Parallel Lives Pt. 02

Parallel Lives

In case you haven't read Part One (and why on earth haven't you?), a brief introduction to set the scene...

The year is 2025, and in a parallel universe to our own, men have become endangered. A virus - commonly known as Anderson-Swift's Disease, after the Victorian scientist who originally identified it - that attacks the male immune system, has resulted in a world where only one in five boys survive into adulthood. Those that are fortunate to live to the "survival milestone" of eighteen years of age find themselves living in a world where they are greatly outnumbered by women. As an unfortunate side effect of the virus, men who survive to adulthood also find themselves rendered infertile by the effects of the disease. However, a small percentage of men experience a temporary window of fertility - an opportunity for procreation that simply cannot be allowed to be wasted.

With so relatively few adult men to go around, it is no wonder that the sexual marketplace has changed beyond recognition. Sex-starved women hound and pursue men for sex, causing men to have to take measures to protect themselves from unwanted advances, and in some cases, being raped. Men now find themselves in what has become a woman's world.

This story follows a group of young people living in this parallel universe where women greatly outnumber adult men.

In Part One we met two young men, Rupert and Kevin, who found themselves unwillingly being drafted into the Global Repopulation Program.

In Part Two, we get to know two young women, Claire and Kat, as they embark on a journey to volunteer for the Repopulation Program, but not before enjoying an afternoon of indulgence with a couple of handsome "masseurs".

Finally, in Part Three we'll meet Johnny, a young and enthusiastic personal assistant to a junior executive at an interactive media company in London, who is tasked with entertaining an important investor from across the pond, and discovering that she has more than just a trip to the theatre in mind.

It goes without saying that all the characters portrayed in this story are over 18 years of age, and any resemblance of any character or any company, or any thing for that matter, to anyone living or dead is entirely unintentional and totally coincidental. So there!

Right then, on with the story...

PART TWO - Claire and Kat

A Testing Time

"I want to do it, Mum, I want to do my bit," Claire insisted as she sat eating breakfast with her mother.

"I understand that," her mother, Steph, responded patiently. "I just don't want you to go through the heartbreak that I went through."

"I know, Mum, I miss him too - he was my little brother after all," Claire replied, calling up the memory of the day her younger brother Ethan had died from the Anderson-Swift virus. "But the world needs more men - some of them do survive. Uncle Alvin made it to adulthood - and he became fertile for a while too. I mean, maybe male fertility runs in the family."

"I know, dear, it's just... well, so many of them die so young and it's utterly heartbreaking when they're taken by the disease - I just don't want you to go through it as a mother, like I did."

"Mum, I have to do this... I have to volunteer," Claire insisted.

"But what would you do if you have a boy?" her mother countered.

"The same thing you did," Claire replied as she buttered her third slice of toast. "I'd love him and cherish him, and pray every day that he lives to reach eighteen."

"And if he dies before then? Like Ethan did?" Steph asked speculatively.

"Then I shall have to live with it and deal with it, like you and all the other mothers who have lost sons to Swift's Disease have to deal with it. But I can't let that put me off - the Global Repopulation Program needs as many women to volunteer as possible, and I'm fit and healthy and willing to do it."

"But... you're a virgin," her mother pointed out.

"Does that matter?" Claire responded.

"Well, no of course it doesn't. It's just... well, wouldn't you want to experience sex for pleasure first? Before attempting to conceive?"

"You mean, would I like to just grab a young man off the street and rape him, like that woman on the news last week?" Claire countered. "Or hire a prostitute, perhaps?"

"Well, a prostitute, as long as he's a respectable licensed one - I'll not have a daughter of mine paying for sex from a disease-ridden common street whore!"

It was surprisingly acceptable for women to make use of licensed male prostitutes. With the decline in the male population that had come about with Anderson-Swift's Disease, being a licensed prostitute was a lucrative business for a young man willing to sell his body to whichever woman wanted to have a good time with him. And there was no shortage of eager clients for whom sex toys and robotic aids could not compare to the real thing. For a woman to hire a man to have sex with was no more of a taboo than going into an emporium and purchasing a dildo or a vibrator. It was also one hundred percent legal, as long as a man registered himself as a sex worker and paid his taxes. Licensed prostitutes were not cheap however, and for those whose budget could not stretch to employ their services, the only alternative was to pick up an unlicensed prostitute off the street and hope not to get caught by the police.

"Well that's good to know," Claire answered back. "And you know I'd never rape a man."

Though goodness knows it's tempting sometimes, she thought to herself, and then instantly chastised herself for thinking such a horrendous thought.

"I just want you to enjoyyour first time for no other reason than for your own pleasure," her mother went on. "So that you can at least have a bit of fun before signing up for the Repopulation Program, before getting yourself pregnant and having a little one to look after."

"I'll think about it," Claire said in order to appease her mother. "Right now, I have an appointment to get to."

"You mean... you've already signed up?" Steph gasped. "Without telling me?"

"Well, I'm telling you now, Mum," Claire answered as she finished the rest of her coffee. "I'm twenty three, which means I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions. Anyway, I'm only going for my physical today - they may even decide that I'm not suitable."

"You do realise what your physical will involve, right?" Steph asked her daughter, recalling her own pre-acceptance physicals. "They literally leave no stone unturned, I can assure you!"

"I don't care if it's rather intimate," Claire answered as she stood up and took her handbag off the table. "I'm just eager to do my bit - I can put up with a bit of embarrassment. I'm a big girl now, I can look after myself."

She leant down and kissed her mother on the forehead.

"I've got to go, I don't want to be late."

It was a pleasantly sunny morning in the little Hampshire town where Claire lived with her mother - everyone was going about their normal daily business as she strolled along the town's streets towards the bus station. It was a scene that had barely changed in over a century. Apart from one exception: the numbers of adult men to be seen. The town had an adult population of over fifteen thousand, of which only a couple of hundred were adult males.

Her appointment was scheduled for ten o'clock at the Global Repopulation Program's local maternity assessment office in Southampton, a half hour bus ride away. At the bus station she opened up her phone, put her recently purchased wireless noise cancelling headphones on and started up her "classic faves" playlist as she waited for the bus to arrive. She knew more or less what was in store for her that morning - she'd read all the pamphlets and talked everything over with her doctor and she was fully prepared for it. Men go through much more embarrassment when they have their semen evaluations, she figured, and at least for her there wasn't the threat of immediately being carted off to Parkhurst Fertility Centre in a bombproof van to worry about - if she was at that place it was because she wanted to be there.

As the bus came to a halt before her she boarded the vehicle, paid her fare and then took a seat on the upper deck. She sat back in her seat and whiled away the journey looking out at the pastoral scenery of the River Test valley and listening to her collection of favourite songs. She especially loved classic 1960's pop songs - Johnny Valentino's yearning songs of unrequited teenage love holding an especially fond place in her heart. Plus he'd famously posed nude for a special "Transatlantic Totty" collector's edition of Playgirl magazine at the height of his fame. His gloriously naked body, and especially his perfectly proportioned penis and tantalisingly tactile testicles, featured in many a lurid fantasy in her bedroom at home. The uncensored images of the handsome lad from Manchester that she'd downloaded onto her tablet never failed to help drive her towards a blissed-out state of orgasmic heaven.

He had looked so sexy back then in his prime - it was a pity that he was in his late seventies now and his youthful good looks and physique were now nothing more than memories and a collection of grainy nude photos from the mid 1960's. And of course he'd left his adolescent life in rainy Manchester several decades ago in favour of seeing out his retirement years in Hawaii. Of course she also loved all the other male artists of that carefree decade - John Lennon (whom she still longed to see live even though tickets for his shows were ludicrously expensive) and Jesse Presley, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, who famously had become fertile in 1965, causing an enormous rush of women volunteering to the Global Repopulation Program in the hopes of carrying his babies. But because of those Playgirl photos, the cheeky Mancunian lad would always be her all-time favourite "pop boy".

Riding the bus into Southampton was something she'd done on countless occasions before, but that was usually to do a bit of shopping or to meet up with a few friends - today's trip however was of much more significance. One way or another, her life would change that day - either she would be accepted into the Global Repopulation Program and be given the green light to attend the nearest Fertility Centre in order to attempt to conceive, or she would be told that she wouldn't make the grade and would have to resign herself to living out her days as a barren, childless woman. It would of course be easier to just not bother at all and live in blissful ignorance, but then what good would that do?

Around halfway through the journey, an attractive young man dressed in a smart but casual suit boarded the bus and took a seat near to her. Out of force of habit she started checking him out - she knew it was wrong to ogle him but she just couldn't help herself. They shouldn't dress so alluringly, she thought to herself as she admired his smart attire. Smart suits just look so damned sexy on them! Her mind wandered to envision him with her and what she would do with him given the opportunity of having him in her bed. She fantasised about undressing him, slowly relieving him of each item of his smart outfit, revealing his muscular body to her eyes piece by sensual piece until she had him completely naked. She visualised his penis, imagining it to be a facsimile of one of the handsome boys on her favourite porn website - in her mind's eye it was just the right size between being too big and too small, and she would look on in wonder as it transformed from flaccid docility to rigid tumescence before her lustful eyes. And then she'd take him to her bed, and then she'd get him naked, and then she'd...

Claire forced herself to stop before getting carried away, not just because of her blatant objectification of the young man and that it was impolite to stare, but also because of the feeling of dampness gathering in her underwear. If anything, it would not look good to display visible signs of arousal during her forthcoming physical examination. So instead she turned up the volume of her headphones, closed her eyes to allow the dulcet tones of Johnny Valentino transport her back in time, and then tried her best to ignore the handsome young man.

* * * * * *

The Global Repopulation Program's Southampton Maternity Assessment Centre was located in a nondescript building a short distance from the city's main park - if it weren't for the subtle brass plaque besides the door with the GRP's logo on it, no-one would ever have guessed what its purpose was. It was here that women went for their pre-acceptance physical examination, and if all went to plan and she was passed fit enough, Claire would be provisionally offered a place in the Global Repopulation Program that same day.

She entered the place and was greeted by a receptionist who took her name and address and then instructed her to take a seat in the waiting room.

"Your technician will be along shortly," the receptionist informed her. "Have you brought anyone with you today?"

"No, I'm here on my own," Claire replied as she stepped over towards the waiting area. "Did I need to bring someone with me?"

"No, it's just that sometimes ladies like to bring a friend or relative along for moral support," the receptionist replied with a comforting smile. "We just like to offer them tea or coffee while you're being examined."

Claire simply smiled and nodded and headed into the waiting room. There were already several women sitting patiently for their names to be called, but most of them looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties, all except for one blonde haired young woman who looked about the same age as Claire. It was this young woman that Claire decided to sit next to.

"This is exciting, don't you think?" the young woman said as Claire sat beside her.

"I guess," Claire replied politely.

"I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get over to Parkhurst and start making babies!" the young woman went on enthusiastically. "Hi, I'm Kat, by the way, Kat Greening."

"Claire Waltham, it's um... nice to meet you," Claire introduced herself.

"What do you think it'll be like over there?" Kat asked her new acquaintance. "In Parkhurst I mean - I've heard you get to have sex like ten times a day!"

"Really? I thought it was only three," Claire responded.

And just like that she'd been drawn into a conversation.

* * * * * *

"What do you mean you've never done it before?" Kat gasped as their conversation took a more intimate turn some time later.

Kat had been talking about the time her older sister had brought a young man home with her - a boyfriend, of all things, the lucky cow! He was the first adult male to visit the home she shared with her sister and mother in many a year. It was no secret what they would be doing together upstairs in her room, and her older sister later regaled her with candid details of exactly what transpired between them that night.

"It's true -- I'm twenty three years old and I've never had sex before," Claire somewhat abashedly admitted. "I've never even seen a naked man in real life before - let alone get close to one. I mean, I've seen pictures and videos so I know what they look like, but never in real life before."

Kat suddenly burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Claire demanded, feeling somewhat annoyed by Kat's sudden mirth.

"That makes two of us!" she chuckled. "I'm a virgin too!"

"Seriously?"

"Unfortunately for me, yes," Kat confirmed. "I was too young at the time to share the guy my sister brought home with her - and I'm fairly certain my mother had sex with him too when my sister was finished with him - so I missed out on that occasion. As much as I'd like to find a man to have sex with, there aren't any in the little hamlet I live in, and hiring a guy to do it with gets expensive when you have to factor in his travel expenses!"

"I just... never got around to it," Claire explained with a shrug of her shoulders. "I was too busy being a good student. My mother thinks I ought to experience sex for pleasure at least once before I go into the Repopulation Program."

"Mine too," Kat admitted. "My sister said that if I had been old enough at the time she would've offered me a go on her boyfriend, but they broke up in the end. He told her she was working him too hard, apparently. He said he couldn't keep up with her and he didn't like being shared around among her friends, and our mother too of course - he said it made him feel like a commodity.

"I mean, she did once tell me that after a lot of drinking, she and a couple of her friends tied him to her bed and made him have sex with each of them in turn... twice! Six times in all! The poor guy's cock must've been red raw by the end! That was the final straw as far as he was concerned, and he broke up with her the next day. So I said to my mother, you pay for a prostitute then, that way we can both have a go! Needless to say, she didn't like that idea!"

A brief lull in the conversation ensued before Kat spoke up once more.

"Why don't we do it today?" she suggested.

"What?"

"I said, why don't we do it today?" Kat repeated her suggestion. "I'm sure there'll be at least one Mascularium in this town - why don't you and I go find one when we're done here and hire ourselves a man each for the afternoon?"

Masculariums were a common establishment in many towns - it was a house, usually in the discreet guise of providing massage therapies or spa treatments, where licensed male prostitutes plied their trade. It wasn't a brothel in the traditional sense, ruled over by a pimp of some kind, it was more a sort of commune of licensed male prostitutes where rent and other expenses could be shared equally between its occupants. It also was much safer than working the streets, with safety in numbers being just one such advantage for its residents.

Claire thought it over for a few moments - it was certainly a tempting proposition. And she'd just been paid. And really, when she thought about it, how difficult could it be? Just go on in, pick a guy from the ones on offer, let him take her up to his room and do the deed. Easy, right?

"Okay then," Claire answered, feeling a sudden sense of feminine bravado. "Let's do it!"

"Cool! Ohh, it's gonna be so much fun!" Kat squealed excitedly.

Just then, a technician in a white lab coat entered the room.

"Katherine Greening?" she asked the room's occupants.

"That's me," Kat said as she stood up.

"Good luck then, Kat," Claire said to her new acquaintance as she made to follow the technician. "I guess I'll meet you back in here later."

"Sure," Kat beamed back. "And then we'll go find a couple of gorgeous hunks to have ourselves some fun with!"

Now by herself in the waiting room, Claire took her tablet out of her bag and opened up her reading app. She browsed to the latest edition of her favourite magazine (which just so happened to include an advert for perfume on page 34 that featured a tastefully nude man that she often liked to admire) and sat back to read while she waited for her name to be called.

* * * * * *

They must be running late today, Claire thought to herself after waiting more than half an hour for her name to be called. Her appointment had been scheduled for ten o'clock and it was now almost quarter to eleven. Finally though, a technician came in and called her name - and the technician's voice totally caught her by surprise.

"Claire Waltham?"

It was a man's voice!

"Er, yes, that's me," she said as she stood and put her tablet away.