.01 Percent: Chapter 1

“Wake up.”

The voice was a throaty growl, and in Jim’s dreamless slumber he smiled at it. It sounded sexy.

But his smile quickly vanished when something hit his ribs with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

Gasping, his eyes flew open and his conscious was violently pulled back to reality.

“Fuck me,” he said, mimicking her growl. “I’m a rare commodity now. You should be more careful.”

The woman to his right, Jenna, rolled her eyes.

Jenna had a cute face, but the army fatigues and the loaded assault rifle cradled in her arms didn’t exactly turn him on. She was a woman he didn’t ever want to mess with. Period.

“14,940 doesn’t exactly put you on the endangered species list.”

“Tell that to our government,” Jim mumbled.

14,940.

It was a number burned into all of their minds. 99.99% of the men on the planet died last year from a mysterious virus. In the United States, that left 14,940 men alive. It’d taken the U.S. government a whopping 4 months to realize the full impact of the population change. And in collaboration with all the other world leaders and leading scientist, it’d taken them another 8 months to come up with one fucked up plan.  

If someone had asked him 2 years ago what he thought about having to help repopulate the world, he’d have asked them where to sign up. But theoretical scenarios was nothing compared to reality.

Reality.

The reality of it was that being .01% of the world’s male population meant that all of his friends were dead. Of all the things, that was the hardest thing to take. He would have done anything to get his brother and father back.

It had been over a year since their deaths, but it still pained him. Survivor’s Guilt was a bitch to bare.

Against his will his eyes darted to the stoic woman who sat across from him. Tess.

If male--straight, mind you--companionship was the first thing on his wishlist, their absence would be a close second.

Both Tess and Jenna had been “assigned” to him. Sure, the scary general told him those two were there to protect him from the crazies out there but he wasn’t stupid. They were there to make sure he did what his government told him to do.

Not that he could really complain. Their recruitment pitch was hard to turn down: “Fuck for your country and in return you’ll never have to work another day in your life.”

The irony of it all was that he’d been drawing unemployment checks when the virus had swept the world.

That’s probably how they found me, Jim privately thought to himself.

“I’d argue we are all on the endangered species list,” the woman to the left of him said absently, pulling his attention to the good doctor.

Lexy. Now there’s a looker for you. Long legs, blond hair, red lips, black rimmed reading glasses, and a lab coat that always seemed to suggest she was wearing a shorter skirt.

Hot librarians had nothing on her.

She was the third lady assigned to him. While Tess and Jenna protected him from physical harm, she protected him from the not so physical elements. Her duty was to ensure that the women that came into his bed were STD free, healthy, and, of course, ovulating.

The idea that the clinically detached woman would be demanding for his performance night after night really took the joy out of the whole repopulate-the-world fantasy.

“Thanks,” he said sourly.

“Prepare for landing,” a woman said over the cabin’s speaker.

Jim grabbed the harness that held him down and swallowed nervously.

That was the other reason why he was in a sour mood. He hated flying.

“Relax,” Lexy drawled. “You’ll be fine.”

Jenna snorted. “He’s not afraid of fucking, doc. He just hates flying.”

He glared at the vulgar, alibet perceptive, woman before he closed his eyes tightly and tried to ignore the feeling that his death was imminent.

Like an unexpected slap to the face, his head jerked forward and the tin can they called a helicopter came to a halt.

“Welcome to Small Town, America,” Jenna said, not bothering to hide her lack of enthusiasm.

Whatever town they had landed in, it was exactly what he’d imagined a small town would look like. Having came from a megatropolis, the idea of a small town had seemed fictional to him.

The helicopter had landed on the highest building for as far as the eye could see, so Jim had a good panoramic view of the area. Even though they only had moonlight to see by, he caught glimpses of a post office, a bookstore, a firehouse, a couple of office buildings, a hardware store, a grocery store, and the town hall. Off in the distance, he saw only a few more blocks before the town gave in to mother nature.

“Come on,” Jenna said, pulling him away from the edge. “The last thing I need is for you to die by gravity.”

Taking the roof top access door, they took the stairs all the way down to the first floor. Existing the stairwell, he immediately smelled “hospital” and the pristine white floors and wide hallway confirmed his nose’s suspicion.

Lexy who’d taken the lead, stopped in front of a nurses station. The lone nurse present was shuffling papers around and looked bored out of her mind. Lexy cleared her throat and the nurse looked up sharply, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

Blinking, the nurse looked from Lexy, to the two military women, and then finally at Jim.

Her mouth gaped open when her eyes landed on him.

Lexy looked down at the woman’s badge.

“Becky,” she said in her usual drawl, “I need you to page for the local Doctor... Now.”

Licking her lips nervously, Becky mumbled something incoherently before reaching for the phone. The phone evaded her grip and bounced around the desk. After a bit of fumbling with cord, she finally got enough self control to page the doctor.

And then there was the awkward silence.

“So,” Jim said, finally giving into the invisible pressure. “How long are we going to be here?”

Before Lexy could say anything, an elderly woman appeared from the stairway behind them.

“Becky, this had better be...” the doctor’s voice trailed off.

“Elizabeth,” Lexy said, picking her name off her badge. “It’s time.”

Elizabeth went from confusion, to shock, to something he couldn’t quite pin down before she pulled on an emotionless mask. Turning on her heels, the doctor started heading down one of the hallways. “This way.”

As they followed her, Lexy pulled out a notepad and started an inquisition on the woman.

“How many are of age?”

“72 right now. 75 if you factor in those that turn 18 or 30 this year,” Elizabeth said, mirroring Lexy’s clinical detached tone.

“And of those, how many meet our requirements?”

“36. 4 of which are ovulating this week. 1 right now.”

“Good, we’ll need to get started right away.”

Jim shook his head as the implications of the conversation sunk in. He was going to have sex with a random woman tonight and it was for the sole purpose of getting her knocked up.

That and he was going to be a dad.

A dad to a lot of kids by the sound of it, he thought numbly.

“Moo,” Jenna teasingly said from behind him.

Jim looked back at her and she raised her eyebrows suggestively.

He glowered at her.

But the smile she wore was hard to resist. He finally gave in and smiled back. “Must be nice being exempt. What are you, 32?”

His smile widened when her whole demeanor instantly went DEFCON 1 and a kind of raw rage filled her eyes that promised imminent violence.

“I--I’m 25 you fucking prick!” she sputtered angrily.

“You sure? You look at least 30,” he egged her on in the most innocent voice he could muster.

The sound of Tess chuckling took them all by surprise and they looked at her in unison. It was the first sign of life he’d seen or heard from her since they’d met... that had been over a week ago.

“If you two are done,” Lexy said, rolling her eyes, “We’re going across the street to the hotel. Your first assignment is meeting us there.”

Involuntarily, Jim looked at the local doctor and realized she’d just finished a private conversation on her cell phone.

Jim’s good spirits quickly died and for the first time in his life he wondered if he’d be able to perform.

As if reading his mind, Jenna gave him a wicked smile.

“You shouldn’t feel ashamed. ED is a real medical problem. I’m sure the good doc has a pill for it.”

“Fuck you,” he muttered.

“I don’t think you could get it up,” she replied dryly.