Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens (11 page)

I bet he had some big grand speech worked out, but I never got to hear the end of it. With one abrupt movement the chicken bent down and examined him. Egbert faltered, staring into one of its large, gleaming eyes. It stared back for a moment then raised its head again. I think I saw Egbert give a sigh of relief before it pecked down and snapped him up.

There was silence for a moment, everyone still, no one quite able to understand what had happened. It was like standing on a wall and suddenly losing your balance. I could feel the mood toppling backwards and forwards, with no idea of which way it would fall.

So I decided to give it a push.

“Your leader has been taken by the chickens,” I yelled at the Brotherhood. “They don’t have any use for you now. They’re taking you too.”

That was enough. They let go of each other’s hands and turned to run towards the other exit at Market Street; the one we’d come in at. Everyone piled after them and I joined at the end.

But it was no good. Before I’d got halfway across the floor everyone was back again, milling around in confusion. “They’re out there as well!” someone yelled.

We were trapped.

“All the exits are guarded. There’s only one Catcher on the Union Street entrance, but the doorway is narrow and if we tried leaving there it would do the job until more turned up.” Noah slammed his fist down in frustration. “There’s no way out.”

Noah had gone to check it out and was back to where we’d set up a small War Council to try and work out what to do next. There was Rayna, Cody, Noah, Percy and myself. There was also the Brotherhood of the Egg. Since their leader had been eaten they’d attached themselves to me, no matter how hard we tried to shoo them away. I was actually kind of glad they were there. I had been worried that someone would start a fight with them and then people would get hurt. At least here we could keep an eye on them.

“So what do we do now?” I asked. Noah shot a look at Cody.

“Any ideas?” He asked him. “You seem pretty good with tactics.”

Cody nodded to Noah to accept the compliment, though he didn’t smirk like he would have an hour ago. “If we can’t get out then we’ve got to stay here. The chickens can’t get in without tearing down half the building and they don’t want to do that. The Brotherhood isn’t forcing us out any more so I don’t see that we have to move.”

“So we just stay here and wait it out?” Rayna said. Cody turned his cool stare onto her.

“Maybe. Eventually, though, we’ll run out of food and then we’ll have to go anyway.”

“How do we know that they won’t go first? They’ve got the same problem as us, surely?”

Cody shook his head and so did a few others. Even I could see the problem.

“They just need to swap out the guards occasionally. If they send some back to base for food or whatever and take it in turns they can keep us here for as long as they like. They might even have food inside those robots. They might not even need food. What do we know?”

I thought about it for a second and then turned to the Brotherhood. “Do you know anything about the chickens? About how they operate?”

They looked at me with shattered faces and one or two shook their heads. I shrugged. It had been worth a try. But the betrayal by the chickens had obviously hit them hard and they were struggling to recover.

“Why ask them?” Rayna said bitterly. “They’re worthless.”

“They might have known,” I replied. “They were obviously pretty tight with the chickens. I mean they could contact them and everything. What I want to know is why they got attacked now.”

“Simple,” Cody said from the other side of the table. “The chickens were using them. They must have known that there were lots of kids hiding in the ruins and that at some point those kids might want to fight back against them. So the chickens had the cult watching out for any such activity and reporting it. I guess they’d just outlived their usefulness.”

“Forget about them. Let’s get back to the problem at hand. What else can we do?”

Cody shrugged. “If we are desperate I guess we could all run at once. The same as with your plan for taking down that stupid signal of yours. We all pile out at once and hope that they can’t take us all.”

“That’s a fairly dumb plan,” I said, but softly. No one bothered replying. We all knew it was dumb. We also knew that it was all we could do.

“So do we pick a place for us all to meet up or what?” Noah asked. “Or do we just run and hope to all meet up at some point in the future?”

“Well, could we still go through with the plan? If enough of us get away we might still be able to go after that signal.” Rayna watched the others carefully,
single-minded
as ever. But there was a lot of head shaking.

“We don’t even know if we’ll be able to get out,” Noah pointed out. “And even if we did I don’t think that there’s going to be enough of us. I hate to say it but the chickens have beaten us. They’ve won.”

“No.” Rayna slammed her fist down onto the table, shaking it slightly. “We can’t let them win. As long as we’re still fighting they won’t have won.”

There was silence for a moment then Cody leaned towards her. “Ambassador. We’ve lost. We might be able to do something at some point in the future but right now we need to acknowledge that they’ve won. All right?”

Her eyes flashed and it looked like she was going to argue some more. I reached out and gripped her shoulder, just like she had done before for me. She looked at me and I could see the sadness in her eyes. “All right,” she whispered. “For now.”

There was a sigh of relief from around the table. “So are we doing this run and scatter thing?” Noah asked. One by one everyone nodded, even Percy. I hadn’t
even been sure he was listening.

“Well are we all meeting up at one place then? Or are we just…?”

“Chickens!” someone screamed off to the right. I turned to face it, confused. There couldn’t be chickens here. They were all outside.

I was wrong. It was the Commandos. And even though they were just the size of an actual chicken, they were still terrifying.

It was first time anyone had ever seen the Commandos in action. They didn’t seem laughable any more. I could see their eyes flashing. Some of them were beating the air with their metal wings, actually taking off once or twice. I saw a girl run past screaming with a chicken clinging to her back. It pecked at her and she stopped screaming, falling onto the floor with a confused look on her face till she finally lay full length and unconscious. Then I realised. The chickens must have some sort of sedative on their beaks. They’d put us all to sleep, then drag us out.

Cody and Noah were yelling things, but it was everyone for themselves. Some ran to the doors and got pecked up by the Catchers waiting outside. Others tried fighting the smaller chickens, kicking them away or picking them up and throwing them, but the chickens seemed to be communicating with each other and anyone that who resistance was abruptly mobbed. I could see a few roosters that were squawking loudly and seemed to be directing the others.

I grabbed Rayna and pulled her away from the table and the others. She struggled at first then looked around and nodded, finally accepting that there was no hope left.

We walked carefully through the chaos, trying
not to draw any attention. We had to get through the Brotherhood of the Egg. One or two of them yelled and fought the others to get away, but most just stood, unable to accept what they were seeing. In the middle of them I could see Lizzie, tears running down her face. I felt something tug in my heart and immediately veered to the side, grabbing her hand and dragging her with us. I could feel Rayna clutch my hand tightly and turned to see her glaring at me. I know that she didn’t like it but something in my face made her decide not to argue. But I knew that if we ever got out of here, somehow, she would have a few choice things to say to me.

I was trying to make it to the Union Street entrance. If it was the mostly lightly guarded then we’d probably be able to get out there. But more chickens were amassing and I got the feeling that we were going to be noticed soon.

I heard a triumphant crow and turned around to see that most of the kids were down. Only a few groups were left. Kids who had listened to Cody and Noah had formed a circle around them, standing on the table and bashing away at any chicken that flew at them. I saw Percy swing a baseball bat and hit a chicken that was aiming for his head. There was a clear chiming noise and it flew straight through the air, hitting the far wall and bouncing off it. The others lashed out with spades and some of the hammers that Rayna had brought. The Brotherhood of the Egg were running around yelling and kicking the odd chicken. They seemed to be trying to make as much noise as they could.

One of the groups that Rayna had sought out was backed into a corner and fighting as best as they could. For a second I thought they might stand a chance. But
then a swarm of chickens mobbed them. First one fell, then another, and after a few moments they were all down. The Brotherhood went down next, the chickens finally tranquilising them. As the last member of the Brotherhood went down he turned to look at me and winked. Had all that running and yelling been their way of trying to cover my escape?

It didn’t matter. The group on the table couldn’t last much longer. They were badly outnumbered. They didn’t stand a chance. A chicken fluttered over their heads and landed on Noah, peaking down hard at his scalp. He yelled and then Sam had to catch him as he fell. Cody and Percy fought back to back as more chickens poured in. Then another wave of chickens crashed in and I lost sight of them behind the metal feathers and beaks.

That’s when one of the roosters noticed us.

We ran. It was all we could do.

We tore up the stairs and down one of the corridors that I hoped led to the exit. I hadn’t been here much and it was like a small underground maze. Though if I was lucky then the chickens wouldn’t know which way we’d gone and would have to split up. This way me, Lizzie and Rayna might get away.

I saw signs for the exit up ahead, as well as the odd feather that must have fallen from the Brotherhood’s robes. We sprinted for the exit. Behind us we could hear the odd squawking and the click of metal claws as the chickens hurried after us.

Our luck ran out a moment later. When Noah had got back from checking out this exit he must have decided to make sure it was secure. The door was closed and a small barricade had been built across it, made of chairs, tables and a pile of metal buckets.

“Get that down!” I screamed at my companions and grabbed a chair, pulling it away from the greater mass with a giant crash. They joined in, but I knew it was too late. That clacking had caught up with us and I turned to see the chickens advancing. The sight of about ten metal chickens walking towards you is oddly hypnotic. I lost precious time gazing at them in fear before I remembered my plan and shook myself out of it.

“Get behind me and keep working on that barricade!” I yelled. I stepped between the girls and the chickens and shoved my hands into my pockets, hoping against hope that both Glen and my hunch were right.

It was odd, watching the metal chickens walk. They seemed to strut, as if proud of their accomplishments, taking the odd little hop here and there. One chicken would spread his wings and then the others would copy it. It was almost as if I were watching some odd form of dance. A dance that spelled disaster for me.

I waited for them to get closer while behind me furniture fell and buckets rattled. As if sensing that their prey was getting away the chickens suddenly rushed at us, wings spread and squawking.

That was when I acted. At the last possible moment, I whipped the bags of bird seed out of my pockets and swept them at the chickens, spraying the corn everywhere.

Well, Glen was right. No matter what else they were, they were still chickens, and I have never seen a single chicken that didn’t immediately try and eat any corn that was put in front of it. I knew that it wouldn’t distract them for long. In a second they’d come to their senses and go for us again, but in that instant that we had I grabbed the nearest bucket and slammed it down
on the lead rooster. Rayna and Lizzie grabbed buckets as well.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang. In seconds all the chickens were trapped underneath the heavy metal buckets. The chickens went mad. They began fluttering back, desperately banging against the sides of the buckets. The buckets began rocking backwards and forwards and we quickly began tearing the rest of the barricade down. It looked like the chickens were going to escape at any time.

We managed to race out of the door just in time, closing and locking it behind us. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked around. We were in a stairwell painted a grubby white with posters plastered over all the walls. We climbed the stairs slowly, careful not to make a sound, then crept down the long corridor that led to the outside. I paused at the mouth of the tunnel and looked around cautiously. The giant chicken that Noah had said was there was nowhere to be seen. It must have moved round to the other entrance when the attack by the smaller chickens began. Whatever the reason, we were safe.

I grabbed the girls’ hands and together we fled up the street. I looked around frantically for a place to hide until Lizzie tugged on my hand and led us to the side and through a wrought iron gate. I looked up and saw the Kirk of St Nicholas before me. For a second I thought that she was betraying us again, but then I remembered that the Brotherhood were all gone and probably captured. It would probably be the safest place for us.

Rayna looked dazed and exhausted so I gently pulled her along and up the church steps. She tried moving away at the last instant but I manoeuvred
her inside and then closed the doors behind us. A soft boom echoed throughout the church as the doors shut and I let out a sigh of relief. We were safe. For now.

For a while we just sat in a chamber off the main hall and didn’t say anything. Lizzie seemed especially cowed. Rayna wouldn’t even look at her and eventually she dozed off. I felt like joining her. But I wanted to keep an eye on Rayna.

I don’t know how much time went by but eventually she got to her feet. I got up as well. “What are you doing?” I asked her.

She didn’t look at me, just stared at the table and started putting her backpack on. “I’m going to take down that signal,” she said to me, turning to go.

I darted forward and grabbed her arm. “Rayna, you can’t. It’s crazy. We needed an army before. What makes you think it’s going to be any different now? If anything there’s going to be even more chickens there now that they know what we’re up to. There’s nothing you can do.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said quietly. “I’ve still got to do it.”

“But there’s no way you’ll succeed. Not on your own. We should just get back to surviving.”

“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” Her voice was soft and almost emotionless. “To go back to it all. You don’t really care that they got taken. You weren’t that close. You have no reason to fight.”

Her words hurt me but I tried not to let it show. “Yes, that’s what we should do now. It’s the sensible thing. I’m going to take Lizzie and try that. Just… surviving.
And I want you to come with me.”

“I’ve still got to try.”

I tried to think of something else I could say.

“Look, you’re the Ambassador. You have knowledge that’s too important to be lost. You know where everyone is and you get along with them. They trust you. And you are one of only a few people who know about the signal. Everyone else was taken. You can’t just give up!”

“Yes, they were taken! And it was all my fault!” She finally looked up at me and her eyes were swimming with tears. “I was the one who pushed for this. Everyone else tried to warn me, but did I listen? No! I was so obsessed with taking on the chickens that I pressured everyone into it. And I do mean everyone. You think my knowledge is important? You think that I know all the groups around? Well I did. And I contacted them all! Everyone I could lay my hands on, everyone I could contact, every debt that I could call in. I did it all. And they came. There’s no one left, except for Glen at the university and whoever he’s got with him. Him, you, me, that girl,” she pointed at Lizzie, who was looking up at her, startled awake by the shouting. “We’re all that’s left. And it’s all my fault.”

She collapsed back into her seat and began sobbing, not even trying to keep her tears back. I stared at her, not sure what to say, the news numbing me inside. No one left? I knew the chickens had got a lot of people but was there seriously nobody left?

Finally Rayna got herself under control and stood back up, tears still streaming down her face. “And that’s why I’ve got to do it,” she told me, her voice still trembling slightly from sobs. “Because there’s nothing
left.”

“You could stay here, with me and Lizzie.” I felt the words come out, though I wasn’t sure why I was saying them. The news had stripped everything out of me. “We need to stick together. Please don’t leave.”

She cast a scornful glance at the little girl. “I don’t think I could,” she said. “Not with her. Not with a traitor.”

Lizzie jumped to her feet and ran across the stone floor, her shoes slapping pathetically. She lunged forward and fastened herself around Rayna’s leg.

“No, please, don’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” she cried. Rayna tried to shake her off, but she only gripped tighter. “I’ll do anything. I’ll give you anything. I’ll even show you the eggs! Just please don’t leave.”

Rayna tried to shake her off again, but what Lizzie had said connected with something inside me and I felt a sudden warmth flood though me. It was hope.

I walked over to the two struggling girls and knelt down beside them. I gently prised Lizzie’s arms from around Rayna’s leg. She sobbed again and flung herself at me, wrapping me in a tight hug. I whispered to her, “Lizzie. What eggs?”

Rayna had turned to leave but I called her back. “Rayna, wait. You might want to hear this.”

She turned to me with a sneer. “I don’t want anything that traitor is offering.”

“Just wait. It can’t hurt to listen.”

She made a noise of disgust but didn’t move. I began comforting Lizzie, trying to get her to speak.

“Come on, Lizzie. Answer me. What are these eggs?”

“They’re presents from the masters… from the chickens,” she sniffled. “We keep them inside the vaults. They’re why we’re called the Brotherhood of
the Egg.”

“Can you show them to us? This might be important.”

“All right.” She carefully let go of me and backed away, her face red from crying.

“Go on, Lizzie. Lead the way.”

She led us along a corridor and back outside. Rayna exchanged glances with me, still worried that it might be a trap, but all Lizzie did was lead us around the side of the buildings and down some stone steps to a door. Taking a key from the inside of a nearby bin, she unlocked the door and we stepped inside.

There were several large rooms, like caves hewn in the earth. I had no idea what they had been used for before, but now they held the Brotherhood’s most sacred artefacts. The gifts given to them by the chickens.

Eggs. One big one and lots of smaller ones. Metal eggs, laid by metal chickens.

“Hey, Rayna,” I said, gazing at them in disbelief.

“What?” she asked, in exactly the same tone of voice I was using. I could tell that she couldn’t believe it either.

“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. What happens when a hen eats gunpowder?”

Rayna turned to look at me and a fierce grin spread across her face. “I don’t know,” she said. “What happens when a hen eats gunpowder?”

The moon chose that moment to come out from behind the cloud cover, reflecting light off the metal shells and across my face. I grinned back at Rayna.

“She lays hand gren-eggs.”