Chapter 1: Introduction
Ever notice how, in many pieces of sci-fi literature and speculative fiction, that when a virus attacks one gender of humanity, it's always the male half that gets the short end of the stick? Whether it turns men into feral beasts, or kills them out right or turns women into lightning shooting superwomen, viruses in fiction always seem to have a misandrist bent.
So, anyway, Tess Thompson was a up and coming CEO of a tech company headquarted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By her own admission, she wasn't the brightest person on the planet, but she did have a knack for coding and a love of fantasy novels. But, as her equally pragmatic father said, you don't have to know everything, just a few things better than most.
And in a competitive field like tech, that's often enough.
Tess was in her late twenties, had long, curly, light brown hair, and sparkling hazel eyes. She was fairly tall, slender but curvy in all the right places, and was admired by many of the rising stars in her company, but she wasn't one to pursue romantic relationships with coworkers.
In fact, she thought it odd that the overwhelming majority of her male staff either didn't notice or didn't care that she was a woman, less a hot one. As a result, she had plenty of time to throw herself into her work. Yet as Tess strode through the empty office building with its floor-to-ceiling glass windows, the echo of her heels only served to remind her how truly eerie the world had become.
Tess reached her floor, her heels pounding resolutely against the cool surface of the tiled floor. The office was as empty and quiet as the others. She walked past the empty cubicles towards her office at the far end of the floor.
She was starting to worry about the the epidemic that was bubbling under th surface. A sample of something had been found in the mountains of Sweden and was under observation at the university of Minnesota. Somehow, the sample had been exposed and was spreading a mutagenic virus to all those with a Y chromosome, so the news reports said.
Tess let out a sigh, sinking into her leather chair as she stared numbly out the window. The city looked so different from up here. All the tall, gleaming buildings, now empty as their mostly male workforces had been affected by the disease. This new turn of events had been so sudden, and Tess couldn't help but wonder how this would change her world.
This worry stayed with her throughout her workday, even as she met the few remaining employees on her team for a conference in the boardroom next door.