The north took the attacks one step further, designing a virus that attacked the female of the species, reasoning that no females resulted in no child birth and would mark the end of the war. Naively they loaded their warhead and launched their attack, targeting Charlotte. The virus was veracious, and within twenty-four hours over 50 % of the south’s female population had been infected. At thirty-six hours the first victims had died. It was seven days later that the word arrived north that no more women were alive in the south.
True to nature the virus mutated and latched itself to the male chromosome, and continued to spread, carried by oblivious northern soldiers that travelled back across the boarder on leave, infecting their wives and lovers, who in turn infected their daughters.
By the time the mistake had been discovered it was too late, the deaths had already begun.
The virus was every bit as lethal to the northerners as it was with the southerners and soon women were just an entry in the history books, and the north found itself a single sex society.
Scientists began the race against time to save human kind. All babies beneath the age of two were made wards of the state and taken in to care. These children were the first to be genetically altered. More than half died before reaching their third birthday. Those that survived the procedure were kept closeted away, nurtured and protected until their sixteenth birthday when they were impregnated. Less than a third became pregnant and of those a quarter didn’t carry to full term. Another 10% died in childbirth. The survivors were immediately impregnated again. This time all the breeders and babies survived the birth, but only 70% of the new born inherited the abilities to become pregnant themselves.
Life went on and the war continued. The Union began to gain ground more and more, forcing the Confederate army back.