons of my drinking and poker buddies. Altogether it isn’t so bad. We educate the boys, we teach them how to live off the land. How to hunt. And here and there we sprinkle anecdotes about our history, but thus far we’ve been careful what we tell them. 

We’ve grown to understand life without women and we’ve come to enjoy it. But now as the boys are getting to their puberty age, I can’t help but pity them. I wish my boy could know what it was like. How it felt to have a first crush. How it felt to get turned down the first time. The awkwardness at the first school dance. I wish he could know the beauty of a spring day, walking through the park and holding the hand of a girl he liked. 

I like to believe that Michelle never wanted to leave me. I know she never wanted to leave her son. She still sends emails, but I can’t show them to Jake. The worst thing would be for him to find out about the mother’s love he’s been deprived of since his birth. 

I’ve never written her back. No messages No photos. Nothing. The risk is too great. If they knew we were out here our lives would be at jeopardy.  Maybe Im paranoid, but I can’t bear the risk. Id like to believe she still loves us. Then again, maybe she’s just sending those messages as a trap. Maybe she’s hoping I’ll respond and they’ll find a way to trace us. But then again like I said before, maybe I’m paranoid. 

It feels like yesterday. Michelle was pregnant and I had just lost my job. Men were losing their jobs day after day and being replaced by women. Michelle couldn’t work at that time so it may have seemed like a scary time, but we didn’t really seem to care much. We were just happy to have more time together. 

When we had Jake, the doctor said she thought it would be best for Michelle to stay at the hospital with Jake.  I was terrified. 

“What’s wrong, doctor? Is my son okay?”

“We believe so, sir. “ was her curt reply 

“But we’d just like to make sure he and your wife receive the absolute proper care.” 

By the look in her steely eyes and the wrinkle on her forehead I knew I wasn’t leaving with my son. It came close to being the last time I ever saw Jake. It was part of the plan. 

Michelle was detained for a couple of days before I saw her or heard any update. I was a complete mess. I assumed the worst. What if Michelle or Jake or both of them had been horribly ill? Or dead? Or if the conspiracies had been true and they were going to do something to fix Jake having being born a male? I drank myself to sleep each night. First I lost my job. Now my family. 

When Michelle returned with Jake she broke the whole story to me.  All the rumours I had heard were true. Civilization as we knew it was over. 

“They wanted to use Jake as the first experiment for one of their new hormone therapies.”

She spoke in a frenzy. The words vomited out her mouth

“I had to plead with them not to have him….”

“Fixed.”

She said choking back her tears

“They probably suspect I’m telling you this…”

“You and Jake need to leave. NOW!”

“Where? What about you? What the hell is going on? “

I pounded my fist against the wall, refusing to accept the situation. I had heard about this and I had seen the situation brewing for a long time. I simply refused to accept it.

“Listen. It’s over. “

She said 

“This is the end of mankind and the beginning of womankind…”

“We now have the ability to clone sperm and impregnate ourselves. We can use hormone therapies to propagate the species as strictly female. Not all woman are for it, but it’s happening. You need to leave.“

I looked at her as if she were speaking another language 

“ They want to wipe you off the planet. Every last one of you…”

“You could be among the last male survivors. You’re our only hope. At least until we can figure this out…”

She handed me a map of a forested terrain just outside the state. 

“There is a small village here… “

She said, pointing to a shaded area.

“This is where the last men will live in isolation until we can safely send women there. It’s our only hope for HUMAN-kind. “ 

I didn’t believe anything she said. It was all too spectacular. But I realized I had no choice in believing it. The signs had all been popping up and now they were impossible to ignore. The women really had taken over, and they really wanted us men gone. 

I kissed Michelle for the last time. I packed all the essentials and I took my newborn son out to what could be our death. I felt like Abraham taking Isaac up the mountain to be slaughtered. 

Luckily, some of the men were prepared for this. An underground movement of men had formed in anticipation of all this. Several villages like this one were set up. We are heavily armed in the event a war breaks out against the women leaders and their military. 

Jake and I came here 12 years ago. If nothing changes, we will be the last men to have existed on planet earth. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about Michelle. There is a look in Jake’s eyes I see sometimes which resembles her.  It reminds me that we are not simply men. Each of us had a mother, and a father. We are not mankind. We are humankind. 

I wonder if Michelle will ever make it here alive. But deep inside, another fear lurks within me. If Michelle ever did make it here, how could I even trust her?