Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens (10 page)

Council meetings these days sucked. Every one just signalled that something else had gone wrong. The empty spaces around the table spoke of those we’d lost. So far we’d only been able to replace Jeremy. Kyle now sat on the council, looking around nervously. He’d make a good replacement. He’d basically been doing the job even when Jeremy was around, making sure everyone had the supplies they needed. But no one had come forward to fill the other vacant positions. I wasn’t surprised. With four council members taken in as many days, they’d just be making themselves a target.

For once Cody was late. Around me sat Deborah, Blake, Kyle and Hazel. We didn’t say much, just stared at the table. I don’t know about them but I was trying to figure out who was the spy and who’d get taken next.

When Cody finally turned up he got right to the point. He sat down, Percy standing behind him as usual, looked at us and said, “I’m taking over as leader.”

We all stared at him for a moment. Then Deborah raised a hand. “Does that mean I don’t have to be here any more?” she asked.

Cody nodded.

“Fantastic. I’ll be with my patients. Let me know what happens.” Then she stood up and left.

I looked at the others, aghast. “Are you all OK with this? He’s taking over.”

Blake shrugged. “I just take orders anyway. Makes no difference to me.”

Kyle nodded. “I’d feel more comfortable with it, honestly.”

“Hazel?”

“Doesn’t matter if I like it or not. You never listen to me anyway.”

Cody smiled. “Great, now that we’ve got that sorted let’s get down to business. Blake, what can you tell me about fighting the Chickenator?”

I looked on, amazed, as Blake recounted the story. Did that really just happen? I’d expected Cody to try something like this. He’d never made his desire to lead a secret. But I’d expected some resistance. I’d expected him to have to do more than just say he was leader.

“I definitely think we were close to beating it,” Blake finished up. “A  small, enclosed space so it can’t move about much, and tougher weapons.”

“You don’t think running would be a good idea?” Hazel looked at Blake intently, all business. He shook his head.

“No, I think we did the best we could in those tunnels. It’s too fast to outrun. It wasn’t familiar with the terrain and we were able to hold it up and do some damage. Those were as close to ideal conditions as you can get and they weren’t enough. We need to attack in a confined space in formation with better weapons.”

“Alright. Hazel, you said the Brotherhood has been working on new weapons to take it down. How’s that going?”

“It’s been a day,” she told Cody frankly. “We’re working as fast as we can but it’ll be at least two more before we have anything to share.”

She hesitated then said to him, “You do know they’ll be going after you now, right? If you’ve just declared yourself as our supreme leader then you’ve just moved to the top of their list.”

“I know.” Cody’s face was perfectly calm. “And I’m counting on it.”

Hazel hesitated again. “Alright, then I’ll try and get some personalised  weapons for you and Percy. That might help.”

Percy grinned. “Make mine big and sparky.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

As if working his way down a list, Cody turned to Blake. “What’s the state of our army and defences?”

“Defences?”

“Yes. If there was a full-scale chicken attack and they threw everything they could at us, how would we handle it?”

Blake rubbed his head. “Right now? Probably not very well. The Chickenator put all my best guys in hospital. They’ll be out soon, but they’re no use to us right now. And we need them.”

“You have at least a few days,” Hazel said calmly.

Blake looked at her, surprised. “Yeah?” he asked.

“By the sound of it, you did that chicken some serious damage. They’ll have to fix it up, which will take a while. Trust me.” Hazel directed that last statement at me. She must have heard it from Clucky.

“Alright then,” said Blake. “Well, the only thing that could really stop an army of chickens if they came flying in would be lasers, but we don’t have many set up. The Brotherhood warehouse is probably better defended than this place or the power plant.”

“That’s not good.” Cody made a few notes on a piece of paper and turned to Hazel. “Do you have more lasers?”

“Yes, a lot. We’ve been trying to put them on wheels to make them portable, but we haven’t succeeded yet.”

“Well, forget about that for the moment. I want them mounted on buildings that we can hide in.”

“Alright. Just this hotel?”

“No.” Finally Cody turned to me. “What will we need to fire up the GPS satellite locator?”

“The one we got from Robert Gordon’s?”

“Of course. What other GPS satellite locator do we have?”

I took a breath and ignored the sarcasm. “Well, it has to be positioned somewhere high and have access to signals. Then you just turn it on and it automatically finds a satellite to target.”

“Right.” Cody motioned to Percy, who handed him a map. He looked over it for a moment before tapping it with his finger. “There are some tenement flats at the beach. Can you set the GPS and lasers up in a top flat there?”

Hazel, Blake and I nodded.

“Good. Now that we’ve got that gadget, and sacrificed Glen in the process, we need to use it. I want
it broadcasting as soon as possible and I don’t want any chicken to disrupt it. If this really is a testing ground, then the Chickenator will be heading after world leaders next. The Allies could use that information. They might even be so grateful that they send a rescue party for us. Stranger things have happened. Install lots of lasers on the building to protect the GPS, and we’ll all bunk down there. We’ll also need an escape plan. I’ll figure that out and circulate the plans. I’ll also elect someone to take over from Sally. Rayna, you’re in charge of Communications for now. Kyle, gather enough supplies to last a week. Anything else we need to talk about?”

Hazel looked at me beseechingly. She must be worried that I’d bring up Clucky and expose her. I still wasn’t sure what to do about that, so I just shrugged at her and kept my mouth shut. She smiled at me gratefully.

Cody glowered at us and nodded. “OK. Well then, you’ve got jobs to do. Go and do them.”

Blake, Hazel, Kyle and Percy left. Once the door had swung shut Cody looked up at me. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“You won’t get away with this,” I told him simply. “You may be in control for now but it won’t last.”

He was round the table in a moment, standing before me, staring into my eyes.

I couldn’t help myself: I shivered.

“You think I’m doing this just because I want to be in charge?” he said, his voice barely ruffled by emotion. I swallowed.

“Yes.”

“Well, you’re right.” He turned away and paced around the table. “We’ll be better off if I lead us. There’s barely any point in arguing about it. But that’s not the only reason. Do you remember that graph I showed you? And remember I said people would get scared?”

“You said that in six months we’d all split up and go back into hiding.”

“Well, that was before a Chickenator decided to start pecking up all our leaders. Right now I’d be surprised if we had weeks.”

“What? I mean things are bad, but they’re not
that
bad.”

“It waltzed in here, Rayna. Right into our headquarters. And you know how highly people thought of Noah. They’re scared, and if one more of us gets taken, I think we’ll be finished. We need to take it out. We need to show everyone in Aberdeen that we’re strong enough to handle anything the chickens throw at us.”

I’d been running all over the place for the past few days and I hadn’t really hung out with any other kids. I tried to remember if the people I’d passed in corridors had seemed more stressed than normal. I think they had.

I said the first thing that came to mind: “And you’re the one it’ll come for.”

He smiled slightly. “Yes, which is good for us. It means we know where it’ll be heading.”

“So that’s your plan? You’re acting as bait?”

“Kind of. But I don’t want to be grabbed any time soon. I’ll keep a low profile for a few days, while we get
prepared. Only council members will know where I am. Then by the time it finds me we’ll be ready: we’ll have lasers up and running, Blake and all his chicken hunters will be armed to the teeth, and we’ll jump it.”

“But the spy will probably just tell them where you’re hiding.”

He shrugged. “There’s not a lot I can do about that, other than get everything set up quickly. As far as I can see, it’ll either be you, Blake or Hazel. And you’re all key to the plan.”

“Do you really think I could be the spy?”

“Do you think I could be?” My silence was enough to tell him that I did. “Then you’ve no right to be offended.”

“And if you get caught?” Cody must have a Plan B. Unless he didn’t care what happened to us after he was taken.

“Use the GPS satellite locator, contact everyone out there. Tell them about the Chickenator. The chickens won’t like you transmitting that data so they’ll try and stop you. You, Blake and Hazel will have to round up some guys to operate the lasers and you’d better do it fast before the chickens cut our power off…”

I stared at Cody. “You really have thought of everything.”

He nodded. “I’ve tried. Now you’ve got a job to do. Get that communicator set up and ready. I’ll see you in a few days – hopefully.”

He walked towards to the door.

I nodded and saluted, only half sarcastically.

“Yes, Cody,” I said.

A few days later, the councillors met Cody at the tenement flats by the sea.

“So you’re still with us,” I said, secretly pleased to have our new leader at the helm of the operation.

Cody shrugged. “So far so good. We’re out of the way and well protected. Right now I’ve got enough lasers around me to take down a fleet of Catchers.” He had to yell to be heard over the sound of hammering coming from outside.

Cody had set up an office in the flats. A fast flood of paper was quietly flowing across his desk. I’m not sure where it all came from – we didn’t usually write much down – but Cody seemed to sustain it somehow. He would probably make a scary lawyer or something when he grew up.

A laser was even being fitted inside the room, one of the many that should keep the giant robotic Catchers off our backs while we were sending the signal. Hazel was installing this one herself, probably so fewer people knew where Cody was.

The building was heavily guarded, to protect the satellite locator and prevent surprise attacks. But Blake and Percy had been told to guard just Cody himself. I knew Percy was looking forward to trying out his new toys.

“Check these out, Ambassador.” Percy was brandishing a pair of gloves, gauntlets really, made of
metal, glinting in the light from the window. After hearing how Percy had gone down punching a Catcher, the Brotherhood had tailor-made these for him. “They’re like shock-sticks for punching.”

“Those look awesome,” I replied, genuinely impressed by the Brotherhood’s skills.

“The signal defences are almost complete,” Blake said, standing tall to present his information to Cody. I think he liked to consider himself a soldier with Cody as his general. “Most of the lasers are in place and the rest will be ready in a few hours. The safe room that you asked for has been built, as well as we could manage. Kyle has filled it with supplies so you could hide out there for a while without going hungry. We’ve also reinforced the power station with spare lasers.”

Cody nodded in a business-like way. “That was good thinking,” he said. “And we’ll have enough power to run them all?”

“We should; all our tests have been going well until now. Of course, we can’t be sure until we actually try to power everything at once.”

“Fine.” Cody looked out the window at the sun setting in the distance. “And the GPS satellite locator?”

I shrugged. “It’s set up but I don’t know if it works. If you’re right and it draws in a ton of Catchers, I’d rather wait until all our lasers are operational before we try it.”

Just then there was a knock at the door. We looked at each other suspiciously. Cody had given express
orders that he was not to be disturbed. I didn’t know who would dare to annoy him. He’d been scary enough before he ran all of Aberdeen.

Percy looked through the peephole to see who was outside. His face went white and he stumbled backwards. Then there was a massive thud and the door came flying into the room.

In the empty doorway stood the Chickenator, one foot raised after kicking the door in. With slow, measured steps it started strutting forward.

“How does it keep finding us?” I yelled as we all scrambled into defensive positions. “No one else knew we were here.”

“Shut up and get ready to fight,” Percy snarled at me.

Four of us went to meet our adversary. Blake led the way, staff crackling in his hand. I stood next to him, quietly watching his back, gripping my shock-stick uncertainly.

Percy strode forward, an ugly grin on his face, smashing his fists together. Sparks glowed and then fell like dying stars to the ground. He looked like he was going to enjoy this.

Beside him was Cody. I wanted to tell him not to fight, but the look on his face told me there would be no stopping him. He had a brand new baton, smaller and easier to wield than a cumbersome shock-stick; it would allow him to move quickly and keep himself defended.

As he proved in the next minute when the chicken
darted forward, chest opening. It obviously didn’t want to be drawn into an extended fight. It looked as if it had been partially repaired, but not fully finished. It didn’t move with quite the same agility as before. It was fast, but Cody was just as fast, if not faster; he must have been training with Percy. He swayed to the side, rolling away and lashing out with his baton at the same time. There was a sharp crack and I thought I saw the chicken stagger, then Percy came bounding in.

“Go for the chest, Percy,” Blake barked out, moving in as well. “Just like we planned.”

Percy grunted and launched himself at the chicken’s open chest cavity. It tried to close the hatch but Percy was in the way. He sent punch after punch pounding into its insides and the chicken rocked.

It back-pedalled, its feet skittering about as it struggled to regain its balance. It managed to shake off Percy and snap its chest shut. It steadied itself, about to move forward, but Blake took some ball bearings from his pouch and threw them in its path. The chicken hit them and skidded, struggling to stay on its feet. Percy surged forward and punched it a couple more times.

I held my breath. If we kept attacking and didn’t let it recover, we might actually be able to beat the Chickenator. We might win.

The Chickenator obviously realised that too. It turned and leapt, soaring over the desk and landing on the other side. Papers scattered everywhere. I thought I heard a squeak and my thoughts turned to Hazel. She’d been working on the laser just over there. Had she
managed to get out? Then I saw a small hand poking out from beneath the desk. No, she was still there, hiding.

Ignore her
, I silently commanded the chicken.
She’s not a threat. Let her be
. “Shore up, guys,” I murmured. “Let’s take this slowly and carefully.”

The chicken paused for a while, maybe planning its next move. I savoured the brief respite and regained my breath.

“Well?” Cody asked. “Are we having a tea break?”

“I’ll bring the biscuits,” Percy replied and Blake barked out a laugh. I didn’t respond, just watched the Chickenator’s eyes. They glimmered and the bird looked furious but it stayed still, maybe trying to stare us out.

But we couldn’t just stand there forever. We edged forward, keeping Cody in the centre of the group. The chicken let us come and I felt a flash of misgiving.

Then it bounded forward and the fight was on.

It headed for Blake this time, which was a surprise. We’d all been expecting the first move to be against Cody but obviously we were wrong. Maybe that was what it was counting on. We were slower to react and Blake only just managed to duck a buffeting wing. I moved to Blake’s side as Percy moved to the other. The chicken’s body seemed to shiver as it dodged a few of Percy’s punches and moved further away from me and Blake. Then it spun round and darted for Cody. Instead of rolling out of the way again he just dropped down to his knees. The chicken flew straight over his head and
almost crashed into the opposite wall. We advanced behind it, Percy in the centre, Blake to the left, me to the right and Cody getting to his feet behind us. The chicken jinked and tried to get past us but Percy punched it again and it bobbed back down.

“Keep it contained, guys. Slow and steady,” Blake told us.

Then it broke to the side, skirting round Blake and hitting him with a flap of its wing. He took it on the shoulder and spun round, landing on the ground but still conscious. I ran towards the chicken, shock-stick blazing but it accepted the hit and pushed past me. As I stumbled I saw Percy move forward, Cody a little behind. The chicken threw out another wing, but instead of dodging it Percy caught it and held tight. Sparks flared along the wing tip as the chicken tried to flap away, but Percy wouldn’t budge.

“Now, Blake,” he called and Blake rose up behind the chicken. Taking his shock-stick in both hands, he swung it with all his might at the back of the chicken’s head.

There was a bright disorientating flash as his stick connected and broke, and electricity streaked across the chicken’s body. It gave a shriek and Percy was forced to let go.

I looked down, backing away and blinking rapidly, trying to regain focus. I heard a grunt and looked up, hardly daring to hope.

But there was no point. The chicken was still standing. It moved slower than before, but it hadn’t
been knocked out like we’d hoped it would be.

“OK. That didn’t work.” Blake grabbed another shock-stick from a rack in the corner, snapping it on with a faint hiss. “Plan B.”

As far as I was aware, we didn’t have a Plan B.

The Chickenator threw a kick at Percy, which sent him spinning into Blake as it stalked towards Cody. The chicken had the measure of the fight now, and it brimmed with confidence.

Cody backed towards the desk, ball bearings clacking together under his feet. The chicken suddenly darted round, getting between him and the desk. Cody instinctively hurled himself away from it and into a wall.

I ran forward but it felt like I was moving through treacle. I wouldn’t get there in time. The Chickenator would gobble up Cody then fall backwards through the window and glide away. There was no way we’d get Cody back.

Then a figure moved behind the chicken and there was a sudden smell of ozone. It arched its back, sparks crawling across its body. After a second they shut off and the Chickenator crashed to the floor. The lights in it eyes stopped glowing and it lay still.

I looked up at the figure, and Hazel looked back at me, smiling slightly.

“How?” I asked.

She held up a cable, which had been intended to power the room’s laser.

“I plugged it into the mains.”

I rushed to her and was about to give her a hug when there was a sudden yell from outside and a laser burst lit up the night sky. A dark shape loomed up and I had to pull Hazel away from the enraged Catcher that suddenly smashed its head through the window.

There was a blur of black as the back of the Chickenator popped open and the chicken inside darted across the room and into the Catcher’s throat. With a squawk it fell backwards and flew away.

“Plug that laser in, Hazel,” I said, a cold feeling creeping through my bones. “They’re coming.”

“But we haven’t tried transmitting anything yet,” Cody said, clambering back to his feet.

“That’s not what they’re after. The C-800 is taken everywhere by at least five Catchers. They don’t want to lose the prototype.” As Hazel explained, I gave the empty Chickenator a kick.

Then we heard more yelling, and flashes lit up the window behind me as the Catchers appeared.

“They won’t stop until they’ve got it back,” Hazel finished.

Everyone seemed to freeze in panic for a moment before Cody snapped into action.

“We can’t let them have it back,” he said simply. “Retreat to the safe room on the ground floor and take that thing with us. Hazel, keep on that laser until we’re out of the room, then come and join us. Percy, grab the Chickenator and we’ll drag it downstairs with us. Rayna and Blake, power up the lasers on the floors
below. We’re three floors up, people, and we need to get down. Let’s move out.”

Everyone scrambled into action, Hazel firing at any Catchers that got too near. I darted down the stairs with Blake while Cody helped Percy with the Chickenator.

The stairs seemed to fly by beneath me as I hurried down them, bouncing off the wall at the bottom and straight through the door of the second-floor flat. I could see the laser positioned by the window.

I got to it and flicked the switch, turning it on. Above me I could hear Hazel blasting away and see the long red beam of her weapon.

“Are you OK here?” Blake asked and I nodded.

“Yeah, go start up the laser downstairs. The more guns we’ve got firing the better.”

He clapped me on the shoulder and was away.

Even though the building was covered with lasers there weren’t that many people about to fire them. Yet again, the Chickenator must have taken out all the guards before heading inside to attack us. The Catchers were flying round the building, dark shapes flitting here and there. The one that had taken the Chickenator pilot seemed to have disappeared. Hazel had hit another, clipping its wing and sending it spiralling to the ground. But that still left three.

It was down to two by the time Hazel appeared at my shoulder. Blake’s beam had shot out from the first floor, catching one of the chickens by surprise. After losing a leg, it turned round and got out of there.

“Rayna, time to go. Down another floor.”

I sent a last shot winging at a chicken then turned and sprinted out of the apartment. Hazel by my side, we flashed down the stairs. I reached the ground-floor laser just in time to shoot up at a Catcher that was diving for Blake.

That left one. I had it in my sights and pulled the trigger. I just missed but it flew away anyway. It must have given up.

I sighed, happy that we’d driven them back, and my exhausted hand slipped from the laser gun.

Which, of course, was when the Catcher rose in front of me and cannoned through the window.

Hazel and I were thrown back, sprawled on the floor. The Catcher Hazel had hit at the start of the fight loomed above us. Its wing was hanging off and it didn’t look like it could fly. I looked around desperately, searching for an escape route. But the chicken was too close; we’d never be able to outrun it.

Shakily I got to my feet. If I was going to be pecked up I wanted to be standing tall, looking the chicken right in its beak.

It grinned at me, cockily assured of its victory. I pulled the shock-stick from my belt, gave it an experimental swing or two.

“Come get me, you walking pillow.”

I took a deep breath and the world slowed down. The chicken’s eyes gleamed evilly. Its open mouth glinted and I thought I could see all the way down its throat.

Then Hazel charged into me, knocking me out of
the way.

I landed heavily, the shock-stick spinning from my hand. I was defenceless.

“What are you doing?” I yelled.

“Getting you out of the way,” she muttered.

The chicken turned towards us, slightly confused but greedily anticipating being able to eat two of us. Then with a flash of red light its left leg disappeared. It fell to the ground, flapping in surprise. Another flash and a wing fell off, the hinge connecting it to the body melting away under the laser.