Man's World

Chapter 1 - The birth of 3000

"You," he said, "are a terribly real thing in a terribly false world, and that, I believe, is why you are in so much pain." - Emilie Autumn

I am lucky enough today to be alive to write about my beginnings, or as far back as my memory serves me, to be able to share with you my account of the years spent in Underworld. By that I do not mean the land of the dead in folklore, but the prison I was born in. I will try my best not to confuse you, however my skill at storytelling maybe dull and uninteresting, I do hope you will listen. 

30 years before my birth, inventors and pioneers had created a way to bring life into the world without the need of men. Obviously this caused outrage amongst the religious sectors, calling it an abomination and a sin against God. Apparently all the Gods agreed this was blasphemy as many male religious leaders spread misinformation about the destruction of men if this new science was allowed to stay unchallenged. The Majority fought against the religious opposition and the first babies born only to women were brought into the world. 

It was said to be an advance in science, a breakthrough in biological knowledge. I wish that everyone had come to realise, the danger of power hungry men feeling ignored. 

They dismissed their world as a lost cause, gathering followings of men who wanted to escape the 'inevitable Matriarchy' to create a new world, a world controlled entirely by men, to return to the power which by birth right was theirs. 

The quest by many to erase inequality and treat women as human beings instead of an inferior race, was not something these men wanted for themselves, nor for their sons. A woman's place was in silent servitude to the superior man, as it had been for thousands of years, and so with much power and work, Underworld was born. It was the biggest kept secret of the time, and would not be unearthed for many many years. I think of all the women before me who were never saved, I wish their souls find happiness in the great beyond. 

Underworld had one problem, they knew that were would be some women who followed their cause, but a woman's mind is never truly fixed and once you enter Underworld there is no escape. No, they would have to start from scratch if they were to guarantee the women to know their position in their new civilization. 

On a dark night in early June,  they put into action their final terrible deed. All across the land, Hospitals were raided for baby girls. The horror of that night remained in the hearts of Upworlders for decades to come, a day of remembrance for the disappearance of over 300 daughters. Into Underworld they brought them, under the ground where their screams would never be heard again.

They stole them from their families, from their homes, from the sun, forced them into darkness, into servitude for the entitled man. No woman in that place knew of any other world but theirs, women could not read or write, were forbidden to speak, were burnt as witches if they did. We were no better than the pigs and cattle they kept in pens, we were cattle with a purpose and expiration date. 

No matter how hard the Upworlders searched for us, they could not find what had been sealed off from their world, with no way in or out, no chance of escape or rescue. They never stopped searching for us, the lost girls, that's what we were called, as if Underworld were like a form of Neverland we never wanted to leave, a place we would never grow up. On the contrary, no childhood allowed for women there, no laughter, no joy, no love, only purpose and punishment. 

The first generation were brought up by female followers, until the age they got their first blood, some of the women tried to protect the children, not wanting them to be subjected to the horrors in store. They were all burnt as witches for their defiance. The remaining women were put in charge of the 12 care levels, a child born spent a year at each level until they got their first bleed, before they themselves became carers. the yearly changing of the carer was a way to keep bonding to a minimum. Each year also marked the changing of the levels for the carers, the older they became the younger the children in their care were, until they reached level 1 at 23, looking after newborns. 

The childhood of a Underworld woman consisted of silence, obedience and fear, all while taking on the responsibility of keeping another alive and teaching them the same regime. The childhood was for most the happiest and safest time for a woman in Underworld. What came next would only make them crave that they hadn't wished the time away. 

There were only 3 roles for women in Underworld, Carer, Breeder, Pleasure. Breeder being the lesser of two evils to every 24 year old who finished her Care levels. She would be sent to fulfill her purpose in Underworld as a creator of new life, her sons being cared for by men, bringing them up to be as cruel and entitled as their forefathers, and her daughters, to become like her a handmaid to populate Underworld. 

But if you were defiant, if you were unable to bare children within your first year, if you spoke and did not want to be burnt, you were sent for sterilization and to the Pleasure Pits, where the death rate was high. I may describe my time in the pit if I have the stomach to remember that awful place, but for now, know that no wives existed in Underworld, no lovers, no sweethearts for men to dote upon. If the men were important enough they would be selected for the breeding program, but all the rest took out their desires in the Pits. Hundreds of them, without an ounce of care or compassion between them, only the knowledge that any loss of life caused by their hand would cost them their rank, and send them to the bottom of Underworld. There would be no money made if all the produce were dead.  

With the threat of ending up in the pits, the girls in the levels learnt to keep silent and subservient, to teach others to follow their footsteps and never stray from the path, once they reached 12 the same group aged together for the next 12 years of their lives, keeping each other in check, the female followers who before were allowed to remain exempt from the breeding program and the pits, now had ended they usefulness, with girls now old enough cover the 12 levels, they were taken away and burnt, their cries for help being the last spoken words of women for the next 50 years. 

I hope I have given enough backstory into Underworld as I can before I start recalling my life from within its cage. I remember little about my first level years, it wasn't until I reached level 4 as a carer, that something changed my life forever,  the day 3000 daughters had been born.