Something moving fast flashes across the sky, far above our heads, and for the first time I realize I haven’t seen any birds for weeks. Manhattan used to be throttled with pigeons, now they’re all gone.
I haven’t seen subway rats either, or squirrels. That just proves the world is done.
Rune’s eyes meet mine. “In the past my people reproduced in a sterilized laboratory once a month, where we secreted into vials to create newborns. They used to be mixed with female eggs, but we have none left. We haven’t created newborns since my generation was bred.” His words are even, unaffected by emotion.
I want to laugh at the absurdity of what he just said.
“That’s ridiculous! No wonder you have no more women. You genetically cut them out. You made no more need for them.” I stand still, flabbergasted. He comes from a testosterone-dominated world. A society of men living without women? What the hell was that like? A world full of messy, aggressive, egomaniacal assholes, obsessively watching sports while trying to see whose dick is bigger? The body odor on his planet must be atrocious.
“Everything had to be done robotically. We…there are…diseases and procreating…it was too dangerous any other way.” He looks off into the distance, shrugging.
“It doesn’t seem possible,” I say more to myself than Rune. “It’s something you would only hear about in movies or books—it’s unrealistic, you get that, don’t you?”
His eyes flick back to mine. “You are the first female of a species I have ever seen.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Of all the females of this world, I’m the one he got stuck seeing as the first one? “I don’t truly represent the female population accurately. We’re all different. Different body types, colors, personalities. All females are amazing, though.Girl power.” I’m pretty much in the homeliest, single, haven’t had a date or social life in months portion of the species, but I didn’t want to say that shit out loud.
“Are you telling me your females are not all scrawny, brazen, and knife wielding?”
Maybe I’ll save that idiotic question for later, especially the scrawny part. A thought hits me about something he just said. I step back with concern. “You mentioned diseases. Is that why people are getting sick? Do you have something airborne?”
“No. I’m not sick.” He shakes his head and gestures to the buildings and streets ahead of us. “I don’t know why this is happening to your planet. I was always told being here without our armor would killusimmediately.”
“And yet, you’re still breathing and my planet is decaying like a peeled banana on a hot summer day.”
We walk across Second Avenue and still there aren’t any people. There’s no one anywhere—I’ve never heard the city this quiet. It’s disconcerting.
It’s simply terrifying.
“So where you come from, there’s no sexual contact, no women and—”
“I’ve never even touched anyone. I’ve never felt skin before.”
I think about all the times Claire and I sat shoulder-to-shoulder, arms hooked at the elbow, sharing secrets. My parents always willing to give me a hug. My first kiss with a boy. My first… And suddenly I feel bad for the asshole standing in front of me. “Your world sounds like it sucked.”
“We were created into our armor. I’ve never taken it off. It grows with us and it’s how we govern and stay in communication and control.”
We walk over rubble and loose stones. Where I need to balance with my arms out straight, Rune steps with ease.
“So, humans are the superior species after all,” I smirk, then laugh at the absurd thought of what’s probably an entire species of virginal grown men.
“Yeah, why is that?” he asks, folding his huge arms across his chest.
“We have condoms here.”
