Hive > Work Division > New York Anchor > Worker 4 / 5

I counted the bills carefully, then hopped off of the truck.

“Thanks!” I called through the sliding window in the back of the cab. I started to hustle back across the darkening parking lot. The passenger side window rolled down and I heard a whistle, so I sighed under my breath and hustled back.

“You did well today, here’s another ten.” The sweatball foreman said, passing the bill through the window with great effort. Under the bill, I found a business card. The truck shook as he settled back in his seat, breathing heavily and gesturing at the card. “You - huh - give me a call when you need work. You and - huh - any of your teenybopper friends need some - huh - spending money…”

He trailed off and I gave him a wave, stepping back away from the cab. “Will do, sir! Thanks again!”

“Heh. Damn right, sir.” He chuckled as the window rolled up. I waited until his tail lights had turned the corner, then rifled through the cash once more. It was pretty good pay, all things considered, for some simple construction work on the city outskirts. By swapping out bodies whenever I was comfortably alone, I could stay energetic and presentable. By researching techniques in the process, I could prove myself valuable and knowledgeable. Sprinkle in a little ass kissing with the boss…

I held up the card to my eyes, connecting to the hive, then to the ops division, then down to Notes Anchor. There, I took control of the body to write down the information, then returned to my worker self. This was a perfect opportunity that I was going to milk. Picking up Craigslist jobs had been a stop-gap solution, but it was starting to prove useful. No one asked questions if you did a good job.

On the other side of the parking lot was a slippery slope, which led down into a culvert, into a sewer, and into a room that had once been used for maintenance... before becoming a homeless camp. Now, it served as the base for the New York Anchor of the Work Division of my hive. New York Anchor had arrived only a week ago, one of the three successful stowaways from the airport project so far. It had been almost a month since the fire and the hive was finally making some money to support myself.

I walked past New York Anchor, who was sitting in a decrepit lawn chair and focused on the other four worker clones, who were scrubbing down a ball pit in another part of the city. I stuffed the bills into a bag with the rest of our earnings, then made haste back out of the reeking sewers.

I heard a squealing from the parking lot above and for a moment my heart stopped. I thought back to the blue light, but shook it off. I had kept my head down, no way he’d find me here. Besides, the sound was a roaring, like an engine, and nothing like the whirr and silence of that terrible beam. Still, I had to check what exactly was going on.

I crept up the steep, grassy hill to peak over a breezeblock wall. In the lot, an SUV was spinning donuts around the lone lamp post. As I watched, it’s outer two wheels slowly lifted off of the ground, nearly missing the abandoned mini-mart by inches each time. My eyebrows raised slowly and I opened my mind to the hive, broadcasting to any of me that might be interested.

My eyebrows bounced higher still when the window rolled open. A phone poked out on the end of a stick, then a hand, then a girl. She was tall, with a wild explosion of curly hair that whipped wildly in the wind and she was dressed in sportswear and a massive jacket printed with moaning anime girls. She calmly stepped out of the window, amicably chatting to the phone, and sat on the rear passenger’s door. She reclined with a hand behind her head.

This continued for several minutes, the car revolving about the lamp without a wobble. Her words were lost in the roar of the engine, but soon enough she flashed a peace sign to the camera and collapsed the stick it was on. With a sigh, she got to her feet, stretched, and slipped back inside the car. A moment later, it righted itself onto four wheels and cleanly came to a stop in one of the faded parking spots.

I watched as she sat on her phone for several minutes, typing furiously. I surveyed the hive, and, with near unanimous agreement, I got up and started to cross the parking lot. While I walked, I quickly swapped to a female body who didn’t stink of work and sewer muck. I adjusted my clothes nervously, rolling up the worker’s jumpsuit and absorbing some of the spare material. I took a breath and knocked on the window. There was no answer.

I looked in and found the cab empty and dark. I glanced about, then under the car, and spotted her skate shoes approach a chain fence, then vanish and reappear on the other side. I got to my feet, but by the time I had rounded the car, she had already vanished into the forest beyond.

“The hell?” I mused. The hive had its attention fully invested now and we decided to give chase… but stay quiet. She may not be spewing fire, but there certainly was something special about this donut-driving mystery.

I quickly trotted across the lot, rapidly swapping on the way to change to a more athletic build. I jumped at the fence, scrambled at the slippery links, huffed laboriously over the top, and finally dropped down with a tumble on the other side. Something hard rattled under my landing and I retrieved what turned out to be a fallen metal sign. It read “No Trespassing, Government Property, Viol-”

The sign whistled dejectedly as I tossed it into the bushes and took off after the driver.

The forest was a dense punctuation on the cityscape, but even here, nature was invaded by square concrete buildings sprouting up from the ground. I ambled about, avoiding what camera I could spot despite the dense layer of moss covering their lenses.

“Alright, Cam Fans! One more trick for the night! This one’s for the record books!” A voice echoed above.

I looked up and gasped. I had ended up next to a tall tower, like one used for air traffic control. The girl stood on one hand atop the instruments at the top of the conical roof. The other hand was still holding the stick to record the stunt. She stuck out her tongue and laughed, pulling all kinds of poses while several stories above the ground. I watched, awed at her control, as she slowly let herself down to her feet. She let go to pull her phone in and begin scrolling through the chat, both hands on the bright little box. She laughed at something, then furrowed her eyebrows and turned without looking up.

The daring gymnast stepped off of the platform at the top of the roof and slid down the angled side. She threw an arm back and stopped dead at the edge of the roof, her toes hanging out above open air. She confidently leaned forward to peer into the darkness in my direction.

“Is anyone there?” She called, a hint of apprehension creeping into her voice.

I hesitated, then stepped forward, raising a hand to catch the moonlight. “H-hey!”

“Oh hey! Someone said they saw a face in the dark, thought it was freakin’ thinderboy!” she shouted down.

“No, not a cryptid!” I said, though my voice betrayed how little I believed that, “just a curious uh… witness. I saw you driving donuts out in the parking lot?”

“I can’t hear you!” She shouted, then sat down at the lip of the roof. “Gotta come up here if you want to talk!”

I shrugged and approached the tower. The hard part of meeting someone was over, climbing a tower couldn’t be that difficult.

The front door had been knocked off of its hinges ages ago and the interior had been reclaimed by nature for the most part. An almost post-apocalyptic peace hung in the small space, vines lacing through consoles and over lattice catwalks. What catwalks were remaining, that is. Most of what was left was railing, as most of the lattice had fallen through years previously. At the very top, a ladder led to a trap door, presumably to the rooms in the bulb of the tower.

I climbed the first set of stairs, then jumped a missing landing onto the next step. So far, so good. The stairs rattled loudly as I bounced up towards the wall, hand reached out to split. The split came in crouched against the wall, without having to fight gravity yet, and pushed off while absorbing myself, crossing a huge gap to land on the far set of stairs. I grinned, proud I could use the little combo I’d developed at base.

The last stretch was entirely missing, save for a few rungs that had once supported the lattice catwalk. I ducked down, reaching and splitting to grab the first rung. I absorbed myself and then swung, splitting another foot from my own, which quickly became me, reaching for the next rung. I let go and was absorbed. I used the same process to cross the long gaps, then, at the end, stuck my fingers through the grate to create myself rather than laboriously climbing up.

A moment later, the trapdoor flew open and the girl fell through it. She landed in a slight crouch, then startled as she realized I was standing so close.

“Lord! Are you sure you’re not a cryptid?” She demanded, pressing a hand to her chest in dramatic surprise.

I laughed and shook my head, but before I could answer she gestured for me to follow her. “Come on, walk and talk. There’s always a snitch in chat telling cops when I do stunts.”

“Some stunt!” I said, eyeing rungs with concern now that there was a witness.

“Not the biggest or baddest I’ve done!” She crowed, jumping up on the railing and casually strolling along the thin rickety structure.

“And what would be your biggest and baddest?” I asked. I grabbed the closest rung, judged the angle, and then let go. I aimed to land behind a large metal computer box and split off a clone just before impact.

“Well, it WAS gunna be me driving across a tightrope in m-What was that?” She jumped down from the end of the railing and rushed over.

I stepped out from the box, waving a hand, “It’s fine, just… the top of the box here must be full of water or something!”

“Phew!” she said, wrapping an arm over my shoulder and leading me out of the tower. “My DNA is all over this place, I do NOT want your body linked to me.”

I chuckled nervously, as her tone was humorous, but not entirely disingenuous. Something about the way she talked put me off balance, but she didn’t seem to notice or mind if she did.

“Name’s Camilla, I go by Camzilla on Insta?” She looked at me hopefully, then sighed, “Still getting there. One day, they’ll know.”

“What is it you do exactly?” I ventured while we walked.

“I used to do reactions, then it was Cave Game Let’s Plays. Recently found out I got me a natural talent for balancing shit, so now I do stunts like this!” She bounced over the fence with ease, then continued while I clambered along behind. “Donations and subs are way up with this fresh look!”

She withdrew her phone from her lewdly printed jacket and scrolled through chat. She typed for a moment, then locked eyes with me and waggled her eyebrows.

“Selfie?”

I checked with the hive as a whole and we agreed to never use this face again, then smiled sheepishly into the camera while Cam posed enthusiastically. She took a few shots, then scrolled through them while chuckling under her breath. She glanced up once more, the same devious expression on her face. “Wanna try a stunt for the Cam Fam?”

“Me?” I asked, my voice cracking as I hurriedly tried to come up with an excuse. Instead, all I could come up with was a reminder of Rule #2.

“Sure! You climbed up there, you can do this, it’s a baby stunt. Come on, chat wants you to!” She held up her phone where dozens of messages flew by in moments.

GoOb champ run Do it Do it do it Aaa run do it do it adMiN, spammer! $20k If she does The run from lasT monday lol neW stunt when? I’ve seen these *yawn do iT do it do it run she Can’t Handle it! nudes?

I pushed the phone away with a laugh and bowed my head. “Ok, I get it! I’ll try, just… don’t expect much from me. Getting up to the ladder was a total fluke.”

“Uh huh. Freakin’... block the…” she muttered, absorbed in her phone, then closed it with a frustrated sigh. “Alright, get in, it’s a short drive to the place.”

I hustled to open the passenger door.

“Woah, where do you think you’re going?” She said, jerking her thumb to the back seat.

“Oh, okay.” I said, bemused.

“Just messing with you, get up here.” She countered, and I fumbled the door trying to turn back around. She snorted out a giggle and started the car. Idly, I wondered if this was what it was like for Jay to be around me and if all supers were this difficult to follow.

The car turned out onto the road, then drove further from the city, past four bedraggled people who turned to watch themself drive away. I kept walking, back to the culvert to deliver the money for the day and kept an eye on the passing landscape from the car.

“You’re chill.” Cam proclaimed suddenly, causing me to look around in mild startlement. “I like that. Last sidekick I had asked too many questions. ‘Is this safe?’ ‘Why do I have to do it too?’ ‘Can’t I film from down here?’”

I blinked, unsure when I’d become her sidekick. “You’re a superhero?”

Cam laughed, shaking her head and pulling onto a gravely side road framed by trees still dropping their leaves. “Lord, no. I just want someone there to… to film me when I finally fall.”

I raised my eyebrows at the sudden heavy atmosphere in the car, thoroughly knocked off kilter by her change in tone. She parked and hopped out, leaving it hanging there.

“Goddamn it.” I grumbled, but I chuckled across the hive, enjoying this refreshingly wild experience after a month of quiet toil.

“Well?” She demanded and I quickly hopped out.”

“Alright, climb up on top of the car.”

“What?”

“Hey there Cam Fam, it’s Cam with another quick bonus stunt for the night! You best hit the donate button now because… because- you- hey, hey, mods, can you block the ‘run’ spam?”

She turned away for a moment to type on her phone while I carefully mounted the SUV.

“Run from what? Mods seriously? Block these people!”

I kept my knees bent and a hand on the roof of the car, wobbling unsteadily against the car’s extremely loose suspension.

“Okay, sorry, just dealing with some trolls, gimme one…” Cam held up a finger. “The longer this goes on the longer y’all gunna have to wait, chat.”

“For what?” I asked, “What am I doing?”

“Run from what, chat? What fuckin’ Hunter? What “Cabal” are y-”

Then, all of a sudden, it went silent.

A blue light filled my vision, lanced through by a white beam.

The car was gone.

I was falling.