When Lucas saw the warning, he did not think it would mean literal bees.
He heard the buzzing coming from behind him. He turned, managing a backward glance.
'It's actually bees!!'
The hospital disappeared behind him as he cut across the street, narrowly avoiding a speeding car.
Stopping wasn't an option.
The bees were huge.
'The city hall should be in the city's centre.'
He turned sharply into an alley.
Bad choice.
A dead end.
He skidded to a stop.
The bees were already pouring into the alley behind him.
Then he noticed a fire escape above.
He frowned.
'Bees can fly smartass.'
The massive bees, each the size of a fist, hovered in the air.
Lucas expected them to bump into him, and maul him with their stingers.
They didn't. The bees simply hovered above him.
He watched the swarm of bees for a moment. He contemplated going around them, but stopped when he realised that it could cause them to turn aggressive .
Weren't bees known to sting when they felt threatened.
He shifted his gaze to the fire escape, throwing an arm towards it.
The cool, slick edges of the rung met his hands.
He pulled himself upward.
Between each climb, Lucas would turn to check on the bees.
'Weird.'
Apart from hovering close to him, they remained stationary midair.
He reached the first platform and hauled himself into it.
The fire escape led across the backs of several buildings. He jumped the narrow gap between two rooftops and kept running.
The bees followed him closely.
'What do they want?'
He spotted a door in front of him and dashed towards it.
Lucas kicked the door open, rushed in, and shut it behind him.
He leaned against it.
The clothes beneath his jackets were damp, pressed against his back.
The bees were still outside, their buzzing ever constant.
'It's already fucking annoying.'
He huffed.
He stared into the room he had entered, finding something wrong with the darkness.
Only it wasn't darkness.
'That same pixel-like world from before.'
He guessed right.
But the pixelated world was different now.
The pixelated reality was failing inside the room.
It flashed with a mixture of red and black cubes.
There wasn't a path forward, nothing like a room or a flight of stairs.
Lucas drew another breath.
He would have to go out through the door.
His fists clenched involuntarily.
He wanted to stay more, at least catch more of a breather.
Yet his gut told him to move.
So Lucas moved.
He pulled the door a little, gripping the doorknobs.
A small crack formed between the door and the wall. With that small opening, he peeked out.
'They are still there.'
The bees hadn't moved. Nothing had changed.
That wasn't right. Something had changed.
The bees were buzzing even louder.
"Shoo!" Lucas shouted.
"Shoo!"
He waved an arm towards them, the other arm pressed against the door. He would slam it shut if the bees went for him.
The bees did not react at all.
Seeing this, he stepped out of the room slowly.
His gaze darted to the pixelated room. And for a second he allowed himself to think of reasons that might have caused it.
He shook himself out of his thoughts.
His objectives from the Helper Screen were clear, city hall came first.
The screen materialised in front of him.
'Why does it appear randomly?'
The buzzing grew even louder.
[The Bees are coming]
Lucas paused.
Weren't they already here?
'There might be more bees?!'
He ran away.
Rooftops flashed by as he jumped from one to another.
He stopped when he landed on a building that led to the main street. He ran down the fire escape.
The bees were still following him, the sound of buzzing drowned the noise of the cars and trucks that passed.
He heard buzzing from a different direction, mid-climb, he turned to look.
He saw another swarm of bees.
Fuck.
But why were this swarm wearing suits?
The bees that approached were just as large as the ones near him, wearing tailored suits on their abdomens.
Lucas was short of words.
Another thing he noticed was that this swarm was making a beeline for him.
No pun intended.
He jumped, landing hard on the asphalt lane, rolled, and dropped on the road.
Numerous eyes turned to him.
He noticed that each one of them had the same blank stare as the woman at the hospital's entrance, and the boy on the bench.
What was that about?
Their eyes followed him as he stood up. They weren't even paying the bees any mind.
"Damn. I'm weirder than bees wearing suits?"
It wasn't funny.
They looked like they would jump on him at a moment's notice.
Lucas stood there for a moment, shifting his feet to the side.
The gazes followed his feet, even cars had stopped to watch him.
There was a dog among them. It barked at Lucas, though there wasn't any sound.
Its gaze was as blank as the humans.
The suited swarm of bees met the normal ones.
Well, normal was kind of a stretch.
They met the previous swarm, and they both merged gently.
It was a massive group of black and yellow.
It hurt Lucas's eyes as he saw them move, and it made him shudder faintly.
But the buzzing.
'Uggh…'
The buzzing was driving him mad.
The engines of the cars were on, but it didn't rev. The dog barked, but it wasn't audible. Only the buzzing was heard.
And it seemed that way throughout the city.
[The Bees are coming.]
"Fuck!"
[Objective: City Hall]
Lucas stared at the screen in surprise. Looking at the two sentences as they appeared together for the second time, he began to question himself.
Had he made a mistake?
Was he the one who was supposed to be at City Hall? Or was it the bees who were supposed to be there?
[Compulsive objective redeemed: Escort Bees to City Hall]
Lucas smiled.
So that was why the bees followed him.
Though the smile faded shortly afterwards.
How was he to escort them under the gaze of the people around him?