Quaranteam

Chapter 50

November 20

th

, 2020

"Good evening, America," President Pelosi said to them live through the television. The speech was being broadcast from the Oval Office, and while Pelosi hadn't looked in good health for a long time, she looked particularly weary at this moment, as if the cost of living and leading through the crisis was aging her another year every month. "We, your leaders, have done our best to shield you from the disaster that has been happening all around us for months now, but today I come to you with the truth and a beacon of hope, something that will let us endure and survive."

"Shit," Andy muttered beneath his breath. "She's really gonna say it."

"Many of you have seen news stories talking about both the Covid pandemic and this new, far deadlier virus, which scientists are calling DuoHalo. We have advised everyone remain secluded and in isolation as much as they are able to endure, but despite our best efforts, losses in America have been incomprehensibly and irreparably high. We have done our best to work with the news outlets to do what we can to prevent a panic, but make no mistake, the situation is as bleak as it has ever been in our country's history. As of today, November 20

th

, we here in America have suffered fatalities totaling almost 85% of our male population, and 15% of our female population.

"In addition to this, we have lost an entire generation, a very specific subslice of our population. While we are still working to understand this data, it seems as though almost everyone between the ages of twelve and seventeen in the United States, both male and female alike, now lays dead, felled by this horrific disease. It seems that those who have yet to hit puberty are spared from the most deadly effects of the virus, and while they will undoubtedly have long-term health complications, we expect very few fatalities in this age range, even as they age further, as their bodies will already have built enough resistance to the virus to not be fatal, one bright spot in this extremely dark data.

"Our prisons are now mostly empty buildings, with nearly every incarcerated male in America dead, as DuoHalo ripped through them faster than anyone could respond, neither inmate or guard spared from the plague as it shredded through their hallways.

"This virus is also blind to race, and the numbers of dead are mostly consistent across all ethnicities. It spares only us women, and instead forces us to watch helplessly as the men of our country - our fathers and husbands and brothers and sons - are quickly struck dead before us, far too sudden and in too large of numbers for us to grieve individually, as the list of fallen grows ever longer.

"All of this means that over 160 million Americans have died in the span of less than a year. It is harrowing and it is bleak, but we do have a way through, unorthodox but viable.

"In working to develop a vaccine or a cure for DuoHalo, our scientists discovered a stopgap solution that has unfortunately turned into a lifeline, so that we do not lose what few remaining men we have here in the United States. The medical treatment our scientists have developed is lethal when given directly to men, but when given to women, the treatment can be passed on to men through sexual contact. Essentially, we have made a sexually transmitted vaccine. It was certainly not what we had hoped for, but it is what we have available to us. And, more importantly, we know that it works, not some of the time, but all of the time. With 100% certainty. Even someone who has been infected with DuoHalo can make a complete recovery if they are given the treatment fast enough. Among those who have taken the treatment, we have not had any deaths do to DuoHalo. This will allow our country to live on, but a number of changes are being made, rewriting some of our fundamental laws of society, for a time, at least.

"A few months ago, we briefly had hopes that we had created a different version of the vaccine that would function as a stand-alone, and would be able to be injected into both men and women, but it turned out that this version had such a short duration of efficacy that it wasn't worth further exploring, as it would have required weekly injections to every man and woman. Beyond that, each time the vaccine's resistance to the DuoHalo virus would diminish, until eight or nine weeks later the vaccine would be completely useless, providing no resistance to DuoHalo at all. We are still working with that version, attempting to solve its problems, but they seem, at this point, perhaps too great for our scientists to conquer in the needed timeframe, so we are moving forward with the less orthodox solution, and making some strong changes to help our society weather the new world we find ourselves in, whatever it takes."

Andy remembered Phil talking about it around the time his brother had died, but when he'd followed up on it, Phil had simply said that it was looking like the findings had been 'overly optimistic,' and that if anything changed, he'd let Andy know. The fact that Phil had never brought it up again had told Andy that it hadn't worked out, and he hadn't wanted to bring up the sore spot to his friend.

"Starting immediately, marriage for men of age is becoming compulsory. There will be a grace period, of course, as we work over the next few months to ensure that every eligible male of age is paired up with not one but multiple wives. Shared marriages are no longer illegal; they are, in fact, mandatory. Those precious few men we as a nation have remaining need new mental and emotional support systems, as we expect survivor syndrome to hit hard. Polyamory will not necessarily remain the lay of the land for generations to come, but for next twenty years or so, it will certainly be so, and a single man may have as many wives as he feels comfortable with. We expect the number to vary from four upwards, but in some rare cases may even include dozens. It will be mandatory for a man to have at least four wives, and partners will be repeatedly sent to surviving men to insure this. This one-to-many ratio is for the ensured prolonged health of our few remaining men, as the more female partners a man has, the stronger his immunity to DuoHalo will be. I assure you, my fellow Americans, that we are going to great lengths to ensure that both men and women are paired up in only positive ways, and that they are in relationships that will survive the test of time. I myself am sharing my husband Richard with five other women, and while I will be the first to admit, it has presented all sorts of new challenges, we are doing our best to make it work in our home, much like all of you will have to learn to do yourselves. For those relationships that do fail, we are also working on solutions to solve those problems once we have weathered the darkest part of the storm and are on the other side.

"We do not take these forced pairings lightly, because they involve a bonding process, an imprinting of women onto men, which means that women who engage in sexual activity with men other than their bonded partner risk severe injury, even death. They can, however, engage in sexual contact with other women without consequence, as long as they do not come in contact with semen from anyone other than their bonded partner. When women are first given the treatment at one of our facilities, they will be given a briefing on what is required of them in this new world of ours. I advise that each and every woman take what you hear in this briefing deadly seriously, as your very life depends on you following the few rules presented to you.

"We have already begun rolling this treatment out across the United States, and as of right now, nearly 50% of the surviving male population has at least the first of their partners sharing a house with them, providing some basic resistance to the virus. There are other effects - both positive and negative - that can sometimes come with the serum, which our scientists who discovered it are calling the Quaranteam serum, but those vary too much to go into any detail tonight, and more will be detailed over the months to come. Most will be discussed in length with the women when they are initially given the Quaranteam serum on site.

"This change in the family unit is going to bring with it a change in the landscape of the American population. With the deaths of so many male Americans, so many properties are untended, unpopulated. Because of this, I have drafted and Congress, what remains of it anyway, has passed The Great American Redistribution Project, which will relocate and house all of the remaining, surviving men in America in homes and residences designed to accommodate the new, unorthodox family units. This means we have built new villages with larger sized homes, but also reclaimed and renovated large scale tower buildings in more urban areas, knocking down walls and doors, turning a floor of apartments into a single-level dwelling for one family, or Team as they've been referred to by some of our scientists. While apartment towers once had hundreds of families living in them, they now hold only dozens. This will also be true for more suburban neighborhoods, where larger homes are being constructed on lots that used to hold as many as four homes.

"We have done all of this as quickly and quietly as we can, going so far as to enlist all available contractors and construction workers, giving them priority access to the Quaranteam process in order to get them working on altering existing structures as well as building new ones. Many of the men out there watching this tonight are inevitably in their new homes already, trying to adjust to all the changes they've gone through over recent months, and the rest of you should expect to be relocated within a matter of months as you are quickly partnered up. I urge that you make these new communities into homes, to make them your own. Take the time to get to know your new neighbors.

"With eminent domain, we will be restructuring the communities of America, and have done our best to ensure that America continues to be the great melting pot that we know and love. Part of the problem of this country for the last decade has been the self-segregation that we Americans have tragically been engaging in. We have chosen to isolate ourselves away from our neighbors, or, more commonly, have worked to enshroud ourselves in neighborhoods that only reflect our own experiences. We cannot be afforded this narrow worldview any more, and so in the relocation process, we have worked to blend Americans with walks of life they might not have interacted with regularly. Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, white, black, Latino, Asian, Native and every other walk of life in between. No man nor woman can continue to be an island, oblivious to the rest of America. We simply cannot afford that level of isolation or ignorance of each other any longer. Learn from your neighbors. Learn to love them. Make sure your Team is intermingling with the other Teams around you. These are our new villages. We must embrace each other, not fear them. It will be a challenge looking at these people with impartial eyes, but I ask you not to judge lest ye be judged yourself.

"We are working to find a solution for those Americans who are LGBTQ+ and are unable or unwilling to partner in a binary male/female relationship, but as of yet, we do not have any solution beyond the one we are working with, so we must ask you to continue to isolate as best you can, until we have a working solution for you. I assure you, this is of the utmost importance to us, and we will not stop until we have something to protect you from this insidious virus. Do everything you can to keep yourself away from other people and to remain isolated and safe from exposure to DuoHalo, as this disease has already killed far too many of us.

"Those of you who are imprinted and paired with a partner or partners, you can freely move about the world again, as long as you are following the regimen required to keep your immunity strong. Keep your partners close and regularly strengthen your immunity together. You can travel, you can return to work, you can visit family... you can do all the things you once did. You are safe once more, and it's important that you reconnect with your loved ones and family members, as long as they are also imprinted and paired. If they are not, you should not visit them until they are paired, for their safety more than your own. We are working to get all of America imprinted and paired, but this is the largest medical action in our great nation's history, and it will take time, so we ask for your patience.

"We as Americans are certainly not suffering alone in this regard. The world at large is suffering with us in this moment of unprecedented crisis, and many nations are far worse off than we are. Other countries have only thousands of men remaining. Others still even less. We have unconfirmed reports that some nations might be down to only a handful of male survivors at this time. It is even possible that a few nations may have no men in them whatsoever anymore. Over three billion men have been killed by this horrible plague, and it will not stop until all men are dead or protected. As such, we are sharing our treatment with as many of these other nations as we are able, to ensure not only our own survival, but the survival of the species.

"In exchange for our help, some nations will be sending some of their citizens to join our great nation, and I expect all Americans to welcome these new women to our shores with open arms. This is only the beginning of many major changes across this little blue orb we call Earth, and I will do my best to keep everyone appraised of all the steps we are taking along the way towards recovery as best as I am able, but so much is happening so fast that details may occasionally be lost along the way. There is talk that we may move to formalize some relationships and that the number of states in our great union might go up by a sizable amount in a very short time, but all of this is still in talks. To ensure the survival of their nations, many are offering land, resources, and even people. I intend to do whatever I can to ensure the prosperity of this great nation of ours, and I will always put our vaccine needs above those of other countries, but when it comes to excess vaccine, we will take care of our allies first and foremost, and those who can offer us the best deal will come next."

Andy was a little surprised how ruthless President Pelosi sounded, but in many ways the high end leadership of both political parties in the United States weren't all the different from one another - there was always a sense of 'what have you done for me lately?' and while the left made sure to protect things like women's rights and minority rights, they were still far closer to the right than most of the Democratic Party voters would have liked. She'd openly admitted that the excess vaccine was basically for sale to the nation that would provide the United States the best deal. There was something about that which left a bitter taste in Andy's mouth, and he hoped it wouldn't come back to bite the country in the ass at some point.

"As only the second person to hold this distinguished office who was never elected to either the office of the presidency or the vice presidency, I recognize how unusual this situation is, but for the time being, I am America's wartime president in the war against DuoHalo. We have had to appoint so many people that it might feel like the citizens of our country no longer have their representation chosen by them, a concern I hear and would like to address. All officeholders in our governments will have their tenures extended by two years, and in the fall of 2022, once the country has stabilized once more, we will hold a new round of elections for all offices. Senators, representatives, governors, mayors - from top to bottom, we will build a new foundation of government, one that I suspect will be much more representative of how our population looks now, with many, many more women holding office. As for me, I will not seek reelection for the Presidency, nor will I return to my place as Speaker of the House of Representatives. These past few months have felt like a thousand lifetimes to me, and after I have helped establish the bedrock for this new phase of our country, I will retire to allow other candidates to represent you in this great office.

"One last bit of sunlight I can offer you in these dark times is that early reports are that children from two people who both have the Quaranteam serum running through their veins will likely be completely immune to DuoHalo, and will not need to be bonded to anyone to endure it moving forward. This data is extremely early, but extremely promising as well. We are studying to see if there is a way to reverse engineer this immunity back to either parent, but as of yet, our scientists have made little to no progress on that front. Still, the birth rates and survival rates should be completely normal, which means that although we will have lost a few generations, we are going to survive, both as a nation and as a species.

"But know that we are currently a nation without most of our men, and we need to kickstart the process of rebuilding the male population as best as we are able if we are to weather this storm and come out on the other side of it, so we will be working to construct a system to encourage people to have multiple children, a brief return to the giant family sizes of old, something the temporary mandated polyamory should aid in. Tax benefits will be extended, education will be offered free of charge and to every child born within the next two years, the United States government will give them an acre of land to call their very own, or to sell and profit from, once they have reached the age of 18.

"Make no mistake about this - our old way of life is buried beneath the bodies of all our fallen men, and we must build a new one with what few male survivors we have been able to protect. And protect them we must, as they are now one of the most scarce and precious resources our planet has. Those of you who have not yet been imprinted or had partners imprinted on you, you

must

participate in this process as quickly and willingly as possible, and until you have at least one partner you

must

continue to self-isolate at all costs, as not just your survival, but the survival of our species as a whole could depend on it. Current estimates are that we will have every surviving male in America paired up with at least four partners by the end of March, but anything we can do to speed that effort up, we will, and I aim to have all our men protected as soon as possible.

"In working with the people over at

60 Minutes

, we have put together an hour long special which will cover some of the new laws, talk about the history of the virus and the Quaranteam serum, and interview some people living under the new system already. I realize this is an overwhelming amount of tragedy and strife to introduce you to all at once, but I think in watching the special, you will begin to see the seeds of hope taking root and giving birth to this new phase of our great nation.

"The changes to the fabric of our society are immense, and the legacy of it will last for lifetimes to come, but we will not surrender. We will not simply die quietly in the night. The women of this great nation have always been willing to fight just as hard as the men, and now it is our turn to be called forward, to stand up and deliver protection to those in need, our vulnerable men. We will fight to survive with every last breath, and the American spirit, while dampened, can never be extinguished. We will stand tall together and beat this challenge, as we have so many others, together.