Chapter 3

As I walked into the conference room, everything stopped and everyone jumped to attention. I still found that kind of annoying, but there were enough things in the world that needed serious attention, and my lack of appreciation for certain protocols was not one of them.

“As you were,” I said, moving to my normal chair, with people moving all around me, supplying me with a snack, drink, paperwork, and more. I wondered if they practiced this routine, or if there was a manual.

I looked around at the people at the table. There were 19 people, 18 of them female. The devastation of the male population was simply unnerving.

While many positions of power were still held by males, in many cases, females were moving into these positions and supporting roles. In the wink of an epoch second, the whole face of our population, our society, had changed dramatically.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” I said, and then sat back and listened to a variety of people drone on with their well-prepared reports.

After just over two years, the White Plague itself was virtually eradicated, with just a few outbreaks in isolated areas, none in the United States. Our population had stabilized at about 172 million, with the world population hovering at 3.8 billion people, about the same as it was 40 years ago.

Approximately 90% of the male population had been wiped out. 100% of the female population, rather, 100% of those of the age that were subject to menstruation, were affected in what some considered a much more heinous way.

Women, those who had reached puberty, actually menstruation, were dependent upon the ingestion of human male semen for their survival, approximately once every three days.

Without it, death was inevitable, typically within a few days. Even more disturbing was the discovery that the best source for “the White”, as it was designated, was a blood relative. It had something to do with gene sequencing and Rh factor mutations.

The closer the relationship, the more powerful the White worked, giving women full strength and full health. Those who ingested the White from non-related parties could expect more susceptibility to disease, less energy, irregular bone calcification, and other maladies that made life a regular struggle.

An odd side effect was the postponing of menstruation among most females for on average a period of 5-6 years. The estrogen estradiol was affected by mutations. Given the treatment for the White Plague, the delay in years was seen as the one break that human females got, as the population struggled to maintain some dignity.