What's the Buzz?

The dog was barking wildly. I shifted in my sleep and slowly opened my sleep-crusted eyes. What now?

"Shut up Brutus!" I shouted. He bounded into the room and proceeded to lick my face.

"The neighbor with the leaf blower," I thought and sighed into my pillow, scrunching my eyes against the harsh mid-morning light pouring through my window.

As I descended the stairs with Brutus in tow, I caught a glimpse of something hovering about a meter from the ground. I ducked to look closer through the staircase window. It was in my front yard. It was a drone. One of those drones you see in concept videos; sleek and black with blurred propellers cutting the cool morning air.

I reached the door handle and opened it a crack. The drone swivele,d and the gimbal camera swung wildly as if trying to focus on my face. It stayed in place not moving. It was then that I clocked that the machine was holding a parcel in its vice-like grip. Brutus whimpered and cowered behind my legs.

As I fully opened the door it made a beeping sound and released the parcel to the ground. It fell lightly and rolled towards the doorstep. While I was looking at the delivery the drone suddenly accelerated and flew straight up before pausing briefly and zooming off down the street.

A day earlier. Someone was trying to call me. The staff meeting had dragged on longer than anticipated and I could feel the haptics of my Suunto watch pulsing against my wrist. Covering the watch with my other hand I hazarded a peak, caller unknown. They were persistent - this was the 9th missed call. I slipped out the door and made as if to head for the bathroom, scrabbling for my phone in the depths of my handbag.

"Hello?" nothing, and then something like an electronic voice. "You will receive your delivery tomorrow morning - if you are not home we will leave it in a safe place."

Thinking it was one of those Amazon scam calls, I quickly hung up the phone and went back to the meeting. "That was a waste of time," I thought.

When I reentered the room I caught the tail end of the final presentation "...expect it when you least expect it." the room erupted into a frantic discussion which I ignored. Was it time to go yet?

The parcel lay on the ground in front of my feet. I was still wondering about the drone so I hadn't picked it up yet. I touched it with my foot and it shifted easily. Not very heavy, then. As I bent to pick it up, I saw the words "expect it when you least expect it" written on a banner that stretched the length of the shoebox-sized parcel.

A thought came into my head. Where had I heard that before? The parcel was warm, and light, and something about it made me feel uncomfortable. I shook it and it made a soft rustling sound, it almost sounded like buzzing. Curiosity got the better of me, and I ripped into the brown paper covering. Brutus was sniffing the paper and whined as I pulled the last piece off.

I gasped as the contents became apparent. I had a moment of clarity before the swarm of bees erupted from the box and surrounded my head. I screamed and started swatting them away, but the more I moved, the more agitated they became. Stinging, buzzing, and crawling across my head and face.

It was a gift from the sponsors of the presentation yesterday. If I had stopped to read the other side of the box, I would have seen the words "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL PART TWO IS DELIVERED".

As I lay there gasping for breath a second drone hovered overhead - in its grip was a second parcel, the lightweight eco hive to place the bees in. The drone released the hive, and it sailed down only to hit me on the head as I took another ragged breath....help! Brutus cowered near the front door. Stupid dog!