Michael sat on the unmade bed and stared at the wall with his heart full of shame and despair. The room was almost empty, except for an old bed and a tiny table, and like the building itself everything in it was run-down and ancient. So this was how it felt to live in the lower end of a Zeroville neighbourhood? He’d better get used to it, because it was his new home now.

It wasn’t really his new apartment that was on his mind now though, but the way in which he had ended up here. In his head he endlessly replayed the same painful memories until his thoughts blurred away into a maelstrom of darkness and pain. Nothing made sense anymore in his life anyway, and he had lost everything he’d ever known in his eighteen years of being alive in The Nation. Not that it had been fair, all he had done was trying to defend his fiancée Megan and her friend Eliza from an Alpha creep who wanted to sexually assault them, and just for that he had been arrested and thrown into the outer darkness of society like this. Breaking the Man Code is not something to do lightly in The Nation.

The sad irony of the whole thing was probably that it hadn’t even been him, but Eliza who had done most of the defence, as he had been in the grip of two stronger men at that moment, men who didn’t appreciate him talking back and standing up for just a girl. But no-one, nor his parents, the police or even the courts would ever believe that a mere girl like Eliza could have taken down an Alpha. Only Real Men were able to hurt other men in the mind of The Nation; so he had been taken to be the only responsible party in the story, and was punished harshly accordingly: His place in the male hierarchy was gone now.

There were five ranks of men in The Nation, named after the five first letters of the Greek alphabet and at age twelve he had received a Gamma badge, much to the disappointment of his father, who was an Alpha-5 himself. His second rating at age eighteen had given him a rare golden level one badge, but even as a Gamma-1 his life hadn’t been easy. It had even become more complicated for him with such a paradoxical ranking, especially when his father had insisted on him going to Seventh City Wife Factory to choose a Wife as a present. But nothing could help him if someone higher in the male hierarchy ordered him to do something he really couldn’t do, as he’d found out the hard way.

And still, even with everything considered it was hard to comprehend how fast and easily his deletion had happened. By the time they had let him out of the police cell his whole life had been erased as if he had never even existed, and now he had nothing left: no parents, no school, no Gamma-1 badge, no place in society and no friends. What was even worse to him was that what happened had certainly ruined the lives of Megan and Eliza too. He didn’t exactly know what had happened to them, but they were certainly lost to him too now. He also felt too ashamed to ever look them in the eyes again. He had utterly failed them, even if he hadn’t had a chance to do anything else.

He peeked at his rusty wristwatch which said six in the evening. In his own experience he had been sitting here for a timeless eternity, but it actually had been just an hour or two ago that the relocation agent had left him alone here and it was that last conversation which still echoed in his head:

‘Remember, Mr. Adams, that all of this is just probation. If you behave well enough, you might get your ranking back, or at least get rated again in the future. You should also remember that under Nation regulations you will not be able to have a Wife under these circumstances, unless you get rated as at least an Epsilon again. Unrated men are legally unmarriable.’

He had just nodded absently while trying to process the situation. His loss of his Gamma-1 rate hadn’t really mattered to him anymore at that point, not compared to the fate of Megan and Eliza. But the only answer he had gotten after he had asked about his fiancée had only confirmed his worst fears, without giving any actual information about her or her friend. ‘The little Wife School girl? I don’t know. She shouldn’t concern you anymore, Mr. Adams so how could it matter to you? She has tarnished herself. She isn’t fit to be a Wife anymore. She’ll have to apply for a woman's apartment and find herself a job. Same with the other girl. What they did was wrong and not pleasing, and damaged goods won’t get a second chance. You should have other concerns now, Mr. Adams.’

For a fraction of a second he had wanted to strangle the man, but what would senseless violence have accomplished, except for pushing him even deeper in misery? The man only did his job, and even though he was only a Gamma-5 the consequences of attacking any rated man would be extremely severe now. He had to face the fact that he was an unrated nobody, hardly a person even in the eyes of The Nation. All that he had left was his name and identity. And since when did he have such violent thoughts anyway? That was more manly than he usually was. Was he finally becoming a Nation man? That’d be a bit late, not? But isn’t life an endless series of ironies anyway?

That had only been the beginning. It had become worse when the relocation agent went over the rest of the paperwork with him. After some details about the apartment, and the rules of the building he suddenly had produced a Wifebot application form for him to fill in. ‘You lucky bastard! Because you were almost married, you will instantly get your own Wifebot to replace her. Much better arrangement for someone like you if you ask me. You may be unfit for a human marriage partner, but a man alone cannot live without a Wife. It’s not natural! And robots make better partners anyway. Every honest man will agree on that!’

To say he had been baffled would have been an understatement. He could still feel it hit him like a bombshell two hours later. ‘Eh, what’ had been the only reaction he could produce. ‘Are you a bit slow, man? We’ll supply you with a nice and sexy robowife to compensate for you not being able to have a human wife. Isn’t that terrific?’ The man had winked at him, and Michael didn’t even know how he managed to react to this, but in the end he had blurted out. ‘You mean a I get walking sex doll like the Unmarriable? No thanks.’ Never in his life would he forget the look of the relocation agent when he said. ‘Dude! Where’s your head? You are unmarriable yourself now. But still, a man has certain needs, and needs a maid, and cannot live alone. Since you can’t live with your parents anymore and are not in the position to get a real Wife anytime soon, the State will provide you with a reasonable alternative to perform domestic duties like cleaning and washing and cooking, and to compensate for the lost intimacy.’

Internally he had known that it was time to give up, but still he had protested, although weakly. ‘Hey, I was looking forward to learning how to cook.’ ‘That is none of our concern. It has been decided by John Manfred, the Father of The Nation, that any adult man alone without a wife should get a Wifebot, to perform domestic services and to release natural urges.’ ‘Okay, I get the idea. I can’t refuse and I will get a fake woman because I can’t have a Wife. So that means I cannot have women over in my house?’

The man had looked at him without understanding and repeated. ‘I already told you that you cannot have a Wife. You know the rules.’ At that point Michael had given up on any meaningful conversation about the other sex, and the man had changed the topic to job-hunting, and afterwards left Michael with a lot of papers to fill in and return to the reclassification bureau, so he had dropped the subject altogether. It’d been clear that nothing he could have said could have made any difference. He was to live here now as an unrated non-citizen, find a low-wage job, and apparently treat a robot as his wife too. That last part was something he hadn’t anticipated, but that would be his life from now on.

That hadn’t been everything. ‘After one year your situation will be looked at again by the bureau. Know that we will use the data extracted from the Wifebot to determine your situation. So if I were you I would just follow the rules from now on, Mr. Adams.’ That had been his last words, and then he had left Michael alone, sitting on his bed.

Now, two hours later, he was still sitting there in the same position, still trying to sort out his thoughts and feelings, completely unable to think straight. His thoughts went from his own miserable situation to Megan and Eliza. How were the girls? He didn’t really feel like contacting them, and he wouldn’t be able to do so anyway now that he thought of it. He didn’t have any address or phone number to reach them, and it was rather unclear if he would ever be able to see them again. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to now. He was too broken, and too miserable to look anyone in the eyes now, let alone poor Megan, who had gained so much hope during their short time together, even if they both hadn’t known yet if an actual marriage would have worked between them after several months of ‘dating’. She probably hated him after everything, and it would be too painful to just see her, in a state that was probably as bad as his because of him. It was his fault indeed. None of this would have happened to her if he hadn’t been so stupid to choose her. Same with Eliza, who had been defending him only to get treated like this. They had fought the law, and the law had won, and they had lost. Even as a Gamma-1 he hadn’t been able to defend the girls against that Alpha creep, and when they had tried he had been crushed.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Girls were out of the question now anyway. He was just an unmarriable criminal now, only one step away from being an identityless outlaw. The relocation agent had been clear: He was legally banned from having a wife, and forced to be “married” to a robot. Yes, the Central Computer programmed by John Manfred a century and a half ago was so helpful to provide what they felt he needed, and men who had lost their rating had lost the privilege of marriage, so a robot would be his wife from now on. And yes, it was probably true that technically he could have an affair if he wanted, or a prostitute, or whatever. Don’t ask don’t see still applied even for nobodies, he still was a man after all. Nothing stopped him from any of that, apart from his lack of authority over women without a rating badge, and the tiny detail that he wouldn’t ever do such a thing in a million years. But for sure those things were done by men in The Nation, and no-one ever said anything about them. You’d only go to hell for it according to The Church. But did anyone even believe that? Lately he was doubting that.

Who was he fooling? It was not as if there would ever be a woman in any possible world who would want a loser like him for a partner, in any kind of situation at all. Even Angela, who was a non-Wife but had a rating badge nonetheless, would be completely out of his league now as an E-level woman. Only a few weeks ago he had been shocked by the way she as an almost-nobody had to live, and now he had ended up deep underneath her on the social ladder, too deep to look her in her deep blue eyes again probably.

And so his thoughts went on, in always darker versions of the same depressed reasoning, until he thought that everyone hated him and looked down upon him from far above him, for reasons that were completely justified.

When he heard the noise of a car outside he came back to the real world. Vehicles were rare in a Zeroville neighbourhood, and they often didn’t work very well in The Nation, even for the rich. He looked out of the window and saw a shabby hydrogen car that disappeared out of sight. The spell was broken now, and he looked around again at his apartment and realised this was really where was going to live. So what did he have? A living room with kitchen, a separate bathroom, and the bedroom in which he was sitting, strangely equipped with a two-person bed. Did they really expect him to sleep next to a robot disguised as a woman? Yuck, the idea alone.

Even apart from all the rest there seemed to be a deep sadness haunting this place: old and ugly furniture, and everything was dirty. It was clear that whoever had lived here before him had never cared about cleanliness, or hygiene. The unmarriable men in this kind of state apartment tended to give up on many things in life. It was not a life with much to look forward to anyway.

He took the sheets and blankets from the package the relocation agent had given him, and made his bed. At least they were clean and white, which clashed with the rest of the place, but for now this would do. He didn’t feel like cleaning anything now. He didn’t feel like anything at all. Tomorrow he would go to his former parents to get as much of his old stuff as possible, and he would go back to the bar to see if he would be able to get a job there, any job at all would be great, even though he knew he’d only have half the pay for much more hours if he’d apply as an unrated man.

But it was what it was. This was his life now and he would have to get used to that. He dropped his body on the bed again, and didn’t find energy to stand up again until late the next morning.

*

Robert scanned the names on the class list of absences with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Why had Michael disappeared from it? He hadn’t been in school for more than a week now, and no-one had been able to tell him where he had gone and what had happened.

‘Henry, do you know what happened to Michael? He is gone.’

Henry looked up from his coffee. ‘Michael? Wasn’t he sick or something?’

‘No, he’s gone. He’s no longer on the class list. He just seems to have disappeared from the face of Earth.’

‘Strange, he looked okay last Monday. Oh, no, that was two weeks ago, was it?’

‘If you mean Michael Adams, he’s deleted. Doesn’t exist anymore. Just forget him. It’s better to not even mention his name anymore.’ Don interrupted them, carrying his cafeteria food over to their table.

‘What do you mean?’ Robert almost dropped his coffee. ‘How can he have been deleted? They can’t just delete a person. Especially not Michael. He wouldn’t ever do anything wrong.’

Don smiled ominously. ‘No? It’s easy to get deleted though. He must have lost his rating. Probably because of all that messing around with girls and stuff. He’s an insult to manhood!’

Robert looked at Don, confused. ‘He just tried to find a better way to get along with his fiancée. They can’t have erased him from society just for that.’

‘No, you’re right. What he did was worse. He was arrested for violently attacking Jeff Miller, who is an Alpha-2. He said he was defending a girl or something stupid like that. And for attacking an Alpha he lost his rating. And rightly so.’

Don grinned while his comrade John joined the conversation too, and seated himself at their table.

‘What?’ Robert finally said. ‘Michael is not a fighter. He knows how to keep low-profile as a brainie. He wouldn’t attack an Alpha-2. He’s not that stupid,’ Henry added, and a silence fell.

‘He attacked and injured Jeff Bundy, who is older than him and an Alpha-2, to defend a stupid Wife School girl that he wasn’t even connected to, some ugly wild cat with too much curls. They ran away and were caught before the SCWF by the police. They shouldn’t have been out so long after curfew anyway. So they locked him up, and then Jeff talked to his father. Together they decided to take away his rating, and take him from school, and his parents shunned him. So Don is right, he actually got deleted. It might be a new idea to you, but deletion is not uncommon for traitors to Nation values. The idea comes from John Manfred himself!’

‘Why is he a traitor? He considered Eliza a friend, so she certainly was connected to him in a way. Why wouldn’t he have the right to defend her? Isn’t defending damsels in distress a very ancient way of Be a Man?’ Robert asked.

‘Robert, Robert… My boy… She was a single girl outside alone. That’s asking for it. And Jeff is an Alpha. Level two even. Sure he had every right to do with her as he wanted as a man but he had no claims too her. Now if it were his fiancée, okay, defending her would have made sense. She’d be Michaels property then more or less. But defending a single girl that shouldn’t have been there from an Alpha-2 and then kicking him in the balls? That’s unacceptable. I’d say he completely deserved this deletion. If Alphas cannot be safe from this kind of thuggery, what kind of world do we live in?’

Robert couldn’t believe what he heard. How could people talk like this about his friend? Michael might have been careless, but he hadn’t been wrong in defending the girl, whether she belonged to a man or not.

‘Wife School dates always have a single girl from their own class as a chaperone if the girl C-rate or below’.’ He said.

‘True, no-one else will ever pay people to play chaperone for such worthless brides, but that still doesn’t explain why she was there. They were still out long after the Wife School curfew. That stupid Liza or whatever her name was just broke the rules and she asked for it. It’s her own fault if someone takes advantage of that. Blaming an Alpha would be ridiculous if she’s so irresponsible.’

‘Assaulting girls is wrong, no matter if you’re an Alpha or an Epsilon or even unrated. You go to hell for it.’ Henry interjected.

John started laughing. ‘Poor boy, you still believe in what they teach children in The Church. Doesn’t everyone above nine years old know that that’s pure nonsense, and that ratings are what matter in the real world? I’m shocked by how naive you two are, you’re almost as stupid as Michael was. As if the Man on the Throne in Heaven would care about what His favourites do to weaklings and E-girls?’

‘What do I care about that, I’m an atheist.’ Robert said. ‘But this is wrong. Very wrong.’

‘They’re right, Rob, he’s broken the rules. He and her shouldn’t have been there, and he shouldn’t have disobeyed an Alpha. And a guy can’t be friends with a girl, it only leads to stuff like this, even if he didn’t do anything indecent himself.’ Henry said, almost convinced by John and Don.

Robert gave up defending Michael. ‘So what happened to him? He’s actually deleted? That can’t be! Not just like that for something so small.’

Don laughed again. ‘It is, and if I were you I would just forget about him. Deleted people are always deleted for a reason, and shouldn’t be messed with. It’s better that we act like they never existed.’

‘So where is he now?’ Henry asked.

‘Who knows? Unrated men become poor factory workers, or maybe homeless bums. I already said it’s better to assume that he doesn’t exist anymore than to wonder where he is now. That’s the best tip I can give you two now. You can’t be friends with a non-person.’ Robert had given up discussing Don and John, but he still wanted more answers.

‘And what happened to the girls?’

John started laughing. ‘Who cares about E-level Wife School dropouts? They were kicked out of Wife School for sure. They’re even less than nobodies. Who even knows what happens to damaged girls? Some say they are turned into cat food. Others say they go live in the wild like ancient primitive tribes.’

‘And you don’t think that's troubling?’ Robert asked, still baffled.

‘It’s how things should be. Only the strong survive, and are worth it. I know that’s hard for a mere Gamma-3 to understand, but it’s how the world rolls, and it’s how we built up our great civilisation after the great catastrophes when the world flooded, and after the catastrophes of feminism. High-rated men are what matters, and all the rest should work for them or perish.’

‘You all make me sick.’ Robert said, and he took his stuff and left the table. Henry stared at him, and followed him, leaving a gloating Don and John at the table.

‘I don’t think they got the lesson, Don.’

‘What did you expect of those lowly brainies? They don’t live in the real world.’ He smirked.