The Man

The Man

Mike Ledur

All Rights Reserved

In April 2025, people throughout the world were celebrating the end of Covid-19. We'd had moments like this before, in 2022, when people assumed there was no need for masks, only to be followed by an eighth wave and a new round of cases and deaths. But this time, the experts told us it was really over. The case numbers dwindled to almost zero.

But that was followed in May by some really bad news. A new variant had been identified, and it was spreading much faster than the old variants and was fatal to far more people. I worked from home, had groceries delivered, and never left my apartment.

Of course the careless and heedless, the listeners to Rumor Radio and the members of the Divine Will churches, the defiant, and those who mistrusted expertise of any type - all those who'd scorned the warnings for the past few years - continued to ignore the warnings. The result was that by the end of June they were all dead.

The initial challenge was to dispose of the bodies. Every available truck and hauling vehicle was pressed into service, and many people pitched in to help with home-made stretchers. (Defiance had been rooted out of the population, replaced by cooperation.) By most counts, 95% of men, 80% of women, and 90% of children had perished.

Why the difference in death rate between men and women? The reason might have been biological, but more likely because that fatal combination of defiance and carelessness had affected more men than women.

There were also many nonfatal consequences. Many people had long Covid, and the majority of the men who survived were impotent and asexual. I was left in a tiny minority and wondered what the consequences would be.

Governments throughout the world, and finally also the American government, recognized that the sudden collapse of the population posed a threat to the continuation of humanity. To encourage women to have children, they offered significant financial incentives to women, including unlimited childcare and monthly financial support for 18 years. They could easily do this because of the number of people who'd died intestate or with no surviving beneficiaries. As the probate cases were processed, vast amounts of money were transferred to state governments. People were given the right, within strict limits, to claim the cars and other property of those who'd died if no relatives came forward.

Maybe because of those subsidies and all the extra money in the economy, at some point after the pandemic was all over, people seemed to get fed up grieving. A new mood of lightheartedness seem to take over. The survivors wanted a fresh start.

Soon laws were passed, or at least there was social pressure the equivalent of laws, requiring men to be tested for impotence. Sexual health centers sprung up, staffed by lighthearted, hastily trained women, to identify and label people with sexually transmitted diseases. People with herpes or AIDS found themselves with small tattoos on their foreheads. In fact most of those who'd been careless about sexual health had also been careless about health in general and had died in May, so very few forehead tattoos were seen.

The real reason for some of the laws was so that the women could identify impotent men. But instead of labeling

them

, the sexual-health authorities required non-impotent men to wear badges. The women at the centers would basically perform some seductive maneuvers and then check the status of the men. The men who showed normal reactions were given a silver badge about an inch and a half high in the shape of an erect penis and ordered never to go out in public without it. (They were modeled after similar badges worn by women in the Middle Ages.)

The women staffers also tried to pick up those men, asking them for dates and offering to take them to nice restaurants, and showing them pictures of themselves in sexy evening gowns that they promised to wear to the date. When I got such a proposal, it was too sudden, and I declined.

Before the events of May, there was a young woman I'd had my eyes on and who I'd hoped would be my girlfriend, but she was seeing another guy. Both of them had died. I was in mourning for her, I guess. One day when I happened to visit her family's house, her sister Elly - who previously had barely bothered to take her eyes off the TV when I visited - showed a sudden interest in me and turned off the TV as soon as she saw me and noticed my badge.

She told me, in front of her parents, that she'd always liked me a lot and had been so jealous of her sister for being my friend. (I was skeptical, but Elly looked enough like her sister that I played along.) She said she'd like to offer me some photos from her sister's room and invited me there to look at the photos and choose my favorite.

But that turned out to be a pretext, because as soon as the bedroom door was closed, she hugged me and started kissing me. She even took off her top, revealing her bra, which she invited me to touch. With no experience resisting such a strong come-on, I gave in and touched the bra, which she'd apparently outgrown, and when she unclasped it, I caressed her lovely breasts, to her great delight. I closed my eyes and thought of her sister. It all happened so fast that soon both of us were naked on the bed, and before I knew it, the deed was done.

At that time, I had almost no context for what was happening, but I definitely knew I enjoyed it and wanted to do it again some time. Elly confirmed that she'd like that very much, and asked me whether she was now my girlfriend. I thought that label was a bit hasty, since I was still in mourning for her sister, so I didn't give her a direct answer. When we left the room, it was clear that the parents had been paying attention, and there were smiles all around, with the father telling me I was such a nice guy and he hoped to see me again.

As I was driving home, I was surprised to be pulled over by a police car. I'm a very careful and law-abiding driver, so this had never happened to me before. A policewoman got out of the car and asked for my driver's license. I handed it to her, and she took it back to the cruiser, apparently to verify it.

When she came back, she handed it back to me and asked defiantly, "Where's your badge? Don't you have one?" Maybe my badge wasn't very visible, since it was partially hidden by my jacket lapel. I pushed back the lapel and displayed it. She then had me get out of my car while she forcefully rubbed her breasts against my chest. She let me off with a verbal warning: "That badge must be clearly displayed at all times. Next time I'll take you down to the station." She gave me a quick smile and told me I was free to go.

Before May, I'd been a software tester, but that job ended since the business was considered nonessential. I'd been watching to be called to a new job, and I knew it would be in infrastructure, since workers were desperately needed there to keep the power on and the water flowing. When I got home after visiting Elly, I found that I'd been called to interview at an electric utility for an essential job there. I went downtown for the interview and was taken to the office of a human resources employee.

Trudy, the HR lady, with her dark hair in a bun, was super nice and friendly after seeing my badge and said they had an urgent need for linemen. I asked her very nicely if they could consider my fear of heights and put me in a different position. "We might consider that, if..." And with that, she asked me to pull my chair away from the desk, sat on my lap, and started kissing me.

After about ten minutes, she went back to her chair, looked at her screen, and said, "How about a position in line monitoring? With your software background, you should be able to learn that." I thanked her, and she gave me the details and start date. As I started to leave, she said, "Remember, I'm always here for you, working in the same building, so please stop down and visit sometime." I gave her a quick kiss and left. I reflected that I was lucky to have dodged the lineman job, and after all, it's always nice to have a friend in HR.

I wanted to get a haircut before starting the job, but my usual barbershop had closed. The new one I found in my neighborhood looked like any other barbershop. Once inside, though, I found that it was divided into private rooms. The bell attached to the front door alerted one of the barbers, and mine turned out to be a young woman. She guided me into the room and closed the door. She then took off her lab coat to reveal that she was wearing a bikini only. She said, "It's a little too warm in her to wear that coat all the time."

I agreed that it was warm. As I sat in the chair, she clipped away, but in a rather hesitant manner. I was beginning to wonder whether she was a real barber when out of the blue she said she was still too hot and took off the bikini top. She continued clipping away, sometimes moving her breasts very close to my face. She noticed that she had my full attention, and at one point when I opened my mouth to say something, she quickly placed one of her nipples in it. I was amazed and delighted. She then told me she was done with the haircut, brushed me off, and invited me into another private room, this one with a bed.

There I let myself go and gave myself over to my instincts, imagining she was the HR lady. She was very enthusiastic throughout and told me I was wonderful. When I got home, I looked at my haircut and noticed it was a mess, but I had a nice feeling about it. The next time I went out in public, I noticed messy haircuts on other men as well.

Wondering how safe it was for me to go out in public, even though the streets were nearly deserted, I decided to spend most of my free time in my apartment. I watched more TV news and documentaries than usual and learned some interesting things. Sales of weight-loss programs had skyrocketed, as well as sales of dressy clothes, lingerie, and perfume. Fitness centers were flooded with new women, and many more women went out for walks in the neighborhood. Sports programs on TV were now all reruns, since the teams had been disbanded. They'd mostly been replaced with soap operas or psychologist-led talk shows.

There was a lot of talk about how to manage without a man or how to find a man. Some women on the talk shows said they were fine without a husband but needed to learn home-repair skills. Some said they'd be satisfied with an unbadged man, but others said frankly they hoped to snag a badged one.

I started my job a few days later, and it began with a month-long training program. The instructor was a man, a long-term employee of the utility, who said he hadn't done this specific job (monitoring power lines) but was pretty sure he could train us how to do it.

There were five other trainees in the class, with me being the only man. I had my badge on my jacket when I entered the building, but I took off the jacket and carried it folded up. The women in the class seemed like serious students, but maybe a little distracted by my presence. When I came back from the first break, I noticed that my jacket, on the back of my chair, was in a slightly different position, telling me that someone had likely moved it to look for a badge. I guess word had spread quickly among the five women, and the mood in the class changed quickly.

The next morning when I came into the room, I first thought I'd wandered into the wrong classroom. The women were wearing dressier clothes, and the air was filled with perfume. They all seemed very friendly to me, and although I sat in the same seat as the day before, the seat next to mine now had a different person. When it came time for lunch, my new neighbor asked me if I'd like to go out for lunch instead of going to the cafeteria with the others. I shouldn't have said yes, but I didn't want to seem disagreeable, so I accepted.

At lunch Lucy was very pleasant and engaging. She talked a little about her late husband, but mostly she wanted to know about me. I told her I was an amateur musician and had studied languages and didn't miss the sports programs that used to be on TV. I also said I didn't like perfume very much. She seemed genuinely interested. She became flirty in subtle ways, occasionally touching one of my hands or playing footsie with me. She smiled a lot and paid constant attention to my reactions.

Before she left, she said she hoped we could do this again soon and said she hoped she could see me outside work sometime. As we left the restaurant, she gave me a very nice but discreet kiss. I admitted that I had a nice impression of her.

The next morning, thank goodness, the only perfume smell in the class was what was left over from the previous day. I sat down in my usual seat but found a different woman in the seat next to me. That was Cecile, and she was wearing a nice black dress and a little makeup. I wasn't surprised when she invited me to lunch. She talked a little about herself, saying for example that she wasn't missing the TV being on every evening with football, basketball, or baseball games, but admitted that in some ways she missed her late husband.

"He was basically kind to me, and we were a good couple," she said. Then she asked me about myself, and I told her that I didn't have a girlfriend before May, but I had a good friend who I was considering asking out. I explained that she'd died during the sixth wave of the outbreak.

"Then you're in mourning, too," Cecile said. After we left the restaurant, she said, "I'd really like to see you some evening. Are you free tonight?"

She really did seem nice, but with so many competitors, I couldn't decide. I said, "I'm not free tonight, but maybe some other time."

That evening I reflected on my situation in a world turned upside-down. Previously my attitude had been based on an imaginary scarcity of women; now I had to adjust to the opposite, since it was the women who had to face a real scarcity of men.

Apparently so many women wanted me, and I didn't know what to do. Previously it seemed that

none

had, and I'd spent weeks trying to get up my courage to ask Elly's sister for a date, fearing that she'd say no and say she just wanted to stay friends. Maybe I missed that situation, since it at least allowed me to spend time with a woman I really liked. Now I went around confused. If I said yes to one of the women at work, I had an idea of what would follow, since things with women nowadays happened faster than I was prepared for. Should I just get to know a few women and make a decision?

But why was I so worried? Maybe I should enjoy the present circumstances. It was clear from my experiences with Elly, the barber, and the HR lady that I could have a different woman every day, and without much effort could choose the sexiest or the most pleasant. That seemed like a sensual paradise, and yet it was easily attainable. Was it that simple?

In the midst of those reflections, I realized I'd forgotten to pick up some groceries for breakfast. Even though it was already dark, I decided to walk to the nearby convenience store. With so few survivors, my city was safe at night, or so I thought. I was most of the way to the store when suddenly a car door opened and a woman dressed in black pushed me into the back seat. I tried to get out, but the car doors were locked. So I was now sitting next to the woman who'd forced me in, while another woman drove.

To my surprise, the woman in the back seat started talking to me in a very sweet way. "You should know it's not safe out there for you, honey. We've just rescued you from a very dangerous situation. There are some scary people out there."

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, obviously frightened.

"Just to a visit to our home," the back seat lady answered calmly and sweetly. "Don't be worried. We'll take you back to your place after the visit."

Then I got a better look at her face, and she looked as sweet as she sounded. She had a nice complexion and a very pleasant, benign look. I was still worried, though.

After a while, the lady driving pulled into an attached garage and closed the garage door. I walked with the two of them into the house, which seemed tidy and normal. In the kitchen, the back seat lady opened a bottle of wine and offered me a glass of it. We chatted for a moment, and then the driver lady came back into the room wearing just bra and panties. I chatted with her for a bit, and then the back- seat lady came back into the room, also wearing a bra and panties. "Let's go into the living room," they said.

Both women looked very, very appealing in their undergarments, and I was beginning to warm to the idea of spending some time with them. They had me sit in the middle of the sofa, and they sat on either side of me, so close that I felt a little crowded. One of them started kissing me a little, and the other started touching my chest and then my legs.

We had a little chat about safety in the neighborhood, and they assured me it was dangerous out there but that I was perfectly safe with them. They really were charming and attractive, and I decided to relax and enjoy myself. They offered me some cheese and brought out an unopened box, opened it, and served me some. The back seat lady introduced herself as Julie, and the driver introduced herself as Marie. It seemed that we were off to a pleasant evening.

Julie asked me whether I liked her outfit, and I answered honestly that I thought it was very nice and that she looked lovely in it.

"It doesn't need to stay on all evening," she said as she loosened the straps and placed my hand inside, touching her left nipple.

"Mine doesn't either," said Marie, who did a similar gesture, gently taking the same hand from Julie's breast and placing it on her own. By now the fear had vanished from my mind, and I found myself going with the flow. So I wasn't too surprised when Julie started taking off my shirt and Marie undid my belt buckle and removed my trousers. They noticed my excitement but didn't say anything and kept removing my clothes.

"They don't give those badges away for nothing," I said, trying to break the ice, but realizing immediately how stupid my joke was. But they ignored it and proceeded to touch me everywhere, apparently very absorbed.

Finally Julie said, "Let's go into the bedroom." I quickly took one more sip of the wine and went with them.

We sat down on the bed, and Marie said, "Wouldn't you like to take off my outfit?" I said I certainly would and removed both parts very easily, touching and caressing as I went.

"And how about mine?" Julie said, so I did the same for her. Then we all three lay down on the bed, kissing intensely and occasionally moving around.

"Now I'll let you focus on Julie for a moment," Marie said, "but then it's my turn." Julie lay on her back and opened her legs, and I came inside. She seemed to be enjoying it a lot, but I sensed some anxiety from Marie, who finally asked for her turn and told me she'd like for me to finish inside her. Instead of lying on her back, though, Marie asked me to do that while she came on top and straddled me. She moved up and down while I caressed her lovely breasts while Julie held one of her hands.

After about ten minutes, we switched positions and they encouraged me to come to a climax. Julie was still holding Marie's hand when I finished up, and we all three lay there sighing. I'd never imagined having two women in bed, but the experience with them seemed wonderful.

"Next time we'll reverse the order," Marie said.

Julie added, "Now aren't you glad we captured you?" I had to admit I was.

A while later, we got dressed and they drove me home. Marie handed me a slip of paper with their home address and email addresses. I kissed them both and said goodnight.