Spanners - The Fountain of Youth (19 page)

“Many battles?” asked Adam.

“Yep, and that’s the only way you beat a guy like Juan, because he’s a persistent son-of-a-bitch, case in point the fact that you already buried him and he’s here again,” said Rajter. “You’re gonna have to fight him, fight him, and fight him again until the final war. That’s what happens when you got an immortal enemy.”

“How do we know when it’s
the
final battle?” asked Mayfly.

“You’ll know,” said Rajter. “But in the meantime
, you’ve—”

Rajter stopped talking and pricked his ears up to hear a collective hum coming from his tame berserkers. The old man excused himself and went towards one of the far corners of the homestead. Adam quietly motioned
for Mayfly to go with them, and Mayfly snuck behind Rajter as the old man approached a lookout post. The berserker on the post gestured outward and the old man peered into the woods beyond.

Mayfly took a small pair of night-vision binoculars from his pocket and looked
in the direction of the forest. He saw a creature lurking in the distance; the creature had the shape of a wolf but crawled back and forth in an odd way, like an insect.

It looks like a large spider,
thought Mayfly,
and I hate spiders.

/***/

“I sent one of my berserkers to hunt the creature,” said Freeman Rajter.

“
Do you think it’s Juan’s crew?” asked Adam.

“Perhaps,” said Freeman Rajter.

“Tell me where to look,” said Cattaga, her eye already taking the shape of a cat’s eye. “The moon’s bright enough for me to see.”

/***/

Cattaga couldn’t find the spider-wolf in the forest, but looked back towards the road where their RV had once been and saw movement.

“I see a group of men,” said Cattaga, “and no wolves.”

“Men or spanners?” asked Freemen Rajter. “Juan might have sent just a few wolves to scout, but that means there’s someone else lying in wait for us. Who do you think they are?”

“
I can’t tell,” said Cattaga. “One of them’s quite large, and that’s about all I can see.”

Mayfly
looked at the group with his night-vision binoculars and saw that the big one was Juan’s tweener-class spanner, Cannon, and he was as large as a shed. There was another big creature dead beneath him, and Mayfly zoomed in to see it was the berserker that had been sent out to scout. Mayfly saw Cannon throw a rock at their homestead, and saw that it was headed right towards Cattaga.

“Watch out!” said Mayfly.

Mayfly pushed Cattaga aside and the projectile just missed them, crashing into the wall behind him. Freeman Rajter looked up, speechless, and then went to the wall to pick up what was thrown.

It was the tamed berserker’s head, and it
was dried up.

“They’ve got a scourge on their side?” Rajter asked Adam.

“I believe so,” said Adam.

“Scourges are pretty effective against my berserkers,” said Rajter. “She’s gonna pick
’em off one by one.”

/***/

They found the remaining berserkers collapsed on the ground at the far end of the homestead. They weren’t decapitated, but they had been drained of all life.

“Looks like we’re on our own, kids,” said Rajter. “The bad guys have stripped us of our guard dogs.”

Mayfly looked at the far edges of the forest with his night-vision binoculars and saw that the scourge wasn’t alone; she had Cannon and several humans with trucks by her side. Mayfly passed the binoculars to Adam and he looked in the wrong end before Mayfly corrected him. After Adam saw the group at the edge of the forest, he passed the binoculars to Freeman Rajter.

“The guys out there are gonna bust in, but they aren’t looking to fight,” said Freeman Rajter. “All they want is the Fountain.
Where is she?”

“Hidden in the RV,” said Adam.

“Adam, go to her and make sure that she stays in the RV and that she keeps quiet,” said Rajter. “There’s gonna be a lot of commotion, and she’s gotta stay hidden. We’ll fight whoever’s out there and lead them away from the RV. While they’re distracted, you’ll drive the RV off and be far away before they know where you went, and we’ll meet up with you later. Does this plan make sense?”

The group nodded.

“All right,” said Freeman Rajter. “Now, you kids ever been in a battle before?”

“We’ve been in a riot,” said Mayfly.

“Riots ain’t the same thing, because you can hide ’til a riot blows over,” said Freeman Rajter. “This is a battle, and two spanners or twenty, you won’t be able to hide, so it’s best to fight.”

“We can do that,” said Mayfly, eyeing Brogg.

“Good,” said Freeman Rajter. “Now engage the enemy out there until the time is right; you’ll have to gauge when that is. As for fighting, you all might be green, but I can help you get your feet wet.”

Freeman Rajter walked over to another hut and opened it. It was filled with antique arms
: swords, spears, slings and more; the old man had everything except for guns. Freeman Rajter went into the building and came out with two crossbows.

“These are mine,” he said. “Take your pick of the rest, and get ready for a battle; it won’t be your last.”
             

/***/

Mayfly helped put the Fountain back in the RV, with Cattaga handling her and Mayfly speaking soothing Arawak words. The Fountain was frightened and Mayfly wanted to say more to calm her, but he had to rush out when he heard a vehicle crash through the far wall of the compound. Mayfly snuck over there and saw that it was a human guard who had driven his truck through the homestead’s southern wall.

Here it is,
thought Mayfly.
Our first battle is officially underway.

One Trey jumped on top of the vehicle to distract the driver
, and before the man had a chance to draw his weapon, the other Trey startled him by appearing on the right side of his car while the third Trey came on the left and dragged the man out. Brogg gave the guard a punch and was about to give him another strike, but Adam stopped him.

“Don’t kill the humans unless it’s absolutely necessary,” said Adam. “We’ll eventually need the moral high ground on our side.”

There was one more crash and another part of the wall collapsed. It was Cannon, and he had pushed a patch of the homestead’s outer barrier down with his bare hands, and then he looked up to stare at Mayfly with glowing eyes. Cannon was sweating profusely and smelled like sour ham, and though his body was covered with acne, his face was clear. Mayfly looked closer and saw that Cannon was wearing foundation to smooth his complexion. The pustules on his face had erupted and were beginning to bleed through the makeup.

“Humans are off limits for you, perhaps,” said Freeman Rajter with a smile. “Spanners are never off limits for me.”

Freeman Rajter took out his crossbow and started firing at Cannon. All of the shots hit, most lodging in his upper body, and one landed in his leg, making Cannon grimace as he ran towards the old man, undeterred by the injuries. Mayfly marveled at how fast Cannon was; even covered in arrows the kid shot forward like lightning, and when Cannon got to Rajter, he punched the old man in the stomach with a horrific
crack
. The old man lay incapacitated on the ground and Cannon picked him up as if he were a doll and threw him over a wooden fence. Cannon walked towards the wall Rajter was behind and prepared to punch through it, but before he did, Brogg’s big forearm wrapped around Cannon’s neck from behind and pulled him backwards. Mayfly ran in to help Brogg, but Adam held him back.

“They’re out of your league,” said Adam. “If you get in between them, you’ll be crushed.”

Adam started to speak in his own mother tongue; an extinct dialect of Chaldean. Adam only spoke to Mayfly in Chaldean when they didn’t want to risk anyone else understanding them.

“
If I don’t make it out of here, you need to make sure the Fountain gets away safely. If they get me, just take her and go, ,
” said Adam.

“
Go where?
” asked Mayfly.

“
I left a map in the RV’s glove compartment detailing how to reach the Surgeon,
” said Adam.
“I wrote the instructions in Chaldean; only you will be able to understand them.
”

“
But—”

“This is too important,
” said Adam, his eyes glowing. “
In fact, you should probably just go now. They’re distracted, and this is the time to leave.
”

Mayfly ran just as Cannon had knocked Brogg out and was kicking the caveman’s unconscious body.

/***/

Mayfly was pulled back into the fight before he reached the RV; the Treys were in a scrum with three of Juan’s human guards. The Treys were quite graceful as they fought; they coordinated their attacks perfectly by ducking
, punching, feinting and doubling-up on their opponents at just the right time.
The Treys are quite a team,
thought Mayfly,
but the humans have guns.
One of the guards pulled out a pistol and Trey was able to grapple with the guard to get out of the line of fire. Mayfly couldn’t help it and jumped in the fight, disarmed the guard and used him as a human shield.

“You’re on the wrong side, guys,” said Mayfly, pointing his weapon at his new hostage’s neck. “Drop your weapons.”

Mayfly heard Cattaga yell and when the other guards’ attention was drawn to the sound, Mayfly pushed his captive into them and gave three quick strikes, leaving them all unconscious.

“One
-punch knockout,” said Mayfly.

“Times three,” said Trey, pointing away from the RV. “But you might need to give a few more.”

Mayfly looked where Trey was pointing and saw that Cattaga was on the ground, about to be killed by the scourge.             

/***/

Cattaga laid in the dirt and the scourge’s eyes glowed as she held her outstretched fingers above Cattaga’s neck and then glared at Mayfly and the Treys.

“My name’s Drayne,” said the girl. “If you want to see your girlfriend alive again, tell me where the Fountain is.”

“Don’t tell her—” wheezed Cattaga, dull blue veins glowing through her skin.

Drayne punched Cattaga
with a gloved fist and looked at Mayfly and Trey again.

“Ten seconds to decide,” said Drayne. “Tell me where the Fountain is, and the girl lives.”

Cattaga’s eyes glowed green and she first looked at Trey, and then Mayfly.

“We’ll tell you,” said Trey. “She’s in
—”

“No we won’t,” said Mayfly, holding his hand up. “Go ahead and kill her.”

“Have it your way,” said Drayne.

Drayne held Cattaga up like hostage, and then placed her hands on the girl’s neck. Cattaga’s
life flowed into Drayne and then Cattaga started to seize. The seizure soon became so violent that Drayne could no longer hold her and Cattaga collapsed on the floor. Drayne backed up slowly before she started to frown and then she herself started to collapse. Soon Drayne was on the ground and Cattaga got up.

“Haven’t had to fake a seizure before,” said Cattaga.

Cattaga knelt down to look at Drayne, and then looked up at the Treys and Mayfly.

“She’s still alive, but unconscious,” said Cattaga. “Thank you, Mayfly.”

All the Treys looked on cluelessly as Cattaga went past them to join Brogg in his fight.

“Cattaga’s
class is strong against scourge-class spanners,” whispered Mayfly to Trey, “but Cattaga flooded her body with toxins nonetheless. When Drayne took Cattaga’s lifespan, she also took the toxins, and that was the end of her.”

“You know her well,” said Trey.

“That I do,” said Mayfly. “Now let’s save Brogg and leave before we run out of tricks.”

/***/

Cannon had an unconscious Brogg in a chokehold while Adam tried to negotiate his release.

“Just let him down, Cannon, and we can
—” said Adam.

“No!” said Cannon. “If you come closer
, I’ll kill him!”

Mayfly heard the rumble of a helicopter in the distance; Juan’s reinforcements were coming. Adam
pointed at Mayfly to go, but he couldn’t, not while Brogg was about to be strangled. Mayfly motioned to Adam that he wanted to speak, and Adam nodded at Mayfly to go ahead.

“Maybe we can just talk, bro,” said Mayfly.

“Who are you?!” screamed Cannon.

“Someone who knows what it’s like to be different,” said Mayfly. “Someone who the world doesn’t understand.”

Cannon shook as he held Brogg’s unconscious body in his hands; even though the boy was stronger and faster than anyone on earth, he was still terrified.

“You can do amazing things,” said Mayfly. “We’d like to have you on our team. Be part of our club.”

Cannon didn’t let go of his grip on Brogg, but relaxed it just a little. His acne had completely bled through his makeup and now crusted over the side of his face. Mayfly smiled and then Cannon smiled just a bit too. Cannon was about to relax even more when Freeman Rajter came bursting through a hole in the homestead wall.