Chapter 25

2086 A.D.

“Welcome to Political Round Table in New York, the show that debates the most important issues of our time. I am your host, Maria Sanchez, along with my co-host Elias Westberg.

“Today’s topic is the Population Control Act. It has been fifteen years now since the PCA brought us regulated cannibalism on a scale never known to have happened before in the history of our species. From what government statistics say about the act, more than thirty-three million women from the age of eighteen through the age of thirty-nine have been ordered to report to the nearest slaughterhouse, where they were killed, some kindly, some brutally, and some somewhere in between, for two reasons.

“First, this was done to curtail a population that was growing out of control. It was expected that the human population of this planet was going to reach nearly eight billion within fifty years. This was due to the gender imbalance in the reproduction of humans. Since the Reaper pandemic of the twenty-twenties, in America alone, on average, one male child was born for every twenty-one female children. This is similar to the ratio experienced in every first-world country, such as the highly developed countries in Asia, such as South Korea and Japan, to the western European countries like Germany, France and the U.K, the Scandinavian countries, and Italy.

“But the ratio was vastly skewed towards female births in poorer, less developed countries, such as the Middle East, the majority of African countries, and the poorer Asian countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and North Korea.

“Presented with three choices,” Elias picked up at this point, enlightening the audience on the three choices that governments had to address the gender imbalance.

When Elias had finished, the focus returned to Maria. What would be presented by each host had been carefully worked out ahead of time, and it had been tested against a trial audience made up of the almost one hundred staff members of the show as they sat the day before showtime in the theater-like room where the show was put on.

“And second, it was done to add to a rapidly dwindling food supply. This was the most controversial aspect of the decision. Some said that it was a horrific move to force humanity into the role of cannibals. Cannibalism had been the ultimate taboo in our species since the dawn of time. It was viewed as the most debased act of a hopelessly depraved being, such as the fictional Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, a movie released long ago before all this began.

“Or the very real Jeffrey Dahmer, the cannibal of Wisconsin. Dahmer was discovered and sent to prison, where he lasted only a short while until a fellow prisoner killed him in an act of violence that was nearly as horrific as the crimes Dahmer himself committed.”

“Today on our show, we have people representing the two opposing viewpoints on the PCA and regulate human cannibalism.” Elias continued the show.

“On the left, we have Dr. Karl French, a proponent of the PCA. Karl is a sociologist and has studied the PCA since its inception.” Elias said as he introduced the older gentleman sitting in a chair to the left from the viewer’s perspective. “Welcome, Dr. French.”

“Thank you for having me. I’m happy to be here.”

“And on the right, we have Dr. Wendy Thompson, an opponent to the PCA who has long spoken out against the implementation. Dr. Thompson is a historian who specializes in ancient cultures and how those cultural influences and tendencies are expressed in the modern world. Welcome, Dr. Thompson.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s start with Dr. French. What are your thoughts on the PCA and the impact it has had on human society and culture, not just in America but also around the world.”

“Well,”, Karl said with a smile, “That’s a very broad topic to cover. First, a little history, if you will indulge me.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic and the Reaper virus made everyone’s lives so interesting and brought horror to the door of everyone in the world, humanity was moving towards a state of denial and avoidance. We tried to deny that anything evil could exist in the modern world. I’m not talking about the viruses; I’m talking about in the hearts and minds of our fellow humans.

“We took the stance that everyone who committed crimes could be rehabilitated, that it was acceptable to impose our wills and beliefs on everyone else around us, and we had a presidency and a subsequent election where the incumbent President was allowed to lie repeatedly to the public about everything including trying to change the facts on what happened in the election itself.

“In short, we had gotten morally weak and easily swayed by colorful arguments and pleasant lies. Both political parties of the time had gotten adept at lying to their constituents, and the government, with the collusion of both parties, had stopped being a democracy, and was almost entirely a kleptocracy, where the government, and the corporate world, were actively working to strip-mine as much wealth from the middle and lower classes as possible.

“Then the Reaper hit, and a massive portion of the world’s population died. They died because the population as a whole had been lulled into a false sense of safety and security, and fatigue over the actions needed to keep everyone safe had worn away the will to fight anymore.

“The bigger impact of Reaper on our society and the human race as a whole has been that we are no longer tolerant of the machinations and manipulations of people in power, and we are no longer as squeamish as we once were. Whereas we were very concerned about sex and violence in our media, now it is accepted and almost a common thing to see either or both in mainstream media. It’s treated as no big deal. We saw so much death and violence in the Dark Times that we have gotten used to it, you could say.

“I believe that as a result of the Dark Times, we are much more accepting of the rights of individuals, especially in the bedroom, and yet we are accepting that those rights clearly and correctly take a secondary role behind the needs of the people overall. If a vaccine is necessary, we will take it. If masks are mandated, we wear them. The horrors of the last seventy years have been drummed into us. Those are lessons we have learned through blood and pain and death.

“Then along came the threat of the Great Famine, and we adapted. We accepted cannibalism and the sacrifice of a few for the greater good as a necessary evil. We still practice it today because it is necessary, not because it is wanted. And while we generally no longer hold funerals or remembrances to those lost to the PCA, we acknowledge the losses of those women from our lives in our own private ways.”

“Dr, Thompson, your thoughts?”

“The PCA certainly has not been accepted as necessary by everyone. I do not believe that the Great Famine was actually the threat that it was made out to be. The statistics of what has happened over the last fifteen years since the PCA was implemented don’t support it. People have enough to eat. The population is fine. And it’s still growing. No one is starving. There is enough food to feed everyone. We didn’t need to kill and eat women and girls, some as young as eighteen years old, just to save everyone from a fictitious threat that never materialized.”