by Alex McCall
“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.”
CHAPTER 21
JESSE: OPERATION HENHOUSE HUSTLE
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.
CHAPTER 22
RAYNA: OPERATION HENHOUSE HUSTLE
My sister’s always been a bit of a drama queen, but I still couldn’t believe she’d stormed off like that, taking half our team with her. What was she thinking?
After the Brotherhood left, we all traipsed back inside to the campfire and sat down. We had some more berries but the previously sweet taste had turned sour in my mouth. The chatter of before had died. Even Jesse didn’t try and tell any jokes, possibly a first for him. We all just sat around, picking at food, until it was time to go to bed. We posted sentries, two at a time, assigned randomly to stop any spies from reporting in, and got what sleep we could.
The morning was more of the same. It was supposedly just under 24 hours until our attack on the chickens’ headquarters, but you wouldn’t have thought it from all the subdued expressions. Jesse quietly gave us our instructions.
“OK, tomorrow, first thing in the morning, Cody is going to start broadcas
ting information about the Chickenator to the Allied armies. It’ll be technical spec, what tactics we used to take it down, everything that the chickens don’t want them to know. We hope they’ll react by sending everything they have to take out the signal, leaving their base vulnerable. We have to be there at the exact moment they leave to take advantage, but if we’re too close for too long we could be found. So we’re going to march to a farmhouse nearby, hide for most of today and set out in the middle of the night. Is that OK with everyone?”
They all nodded and we moved out.
We had to stick to the road, but Jesse was right. There were surprisingly few patrols this far out in the country. We had a nice, wide view of the surrounding countryside so if some chickens did appear we would be able to see them coming. It might not do us much good – the road was bordered by a steep slope on one side and a big drop on the other – but we would at least be forewarned.
We passed by a village called Blackburn, which had been completely trashed by the chickens. I wondered if Stonehaven, the town closest to where I used to live, had been treated the same way. I doubt my home was still standing; it used to be a chicken farm. After Blackburn we slogged towards the next village, a place called Kintore. We skirted around it, off the dual carriageway and over a few fields until we finally arrived at the farmhouse. By the time we got there I was looking forward to a rest. The door was open, and we all trooped in and crashed in the living room.
I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Jesse since the night before, so while everyone else was sinking into chairs and claiming sofas I pulled him into the dining room and closed the door. He looked at me concerned. “Are you alright?” he asked, placing a hand on my arm.
I shook my head. “Of course I’m not alright. My sister is out there somewhere and I don’t know if she’s safe or not. And I drove her away.”
“No you didn’t,” he said to me. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s my fault for not stopping it.”
“I just don’t know what happened. One moment Blake was being Blake, and then she was there and then… What do we do now? We’ve just lost half our group!”
