Alex

A tall woman in a white lab coat led the group of males I was in and stopped at a door with a poster that read; 'The Sisterhood loves you. We care about your stay with us and want you to be comfortable in your reproductive chamber.'

A robot escorted one of them inside then the windowless door slammed shut.

"Justin Wason come forward," called the woman in front.

The group cleared a path for me. Like the previous male, a robot took me inside and showed me around.

The apartment only had a chair hooked up to a weird machine, a bed and a locked closet.

"You will sit in that chair for twelve hours a day," said the robot. "Meals will come at eight, noon and seventeen hundred hours. Pomegranate juice and water are available whenever you are thirsty, and the computer will provide them. Sit now, your shift begins in five minutes, and the punishment is severe if you are late."

After their speech, the robot left the room, and with no other choice, I sat down. Mechanical arms came out from the machine and took my clothes off. One carried a tube that vacuum-sealed itself around my penis, then a cold pain came as something went up my urethra.

"Psst."

I looked around and saw an eye through a small hole in the wall.

"Hey, who are you," I answered?

"Alex, you?"

"Justin, what are you doing here?"

"Didn't have a choice, a white van came and collected me on my sixteenth birthday. How'd you get here?"

I remembered my mother telling me to go willingly because she needed the twenty thousand dollars.

"I came on my own, they gave my family money, and now my sister can go to med school."

My small black notebook had fallen out of my jean pocket that contained sketches of family.

"Do you miss them?"

"Heh yeah but my sister's brilliant and she'll do well out there."

The robot returned and put a lavish plate of oysters and dark chocolate before me.

"Bottom's up."

"Cheers, Alex," I replied.

The food was terrible, but the pomegranate juice washed the taste out of my mouth.

One day while in the chair, an alarm started sounding off 'Code white!' Straps came out of nowhere and locked me in place. The machine started pumping me harder until the alarm stopped.

I chugged glass after glass of water and swallowed more sardines than I care to remember.

"Hey man, you okay?"

"Dude, what was that?"

Alex chuckled, and it was the best sound I'd heard all day.

"You'll get used to that. They pump extras out of us because women come on this day to get impregnated."

"We're stuck here for the rest of our lives and have to do that once a week. Are you kidding me!"

"Wish I was, but you know the law changed when the matriarchy took over."

"I was never good at herstory. Has anyone ever escaped from this place?"

The silence on the other side of the wall lasted for a few minutes. Then I heard what I thought was Alex clearing his throat, but it was only the machine whirring. Days went by, but Alex still didn't answer me. Sometimes I fooled myself into thinking I saw him looking at me, but there was nothing there.

I jolted up out of bed when I felt a hand touch my shoulder in the middle of the night.

"Shh, it's me."

"How'd you get here?"

"The vents are unguarded here for a few hours. I wanted to see you."

We sat on my bed and stared at each other.

"How old are you, Alex?"

"I'll be eighteen in a month, what about you?"

"I turned sixteen a week before I came here. Why didn't you talk to me?"

"We're not supposed to talk about that stuff here. No one has ever escaped, but my brother tried, and I've never seen or heard from him since."

Suddenly, I had the urge to hold his hand, so I did, and he didn't pull away.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he sniffled.

His eyes searched my face, and I didn't know what was happening until he was on top of me. We cuddled in my bed, and that turned into kissing.

The ferocious yank from sleep the next morning was horrifying when I found Alex still beside me.

"You have to get back, they're already me mad but if you miss your shift who knows what they'll do to you."

He rubbed the sleepies from his beautiful eyes, then quickly kissed me before climbing into the vents.

As I got into my chair relief washed over me when I heard him land in his. The machine whirred the usual pain occurred, but it wasn't as bad this time.

My breakfast came a few hours into my shift a platter of salmon, oranges, and pumpkin seeds.

"Hey, Justin, sorry I've been quiet."

"Are you okay, did you get punished?"

"No, but I don't know if I can come back tonight."

The computer started beeping, and my regular serving of juice and water came out on a platter.

"Could I come see you?"

"I don't want you to get in trouble J I'll come if I can."

A tv screen turned on in front of me with blaring news that women's safety had gone up one hundred per cent in the last decade. A doctor named Ruth found a way to get rid of wrinkles and menopause.

"Next thing you know they're going to announce they're immortal."

Blood-curdling screams came from the other side of the wall with a flash of blue light. Then nothing.

I waited for hours, days, weeks, not a peep. Every night I dreamed about Alex. His soft lips smooth hands but mostly his eyes, the way they pierced through to my heart.