Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens

by Alex McCall

  “Yeah. Now, while the coast is clear. Then hide.”

  I straightened up and moved towards the door. I listened momentarily, pressing my ear up against the glass, keeping beneath the level of the window.

  I couldn’t hear anything.

  “I think it’s safe,” I said. I grasped the door handle and pulled it open.

  The chicken peered down at us from its perch on a high beam, its comb raised and proud. It looked at us expressionlessly for a moment and I felt my mouth gape open. It had known where we were the entire time and was just playing with us.

  “Get back!” I jumped backwards, trying to swing the door closed. But it flew down and cannoned into the door before it was completely shut. I dug in my heels, forcing all my weight into resisting but it was no good. The chicken was too strong. The soles of my shoes made sad squeaking noises as they were slowly forced back. Then all at once the door gave way and the chicken was in.

  I stumbled backwards and it ignored me, heading straight for Glen. With no time to draw my shock-stick I just threw myself after it, catching it on the shoulder and wrapping my arms around its neck.

  “Get. Away. From. Him,” I said through gritted teeth. “Glen, run!”

  It rocked slightly, swaying beneath my weight and motion, then swung around. I’d seen videos of people riding the rodeo on YouTube and it felt just like that. It bucked and shook, trying everything to loosen my grip. Eventually it just started to spin, round and round and round and round. My hands began to loosen and then I was flung off, crashing into a desk.

  Glen had been standing very still while all this was happening. Maybe he believed that old story about chickens not being able to see things that weren’t in motion. Maybe that was generally true, but it wasn’t in this situation. The chicken definitely knew where Glen was and it advanced, mockingly.

  At the last moment Glen dodged to the side and ran towards me. The chicken pecked at him but missed.

  I got to my feet, groaning, as the chicken completed its turn and darted forward. Glen was there, hands out as if trying to pull me towards him.

  I saw the whole awful thing as if in slow motion. I felt Glen’s hand connect with mine and grasp it. Behind his shoulder I could see the chicken looming close. Its whole chest area swung open like a giant mouth, reaching forward to swallow Glen whole. Then it was closing around him, little talons seeming to reach from inside and pull him away from me. I held on to his arm for as long as I could but I felt his fingers slip from mine. At the last moment I looked up into his face and saw that he wasn’t scared. His face showed something worse than fear: acceptance.

  “Say hello to America for me,” he said. Then the chicken pulled him backwards and enveloped him.

  It shook once or twice, as if making sure that Glen was secure. Then it just turned and strutted towards the door. It didn’t even run, like it didn’t consider me a threat. I sprinted forward, screaming wordlessly, then had to dodge a swiftly struck wing. I spun clumsily, slipping and falling, hitting my head on the floor. An awful iron pain crashed through my skull and I saw stars. By the time I was able to crawl back to my feet the chicken was long gone.

  I slumped down heavily.

  Glen had been taken.

  Three councillors captured from right under my nose. And it was three too many.

  Something finally managed to pierce the hazy fog in my head, and I looked down at my hand. It was still clenched in a fist, not having opened since Glen’s hold had been wrenched away. I uncurled my fingers and stared down, confused…

  At the scrunched-up ball of paper Glen had slipped there just before he was taken.

  CHAPTER 13

  It was pretty late by the time we got home. The street lamps had come on, glowing a dull orange, making everything seem gloomy and washed out. The trolley we’d taken with us rattled along, a wheel squeaking every so often and getting on our nerves.

  I was glad we had it though. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to transport the five black boxes that housed the GPS satellite locator and all its components. The note Glen had slipped me told me which ones to take and how to set it up. He must have thought the chicken would have destroyed the devices if it had caught us with them. I wish Glen had decided to run instead.

  I brightened up slightly when we reached the hotel. Because there, waiting for us, looking battered but very much alive, was Percy. I might not get on with him all that well, but it had been unsettling not having him around.

  “The council’s waiting for you,” he told us as we trooped up. “They heard about what happened with Jeremy.”

  I nodded wearily and plodded wearily into the building. Blake followed after, directing the rest of his crew towards the hospital. Percy trudged along behind us. None of us spoke.

  The council was in mid discussion when we walked in. Noah turned and smiled at me, half rising to greet us. Then his eyes flitted from one of us to another and he noted the lack of Glen. His eyes showed his sadness and he sat back down.

  “Rayna, Blake. Care to tell us what happened?”

  That was Cody, getting straight to business as usual. Percy walked up and stood behind him, a towering shadow, silently backing him up.

  I looked at Blake and decided to answer. “We went to get the satellite GPS that Glen wanted. As you know we’d decided to blend in with one of Jeremy’s scouting groups to be a less obvious target. We were ambushed twice by this… new type of chicken. The first time it managed to get Jeremy. The second time Glen sacrificed himself so that we could get the GPS satellite locator.”

  Hazel looked at me and frowned. “Wait, you were going to get that today? I thought you were doing that on Saturday.”

  “I thought it was Sunday,” Deborah added. “You asked me to have medical supplies ready, just in case everything went wrong.”

  Cody’s face didn’t move, though I sensed a wave of anger drifting off him. “Yes and I was told Friday. Care to say why you were lying to us all?”

  I looked at Noah desperately. He nodded quickly. “It’s because we needed to test you,” he said.

  Cody’s eyes narrowed. “Test us? How?”

  “Someone here is a spy.”

  I’d expected there to be a commotion at those words but everyone was deathly silent. I swallowed then continued. “The chickens know what we’re doing far too well for it to be a coincidence. Someone here is feeding them information. I thought if I gave each of you different information we’d uncover the spy.”

  “And?” Cody urged.

  I shrugged helplessly. “Jeremy was the only one who knew we were setting out today and he was the first one captured. Unless he was interrogated or something…”

  “But there wasn’t time for that.” Blake looked at me angrily. I guess he wasn’t happy that I thought he might be a spy.

  “Look, it’s obvious who the spy is.” Blake pointed at Hazel. “It’s them. They fit in with the rest of us like a duck out of water.”

  Hazel glared at him. “What exactly do we have to do to convince you that we’re on your side?”

  “What do you know about this new chicken?” Noah quickly cut in, trying to keep the peace.

  Cody was watching us all with glittering eyes, Percy glowering at his shoulder. Deborah seemed annoyed but no more than usual. I looked sideways to see Blake glaring at Hazel and Hazel glaring back. Which one could be the spy?

  Hazel looked away and pulled her backpack up onto the table. “We’ve been looking into this new chicken. And we came up with this.”

  She pulled a roll of paper from her bag and spread it out on the table. It was a copy of the blueprints of the chicken we’d fought against. A title at the top said we were fighting the C-800 model.

  I looked at it, frowning. Where did she get that from?

  I wasn’t the only one. “Who gave you those?” Cody asked.

  Hazel shrugged. “We found the blueprints in one of the warehouse cupboards. I guess they must have been designing it there.” She quickly mo
ved on. “From what we can see, this is a single-target creature. It’s got enough room to store one person. The chest opens up and the human is stored there. As soon as the chest is closed a gas is emitted, putting the prisoner to sleep.”

  “So that means it’s definitely targeting the council,” Noah said. “They’re not just scooping up random kids.”

  Hazel looked at him and nodded. “That’s right,” she said.

  “How do we beat it?” Blake asked. Hazel turned back to the blueprints.

  “It’s not going to be easy,” she told him. “The hull is bullet-proof, and resistant to electricity. The wings can be charged, shocking anyone they hit.”

  Blake rubbed his arm. “Yeah, we got that,” he said.

  Hazel looked at him and nodded absently. “Honestly? Against this, your best chance is to run.”

  “Run?” Blake shook his head. “Not an option.”

  Hazel sighed. “Use your head. The suit is super-fast and super-strong but that comes at a price. The battery isn’t very big and it won’t be able to work for long periods of time. It’s got a very simple goal: get in, get the target, get out. The further you can get the target from this thing the better your chances are that the battery will run down and it’ll have to turn back.”

  “What are we calling it?” Cody asked idly.

  “The Chickenator.” Everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged. “That’s what Jesse would call it.”

  Cody sighed, though a few people round the table had smiles on their faces. “Even when he’s not here he’s causing mischief. Fine, Chickenator works. Now, is outrunning it the only thing we can do? Can’t we cut off its connection to the signal?”

  Hazel shook her head. “No, it’s got some sort of replicator deep inside its head, very well protected. Basically it mimics the signal so it can never be cut off. Pretty nifty really.”

  I didn’t like to hear the admiration in her voice, but Blake spoke before I could say anything. “So there’s no way for us to fight that thing?”

  “Hit it enough times and it might feel something. The wings are the most shielded but aim for the body and you could do some damage. And of course there’s no shielding inside, so hitting it while it’s chest is open should work. But I’d try running first. This thing is near impossible to beat.”

  Blake smiled slightly. “I don’t run.”

  Hazel rolled her eyes. “Well, good luck with that. The Brotherhood will try and make something to help, but it’ll take days. Let’s just hope that it’s done for now.”

  “This is a serious piece of hardware,” Cody said from the top of the table. “Why is it coming after us?”

  “You haven’t worked it out yet?” We all looked at Noah. He scowled back, confused. “But it’s obvious.”

  There was silence for a moment. “Apparently not,” Cody said. “What’s obvious?”

  “We’re a testing ground.”

  “He’s right,” Hazel said. “We are. I mean, up until now I think we were just a training ground for Catchers before they were sent out to fight national armies. But it looks as if they’re taking us more seriously.”

  Cody pulled out a notebook and started scribbling away. “A testing ground? So everything they throw at us will eventually be used against other countries? The Chickenator,” he sighed, “could be used to kidnap the President of the USA or something?”

  “Maybe,” Noah said. “I mean that would make sense.”

  “I’m going to have to think about this.” Cody closed his notebook and stood up. “Is that all?”

  Noah looked at him aghast. “We’ve just lost another two council members. We haven’t even replaced Sally yet. We need to talk about that.”

  “Then hold votes or something. If anyone wants to make a target of themselves then good for them.” He started walking towards the door.

  “Cody, stop.” Noah got up and grabbed his arm as he passed. Percy took a step forward but Cody waved him back.

  “We’ve lost three people. We don’t just need to fill their positions. We need to take a moment and think about them. About them being gone. Don’t you care about that?”

  “It’s not my job to care.” Cody shook himself loose and began stalking away again. “It’s my job to find us a way out of this. That’s all.”

  He was almost out of the room when Noah shouted one last thing after him, “I know you care for some people, Cody. I know it.”

  Cody paused slightly. Then the door closed and he was gone.

  ***

  After Cody left, the rest of us sat around and talked about the ones who weren’t there. Even Percy stayed for a while, though he mostly just sat and listened. I guess he was doing it to report back to Cody later but it felt nice having him there. Noah offered to take over as Head of Communications but we couldn’t come to any other solid plans. Eventually we decided to get some sleep and look for volunteers in the morning.

  I lay in my bed and thought about the day. What a complete disaster. I hadn’t found the spy. Jeremy and Glen had been taken. The only good thing was that we’d got the communications equipment, though I had no idea what we’d actually do with it.

  And to top it all off, I’d had to tell the council there was a spy among them. So whoever it was, they knew I was on to them. Not only that but it put up walls between council members, stopped them from trusting each other. I’d even seen some of them give me funny looks as they were leaving.

  I felt a sudden stab of sympathy for Hazel and rolled over, staring at the wall. She hadn’t spoken to me as she’d left, taking the Chickenator blueprints with her. She hadn’t even looked at me. I’d have to apologise to her in the morning.

  Although… where had she found those blueprints? Had the chickens really been working on the Chickenator for so long that they’d left them behind in the warehouse when we drove them out? Or did the Brotherhood still have some connection with the chickens? More than ever I wanted to know where she was getting her information.

  I frowned. There was something bothering me. Something that wasn’t about the disastrous day or Hazel’s weirdly accurate knowledge. Something that was missing.

  Jesse hadn’t contacted me.

  He’d promised he would call at exactly nine tonight. He wanted to know if my plan had worked. But it was almost ten and I hadn’t heard anything from him. The walkie-talkie rested on my bedside table where I always left it, plugged into the wall, the red light staring at me through the darkness. Hazel had even hooked up a recorder to it so Jesse could leave messages but when I checked there was nothing.

  I fidgeted for a moment then picked up the walkie-talkie. Jesse had talked about heading back soon. He wouldn’t be sneaking about tonight.

  I pressed the button. “Jesse?” I said into the speaker. “Jesse, are you there?”

  No reply.

  “Jesse? Jesse, I really need to talk.”

  Just static.

  I kept trying, more and more frantically, for over an hour. Then I finally gave up.

  Whatever had happened, Jesse was no longer answering.

  CHAPTER 14

  JESSE: OPERATION HENHOUSE HUSTLE

  If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of a Catcher looks like, I can tell you: nothing special. I’d had nightmares about being pecked up and captured. Honestly, it was like going down a slide and landing in a small round metal room. I lay on my back, throwing a ball at the wall as the world lurched around me. The Catcher was heading back to the barn.

  What came next wasn’t so pleasant.

  A hatch in the floor opened up and a Commando stuck its head through. I caught the ball as it bounced back at me and waved cheerily.

  “Take me to your leader,” I said.

  The chicken just stared at me for a second then bobbed out of sight. The hatch was left open but I stayed where I was. It was comfy.

  Then the floor lurched, throwing me out.

  I landed hard on the dusty floor of a room in the huge barn and groaned. Taking my time, I e
ased myself to my feet and looked around.

  This seemed to be where the Catchers were loaded and unloaded. There was a ton of them, standing about empty. It was pretty creepy. The place bustled though. Chickens were everywhere, swarming over different machines. I saw a couple that looked like bulkier versions of Commandos, which could weld things with lasers from their eyes. I guess they were egg-ineers.

  Coloured lines were painted on the floor. A Commando fixed its beady eye on me and jerked its head meaningfully at one of them. I guess I had to follow the line. It led across the loading area, through a door into a dimly lit space beyond.

  I walked carefully down the path the Commando had indicated to me. One walked in front of me and one behind, making sure I didn’t step out of line. It was very tempting to just kick one of them, but I know I wouldn’t get anything out of it except a stubbed toe and a clawed leg. I had to bide my time.

  That didn’t mean I couldn’t have some fun.

  I glanced around, trying to see something I could make a pun out of. To the left and right were rows of cages, wire mesh stretched tight across wooden frames. Shapes lurked in the dim glow, human silhouettes that looked up at me briefly before going back to whatever they were doing. The Commando in front of me carefully steered me towards the right and I could see that hundreds of cages stretched off all around us.

  “I must say I’m impressed,” I said cheerfully. My escorts didn’t make any indication that they’d heard, so I continued, “I thought you were supposed to keep the fox out of the henhouse but here you are. You got all the foxes you could find and stuck them in here.”

  I thought I heard a soft chuckle off to my right but it was lost in the smothering gloom. The Commandos ignored me.

  Finally we came to a cage with just one occupant sitting away from the door. The Commandos eyed it suspiciously then one flapped a wing. The door swung open.

  The figure inside lunged at them. In one smooth motion the Commandos pushed me into the cage, sending us both sprawling, then slammed the door behind me.