Here's an interesting little fact that most people don't know: all human fetuses, regardless of whether they have an XX, an XY, or an XXY chromosome combination, begin development from the same starting point, i.e. during early development, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female. Keep that fact in mind because it'll come in handy later.
2031 began with a bang and ended with a quiet whimper. At slightly past midnight on January 1st, the Chinese invaded Taiwan. The US issued a demand for their withdrawal within 24 hours, or to face the consequences. They ignored the demand, and so, the US dispatched five carrier battle groups and placed the armed forces at Defcon 2. As you can guess, the Chinese then demanded that they turn around, and when they didn’t, they nuked all of them. That didn’t sit well with Congress and President Knowles, and within hours, the first declaration of war the US had issued since WWII was unanimously passed.
We’ll never know what the Chinese leadership was thinking because they’re all dead now, but they launched their entire nuclear arsenal. The only continents left unscathed were Antarctica, Africa, and South America. Suffice it to say that the response was immediate and overwhelming. Every NATO nation with nuclear weapons launched their arsenals within minutes. Less than an hour later, most of the world lay in ruins, and 3.5 billion people were dead or soon to be.
As if that wasn’t already bad enough, some wack-a-doodle had the bright idea to release a highly contagious virus, which had a 99% mortality rate. Apparently, they didn’t consider the fact that it would wipe out their own population as well. As a result, another 3 billion died within months of it being released.
In the aftermath of all that death and destruction, cities were built underground to protect the remaining population from the radiation. It was only later that they found out about the true horror that awaited humanity. No one could carry a baby to term. The mad scramble to find a solution would make the Manhattan Project seem as if it was no big deal, which in contrast, it wasn’t.
They figured out quickly that it was the vaccine they had distributed that was the cause. The long and short of it is: they ended up dosing all women with another virus to fix the problem, which, in a way, it did. Of course, it wasn’t quite the fix they were aiming for since only male children were able to be brought to term after that. Many attempts at solving it were tried and failed. In the end, all their efforts were futile.
Remember that little fact I brought up at the very beginning? Here’s where it comes into play. One group did come up with a sort of solution. Let’s just say that there was a lot of resistance to their idea, at first. It didn’t take much foresight to see that if it wasn’t implemented, this generation of children would be the last.
Their solution, you ask? At 10 years old, all boys are tested to check their adaptability. What the test is, no one that knows is willing to say, so we all go in blind. Those that meet their requirements are given the choice to change. Of course, their parents had to agree as well, but if they did, all expenses for her were taken care of, clothes, medical, literally every conceivable need. If they agreed, the boys were hospitalized and put into a medically induced coma while a retrovirus was given to them to change these boys into girls. Two to three weeks later, they emerged from the coma as a girl.
As much as I’d like to be able to say that it was the end of it, and that they lived happily ever after. That was far from the case. They did a test transition for a dozen boys and tracked them as they went through the next few months. They found that they had very little problem adapting physically to being a girl. It was the mental aspects, as in facing the prospect of having to marry. The hormones did help some, but not enough since it’s quite hard to simply wipe away 10 years of mental programming, but we’ll get into that a bit later.
Let me introduce myself, I’m James Keeling and today is my 10th birthday. I have dark red hair, blue eyes and am quite short for my age. I live with my Mom and Dad, and my older brother, Lucas, who’s 11, and is everything I am not. Outgoing, lots of friends, and an athlete to boot. Me? I’m more the introverted type, not good at sports, quite smart, but I’ve never really felt all that comfortable being me, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I dress in my school uniform and head down for breakfast. As usual, everyone beats me to the table and I take my seat and begin to make my bowl of cereal.
Mom breaks the silence by clearing her throat and says, “Remember, tonight is James’ birthday, so don’t dawdle after practice.”
Lucas smirks and quips, “You mean James for now.” He looks at me. “Say bye bye to your dick, little girl.”
Mom shouts, “Lucas! That’s enough of that! You don’t even know if he’ll pass the test!”
He shrugs. “I’ve taken the test. He’ll pass, no problem. Anyway, he’d make a better girl than a boy.”
“I said, that’s enough. Finish your breakfast, the bus will be here soon.”
My brother and I both go to the same middle school. I’m in fifth grade and he's in sixth.
We finish breakfast in silence, drop our bowls in the sink and head out the door. As we walk to the bus stop, I ask, “Have you ever seen anyone ever pass the test not opt for the change?”
“Two and it wasn’t because they didn’t opt for the change. It’s because their fathers said no. Look, I know I rag on you a lot, but if you pass, are you thinking of opting for it? And just so that you know, I don’t care if you do or not.”
I shrug. “I’ve no idea really.”
He stops me and I look at him. “Well, if you do opt to be a girl, I’ll kick anyone's ass that bothers you.”
Somehow, that makes me feel a little better about today, and I murmur, “Thanks.”
The ride to school and the first period were completely normal, that is until the speaker in the classroom crackles to life and our counselor announces, “James Keeling, report to the counsel's office.”
I know all too well what it means, time for my test. Gathering my things, I shove them into my backpack and head out.
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Oh new story thanks