They claim they’re human, but they’re less than human. They’re missing the thing that makes us human: our genitalia. My genderless captor took me to an interrogation room. It then began to question me.

“Do you know why you’re being convicted?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I replied.

“You know the law says different,” it said.

“You’re denying me my freedom!” I exclaimed.

It paused for a second, then suddenly spoke.

“Tell me; would you prefer to die a quick death, or a slow death?”

“…Why?! Are you going to…?”

“No,” it interrupted. “However, if you don’t answer my questions, you will regret it.”

“Umm…..a quick death.”

“Why is that?” it asked.

“I don’t wish to suffer.”

It turned its back to me, snickering.

“Why is that funny?”

“That’s why you’re here.”

“What do you mean? All I did was have sex.”

It turned to face me again. In its eyes was an anger that I had never seen before. It was the anger of a person that never gets angry. It made all my confidence shrink away. Its intensity made me freeze.

“Only sex? Only sex?! I saw your tribe. I saw the suffering firsthand. You have sex to satisfy your animalistic desires! Do you think that life is just about pleasure?!”

I sat silent.

“How about your kids?! Because you couldn’t control yourself, they were destined to struggle since the day they were born! Even if you love them, you have seen them as a burden!” It sighed. “Get out of here. I can’t deal with you anymore.”

An officer escorted me down a long hallway.

“I’m taking you to the library,” it said. “You will be speaking to Izvor there.”

I was surprised to see how extensive the prison library was. It felt like I wasn’t even in a prison anymore. I was led to Izvor. It looked like the head librarian.

“I was told to teach you about our society,” Izvor began. “We’re not sure what you know and what you refuse to accept, so I will just teach you our entire history. If you have any questions before we begin, feel free to ask.”

I could not help but think about how generic Izvor looked. It made me frustrated.

“Why does everyone here look so similar? Don’t you people have any individuality?”

After I said that, everyone else in the library looked over at me. I must’ve spoken loudly. Izvor raised its hand and everyone went back to what they were doing.

More quietly than before, Izvor replied, “Forgive me if I answer many of your questions with more questions. I just feel that it is one of the most efficient teaching techniques.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine.”

“The less cooperative you are, the longer this will take.”

I was angry at this point. I hated how calm Izvor was. I would prefer to get yelled at rather than to see it so unresponsive to my words. I finally asked it, “Would you just answer my question already?”

Izvor looked annoyed. His tone did not change, though. “Sure. Why is it that you associate clothing with individuality?”

“Well, if you look different, you are different,” I replied.

“What happens when you can’t hide behind your appearance to assure yourself that you’re unique?”

It had responded very quickly to my answer. It’s as if it knew what I was going to say.

“What kind of question is that?”

“A good one,” Izvor stated. It stared at me intensely. I tried to shake off the feeling that my beliefs might be wrong, but it couldn’t quite go away.

“You don’t know me. There are a lot of things that make me unique.”

Izvor smiled at me menacingly. “Like what?”

My answer seemed to escape me. I wanted to reply, but it felt like its stare somehow wouldn’t let me. Still seeming in control on the outside, I eventually said, “That’s a stupid question.”

“Well, I encourage you to think about it,” Izvor replied.

Its tone was pretty friendly now. I thought about how this tone matched how it originally acted toward me. Did Izvor really change so dramatically, or was its change in tone all in my head? No, it couldn’t be. My tribe was just doing what was natural. Surely that couldn’t be wrong.

“Shut up!”

My voice once again echoed throughout the library.

“Maybe it’s time to show you to your cell,” Izvor said calmly. The guards then discreetly escorted me out of the room.

The next day, I had to talk to Izvor again.

“I would like to remind you that we must finish our lessons before you are eligible for parole,” it said.

I didn’t reply.

“Well, I think we should get started with some basic history. Do you know why there is no more sex in our society?”

“It’s because our leader is a tyrant,” I muttered.

Izvor’s facial expression did not change. “We are talking about fact now, not opinion. The fact is that humanity faced an apocalypse. Do you know why?”

I know why, but I think it’s just a conspiracy. There’s no way it could’ve happened in the way that they say it did. I decided again not to speak.

“There was an outbreak of a deadly disease,” Izvor continued. “It happened about a century ago. Many scholars are intrigued by the fact that this disease was quite preventable. You see, it was a sexually transmitted disease, or as they said back then, an STD. It wiped out nine-tenths of the world’s population.”

“That obviously could not have happened,” I finally said.

“That’s what they thought, too,” it replied. “They thought that all the quarantine reports were being blown out of proportion. Even after they realized the sheer scale and deadliness of this disease, they continued. They could not stop themselves, almost as if sex was a drug. A drug that was always available. A drug that everyone was born with.”

I just could not believe what Izvor was saying. Sex is natural. Surely all this was just propaganda. So, I decided to ask it, “How could a disease like this even exist? Sex is natural. If this disease were real, it was probably meant to wipe out humanity.”

Izvor’s stare again made me feel so predictable. “It depends on perspective,” it stated. “You could view it as what was meant to be the end of us, or you could view it as another great challenge we conquered as a species. I personally believe in the latter. If it weren’t for the human’s ability to solve some of life’s greatest problems, we would have died out long ago. As for your argument of sex being ‘just natural’, if we relied only on the natural, we would not survive. The huts you lived in were not natural. The tools you hunted with were not natural. Humans can’t survive without things like this. Humans were given big brains instead of big pincers or venomous barbs so that we could make things to help us survive.”

“But we were born with these things,” I replied. “They’re meant to be used.”

“Our reproductive organs have served their purpose,” it said. “They are now vestigial. Human intellect surpassed human evolution a long time ago. We can’t afford to wait for millions of years while our bodies catch up.”

“Well, what do you plan to do about it?”

Izvor finally seemed to be surprised by one of my responses. My response didn’t affect it very much, though.

“We plan on creating a Z chromosome to replace its X and Y counterparts. Instead of XX or XY pairings, there will only be ZZ. This pairing seeks to replace the genital entirely with just a urethra. If all goes according to plan, puberty will cease to exist. Instead, it will just be another stage of growth. The hormones associated with reproduction will be removed or replaced. It will be implemented in the infant labs when it is ready. I haven’t heard much on the project in a while besides that Project ZZ is almost complete.”

That’s all I needed to hear.

“Okay, are we done?”

Semi-surprised, Izvor replied, “You’re already ready to quit for the day? I thought I told you that these lessons are imperative for your release.”
“I know, and I don’t care.”

Izvor stared at me for awhile with its terrible stare. “Okay. Guards, escort him back to his quarters.”

I was glad the prison didn’t have the most high-end security. I heard that because of the low crime rate and the not very aggressive inmates, there are far fewer security measures now than there were before this “STD Apocalypse”. Did they really think I was that stupid? There is no way that the huge loss of life was due to people not being able to control their sexual urges. Or is it? No, it couldn’t be. It’s just all this stupid propaganda of Izvor’s. I couldn’t shake the doubt, though.

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and reached for my easily concealed transponder. It’s finally time to leave here. Izvor told me what I needed to know. We’re going to attack the infant labs to find out more about Project ZZ. I pressed the button to signal my tribe to break me out. Now, I just need to wait.