Civilization did not end in a fiery, violent, flash on the surface that rivaled a star’s birth. Rather a slow, violent descent into anarchy. The chaos flowed into everyday life worldwide in a sluggish, inevitable drip and drab. Something happened to the men in the world, their natural aggression exploded inside their brains, in that deep, dark recess of the primitive, hormonal, driven subconscious part called “The id.” It bred inside them dividing, and subdividing, until all they knew, all they wanted, was sex, food, and to dominate those around them, especially the women.

The women of the world watched in horror as life descended into a daily struggle to survive. Something happened to them as well, a fear of men so great that women felt vulnerable around any man, no matter if the man was aggressive or passive. Women gathered together for their own protection, hiding from the men. They built bonds between themselves, learning how to defend themselves from the animals that wanted them, wanted their flesh, their sex, and to implant another just creature of raw, animalistic desire like them inside any woman.

Technology died an agonizing demise until there was none left, and no one left with the expertise to fix that which was broken. The cities became jungles. Women fled to the safety of seclusion deep in the forest, the mountains, or the flat plains. Small villages were constructed, walls built, and strict routines designed to protect them from the others. This notwithstanding, the men formed packs, hunting the women, raiding the villages, plundering their food, and raping them. This aggressive, unpredictable, indifference to all things save their physical appetites ensured the species continued.

Early on, before the descent, a group of scientists took refuge in bastions of technology. Armed with concealment, technological superiority, and indifference they lived and prospered in areas that once had been the very bastions of the worlds military and surveillance facilities. Buried in mountains, under forest, or deep beneath the crumbling cities, they watched the building chaos. Using surviving satellites, and armed, unmanned military drones they watched the two groups struggle to survive. These people were unaffected by the pandemic that raged in the outside world.

They lived a comfortable life unconcerned with the de-evolved populace. They watched and waited for signs of the spark of humanity to return to the male population of the surface dwellers. They watched for intelligence to reemerge in either group. The men communicated in grunts, growls, and howls while the women spoke in a simple language, a de-evolved version of whatever language they had known before the descent. This vigil a vain exercise in an intellectual curiosity with no plan for action should the event occur.

Ten thousand years past, cities fell into dust. The overseers lived in luxury, watching the wretches in the outer world as some grand entertainment. With precise raids in the dark of night, they planted devices to observe those women in their “natural” habitat. While satellites and drones tracked the wild packs of men. With each generation a new clone took the place of its previous self, absorbing all the knowledge of those earlier versions of themselves.

And yet, much was lost. The watchers couldn’t remember the feel of a cool breeze over their flesh. Lost in the memories of 10 millennia the pure scent of fresh rain. The feeling of sunlight on their bare skin. So many other things once taken for granted, now unable to be recalled. There was too much data to process. Immortality has a high price.

They had their entertainment. They pleasured themselves with the rugged and violent lives of those they surveyed. Inside the mountain, Andrea watched the small village east of the Rockies, just past the crumbling conurbation once called the Denver Metropolitan Area.

The river flowed from the mountains into the flat, featureless plain. The vegetation near the river was lush, further away grass covered the ground and nothing more, a rolling hill here, a small indentation there, only enough to break the monotony. The village was massive, the wall around it formidable. Two thousand and fifty women, tiny boys, and adolescent girls inhabited the community. Once a male child reached the age of ten they were taken away from the town and abandoned. The males couldn’t speak, couldn’t learn the language. By ten their natural aggression consumed them, and thus, they were outcast from the group before they reached puppetry and the need it brought took over every action.

Teressa, known as Tess, and Mandy drew water from the well and took it to their respective homes. It was their turn to tend the fields, and the girls wanted the others in their homes to have their needs meet before the pair struck out into the outer world. No men had been seen for months, life had been quite good. Still, the gates were closed and bolted, women stood on the highest towers watching all directions for the beasts.

Oddly, it wasn’t the packs women feared the most. They’d rape you, each and everyone taking his turn from Alpha, to the lowest in the pack jabbing their disgusting members into you. But they wouldn’t kill you, they wouldn’t eat you. The loner was the one to fear. The rouge didn’t have any sense of preservation of the species. A lone man-creature had only base, depraved, desires, to fulfill, right after that his belly’s need would be satisfied, it loved the taste of female flesh.

Tess rubbed her swollen belly as she stood in the shade cast by the wall. The gatekeeper looked at her and smiled. She assured her no man-beast packs were roaming the plains and no loners had been sighted for over a year.

“I hope it’s a girl,” the gatekeeper said.

“Me too,” she answered. “It was so hard when mother put my brother out in the wild. Still, he had become so mean, so, consumed with needs, mother could no longer control him.”

“When was that?”

“Ten season,” Tess said, her face grew sad. “Mother never returned. At 12 seasons I had to take care of my little sisters and be the head of the home.”

Mandy approached them carrying her hoe and shovel, she smiled at her best friend. Taking Tess’s hoe and shovel from her she said, “I’ll carry this you are nearly due.”

“I have more than a moon to go,” she told her.

“That’s close you shouldn’t be doing weeding,” Mandy insisted.

“I’ll do my part,” Tess said. “No one can say that Tess doesn’t do her part.”

With that, the gatekeeper opened the gate, and the two women went into the outer world. Crossing the small stream that ran into the river, the moved quickly past the fenced pastures of cattle to the corn fields. They pulled, hacked, and dug up the weeds. Then moved to the river and opened the diverter gate, the water flowed from the river down into the fields. The women sat on a great cottonwood log. They watched, eating some food they had brought with them and talking. They were close to each other. At times as close as their own skin. They had purposed to move in with one another, raise the younglings together. When the youngest reached his tenth season, they’d take him away together. This was a safer strategy than what her mother had done. Tess shuddered, wondering if a rogue beast had taken her mother or her own son.

The man-creature sniffed the air, he could smell it, fertility. Not that fertility mattered to him, he’d fuck any female fertile or barren. All he wanted was to control them, use them, and eventually eat them. He viewed the young women, one’s shape pleased him, the other’s belly bulged out, she’d be good for food, the child inside would be a delight, a delicacy for his pallet. Not that his primitive brain constructed the thoughts like that, they were of a more uncomplicated nature. He’d eat them both, he’d fuck both, but the thin with the big tits would be more fun to rape.

Instinctively the creature would make sure the prey couldn’t run toward the village. He’d drive the bitches away from safety, out on to the barren prairie. The man-being would run them until the meat had sweetened and their strength failed them. Whichever one fell first he’d bind her, then hunt the other. He would run her down, fuck the bitch, kill her, and partake of her succulent flesh. Holding his flint knife in one hand, his stone hatchet in the other he crept closer to the women. He could hear them talking.

“Why are men the way they are?” Tess asked, “Male animals aren’t like them, they don’t rape the females.”

“Or do they?” Mandy asked.

“What do you mean?”

“The bull doesn’t ask the female if she wants it, he mounts her. I don’t even know if animals can talk, men can’t. Men don’t have minds like women, they are just emotions, needs, and lust.”

The loner’s youth mad him swift, satisfying his needs made him healthy. He could smell their flesh. The sweet aroma of their sex filled his nostrils. Something familiar about the fat one, something in his dim brain signaled to his mind that he wanted her. He wanted to hurt her, hurt her.

He grunted something if you spoke man you would have known the grunt. A familial grunt, a recognizing of their connection. She’d stayed, she had been favored. Like her mother before her, she’d satisfy his needs, like her mother before her she’d be his. This time he’d do much more than feast on the bitch.

The grass was tall. The young male crawled toward the women, inching closer and closer. Creeping to within feet of them, still and quiet, he moved slow like a cat. The creature could smell her ... sister ... a disgusting bag of flesh puked out of the same cunt as he. The bitches chattered in their nonsensical babble. Like birds whistling to each other. He was so close to them. The fat cow would be first and yet last as well.

Tess felt the baby kick. She put her hand on her tummy, smiling, she hopped it was a girl. She turned to the west and looked toward the village, the walls, and the safety they afforded. The beast rose in front of her, a hateful face fixed on her. He his hand struck out, crashing into her cheek, the knife held in a manner so that it didn’t strike her.

Something in his face, she thought sinking to the grassy ground and darkness covered her.

Mandy jumped to her feet and took two steps toward the village, but creature blocked her. Twisting, she looked to the river. Turning Mandy ran, jumping and flying over the fallen tree. She rushed headlong into the river, she had to get to the other side. The strong current threatened to pull her from her feet underneath her. She sloshed through, resisting the urge to look back. Reaching the edge of the other bank, she stumbled, fell into the water. Regaining her feet, Mandy scampered up the bank. Blindly she ran through the thick trees on the flat grasslands.

The man-beast tied leather straps on Tess’s feet, and hands then jumped over the long and rushed toward the young woman. He crossed the raging river with ease, bounded up the bank, squatted at the edge of the trees and watched the prey running away.

Running at sharp angle to the southwest, she planned to cut back northward toward the village, soon. Mandy needed to get more distance between them. Her mother had taught her if being chased don’t to look back, it cost you time. Just run hard and fast. Holding her dress, she ran as hard as she could. Her bare feet were hardened enough that the rough ground didn’t bother her. Turning she headed at a sharp angle for the village, she took ten running paces before she felt the solid blow to the middle of her back. She tumbled to the ground, a heavy weight on her back.

Struggling she rose, only to be forced back to her hands and knees. A firm grip clasped the back of her neck, the pain exploded as he clutched her. She heard a grunting in her ear. It dawned on her, he was a loner. She felt her dress being torn way, the tattered remains lifted over her waist, the undergarment ripped off her loins cut and bruised her. The grunting few louder, hectic, as he attacked her in a frenzied, hormonal, urgency of his vengeful need.