Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens (13 page)

My best friend was currently trapped in a metal chicken’s gut and there was a very good chance I’d never see him again. In that moment I was back, seeing Hazel, Sam and so many others I’d known being taken. I wanted nothing more than to sink to my knees and surrender. Give up the fight.

But that wasn’t how we would survive. The screams and cries of panic coming from the woods reminded me of the others in our group, the ones I could save. With some organisation and a lot of luck some of us might be able to escape.

I could give up later. To quote Jesse,
Right now there were some feathers to ruffle
.

As I turned back to the woods I saw Percy standing there, gloating. He ran into the trees. With a liquid burst of anger I sprinted after him.

I followed him into a nearby patch of trees. The branches whipped past my face and I almost thought I’d lost him, but when I charged into a clearing he was standing there, looking at me smugly.

“Well hello, Ambassador. Ready for the rematch?”

“Are you kidding?” I stopped in disbelief. “All this, just because I once beat you in the chair-wrestling match?”

He shook his head. “Oh no. This is just an added bonus.”

“What were you thinking?” I snarled, stalking
towards him. “What does Cody think he can gain from this?”

Percy’s expression turned ugly. “Cody has nothing to do with this. I’m not his slave, no matter what the rest of you think. I’m his friend but I don’t have to do every little thing he tells me to.”

“So you betrayed him? Why?” I kept walking forward, getting closer and closer.

“I didn’t betray him. I’ll get out of this, the chickens promised me that. I’ll return to Aberdeen a hero, the only one to survive. Finally people will know my name.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “That’s what this is all about? You just want people to think you’re a big deal?”

“Yeah, maybe it is.” He stepped towards me as well. My hand tightened on my shock-stick. Just a little closer.

Blake burst into the clearing. “You’ve got him?” he asked. “We need to move. The chickens are heading into the woods.”

“Could you give us a moment?” I said, not looking at him, eyes fixed on Percy. “There’s no way I’m letting this traitor get away.”

“Fine.” Controlled anger edged Blake’s words. “We’ll hold the Catchers off but we can’t last long. There are too many of them.”

“I won’t need long,” I said. Then in one quick movement I drew my shock-stick and lunged.

Percy must have seen it coming. He sneered and batted the stick away with one of his gauntlets. “Finally.
The rematch.”

“Bring it. I can take you any day.”

He moved forward, throwing a punch, but I skipped backwards. This would be over soon. One of us just had to tap the other and they’d be out cold.

“So were the chickens expecting our attack?”

“Well, they don’t seem to have left their headquarters unguarded, like you and Jesse stupidly assumed.”

“So you stood behind Cody, behind your friend, at council meetings and then you went running to the chickens with everything, hoping for a pat on the back? All just to make sure
you
were OK, no one else.”

My mind was ticking, putting everything together. “It all makes sense. Except one thing. How did you know Glen was going to be in Garthdee? I never even told you.”

“I was in the hospital when you told Deborah. And then Cody told me you were going to Garthdee, but on a different day. It wasn’t hard to connect the dots. I just looked out for you leaving.” He lunged forward, fists jabbing but I stepped back and they just missed.

“And you sold everyone out. Just to save your own sorry hide.”

“I’m safe and so is Cody. They promised.”

“They sent the Chickenator to take him out. They’re pretty lousy at keeping promises. And you must have told them where he was.”

“He didn’t get taken, did he?”

“Think he’s going to thank you? We’re so close to getting the adults back. That would have made us safe.”

He spread his arms wide, gesturing around him. I
stayed calm, waiting for my opening.

“You think I’m doing this just for myself? Nah, I’m doing what’s right. The world is better without the adults. I like the way things are.”

I blinked. “How could you believe that? The world is awful.”

“For you maybe. I had nothing before all this. I couldn’t figure anything  out at school; I kept getting in fights. No one looked up to me, no one called me a hero. But here? Here I’m a new person. Here I’m great.”

And there was the opening. “Here you
were
great. And now you’re not. You’re just a traitor, a coward and once again you’ve messed up everything. And now you’re going to get beaten by a girl.”

He gave a great roar of rage and charged towards me. I took three small steps to the side, ducked down and swept out. His fists just missed my head then my shock-stick whirled out and tapped him on the back of his legs. There was a spark, and then he crashed to the ground, like a toppled tree.

I stood there, staring down at him. I’d won. I’d beaten the spy.

But without Jesse there it all felt pointless.

Blake ran back into the clearing, followed by some of his hunters. “That’s it, we can’t stop them any longer,” he gasped, out of breath. “We have to do something now.”

I looked at him and nodded. “We run. There’s no way we can succeed. We just need to pull back.”

He nodded and we were about to turn away when
we felt the ground shake. A Catcher came bounding through the woods, forcing us back towards the farm, some lagging behind and getting dragged by their friends. We burst out of the woods in time to see another Catcher coming for us. We quickly changed direction, only to find another ahead.

It was no use. We’d been corralled. Five Catchers surrounded us, blocking all possibility of escape. Four moved in, mouths clacking while one held back and observed. I recognised it as the one that had eaten Jesse and I fixed it with a hateful glare. Even as the others blocked my view I stepped to the side, determined to keep focusing my hatred on it until the very last moment.

So I was in the perfect position to see its eyes glow red as it shot another Catcher in the back.

There was a moment of confusion and the injured Catcher very slowly fell over with a clang like a giant bell. The rogue Catcher took the opportunity to shoot another one, its eyes scything through the Catcher’s legs.

There was a sudden blaring of alarms from inside the barn and the doors swung wide open, Commandos pouring out. They surrounded the rogue Catcher, eyes glowing and lasers charging. I saw it setting its feet firm, ready to go down fighting. I grabbed Blake, pulling him away.

“Now, while they’re distracted,” I said. “We have to escape now.”

Then abruptly the back of the Catcher opened up and a platform folded out, two huge lasers mounted on
it. Hazel manned one, Jesse the other.

I could see the huge grin on Jesse’s face as he triggered his laser, sending a bright red scar across the line of Commandos in front of him.  Hazel did the same, and the enemy had to retreat before them. There might be more of them but we had more firepower.

“Blake!” Jesse yelled across to us. Blake blinked once then seemed to snap out of it.

“How can we help?” he yelled back, hurrying over.

“Go get the prisoners. We’ll keep them off your back.”

Blake looked towards the barn, a grin of his own answering Jesse’s.  “Yes, sir,” he said, saluting and then running off towards the fight.

“Could you go with him, Rayna, and take the rest of our team?” Jesse asked. “There’s a set of stairs just inside the door. At the top is the control room. There’s a green lever. The buttons beside it target threats and their defence system should automatically target us. Pull the lever down and it’ll shoot everything targeted. Push it up and it’ll shoot everything else.”

There was no time to argue. I guess I just had to trust them. I frowned at them both. “Alright. But after all this is over we need to have a talk.”

Jesse laughed, more a wild bark than anything. “Count on it.”

Then he and Hazel dived back inside their Catcher, closing all openings as it leapt into the air, bounding towards the enemy, causing alarm and chaos. The perfect diversion.

I sprinted towards the still-open barn door alongside Blake and his chicken hunters. Once inside the cavernous building, I took a quick look around and saw a flight of stairs, just like Jesse had described. As I lunged towards them, a swarm of Commandos burst out from another opening, followed by yet another Catcher.

With a battle cry Blake ran to engage them. “Go on up, Rayna. We’ll deal with these guys.”

I nodded and ran up the stairs while war cries and metallic thumps rang out below.

At the top of the stairs I heaved the door open and cannoned into a room that looked like an old-fashioned hayloft, full of computers with a huge television on one wall. In front of the screen was a large bank of buttons and levers. I saw the one with the green lever, just like Jesse had described it. Striding across the room I reached out for it.

“Stop!”

I paused, looking up. A chicken had appeared on the screen, one I instantly recognised from the televisions in the communications room: small red comb hidden behind a weird, oversized hat. King Cluck, the boss chicken.

“You don’t want to do that, Rayna.” His voice issued from hidden speakers all over the room, disorientating me. I ignored it, more creeped out by the fact he knew my name.

“Yeah right,” I said, grabbing the lever, preparing to push it up.

“If you touch that lever you’ll never see your family again.”

That wouldn’t have been enough to stop me; who believes a chicken? But their pictures suddenly flashed up on the screen: Dad, a large man with a wild beard; Mum, just as muscular, long hair tied back in a utilitarian ponytail. I stared at them, my hand frozen to the lever. Then I shook myself out of my daze.

“I’ll just go cut them out of whichever cage you’ve got them locked in downstairs.”

Their picture flashed away, replaced by the cockerel, his evil beady eyes glaring at me. “But they’re not downstairs. They’re not anywhere close. They’re in our high-security compound in Edinburgh. And the only way you’ll see them again is if you do what I say.”

“You’re lying. Why are they special?”

“Oh,
they
aren’t special, Rayna.
You
are. You see I knew you’d be coming in the next few days. And I knew it was
you
that I had to deal with. Fighters like Blake, planners like Cody: they are only so useful. But you, you have commitment. You’re the one who keeps getting back up, who keeps fighting. The rest I can deal with. It was so nice of you to bring so many of the best defenders in Aberdeen here, where I can so easily capture them. Your band falls here, quickly followed by Aberdeen. But if
you
escape I know I’ll be fighting another resistance somewhere. Your fighting spirit won’t stop, won’t quit. So that’s why I have to destroy it here and now.”

Something thumped into the side of the building,
sending dust drifting in lazy spirals from the rafters. I could hear desperate shouts, the firing of lasers getting quieter. Things weren’t going well outside.

“I won’t just give up here. I can’t,” I answered.

“Oh, but you can. You don’t even have to do anything. Just step back, sit in the corner. Five minutes and we’ll have rounded up the traitors in that Catcher and anyone else stupid enough to be still hanging around. Then I’ll personally see to it that you and your sister are taken straight to your parents. You’ll be together again. You want that, right?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I do want to see my parents. More than anything.” The chicken seemed to smile. I looked up at it, my eyes burning, hot and furious. “So that’s why I’m going to go down there and bust up every barn you have until I find them. Starting with this one.”

King Cluck jerked backwards in surprise and opened his beak. I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else.

I flipped the lever.

A low moan filled the air, thrumming through us. I could feel the hairs standing up on the back of my neck and heard a clattering as hidden shutters slid open all over the barn. The pitch of the whine increased, vibrating my teeth until it vanished.

There was a moment of silence and then, with a mighty roar, every weapon fired at once. I heard the tinkle of lasers hitting metal and I looked out the window to see the remaining Catchers and army of Commandos falling like dominoes. Others looked
around in confusion then took to the sky, flying away as fast as they could.

Then came a sudden deafening silence.

And soon from below and all around a low roar swelled, building until the enormous barn shook.

Cheers. The prisoners were cheering.

We’d won.

Aberdeen was a glorious mess. Once we’d set the captives free, all the Catchers and Commandos had swarmed the city, hoping to take it before we could get back. Cody had already gathered practically all the kids left in Aberdeen into the tenement block before sending the signal. When the chickens arrived, they found a building bristling with lasers, each one manned enthusiastically. Bits of the fallen war machines were scattered everywhere.

Once news of our victory got round, the surviving chickens scattered: chicken by name, chicken by nature.

Aberdeen was free.

And on our first day of freedom, we’d mostly been clearing up. I’d grabbed a Catcher head and lugged it along to the Brotherhood’s warehouse.

“So the adults all got into cars and drove us here,” I told Clucky. “It wasn’t easy getting them all working and we had to abandon them in impassable roads but it got us back faster than you’d think.”

“Flying is still faster,” Clucky told me, flashing his wings. I swore he was smiling. “Piloting a Catcher is so much fun. I wish I’d been on Catcher duty from the start.” Clucky had piloted our Catcher during Operation Henhouse Hustle and flown Hazel back to Aberdeen as soon as we’d taken down the barn.

“You were really good at it,” I said. “What are the rest of the chickens doing?”

He tilted his head to the side, connecting to the chickens’ control signal. “They’re pretty confused at the moment. Most of the remaining Aberdeen army are fluttering around Scotland, with no idea what’s going on. King Cluck is furious that we managed to give away details of the C-800 model to the Allies. They’re back to square one on technical development.”

“How long do you think it will take them to regroup?”

“A while.” His eyes glowed when he looked at me. “Not forever, but a while.”

“Jesse.”

I turned and looked at the entrance to the warehouse. Rayna stood there, with Hazel beside her. I heaved a sigh of relief. “Hi guys,” I called out.

“Why are you hiding in here?” Rayna walked towards me.

“I’m not hiding. I’m just filling Clucky in on everything that happened.”

“You’re definitely hiding,” Clucky said beside me. “This is the third time you’ve told this story. I’m about to fall off my perch.”

I glared at him. Traitor.

“Come on Jesse, out with it. There’s a party going on right now. Why aren’t you there?”

“I’m happy for you guys, really I am…” It turned out Rayna’s parents were in the barn with the others. King
Cluck had been bluffing about keeping them in a top-security prison, desperate to save his own crispy skin. I didn’t think I’d ever witness Rayna crying, but let’s just say their reunion was an emotional scene.

“I haven’t found Ethan,” I admitted with a heavy sigh. “I searched the crowds for him – and my parents – but they weren’t there.”

Rayna rolled her eyes. “So you just gave up? You stomped your way across half of Aberdeenshire to find your brother but a crowd defeats you? Honestly.”

And then another figure appeared beside her and Hazel.

“Sorry I’m late,” my brother said, a huge grin on his face. “I was checking out your defences. They’re awesome. I couldn’t have done better myself and I need to get my hands on one of those lasers. Come on, Mum and Dad are waiting for us.”

It was him, hair a lot longer and shaggier than when I’d last seen him, but the same boots, same jacket. Same sense of energy and good humour. He was looking a bit thinner than before and maybe a bit battered but it was my same brother.

I looked up at him. “Oh no. It’s worse than I feared.”

Ethan stopped in his tracks, the grin fading. “What? Aren’t you pleased to see me?”

“Well, yes, but…” I shrugged. “You’ve got taller.”

He regarded me gravely. “I don’t think I have. I think you’ve actually got shorter. Which is amazing really. Maybe I should get you that dolls’ house to live in.”

“Tall jerk.”

“Short moron.”

“Lanky idiot.”

“Tiny occasional table.”

“Oh that does it.” I charged towards him, and then we were wrapped in a big bear hug.

“Pine tree,” I muttered into his jacket.

“Toadstool,” he replied into my hair.

I could almost feel Rayna rolling her eyes again. “Alright, now that’s sorted, let’s finally get some food.”

“Good plan.” Ethan snatched something off a nearby workbench and strode away, a Catcher head under one arm. Hazel rushed after him, grabbing it and returning it to its proper place. I laughed and Rayna laughed with me. After weeks of slogging through fields and keeping secrets it felt amazing.

“So how’s the party?” I asked Rayna.

“Pretty good. Kyle is organising all the food we can spare into big vats so there’s plenty to eat, and Jeremy is back to help him. Sally got her crew to pick some fruit and veg to add to the cause. Sam and his sister have been reunited and they’re helping out too.”

The grown-ups were amazed at how well we’d been running things without them. For today, they seemed happy to sit back and watch us rallying around them.

“Any word on Glen or Noah?” I asked hopefully.

“Glen’s over there with his family, and Noah’s got his dads with him. They’re a riot.”

“How’s Cody? What did he do when he found out about Percy?”

Rayna hesitated. “He’s… unusually quiet. His parents are keeping a close watch on him in any case. They seem really proud of him.”

We were quiet ourselves for a moment.

“Come on,” Rayna said at last. “Let’s eat.”

I walked out into the sunlight, blinking. For the first time in months Aberdeen wasn’t eerily quiet. Now there was a low buzz hanging in the air. I could hear laughing, chattering, even singing. The adults were back and we were safe – for now.

But we’d better not count our chickens before they hatch…