Prologue

10 years ago

"Breaking news! Mayhem has broken loose once again in the city of Johannesburg. More than 25 men have been found murdered on the streets in front of Treevale Primary school. So far, Police have discovered that a group of middle-aged women were behind the murder of those men. This brings the death toll of men in South Africa to 1,000,587 deaths this week..."

Gunshots could be heard in the backyard of my house. The screams of men accompanied the terrifying noise. Every single thing that was happening on the news on TV was happening just outside my house. I didn't have to take a peek through the window to see what was happening. I could see everything on the screen.

The news reporter was reporting the news as he hid behind a wall with the cameraman. That wall had the same chalk drawing of a stick man that I drew a few weeks ago. Fascinating, I thought. I was only 7 years old that time, so I didn't understand a single thing that was happening. As I always said: if I don't understand something, then there's no reason to be afraid of it.

Just then, the front door of my house was kicked open, taking me by surprise.

It was my dad. His face was melting with sweat. The fear shown on his face added flavour to his exhaustion. Red liquid squirted out from a cut on his arm, like a broken water pipe. That was when worry invaded my mind. I never liked seeing my parents in pain, especially my dad. I quickly rushed over to him and tried to help him sit down.

When I reached him, his red eyes widened, "Thando! What are you still doing here? Your mother was supposed to take you to a safer place!"

"Mommy was here, but she told me to stay put, because she needed to take care of something." I explained to him

"I should've known." He growled, "She's one of them. All women have the same mindset. They're all the same!"

He was speaking rubbish. My mom was a good, God-fearing woman. She always read me bedtime stories and fed me all the food I wished for. All the other women, like Cinderella, Barbie and Sleeping Beauty were good women too. Dad was just too blind to see that. Even the women with rifles on the TV looked so cool. They were probably trying to protect the community, right?

"Dad, you're wrong! What would Cinderella say to you if she ever heard you say that?" I protested

He sighed,"You will understand when you're older. But for now--"

We heard gunshots shoot through the bedroom windows. I jumped up and down with excitement. The real action had finally arrived at my home. It felt like I was in a real life movie.

"Oh no! Let's go, let's go!" My dad lifted me with his one good arm and ran out of the house with me.

The moment we exited the front door was the moment I couldn't believe my eyes. The pavements on the streets were filled with dead men and boys. Dad stepped on puddles of blood as he ran past the horrific sight. The drops of rain falling from the sky were the only pure things that touched my skin that day. After that, everything was cruel, inhumane and unnatural.

"Cover your eyes, Thando!" Dad yelled

I placed both my hands over my eyes, but still peeked through my fingers to take a look at the action. Then a thought came to mind.

"Dad, where is mommy by the way?" I asked calmly, as if we weren't at the risk of getting shot by women with rifles

"Thando, please not n---ahhh!"

He let out a cry, clenching his fist into the side of his stomach. The red liquid also started squirting out from there. I couldn't believe the women tried to hurt my father. The good women I believed in all my life.

"More red liquid!" I exclaimed

"It's okay. We're almost there." He assured me, and I believed him

After a while of running, Dad ran into a building which seemed to be a school for girls only. Surprisingly, the school appeared to be clean and undamaged unlike the other buildings. I wondered why...

He opened a classroom door in the passage way and placed me under a teacher's desk.

"Thando, please stay here and be very quiet. If they catch you, they will hurt you. Do you hear me?" He whispered

"No they won't!" I yelled, not cooperating with him, "Women always have good reasons for their actions, just like Barbie."

"Shh! Stop yelling and just listen."

"No! You're wrong, Dad. Mommy was right. You don't know how to be a good father! You always think you have the answer to everything, but you don't. You never do!"

He went silent. His face and body weakened, not only because of losing so much blood, but because of how badly my words hurt him. I never meant to hurt him. It was never my intention to hurt my own dad. I just hated how he spoke about women. Men have no right to speak badly about women, just as much as women have no right to speak badly about men. That was a rule I always obeyed. Men and women may not have the same qualities, but as long as they respected each other, anything good was possible. I just wished Dad saw that too.

Just then, the door was pushed open by a tall woman holding a rifle.

"There he is! I found him!" She shouted into her walky talky, "What's my next move, chief?"

"Kill him. He is the last man left. We must get rid of him with immediate effect." A voice in the walky talky said

"Roger that." The woman readied her rifle and aimed it to my dad.

"Please...don't kill me. I need to protect my daughter. She needs me!"

The woman peeped over my dad's shoulder and saw me. Her face had a huge scar on it, as if someone tried to cut her cheek open but failed to do so. She smirked at me, then looked back at my dad.

"Don't worry. She's one of us now."

She pulled the trigger, and a bullet shot straight through my dad's head, causing his head to tilt upwards. The red liquid squirted from the back of his head and onto my face. The taste of it in my mouth was the last memory I had of him. That was the first time I discovered the real meaning of the red liquid. The real meaning of blood.

Fear quickly invaded my body. I couldn't move nor say anything at all. The only thing moving was the waterfall of tears coming from my eyes. Dad couldn't leave yet. I still had so much to do with him, so much to say to him. I haven't said "I love you" enough for him to know that I loved him. I still haven't given him enough hugs. I needed more time.

"Mission accomplished. All men in South Africa are now extinct." The woman announced with pride

Why? Why do such a cruel thing?

I could only say those words in my mind, for my lips were quivering too much for a word to even slip out.

Suddenly, more women walked into the room to examine my dad's dead body. And surprisingly, my mother was one of them. When she saw me, she quickly threw her rifle to the ground so that I wouldn't see it. She then ran towards me and gave me a fat hug.

"Oh Thando! I'm so glad you're safe. Everything is okay now. We're free."

Free?

"F-free from what, mama?" I asked her, still traumatized

"We're free from the cruel treatment of men. We don't have to be beaten up by them anymore, nor cursed at, nor controlled, nor raped, nor harassed by them anymore. We dominate the world now. Women dominate the world now!"

No more men? I couldn't believe it. That wasn't possible. Women couldn't have pulled that off. There were far too many men in the world that we needed. We needed all of them!

"Let's go, my baby." My mom grabbed me by the hand

I looked at my dad for one last time, then saw something sticking out from his pocket. It was a keychain with a small Daffy Duck toy figure attached to it. I quickly took it before anybody saw and shoved it into my pocket. I found it pretty cute, and it was the only thing left of my father that I could actually have.

We made it back to the entrance of the school. The air reeked of blood and sweat. The sky was painted with a red-orange colour, as if trying to mimic the bloody party of dead men. Houses were burned down, windows were broken, car tyres were lit on fire. The whole city was a murder scene.

Across the street was a television store. The flat screen TVs on show were turned on with the news playing. The different news reader appeared this time. Last time, a male was reading the news, but now it was a woman who had taken his place.

"A wonderful day to all! I am Amanda Khoza reading your news from this day onwards in Johannesburg. Now, I am happy to announce that all the men in the world have gone extinct! I think this is a huge accomplishment for all women in the world, for this has been planned out for years and now our dreams have finally come true. Stay tuned for more news!"

The other TVs were also playing the news with different countries reporting the same thing about men extinction. And all the reporters were women.

"England finally announces the new replacement of the former male president, President Emily Frecklson."

"Females all over South Korea dance for the extinction of males across the world."

"Women sip champagne as they celebrate the end of male's era in America."

The voices of all these women cheering and singing were making my head spin. Was that really how things were going to be from now on? No boyfriend? No first kiss with a boy? None of those?

Was that the beginning of the end?