[Chapter 1] — New Earth
I looked down at the fat, sweaty, whimpering sack of human man that’d been my boss the last six months. He laid there tied up to the pipe under the sink in the tiny, putrid bathroom that was “maintained” for employees. He was muttering away to himself while I closed up the gas station he owned. As I counted the till, I noted the seven hundred dollars and pocketed the money. He wasn’t going to have any use for it after tonight. I walked the short distance to the bathroom door and leaned against the door frame, looking down at the pathetic heap huddled on the floor half under the sink. Ever since I could remember, men took whatever they wanted out of women. Most women settled down as soon as they came of age, as it offered some level of protection from strange men and kept their interactions strictly within the family. I, however, was not that type of woman. I was not going to condemn myself to a life of servitude and misery, no matter what it cost me. I was not a breeder, and I was not going to give myself over to just anyone.
“You’re going to pay for this you little bitch! You’re having a world class meltdown for what? Stealing my money for what? What do you think you’re going to accomplish here? Don’t act like you didn’t like it!” The questions and threats continued from him, but I had turned around and walked away. He had already disconnected the security cameras when he came in earlier that day, just after two strangers had walked into the store. It was unusual for us to get people who were unfamiliar to our parts, we were in the most remote parts of the State we could possibly be. You only came through here if you were extremely lost, or if you knew someone here. Nobody visited here if they could help it. Most places didn’t have running water or electricity, they were simple cabins in the woods. The more innovative and tech-savvy homesteads had solar or wind power, one family had hydroelectricity, but most homesteads were completely off-grid.
Humans had left Old Earth; driven away by the rapidly increasing temperatures, the melting polar ice caps flooding city after city anywhere below 3,000 feet- even higher than that in some areas, the destruction of the protective ozone layer being the final disaster that made the planet uninhabitable. New Earth, as our new planet was so creatively called, was much the same as Old Earth thanks to advanced terraforming technology and the Arks that brough the people and animals from the planet. Many had died just on the voyage here, and even more during the weeks of terraforming. Those who were left had the skills necessary to survive or thrive with little to no technology or infrastructure.
Governments had broken down during the voyage and were virtually non-existent, and those that still held on did so tentatively and with very little authority. Society broke into two factions, and in this part, women were deemed weak and useless for survival other than as breeders; their only purpose being the continuing of the human race. When we first got to New Earth, a large group of men took it upon themselves to ensure the continuation of the human race. They gathered up all unmarried females of breeding age, tied them down and raped them one by one. This began the faction known as The Cult of Seedbearers. Many of the women remained captive, enduring this fate every day until they became pregnant. After too many women died in those conditions they found “more comfortable” accommodations for the them. These accommodations were not more comfortable; They were shacks built out of hastily made wooden planks roughly held together by the least number of nails possible. Each shack shared at least one wall with the next, with a small commode that was emptied each morning by female staff accompanied by armed guards. Each shack had a wash bin and a pitcher of water that was refreshed daily under the same conditions. This continued for months until the terraforming was complete, then what remained of the governments banded together to create the Council and put a stop to it. The men who participated weren’t punished, however. They were healthy, able-bodied men and that was exactly what the government needed to ensure survival.
None of that entirely relevant to the current situation. I stood over the sniveling man and listened to him beg, “Please, Katerina. I’ll give you anything you want! I’ll marry you and let you bear my children!”
I scoffed, “Oh, you will? You’ll allow me to bear your children? HA! You disgusting excuse for a human being! I wouldn’t lay with you if we were the last two humans in existence. You see, you are the last remaining member of The Cult of Seedbearers who held captured women and teenage girls against their will. You are the last and most vile member of the very cause of the loss of breeding women. The council is not very happy with you.” This last sentence was delivered in my best sing-song voice.
“It wasn’t my idea! I just made a joke about it and the next I knew; guys were going nuts! They were lining up to take their pick of the lot! No man was going to pass up virgins! I wasn’t the only one! This all ended up completely different than it started!” His pathetic, sputtered defense sickened me. My stomach actually flipped and churned as he spoke. I backhanded him and he yelped as his head hit the sink’s underside. After six months of intelligence gathering to ensure we had the right man, this moment was a long time coming for me.
“You disgust me. As ordered by the Council, I sentence you to death by fire. Your valuables will be pillaged and your body will burn within these walls with everything you have built. Your children will be detained and their names forcibly changed. Any inheritance they would have gotten from you would normally be confiscated and used to pay reparations to the children of those forced to bear them. Sometimes the women choose to keep the properties and businesses they win from their abusers; yours, however, have decided to forego the income and property to fire for cleansing.”
“This is insane! My children will have nothing to live on! Where will they live? How will they prosper?” He screamed at my back as I walked out to the front of the store.
Once at the front door I turned to him and said, “Which children, Bruce? The ones you had with your wife, or the ones you forced on those women? Either way, that’s no longer any of your concern.” I turned and continue out the door, leaving him screaming obscenities at my back as I walked away.
Once outside, I was met with my team. “All clear, Commander. All his valuables are packed up in the trucks and his family has been detained for their next life.” Laura, my Lieutenant, reported.
I watched as the other members of the Phoenix Centennial spoke with the Widow, explaining the family’s options once the fires were set. She looked… relieved. That was often the case in these situations. Women were forced into marriages to avoid the Breeding Ceremonies held every year, where three women from each county was selected to undergo similar treatment as those first women, who we were now seeking justice for. Each woman would be given a private room that was much cleaner and more comfortable than the shacks the First Women- as people have come to call them- had to endure. They were still guarded and unable to leave during the Breeding Ceremony, but they were given some luxuries that are not found in the outside world and they were not shackled. Plus, if they became a State Breeder (meaning they got pregnant during the Ceremony) they were afforded even more luxuries during their pregnancy.
However, the women chosen for the Breeding Ceremony were volunteers who were gang banged for fifteen hours a day until it ended. They were afforded eight hours of sleep and one hour throughout the day to eat and tend to hygiene. It was still a disgusting display of misogynistic bullshit, if you asked me. Women were still being undervalued and underestimated, treated as objects for the men to use to suit their needs. Even in a marriage a man no longer had the expectation to treat his wife well. If she didn’t consistently provide him children, or didn’t provide him with enough children, or provided too many children of the “wrong sex” (meaning girls), the husband can have their wives stoned or burned to death. If they did have children, they would be the ones to cast the stones on their mother until she died. Though The Cult of Seedbearers had all but dwindled in their most heinous practices, there still existed large groups of people who still adhere to the morals and standards set by The Cult. It was a constant battle the Council was fighting to restore the balance of equality among men and women.
“The family has been taken to base. We’re ready for you to set the blaze, Commander.” Seargent Calvin Thorne was one of the few men I could trust, and I trusted him with my life. He was the son of one of the Highest-Ranking Councilwomen and Councilmen, and he was on the side of women everywhere from the start. His roguish behavior had gotten him into some trouble in his youth and he’d been demoted a time or two- mostly for beating the hell out of guys that dared look the wrong way at one of his squad mates. He was extremely protective of the women- and men- he served with, but most of us on this squad had been one of the First Women so he was particularly angry about anyone looking at us with anything but respect and obedience.
“Thanks, Cal.” I looked one last time on the gas station I had spent the last six months at. A thought came across my mind that both sickened me and committed me to my decision; “Not once did that bastard recognize who I was.” As I lit the match, I thought of my daughter- our daughter- and threw it on the stream of gasoline that had been pumped and dumped all over the building. As the flame ignited the gold liquid, it travelled quickly from where we stood to the front door of the store where the screams from my rapist started anew. I watched as the flames engulfed the building. I listened to his screams as he burned to death, his skin melting from his bones. I smelled the acrid air that held the billowing smoke from the burning body of the father of my child; of the man that forced me to become a mother at 14.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Shortly after his screams subsided, I turned to Cal and said, “Pack everything up that’s left. I want to move on from here ASAP.” He nodded in response, and went about prepping to head out. I kept catching him out of the corner of my eye watching me, checking to see if I was still okay and holding it together. I went and sat in the truck and took out the brown colored contacts I was wearing, and lay my head back on the headrest.
The truth was, I still didn’t know where they had taken my daughter after she was born. She wasn’t with him and his wife and other children, so where had they taken her? Was she even still alive? No, I couldn’t think like that. Even though she wouldn’t have a clue who I was, after twelve years of searching for my daughter, I would not give in to that possibility. I snuck out the only picture I had of her from my breast pocket. Two minutes after she was born, bloody and screaming on my chest, the picture was snapped as fourteen-year-old me stared incredulously but lovingly at what had just come out of me. I still remember the waves of confusion, pain, and love I felt that day.
#
A sweaty dark-haired man ran down the halls of the transport ship that brought everyone to this planet. He was the boss’ right hand man, and he had great news for the Boss. He hurriedly checked room by room until he found the person he was looking for. He ran up to the man, a balding 30-something fat man with poor hygiene and rotting teeth.
“Boss, the girl at the end is having your baby! The labor has already started and it’s moving quickly.” James said, flushed with excitement.
This would be the first child born on New Earth. It was a momentous occasion, even if it had been conceived forcibly and with a child. The whole human race would be watching this day, and the events that transpired would solidify his position as King if he were to have a son. On the journey to this planet, there was rebellion and famine. Sensing a weakness in the current governments, he had formed The Cult of Seedbearers to undermine them and took over as soon as the new planet was in sight. When they landed on New Earth, Bruce himself had emerged as the top contender for King. Bruce had named the new planet, in fact, in the first speech he gave. He had garnered enough rough and tough men to do his bidding, and though most men were unaccepting of his plans to repopulate the human race they wouldn’t have a choice. Bruce’s men had taken all of the weapons for themselves before the ship landed, leaving nothing for a rebellion to arm themselves with.
Bruce stood up quietly and unsteadily, the spirits that he had distilled from local plant life was strong. That was probably a good thing, though, as it was difficult to make and took very little to get you drunk. This was not the first time he’d turned to the spirits when he couldn’t handle stress, and he’d been doing pretty well there the last few months on the Ark. He had barely recognized the man he was when his first wife left him, nor did he remember why she’d left. He just remembered her going, and then she was going by her maiden name and with a new beau.
He knew which girl he was talking about- the young one with the different colored eyes. Those eyes had haunted him ever since he took her. He had been the first to take her, and the only. The reaction seen on him by the other men had them backing away, claiming the King was the only one worthy of that one. Truth was, she terrified him. If he had just left her in the position they started in, everything would have been fine. He just had to see those perky little titties, though, and ever since then he has nightmares of breasts with one bright blue eye and one deep green eye. It completely ruined boobs for him, and he was pissed.
“You good, Boss?” James asked as he wrapped his arm around Bruce’s shoulders. Bruce was anything but fine.
“Yeah, man, I’m great! I’m about to welcome my son into the world. Couldn’t be better.” Bruce’s words slurred together and he leaned heavily on James as he started ambling towards the door and out to the shabby tents where the girls were held. James supported him on one side and various items around the camp on the other. They could hear the girl’s wailing from many yards away, and Bruce’s footsteps fumbled and slowed. “What if it’s not a son? What if it’s…. useless?”
“Don’t think like that, Boss. You’re going to have a son and it’s going to solidify your position as King of New Earth. C’mon, it’s not much farther now,” James said in a tone that should have been reassuring but was filled with pity. James knew that Bruce was not fit to be King. Bruce had not yet produced any children, but James had three sons with his wife. James knew that his baby was due to be born any day now too; and when it came out a boy, he could steal the position from Bruce.
They entered the tent to the sounds of squelching and baby cries. Bruce immediately turned and vomited just outside the tent. James had known to expect this but apparently Bruce had not. The baby was placed on the girl’s chest and someone snapped a picture of the mother and child. Bruce came back in and stumbled over to the pair. He grabbed up the baby roughly and looked at the genitals.
“A GIRL?!” Bruce roared, casting the child aside into James’ arms. “Useless, just like her mother!” He turned and stormed out of the tent, knocking into several people and objects along the way. “GET RID OF HER” He shouted as he stormed across camp.
James handed the baby to the woman who had helped the mother give birth, and mumbled, “Do something with this. The girl is not fit to be a mother.” He stood guard while the woman carted the newborn out of the tent and the young girl screamed for her child.
“Her name is Everlea! Tell them that her name is Everlea!” The young girl screamed over and over again until she had no strength left in her and she grew quiet. She occasionally muttered the phrase again and again in her sleep.
Once the girl was fully asleep, James exited the tent and went around camp, giving a code phrase to a select group of men as he came upon them. Each man stopped what he was doing and headed in a different direction than James. When they finally found everyone, they met in the center of camp to search for their target- Bruce. They found him drinking his distilled spirits in his room, sulking.
Bruce didn’t seem surprised to see the group of men gathered at his door, and he lazily took another swig of his spirits and said, “Yeah, I didn’t think I was going to be King after producing a freaky, useless girl.” The men grabbed him and took him to the outskirts of camp, to a disheveled tent far away from everyone else.
“I have already produced three sons, and I have another due any day now. A man like me should be your King!” James pounded his chest as he said this, gaining a roar of approval from his men. “Bruce is weak, he has produced no sons, and he is a drunk! He is no King.” Another roar of approval from the men. They chanted James’ name as they made their way back to the center of the camp, where James and his family took over the center-most and least tattered tents that Bruce had once occupied. They threw his distillery equipment and ingredients, along with anything else they deemed useless to them, into the fire pit just outside their tents.
A devastated fourteen-year-old Katerina listened from her tent as the commotion and celebration went on into the late night. They had taken her baby, and no one would tell her where she was, if she was safe or healthy. The sounds of the camp were nothing compared to the screaming that was happening inside her head. She knew if she actually screamed out loud that the punishment would be severe; they would likely strap her to the pole near the center of camp and stone her to death.
Katerina picked herself up of the dirt floor, the afterbirth and fluids from what had just happened still staining it. Her legs were wobbly and weak, and she needed to hold onto the pole she was shackled to for support. She made her way over to the disgusting commode in the corner of the tent. She was in a lot of pain, but she felt the need to do her business so she forced herself to stay upright as she walked over to it. The chain she was on was just long enough for her to reach it and sit down.
After sitting for a long moment, she felt the searing pain in her insides that was the first movement after giving birth. Katerina knew nothing about giving birth. She was an orphan; her father had died long before the voyage to New Earth and her mother was unable to survive the journey here. She had only gotten one cycle before she was chained in this tent and left to rot. She had no idea why her belly was growing over the months and didn’t understand when they told her she had a human in there. How could a whole human fit inside her belly? She was not a large person. In fact, Katerina was quite small and skinny for her age. She only stood 4 foot 10 inches tall, was a mere 75 pounds soaking wet. The harsh reality came crashing down on her as the first waves of contractions set in, though, and instantly she understood. This is how you became a mother.
Katerina didn’t know if all women felt as she did towards the father of her child, but she hated him. She hated everything about Bruce; from his disgusting breath, his sweaty body, all the way down to the little stub between his legs. The one and only time she’d had to deal with that stub hurt a tiny bit at first, but only for a second. After that she could hardly feel anything at all until, he collapsed on top of her, panting.
He had obviously been bothered by her eyes, and it showed. The way he recoiled back and threw his arms up in front of his face when he looked into them was almost comical, especially when he started tripping over himself to leave the tent, pulling up his pants as he went. She had kept her eyes cast toward the ground like her father had taught her until this point. She obviously didn’t know the real reason why, but her father had told her that her eyes held more power than any other and one had to be responsible with that kind of power.
When Katerina was done with her business, she walked around the tent that had been her prison for the last 11 months. She had not been of a mind to really look around but now that they took her baby, she wanted out. No matter how long it took, she was going to get out of there and get her Everlea back.