Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens (11 page)

A figure appeared round the side of the chicken, my fallen laser in his hand. He spun, long coat flapping behind him, raking a long gash in the chicken’s side and taking off the other leg in the process. Then he raised the laser to the immobilised chicken’s head.

“Time to fry,” he called and I felt my heart leap.

There was a clattering as the Catcher’s head fell off. It rolled towards the hole in the window and something blasted off. The chicken inside must have activated the emergency ejector.

But I didn’t care. My attention was on the person in front of me. He dropped the laser with a loud clank and turned towards me. For the first time, I looked up at him instead of down as he stood over me and offered his hand.

“Hiya, Rayna,” Jesse said, grin in its usual position on his face. “Sorry I’m late.”

I stared up at Jesse for a moment, trying to make sense of the situation.

Jesse shouldn’t be here. Jesse was off somewhere in Aberdeenshire. He’d been captured.

“Rayna?” he asked, concerned. “Are you OK?”

Slowly, I walked towards him, mouth slightly open. He smiled at me as I raised my hand…

…and punched him in the arm as hard as I could.

He stumbled backwards, smile fading. “Ow, that hurt. What was that for?”

I followed him, trying to get close enough to hit him again, but he kept retreating. “What for? What for? I thought you’d been captured. I thought I’d never see you again. And yet you turn up here…” I took a deep breath. Hazel was trying to get between us. “Why didn’t you radio me? I’ve been worried sick.”

“How worried?”

“She broke into the Brotherhood’s warehouse in the middle of the night,” Hazel chimed in.

Jesse looked impressed. “That’s worried.”

“Jesse!”

“It wasn’t my fault.” He pulled out his walkie-talkie and tossed it to me. I caught it automatically. “It ran out of charge and there’s no power out there. I couldn’t recharge it.”

“Oh.” That made sense. I hadn’t thought of that. “Sorry for punching you.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s nice to know you care…” he rubbed his arm, “…I think. Hey, if you broke into their warehouse did you find anything… interesting?”

“Yes, I know about Clucky,” I told him. “I’ve not decided what to do about him yet.”

“Don’t do anything,” Hazel and Jesse both said at the same time. I looked at them, eyebrows raised.

“Trust me,” Jesse said.

“Fine.”

“Cool. So have I missed much around here? Have you caught the spy yet?”

I shook my head then nodded deeper into the tenement. “Not yet. Look, we’d better go report back to Cody, see if they’re OK. And you’d better tell them what you’ve learned.”

“Alright.” We walked off, Jesse trailing behind me, asking questions.

“So did the thing that took Sally come bawk?”

I ignored the chicken sound. “Yes, actually. Turns out it’s a specialist kidnapper robot. It pursues its target, smashing through all resistance until it gets it.”

“Huh. Sounds scary. What did you call it?”

“The Chickenator.”

“Nice.”

“Thought you’d appreciate it.”

“So who did it take?” Jesse tried to sound casual as he asked, but I  could hear the tension in his voice.

“Jeremy first, then Glen. Noah got taken a few days
ago.”

“Oh.” Jesse paused for a moment and, looking back, I saw his shoulders slump. “Do we have a plan for dealing with it?”

“Already done. It came for Cody, and Hazel managed to take it out. That’s why all those Catchers were attacking. They were trying to get it back. Hopefully they didn’t manage to.”

“Good. Wait, if Sally, Glen, Noah and Jeremy have all been taken then who’s on the council now?”

“No one really,” I said, kicking a door at the end of a corridor. Only the bottom half of the door opened, probably some sort of defence Cody had thought up. Hazel and I had to duck; Jesse just walked right under it. “Cody’s taken over. I think he’s done it for the right reasons though.”

“Huh,” Jesse frowned. “So, long story short, the Chickenator managed to get half the council but Cody survived and he’s now in charge. There’s still a spy out there somewhere and the chickens are likely to attack again, trying to get their robot back?”

“That’s about it.”

“Alright.”

There didn’t seem to be any evidence of chickens on our way to the safe room. Ahead of us Blake poked his head round a door. He did a double take when he saw Jesse.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Do we like him now?” Jesse asked under his breath.

“About fifty-fifty,” I replied. Raising my voice, I
called back to Blake, “He turned up at the perfect time. Is everyone OK?”

“No chickens managed to get this far,” Blake called back. He seemed disappointed. “And we’ve still got the Chickenator.”

“They must have lacked the quill to win.”

Blake looked at Jesse for a moment then grinned.

“They were out of their league. Now they’re down and out.”

Jesse nodded, appreciating the pun. “It must have been an egg-citing time for you.”

“Oh, it was cracking.”

“It was pretty exciting for me too. I started having fun as soon as I crested the stairs.”

I looked back and forth between them, as if I was watching a tennis match.

“So you just appeared un-egg-spectedly? I’m impressed you were able to wing it.”

“I’ve always been a clutch player.”

I ground the palm of my hand into my forehead. Beside me Hazel was looking at the two of them, amused. “Alright, you two, that’s enough. You’re both very funny. Can we get on with it and find Cody?”

Blake winked at Jesse. “I could have out-punned you, you know.”

“We’ll have a rematch sometime. I’ll put that idea to nest.”

“Jesse!”

“Sorry, Rayna.” He looked at me and grinned. We all walked together into the safe room.

I guess I was expecting something grand from Cody’s hideaway but it was just a room with a table. A laser was mounted directly in front of the door, ready for whatever came through it, glowing red. We quickly ducked out of the way as Percy unplugged it. The Chickenator sat slumped in the corner, like a discarded doll. Hazel wandered over and began fiddling with it.

“What sort of weapons will you be able to make out of that?” Blake asked her. I noticed he was being more friendly than usual. I suppose taking down the Chickenator had earned his respect.

“Probably nothing,” Hazel said absentmindedly. “There are no lasers. I guess the wings could be used as shields but we could probably make those anyway. I’d like to take it back to headquarters to investigate it further.”

“Fine,” Cody said before turning to us. “I see that you’ve made it back, Jesse.”

“Yes, Cody. It’s nice to know you missed me.”

Cody gave his wintry smile. “I didn’t say that. Now what did you learn?”

Everyone looked at Jesse expectantly. He smiled back.

“I’m not telling you,” he said.

A small frown creased Cody’s forehead and I groaned. Trust Jesse to be difficult.

“Jesse, things changed while you were away. I’m in charge now. So tell me what you learned.”

“No, I don’t care that you’re the leader. I’ve got a plan
and part of it is not telling
you
.”

“Do I even want to know what you’re wittering on about?” Cody asked.

“It can’t hurt,” Percy said, giving his opinion for once.

“Fine,” Cody gestured at Jesse. “Go on then.”

“There’s a chicken in the room and I don’t mean our robotic friend in the corner. We all know it. One of us is a traitor.”

We all glanced at each other quickly and then back at Jesse. “That’s why I can’t go into details of my plan. I can only go over the outline. But basically we’re going to bust everyone out of the chickens’ prison.”

There was an awed hush.

“Maybe you can risk a few more details,” I told him.

“Alright. Rayna and I will lead a team out of the city. At a predetermined time you will cause a diversion that will draw all the Catchers to you. Then we’ll take advantage of the lack of guards and free the prisoners. Easy.”

“That’s an incredibly dumb plan,” Cody said. “How could we lure all the Catchers into attacking us?”

“You can broadcast something,” Hazel said from the corner. “That was your plan, right? That if things got bad you would start sending information to the Allies and fight off the chickens when they came for you. Well, they’ve already tried to break in here once. If they’re serious next time, they’ll probably send everything they can.”

“And if they do, we could easily be overwhelmed. Besides,” and here Cody lowered his voice slightly, “I’m
guessing that it’s not just kids held captive there? There are adults as well?”

Jesse nodded. “From what I could see, yes.”

“Well then, do we really want them to come back?”

“What do you mean, Cody?” I asked. “Of course we want them back.”

“I’m just saying, we’re doing alright by ourselves. We have a solid position here. If the adults come back they’ll change things. Besides, we might get into trouble.”

“Trouble?” Hazel looked puzzled. “For what? We’ve done nothing wrong.”

Percy coughed. “We’ve destroyed quite a lot of Aberdeen. And stolen stuff. And set some stuff on fire. And stolen stuff then set it on fire. They’re not going to be too happy about all that.”

“Well… we were fighting a war. They’ll understand.” Even as he was saying it I could see doubt on Jesse’s face.

“Depends what they find out about,” Percy muttered, but Jesse breezed on.

“Look, we need the grown-ups. You know we need them. Don’t you miss your parents? Even if they are slightly mad about some of the stuff that’s happened, I think they’ll understand; it was self-defence.”

“Alright, alright.” Cody called the meeting back to attention. “What will you need for your plan to work?”

“A team of volunteers, including Brotherhood members if possible. There’s some stuff I think they can help with.”

Hazel looked up at him quickly then nodded. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

“You do realise that if you’re asking for volunteers, there’s a good chance the spy will join your group? And they could ruin everything?” Cody said, looking sceptical.

Jesse shrugged. “If they do, then they do. We’ll handle that when the time comes.”

Cody looked steadily at Jesse for a moment, as if trying to work out if he was crazy. I didn’t blame him.

“Fine,” he said finally. “Well I’m guessing Blake and some of his crew will be going along.”

“Definitely,” Blake said with a huge grin on his face. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so excited. “Me and my guys wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“And I want to keep an eye on you, so I’m sending Percy.”

Percy looked startled: “What, don’t you want me here?”

Cody looked at him levelly. “I don’t trust Jesse not to mess everything up. Make sure he doesn’t, please?”

Percy frowned then jerked his head sharply. “Sure.”

“Finally, if you do succeed there’ll be a ton of organising to do, so take Kyle as well. With some of the Brotherhood, will that be enough?”

Jesse counted on his fingers, silently mouthing the numbers. “Should be,” he said. “We’ll leave tomorrow. Give us three days to get there, then start broadcasting as much information as you can about the Chickenator.”

“Fine.” Cody rolled his eyes. “This is going to be a disaster.”

It was much easier to sneak out of Aberdeen alone. The first time I escaped I’d crawled along the lines of abandoned cars that still clogged the A96. It had taken ages and by the end I’d been filthy and dying for a shower. But by the time the line of cars had ended I’d been out of Aberdeen, far away from any sentries.

That wouldn’t work with such a large group. It would only take one person being careless and we’d be all be spotted. So I’d asked friends to make a diversion on the other side of town and we were able to sneak out unseen.

After that we tried to stay off the road, but close enough that we wouldn’t get lost. We slogged through fields, tripped over tree roots and got our clothes snagged on wire fences. After an hour of this we were all moaning under our breath. Even Blake. I guess this adventure wasn’t as exciting as he’d hoped.

Rayna walked next to me, quiet to begin with. I was just delighted to have my best friend by my side again.

“So what’s the plan?” she muttered to me.

“I can’t tell you,” I muttered back. “I told you.”

She gave me a look. “But I’m not the spy.”

“No, but they might be lugging in. We need to make sure they don’t get wind of it. It’s going to be touch and go, especially once we’re inside the barn. It’s huge and

we have to get upstairs to the control room before the chickens know we’re there.”

“How do you know where the control room is?”

Drat. I’d already given away more than I planned to. “I was captured. I escaped.”

“What?” She turned and stared at me. “You got caught? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It didn’t come up.”

She glared at me, half frustrated, half curious.

“How did you get out?” she finally asked.

For a moment I was back in the chickens’ control room. It was located in the barn’s hayloft, with rows of computers tucked underneath a big screen. It had been filled with Commandos, keeping me under tight guard. I looked at the screen levelly. King Cluck stared back at me.

“Final answer?” he squawked. “You said you had information for me, that you wanted to be on the winning side. And now you won’t open your beak.”

“Yes.” I tried to keep my face smooth, not revealing any indication of what I was thinking. I felt like spinning around, looking frantically for an exit but I couldn’t show weakness. “Turns out I don’t have anything else to say.”

“This is just the first step you know. Once we control Turk— I mean Chicken, we’ll finally be in a position to cross the water. Our wings will darken the sky and the Allies will fall at our beaks and claws. We’ll peck out every one of them and then we will rule the roost in this world—”

King Cluck’s cackle was cut short when an alarm began blaring through the barn.

A Commando scuttled up the stairs into the control room. “There’s a riot in prisoner containment! They’re trying to get loose!”

“Guards, stop them!” King Cluck screeched across the screen. “They must not be freed. They shall stay in the cages we put them in!”

Most of the Commandos dashed out of the room, leaving only a few guarding me. King Cluck turned his beady eye back to me. “As for you. If you want your brother to be safe, you’d better stick—”

“Shut up,” I muttered and hit a button on the control desk. The screen went black and I spun around to look at the Commandos. They crept forward, inching closer before flapping towards me in a mad rush. One leapt for me but I dodged away and it went fluttering into the corner. Feinting to the right I jinked around the rest and ran for the stairs.

There were flashing lights everywhere and complete chaos as I half fell down the steps then fled across the hangar towards the door. The Commandos almost caught me but some escaped prisoners leapt on them, temporarily pinning them to the ground. I thought I recognised some faces but there was no time to thank them as I sprinted through the door.

“Jesse?” I blinked and was back in reality. Rayna was looking at me, concerned. “Are you OK? I asked how you escaped.”

“Yeah.” I shook my head, snapping out of it. “Yeah,
I’m fine. Um… right, escape. Some guys caused a diversion and I was able to get out. I couldn’t take anyone with me though.”

She was about to ask something else when one of the Brotherhood ran up. “Catcher,” he panted, “in the road ahead.”

“Come on,” I said, grateful for the interruption. “We’d better go check it out.”

It was an old one, a basic round body covered in dents and welt marks. It was standing by the road, not moving, facing down towards Aberdeen.

We stopped for a quick conference.

“This isn’t good,” I hissed. “We need to get past there. The only possible way over this hill is by the road.”

“Can’t we just walk through the woods or around it?” Rayna asked. There were groans from the rest of the group at the prospect of more cross-country hiking.

I shook my head. “That’s the Tyrebagger. It’s big and it’s steep. The best way over it is by the road. We could try going around it but I don’t know the way; we’d probably get lost and we have to get to the barn the day after tomorrow or we’ll miss Cody’s diversion.”

“Can we take it out?” Blake asked, one hand on his shock-stick.

“Bad idea,” Hazel said. “The chickens would notice that one of their sentries was missing. We might as well wave a huge flag saying we’re on our way.”

“Well, you come up with an idea,” Blake said, all trace of his earlier friendliness gone.

Hazel looked at the ground, her face twisted like
she’d bitten into a lemon. “There’s only one thing to do. We have to let one of us get taken.”

Instant silence. We all stared at her, shocked.

Rayna found her voice first. “What?” she asked.

Hazel shrugged. “It’s the only thing to do. Once the Catcher gets one of us it’ll wait around for a bit to see if there are any others then it’ll have to take the prisoner back to the barn. That’ll leave the way clear.”

“And it won’t find it suspicious that there’s a kid out here—” Rayna began but Blake interrupted her.

“Not if it was one of the Brotherhood,” he exclaimed. “They could just say they wanted to rejoin the flock or something. They’d buy that.”

“How can you say that?” Rayna turned on him, furious. “How can you think giving up anyone is OK?”

“No, he’s right. I’ll do it.” It came from one of the Brotherhood, a boy I vaguely recognised as Eric.

Hazel turned to him, solemn. “Are you sure?”

He took some gadgets out of his pack and handed them to Hazel. “What they’re saying makes sense. One of us has to. I’ll do it.”

I walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll get you out of there in a few days,” I told Eric. “Stay strong.”

Rayna looked aghast. “Are we really doing this? Is everyone OK with this?”

“Cody would agree,” Percy pitched in gruffly.

And everyone seemed convinced. The Brotherhood all hugged Eric and patted him on the back, while Blake, Percy, Kyle and the others stood around nodding
sagely. Then they parted and Eric walked forward.

We gathered in some trees to watch. Eric shuffled through a field and onto the road, around a bend so the Catcher couldn’t see him. He brushed himself down a bit then walked up the road.

The Catcher watched him as he approached, not moving until Eric was right in front of it. Then it bent its head sharply down and stared at the boy. There was a moment’s pause then its beak was open, moving forward. In a brief off-white blur, Eric was gone.

We stared silently at the Catcher for a while then it spread its wings and took off. It wheeled once in the sky then headed north, towards the barn.

“Come on,” I jolted everyone back to reality. “We’d better get walking if we want to make it to the cave by nightfall.”

“Jesse, wait.” Hazel ran up to me. “A member of the Brotherhood’s just been taken. Can’t we take a moment?”

I looked at her and winked. “It’s better not to brood on it,” I said. Then I turned around and walked away.

We holed up inside a cave that night, with the ruins of my previous fire still waiting for us. There was an overpowering smell of blackberries, which grew on bushes all over the Tyrebagger. Before it got dark I’d taken a group out to gather some. Kyle boiled them up and made a sort of berry soup. It felt weird to eat but tasted delicious.

Rayna had gone off to get wood for the fire; out the
corner of my eye I saw Blake follow her.

This was it. I nodded to Hazel and we both got up and followed him out.

“We can’t trust them.” The words floated through the trees once we got outside.

“Not this again. Look, Blake, I’ve told you plenty of times. We’ve got to. They’re on our side. One of them sacrificed themselves for us today.”

“Nope.” There was a snapping sound as Hazel and I moved closer. “Don’t you think that was a bit easy? I mean, who would get eaten by a Catcher voluntarily? Any normal person would fight against it. But that kid just went meekly. He wanted to do it. I think they’re working with the chickens. We just can’t trust the Brotherhood.”

Hazel ran from my side and dashed into the trees ahead of me. I followed her and burst into a small clearing, where she was glaring at Blake and her sister.

“Is that really what you think? Despite everything we’ve done for you? You won’t trust us, no matter what?”

“Wait, Hazel, I—” Rayna began but Blake overruled her.

“Yes,” he said, staring at her, “I’ll never trust you.”

“Then you can do this on your own.” Hazel turned and flounced into the trees. The three of us exchanged a shocked look and ran after her.

“Wait! Hazel!” Rayna grabbed her arm and swung her round. “You can’t go. We need you.”

“And yet you don’t trust us. We’ve done everything we can for you and it’s not enough.” She wrenched her
way free and strode back to the fire. “Well, I guess it’s time we stopped trying. Come on guys,” she said to the Brotherhood. “We’re going home.”

With that, she and the rest of the Brotherhood moved off into the woods. I followed the white of their robes until they vanished from sight and were truly gone.

I smiled. Everything was going according to plan.