Spanners - The Fountain of Youth (22 page)

“We can’t run from them and we can’t kill them,” said Mayfly.

“These walls won’t hold against the wolves,” said Trey.

“Think of them as spiders,” said Mayfly. “There’s only one way to protect yourself from spiders
:
don’t let them in the house
.”

/***/

Brogg destroyed several of the buildings and they found more and more bodies; even the hidden underground bunkers were filled with dead millennials, either torn in half or discreetly bitten.
They exterminate their targets completely,
thought Mayfly.
We’ll have to shut every single wolf out because we won’t be able to hide.

Mayfly opened one of the gates and then snuck out and brought the RV back inside the village; he could see the wolves peering at him from a distance, but Cattaga’s serotonin was still running through him and he wasn’t scared. They covered the RV with the materials Brogg had procured, and Trey worked to reinforce the inside of the vehicle. Another Trey found a cache of supplies; there was enough fuel, food and tools to last them a month. They agreed to stockpile food in the RV and save the fuel for later.
We won’t be able to just make a run for it,
thought Mayfly.
These creatures are too smart and climb too well; we’ll just have to lock ourselves in and wait them out.

Mayfly climbed the perch and looked outwards; the spider-wolves had formed a perimeter around the village and looked like they had no plans to leave any time soon.
The horizon was absolutely covered with them, and they didn’t look like wolves scattered across a field so much as they resembled bugs smothering the skin of a carcass. Their numbers were endless, too many to count, and they surrounded the compound like a thick, furry carpet.

If all else fails we may have to make a break for it,
thought Mayfly.
I don’t know how, but we’ll have to find a way.

Mayfly and Trey propped up the RV’s windows with boards, nailing them in and then carving out small viewing holes.
They’ll attack at night,
thought Mayfly.
But we still need these holes; if not to see, then to breathe.

Brogg built a crude fort around the RV and they did their best to nail it shut, but it wasn’t perfect; there w
ere too many cracks and openings. Night was approaching quickly, the wolves were beginning to howl and Mayfly’s heart started to pound again. He nodded at Cattaga, and in another hidden moment they stole away behind a corner and she kissed him once more, only this time she lingered twice as long. He felt his pulse calm down and he gave her one more kiss in return before rejoining the group.

When
he returned, he saw that the fortification of the RV was as good as it was going to get. He looked at the far corner and saw that one of the Treys was preparing a perch on the tallest building.
That Trey is going to get killed and he knows it,
thought Mayfly.
But we need him as a lookout.

Mayfly walked up to the group and spoke but had a hard time looking any of the Treys in the eye.

“We’ve fortified our RV as much as we can,” said Mayfly. “We need to spend the rest of the time situating ourselves in and preparing our weapons.”

/***/

Night fell and the spider-wolves didn’t attack immediately. The Trey inside the RV relayed the information from his bodies perched outside atop the towers and told them that the creatures had encircled the camp and were sending scouts forward. Adam had told Mayfly tales of the sieges he had endured in the Middle Ages, and some of them had lasted for months.
But this is no siege
, thought Mayfly.
These spider-wolves might be intelligent, but they’re still wolves. They won’t wait months.

The wolves sent the first wave in two hours after
nightfall. Mayfly had given his night-vision binoculars to one of the Treys on the outside and Cattaga had increased the amount of rods in her eyes and was peering out through their viewing hole.

“They’ve only sent five,” said Cattaga. “Small ones.”

“Are they small enough for us to kill easily?” asked Mayfly.

Cattaga peered through the viewing hole again and stared at the creatures. Mayfly could tell by the sound that
the scouting wolves were right outside the RV, inspecting it.

“No,” said Cattaga. “We won’t be able to kill all five. Maybe one, but not all five.”

They heard a faint creak as the RV buckled under the weight of the creatures crawling up the side. One of the creatures made it to the top and was walking back and forth. It made quick, faint sounds as its eight legs crawled over the roof, as if someone was nervously tapping their fingers on a table. Mayfly heard a soft howl from one of the creatures, and then there was silence. After a moment, Trey tapped Mayfly on the shoulder and nodded upwards. There was a hole in the roof of the RV that the group had overlooked, and one of the wolves had poked its head through it and was staring at them.

It wasn’t a big creature, but its appearance was frightening. It had eight
dull eyes laid over two rows, a long snout and an expressionless face covered with coarse black bristles. It snarled, and its teeth were long in the front and sharp in the back, built for both injecting poison and fighting.

Mayfly looked around and noticed that the others were just as frightened as he was, even the Fountain.
She sat in the back of the RV, wrapped in the blanket, and Mayfly instinctively positioned himself in front of her. The animal made a strange snapping sound, and its jaw worked something like a mandible, biting both down and side to side.

In a flash, Brogg came from the darkness and grabbed the creature by its head. The spider-wolf struggled and whined, trying desperately to pull itself back, but
couldn’t break free of the caveman’s grip. Brogg jerked it downwards, and the creature snapped desperately until the big man punched it in its head with such force that green liquid sprayed onto the floor. Brogg took the head and ripped it off, spraying more green liquid everywhere. The group paused to process what Brogg had done, and then Mayfly approached the creature’s body and put his hand on the wound where its severed head had once been. The skin was armored but flexible; halfway between an insect’s exoskeleton and a wolf’s mane.

“If we can kill one,” said Mayfly, “we can kill
—”

In an instant the creature’s headless body sprang to life and jumped at Mayfly. It grabbed onto him with surprisingly dexterous paws and wouldn’t let go. At the same time its disembodied jaw started to snap
, and Brogg dropped it out of sheer surprise. The headless creature pinned Mayfly with its last bit of strength and slammed him on the ground right next to the snapping head. The head was getting closer to Mayfly on the ground, but Trey picked it up deftly and put it in one of the RV’s cabinets. Brogg peeled the creature’s body off of Mayfly and beat it until it stopped moving. After ten hits it was dead again, and Trey put it in another cabinet for good measure.

“Thanks,” said Mayfly.

“Anytime,” said Trey.

Mayfly caught Cattaga’s eye for a brief moment but soon the entire group looked up because the spider-wolves outside started to howl. It came through all four walls of the RV and was deafening; Brogg closed his ears and grimaced in pain, but the one that looked the most frightened was Trey
, because he had a view from the outside. There was a pounding from the roof and the group seized up, but Trey relaxed them.

“It’s me,” he said, opening the roof to reveal the second Trey, who was covered
in dirt but was physically okay.

“What do you see?” asked Mayfly.

“They’re all around and they’re coming,” said Trey. “They’re between my third body and the RV. They climb so well and—”

Both Treys started to wheeze violently and fell
to the ground, and then one of them started to cough up blood. Cattaga rushed to him and tried to calm him, but he was seizing with too much force. She looked up and Mayfly shot her a look:
do whatever you need to do to save him.

Cattaga rushed over to the
seizing Trey and concentrated until her eyes began to glow. She held him down and kissed him deeply, and soon his spasming body stopped.

“That should relax you,” she said.

Trey looked up at her and nodded, and then looked over at his other body.

“My third body has been killed,” he said, pointing at his second self, “and this body here underwent shock because of it.”

Trey got up and inspected his second body, and then looked at the group.

“We can’t worry about that now though,” said Trey, “because the wolves are coming.”

Mayfly listened; the creatures outside had stopped howling, and all they heard was the tapping of little legs as the swarm of creatures approached the RV.

/***/

The spider-wolves started to howl again as they rushed over the van. The RV’s shell buckled and it seemed like it would break from their collective weight, but it held; Brogg’s reinforcements had worked. One more creature poked its head into the hole in the RV’s roof and Brogg ripped it down, this time killing it thoroughly. They waited for another creature to come in through the small hole, but none did; it was as if they had learned that entering the hole meant their end.

“Spiders don’t have a collective consciousness like ants,” said Mayfly. “Both spiders and wolves are individuals
, and individuals fear death. If we keep killing them, they’ll stay away.”

“If we keep killing them
, we’ll run out of space,” said Trey as he tucked the smashed wolf’s dead body in another compartment.

Mayfly nodded in agreement, but soon the creatures outside started to howl again. There was silence and then there was a guttural barking from what seemed like an alpha-wolf in the distance. The alpha-wolf barked twice
, then a third time, and the RV shook violently. The creatures were rocking it back and forth, and the things inside the RV began to fall to the ground. Mayfly and the crew were thrown about, and Brogg fell against the ceiling with a smash, making a hole in the skylight window.

As they shook, a small spider-wolf pup snuck in through the new hole and latched onto the wall. Brogg went to get the creature, but the ground was too unstable. The young spider-wolf navigated through the rocking walls of the RV with agility and easily dodged Brogg’s clumsy swipes. The creature finally managed to jump onto the unconscious Trey and sunk his small teeth into his neck before Brogg ripped the pup off and smashed it into the floor. The bitten Trey began to seize again
, and a small wave of dead flesh started to spread from the bite. The healthy Trey started to cough in response and there was another violent trembling as the wolves outside assaulted the RV once more.

“It’s going to tip over!” said Mayfly. “Hold on to something!”

The crew braced themselves, and the RV fell on its side. There was a crunch as the materials covering it broke down, and the hole near the RV’s skylight shattered wide open. Mayfly scrambled to regain his balance and once he did, looked around to make sure everyone was still okay. The RV’s interior was in pieces and the parts from the dead spider-wolves had flown from their cabinets, but everyone seemed intact. The Fountain was shaken, but maintained her composure as she stood back up and gathered her bearings. Brogg stood up too, and was about to fly into a rage, but Mayfly calmed him down and peered out of the broken skylight.

There was an endless flurry of spider wolves running over the skylight and peeking in
; then there was a low, guttural bark from the alpha-wolf in the distance, and the other wolves dissipated. Soon it was quiet again, leaving the crew to listen as the poison continued to creep through Trey’s second body.

Mayfly cautiously peeked out of the broken window and saw that thousands of spider-wolves still surrounded the RV, but had cleared a small path for the alpha
.

The alpha spider-wolf approached the RV, but he maintained enough distance to be safe from Brogg. He was large
, and his coarse black bristles were so long that they looked like they could cut through flesh. His eight spindly legs glided over the ground deftly and he crouched down to peer through the skylight, which was now touching the ground. He looked into the RV with his eight dull eyes and sniffed twice. He peered directly at the Fountain and sniffed three more times, and then howled. Mayfly was catching on to the language of their howls and could guess what the alpha-wolf was saying.

“
Kill everyone but her,
” the wolf seemed to say. “
Kill everyone but her.
”

The wolf walked back
, and after a quick bark the swarm went over them again, trying to push their way in through the skylight. Brogg beat the first ones through the door and their bodies clogged the skylight, but Mayfly knew Brogg’s defense wouldn’t last long; there were too many creatures outside, and they were too fierce.

Some other spider-wolves were banging in through another skylight and soon
were cracking it open. Cattaga and Trey were hitting the spider-wolves at that skylight, but they weren’t as effective as Brogg. The spider-wolves were coming too fast and Mayfly considered that this could be the end.