The 800

We never did find out exactly who was behind the virus. That sounds pretty paranoid but some CDC experts lived long enough to isolate it and discovered that it was incredibly small, even for a virus, because it had absolutely no junk DNA. It was actually so small that it could get through anything short of a vacuum chamber, and even then you had to be smart about it. They say it got the president because his vacuum sealed emergency chamber used a water filter that wasn't small enough. It was airborne, waterborne, blood borne, you name it and there was nothing most people could do to stop infection.

Then there was what the virus did to people. Experts thought it was supposed to be the first programmable viral weapon, but whoever did the programming must have made a mistake. Eight months later and the population of the world was cut down from about 6.5 billion to maybe 1.9 billion. The elderly and the very young never stood a chance as something like a cross between Ebola and the flu destroyed their insides. Right now the UN thinks the oldest living person just turned 54 and the youngest living person just turned 15 a few months ago. You saw it in the eyes of the surviving women who were pregnant when the virus hit, the utter despair when what came out wasn't alive and too horrible to look at. Otherwise women got lucky, usually their symptoms were on par with a particularly strong flu and the UN thinks the mortality rate was no higher then 30% if you don't count the particularly old or young. Men had it worse as whoever had tried to program the virus, whether by accident or design, put the Y-gene on its list of genes to destroy. The UN thinks only 1 in every 37,000 men who got infected survived, and the only men who weren't infected were killed in orbit.

There were the riots, the looting, the chaos, but they died down quickly when we all realized that the surviving men were all sterile. The virus had managed to contaminate all but the most secure sperm banks, and with no fertile men even the most optimistic of geneticists put our odds of surviving as a species no better than a coin-flip. How do you react to the fact that your species was going extinct?

You however have discovered that there is hope afterall. The UN has recently revealed that less then 1% of the surviving men aren't as sterile as previously thought. Of the 100,000 or so surviving men roughly 800 of them can still get a woman pregnant. It's not much, but it's a chance.

To assist in this process the men have been given badges, and with these badges have come rules.

1.) The men with the badges were to have them on their person and visible everywhere they go. They are to be willing to submit to random medical screenings, genetic verification of badge ownership, and sperm donations. The punishment for failure to comply shall be no less than 5 years but no more than 10 in the prison of their home country, the only exceptions are the loss or theft of their badge- which if reported immediately carries no penalty.

2.) All badges have the latest in anti-counterfeiting technology installed into them. Counterfeiting a badge is punishable by execution. Stealing a badge is punishable by life imprisonment or execution, depending on the home nation's discretion. All crimes against men with badges will be considered heinous felonies.

3.) Abortion is now only legal if the life and health of the mother is put in too great of danger if carried to term. If the father did not appear to possess a badge, report immediately.

4.) In the interest of human survival men with badges can present their badges to potential mates instead of local courtship rituals. The woman in question will be given up to an hour to provide a medical reason why intercourse should not take place, such as disease or non-fertility. Sexual intercourse for potential impregnation becomes required by law with the failure to provide such a reason. The committee recommended a period of imprisonment no greater than one year for failure to comply. Financial support for child-rearing cannot be placed upon the man with the badge, although identification information may be requested for local government assistance.

5.) Men with badges who fail to produce 40 medically confirmed pregnancies a solar year will be audited for potential revoking to the badge. In the event of a multiple birth only cases of all male children will be considered more than one pregnancy. For genetic diversity men with badges are strongly encouraged to never have more than one successful pregnancy with the same woman, arrangements otherwise can be made with local governments.

These rules are considered controversial to say the least, but many feel they are nessecary. This doesn't mean people don't disagree. In places where the rules against women used to be particularly oppresive it's not uncommon to hear rumors about badged-men getting stoned for "not presenting the badge proud enough". A new group, the Daughters of Gaia, have taken the view that the of the men was a divine act and that the Earth Mother demands to extermination of all of the surviving men.

Fortunately not all new institutions are so violent. The "Triple-F" or "Fuckers for Freedom" are gaining popularity as a peaceful way to protest the across the board illegality of abortion and the "legalized " rules of the badge by offering an unusual promise. If a badged man is willing to promise to never use rule 4 and "at least try to be a fun lay" then the "Triple-F" will "make sure they get all the pussy they can handle". So far only a handful of badged men have taken the pledge, but the official organization is only a couple weeks old.

The question becomes, who are you in this strange new world? With 1.9 billion women still alive it's possible that a woman could never see another man ever again, let alone have sex with one. The Daughters of Gaia are always recruiting, you could be looking for one of the 800 to have a child of your own, or just enjoy a world without guys. Being one of the sterilized men are also an option, more then a few con-artists make the rounds pretending to be fertile. You could also be one of the few and proud 800, the last fertile men on the planet. With the badge you could have your pick of any woman on the planet, whatever consequences that could bring. You could also align with the Triple-F, seeking to repopulate the world with ideals as well as babies.