Free Spanners - The Fountain of Youth by Jonathan Maas Page B

it over his head and then put it over Cattaga, Trey and Mayfly. It was dark, but Cattaga made her arm glow and they had a little bit of light.
    “Brogg can only defend against the populous for so long,” said Trey.
    “I’ve never heard of the populous,” said Mayfly. “What are they?”
    “A spanner class that Juan’s steward Balthasar controls,” said Trey. “They’re a mob with one mind.”
    “Like you?” asked Mayfly .
    “Not quite,” said Trey. “They live their lifespans with a thousand consciousnesses, all mixed together and spread out evenly. You can’t reason with them; there are just too many voices and thoughts floating amongst their collective psyche. Juan has Balthasar send the populous on these riots to pick up spanners and bring them back to his compound.”
    There was a clank and a grunt as the populous started attacking Brogg outside.
    “Brogg’s fighting the mob off,” said Trey. “But he won’t last more than a minute; we need answers.”
    Mayfly thought for a moment.
    “We can’t fight them,” said Mayfly, “but can we hide from them somehow?”
    “No,” said Trey. “The populous see anything that’s different from them and destroys it.”
    Mayfly thought for a moment longer.
    “Then that’s it,” said Mayfly with a smile. “We’ll join the riot. If we fight alongside them, they won’t see us.”
    /***/
    Brogg ran with the empty dumpster bin and threw it through a plate glass window. He chose to throw it through an abandoned storefront, and so far they were all fitting into the mob without hurting any innocent people. But when the police showed up with tear gas, it enraged the mob further. Whenever Mayfly eased up on the violence just a little, someone from the populous would start beating him. So Mayfly continued to fight and so did the rest of his team.
    “The cops need about ten more minutes to contain everyone, so we have to make it count !” yelled Trey. “We can get arrested by the police, but we can’t get dragged to Juan’s compound.”
    Mayfly saw a small bakery that was empty and figured he could do ten minutes of damage to it without completely destroying it. He took a brick and threw it through the front door, avoiding the plate glass window at the storefront. He looked outside and saw that the rest of his gang were taking care of themselves, so he looked for a place where he could do minimal damage. Or better yet , he thought, hide.
    Mayfly scanned the room and found a walk-in pantry in the back of the kitchen. The populous will never find me there, he thought, and if they do, I’ll hear them coming in.
    Mayfly went to the back room and opened the pantry. When he did, an old man hiding inside came out carrying a baseball bat. From the man’s demeanor, Mayfly could tell it was the storeowner, and that the old man was blind.
    “Easy,” said Mayfly.
    “Stay away,” said the old man in a thick accent.
    “You got it, sir,” said Mayfly. “But I’m here to tell you—”
    “Stay away!” said the man.
    “I will, sir!” said Mayfly . “But I’m here to tell you that those aren’t just rioters outside. If they see you in here, they’ll—”
    There was a crash! as the plate glass window of the main storefront shattered and smoke billowed in. One of the populous had thrown a tear gas canister through the glass, and the old man started to cough. Mayfly saw police in the streets, but he also saw ten vacant-eyed populous spanners coming in through the shattered window. He figured if he could hold them off for a minute, the police would have enough time to stop the riot, and the man would be fine.
    “I’m gonna have you hide, sir,” said Mayfly.
    “But I—”
    “Unless they’re the cops, hit anyone who comes through that door,” said Mayfly.
    In a flash, Mayfly shoved the old man and his baseball bat into the pantry, and then bolted the heavy door behind him. Mayfly turned around and saw the ten populous spanners staring at him with dead,