The world is ending and she's the saviour

A round table meeting was in progress at the International Genetic Research Laboratory.

"Boss, the new statistics from this morning have been organised. It's not looking good."

"Put it on the screen, Po."

The grave looking man, with his salt and pepper hair, and hard features spoke in a commanding voice. Deep in thought, the chairman of the IGRL rested an elbow on the arms of his chair and cupped his chin on his arm.

Po shivered as the projection screen lit up with a line graph tracking the population of females on earth. The statistics were collected every week since the significant decline in the population was noticed by researchers.

Women were finding it hard to get pregnant, and if they did, they suffered miscarriages or birthed still borns and premature babies that couldn't live past a few days.

And then the women started dying younger.

The average life span of an average woman was 82 years.

Now they were dying at 60, and some lived even shorter lives.

The IGRL had been on high alert for the last 6 years, investigating the mysterious causes of why the women were dying out and their increasing mortality rates.

They were the cradle of human existence. At this rate, the human race didn't seem to have much of a chance.

The line graph was horrifying. All the members of the IGRL board were present. They sat there in shock.

The graph showed a catastrophic and exponential depression in the global female population in the last week. Po winced as the board of directors began whispering in panic between themselves.

There was only one calm, indifferent and nonchalant face at the table.

This face belonged to Lady.

She was sprawled languidly on her chair, puffing a menthol cigarette. Her eyes were riveted to the screen, but her face was stone-like.

The chairman cleared his throat and everybody quietened down.

"Lady, is it time?"

His question was directed to the chief scientist of the IGRL.

She went by the mononym Lady.

Nobody knew her last name, or where she came from. There was an air of mystery about her. But she had solved problems that the best minds had worked on for centuries, and saved countless lives.

Her expertise in genetics was unparalleled. She was a miracle worker.

The IGRL rested all its hopes on her.

Lady smirked, her eyes still emotionless.

"Yes, it's time."

********

~ 2 WEEKS LATER ~

"Po, I need a new subject."

Po trembled as he carried the bloodied mess that hardly resembled a human male anymore away.

Yet another failed experiment.

Yet another corpse on the chief scientist, Lady's table.

He glanced at the terrifying woman again.

No expression on her icy face.

She lit another cigarette as she walked out of the operating theatre.

Lady was a tall, beautiful woman with short hair and piercing grey eyes. Her ever-youthful skin and high cheek bones betrayed her actual age.

Even though she was a leading figure at one of the most important supranational organisations in the world, she dressed like a teenage boy.

She had a collection of black, graphic hoodies that didn't quite match her image as a scientific genius.

As she puffed menthol smoke into the cold night air and watched it dissipate, Lady's face remained unchanging. The next day would bring a new trial.

All she cared about was a success. It didn't really matter whether the human race went extinct or not. This research facility was merely a platform for her to hone her skill.

She was her own benchmark, and to outdo herself each time, no matter what the goal, was her sole purpose. Nothing made her tick like winning did.

'Humankind brought this upon itself. Abused our planet, intoxicated our air, poisoned our water. It no longer remains to be a friendly host to create new life.'

Her thoughts weren't pondering over the destruction of earth, but rather the conditions under which procreation was failing. This would help her counteract the conditions in the laboratory.

The source of new life, women, would naturally die out first.

The crux, the solution she had been developing crossed every ethical boundary of scientific human experimentation.

The only reason this top secret project was launched.

It was designed by Lady herself. She'd foreseen the statistics, mortality rates, external conditions and predicted exactly this outcome.

And finally, it was time, yet again to make another unbelievable scientific breakthrough.

Her new test subject would arrive early the next morning. The thought of that brought a small smile to Lady's face.

She would have a clean slate to start again after the failure of subject One. She had spent 6 months modifying his body, creating a stable environment and diet for him, and finding the best genetic material for him to carry.

It was possible to create a viable embryo outside the human body, but at the end of the day, the child required a human host to come to term.

That required a womb.

The female womb was no longer adaptable to carry a child to term.

The female body was no longer an option.

What if...

Project Genesis allowed Lady to surgically implant a womb or a uterus into male test subjects and insert an IVF embryo.

It didn't matter if the man died, or suffered or was mutilated in the process.

There was only one thing mattered.

Successfully giving birth to a healthy and viable human baby.

Lady crushed the cigarette butt under her foot. She was partial to converse highs. Black ones. She had 7 pairs of the same shoes in her closet.

She could have been mistaken for a skateboarding teenager.

As she walked back inside the research facility, she came face to face with the chairman.

"Lady...the corpse..." he began to say, with a look of sickness on his face.

He had passed Po on the way to Lady's operation theatre. The chairman had caught just a tiny glimpse of the deceased subject One and had immediately run to the toilets to puke his guts out.

Subject One's abdomen was ripped apart, as though in frustration. His ribs were broken, as though hammered in anger and his mouth was open after repeated, failed attempts at emergency resuscitation.

"What about subject One?"

Lina's retort was heartless and cold.

"Lady, I understand this may as well be an impossible challenge, but try not to mutilate them if they're dying? I know you were just trying to salvage your efforts."

Lady scoffed.

"He's a failed experiment, there's no point trying to exercise restraint. Don't interfere with my process."

The chairman wouldn't have taken this attitude from anyone else, no matter how powerful. But he needed Lady.

It was her madness that brought them success. They needed her crazy to cure terminal illnesses and genetically modify plants that were of medicinal use. She had performed feats that defied the forced of gravity.

She had cross bred species and used deadly viruses for purposes that benefitted technological advancement.

Lady's importance could not be quantified.

There was only one, BIG flaw.

As a scientist, it was important to remain objective.

Lady's objectivity and thirst for excellence had brought her to the brink of depravity and psychopathy.

This woman had close to no humanity left in her bones.

The chairman sighed heavily. He needed a drink after receiving the news that the experiment had failed.

And then he'd seen that corpse.

"Very well, then. You know best."

"I do."

Lady snapped back at him. She hated being questioned. Nobody spoke to her unless it was absolutely important or unless she spoke to them first.

Including the chairman.

*****

Lady stayed up all night prepping for the arrival of subject Two. He would be at the facility shortly.

Her pulse quickened as she felt the adrenaline surging through her body.

The first thing she needed to do was to scan his body. He had to be a healthy host.

She had to recalibrate the equipment, prepare her notes, previous observations from test subject One and also set up subject Two's living arrangements.

There couldn't be mistakes this time. She had learned from subject One. She had already memorised the pressure points during the experiment, months where she would have to be extremely careful.

It was a long and tedious experiment. Starting from scratch was like having to scale a massive mountain again. And there wasn't much time.

Lady became excited as she heard shuffling outside her laboratory. She could hear Po's voice.

Subject Two was here.