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The contest rules

The Departure

Robot guard opened the door of the cell and Marcus walked it. He looked around the room. There were around 12 other people in the cell. The door closed behind Marcus. All eyes were directed at him. A tall guy with a tattoo of a walrus on his biceps walked in shaking gait and waved at Marcus. “Name?” “Marcus” “What are you in for?” “Forth degree” “Forth degree what?” “Forth degree toxic masculinity” “Hahahaha,” The guy turned away from Marcus as if inviting other guys to share his laugh, which they supported with the different degree of enthusiasm. “Forth degree… what a dummy. I’ve never met anybody above the third. What did they get you for?” “Looked at the girl in the office for longer than 10 seconds” “Look at this idiot!” The guy giggled. “Don’t you know the rules?” “I do, but I had a feedback gadget on me, that told me that she experienced a 65% attraction to me. So I was afraid that if I drop the eye contact she’d feel I am ignoring her. You know better than if she’d complain that I neglected her, I’d get a third-degree toxic masculinity charge.” “So if she had it 65 percent for you why did she made a complaint?” “Another girl next to her asked me a question and I had to break the eye contact with the first one.” “So you got in the crossfire, you, poor bastard. That sounds like a correctional facility on Mars,” The guy shook his head this time with a share of sarcastic commiseration. “Name is walrus,” he pointed to the tattoo on his biceps, “Go take the third bed to the right. The guy who laid on it been sent out with the ship yesterday.” Holding his mattress and bedsheets received from the robot guard, Marcus walked toward the bed. *** Two weeks Marcus spent in the county jail waiting for his deportation to Mars. Finally, the Spacebus 365 arrived and was ready to take the next portion of prisoners. It was a very popular vehicle to transports the guilty male population to correctional facilities. There were hundreds of them in exploitation. They were durable, reliable, and spacious. Their internal cabin could accommodate up to a thousand people. There weren’t comfortable, but who said prisoners should fly in comfort? Marcus felt sad and scared. He was yanked out from his habitual environment: the job he loved and a woman he adored. Catherine warned him many times to be on a high alert when he was in a company of other women at work. She even suggested taking a position in a company where other women didn’t want to work because of the small pay. “You know how it is nowadays. One wrong move and you are out! Better be safe than sorry!” Marcus didn’t listen to her. He wanted to impress her, to be someone she could be proud of and now he had to pay for his levity, his stupidity. “Going to Mars like me or further?” Marcus looked at the guy who sat next to him. He seemed to be a nice quiet guy, not a criminal he was surrounded in the jail cell, where he was mocked and beaten up. “Mars” “It’s weird what’s going on” “What do you mean?” “I mean, soon there will be no men left on Earth. I took a course in the college of how to suppress my toxic masculinity and got an A on it. But since college time, it’s gotten stricter and stricter. It is literally impossible to work, date or have a family. The Feminist Council imposes new and new regulations.” He shook his head in a disappointment. “Now, Mars. I am so scared. I heard horrible things about these facilities. It’s completely serviced by robots. And they are going to mess with our brains.” Marcus only sighed. He was hoping that Catherine would follow him to Mars. She told him this when cops came to take him. “Don’t worry, honey. I’ll follow you to Mars. We will still be together” But could he really hope? He heard rumors that many women started going to Mars by themselves. Surely, on one hand, many of them welcomed the war on toxic masculinity. Many women supported The Feminist Council in its decision to impose stricter laws against ever spreading toxic masculinity. Who needed men after all? Who could better understand and accommodated a woman than another woman? And for those who preferred heterosexual sex, there were humanlike robots who could provide everything men can and more without all the drawbacks. On the other hand, the male population on Earth reduced so dramatically that soon there won’t be any carriers of toxic masculinity left. And some renegade women quietly disregarded the common cause, flew to Mars and other planets and started families there. This was illogical since on Earth they could have had perfect insemination from the sperm bank. Marcus hoped though that his Catherine will be illogical and that her words wouldn’t be just words. “Don’t worry, honey. I’ll follow you to Mars. We will still be together.” Marcus closed his eyes. He remembered a phrase from some old movie. “Hope is a good thing. Sometimes it’s the only thing.”