Huffing loudly in the echo-filled parking lot I strain to force the last box into the backseat of my car. The cardboard flexes, buckling in of itself as I press my hands against it and cram it up against another equally flimsy and flexible box. Sweating slightly I give the box one more shove, stepping back quickly as I slam the door shut.
I wince as I think I here something break, either inside the door of my aging dark green sedan or the boxes stacking inside it, a depressed sigh rumbling out of me and through the underground lot as I bite at my lip.
"God damn it..." I mutter quietly, wiping my nose a little as I sniffle and fight back tears. "Stupid fucking..." I continue, pausing as I inhale deeply to try and calm myself back down.
The months without work had slowly drained me of whatever resources I had left. Too proud to ask my family for help and too focused on academia and teaching to look for a job that could at least pay the bills, I soon found myself being served with an eviction notice from my elderly landlady.
She didn't seem to take pleasure in the act, nor did she seem all to upset, the order for me to pack my things and to vacate by the end of the month merely being business.
I had largely handled the burden in silence, packing my stuff each day, my job hunt grinding to a pause as I sold off what I couldn't fit in the back of my car and packed the rest. By the end of the month I was left with not a lot, merely a wad of cash and a car full of boxes with no place to go.
My car radio blares from dashboard, the crackling speakers weakly playing the end of yet another pop song that I had used for at least a little bit of background noise in the otherwise depressingly quiet. The bubbly radio host quickly begins to chirp.
"Hell-ooooooo and welcome back everyone, that was YOUR number four. Before we go to the bronze, lucky number three, this is just a reminder to all our Reverse Hopper listeners to take your In-Guarder today if you haven't yet"
While only a few people knew about Body Hoppers, a strange group of rare individuals who could seemingly jump in and out of other bodies like any normal person could change their clothes, even less had actually met one in real life. Whatever strange mutation or magic fueled their powers seemingly only effected less than one in a million people, and the havoc they could cause often times leaving them hiding in plain sight while they waited to leave for a new enticing form.
Rarer still, there were those who had a further aberration in this rarefied gene. Rather than being able to leap into somebody's skin to wear them like a fresh crisp suit, these rare few struggled with the opposite. At a mere touch of skin on skin they could pull somebody else inside them, their insides shifting to accommodate before sealing up and merging with the inadvertently invading force.
For centuries, these poor souls had been forced to endure their fate as they often times pulled in the first person they touched after their curse made itself known. It was only in the past few years that the condition had been fully documented and treatments were devised. The permeable nature of the Reverse Hopper allowed for a quick scan to confirm not only the illness but also whether somebody else was stuck or hiding away inside their body, a series of ultrasonic devices would then be used the separate the two without doing harm to either.
In-Guard was developed as a preventative measure however, a simple daily pill that would act to form a barrier inside the user. With a daily dose of In-Guarder, a Reserve Hopper could live a rather normal life just like anyone else without the fear of suddenly losing control of their body to the first person they hugged or shook hands with.
However, In-Guarder was not without it's side effects. While it sealed up the user from being Reverse Hopped for the day it also wreaked havoc on the diagnostic equip used to see if somebody was inside a Reverse Hopper. False negative were nearly one hundred percent on days the drug was used, the pills quickly being taken up by normal Body Hoppers to better hide themselves while on the prowl.
I reach in through the window as I turn off the radio, the screeching speakers not taking the bass heavy song well at all. Sighing to myself I lean against the driver's side door, my head tilting back as I try to plan my next move.
The gears slowly churn inside my skull, the last few weeks catching up to me as I feel my body ache and exhaustion begin to grip me.
"Okay..." I muse, reaching into my pocket as I fish out my keys. "I think I know what to do..."
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