Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens (6 page)

“So all we have to do is find out where the signal is coming from, then stop it somehow?”

Rayna looked a bit grim as well. It wasn’t going to be an easy task, but the look on her face told me that she was resolute. “We’ll do it somehow. Thanks, Glen, for everything. I’ll make sure you get paid.”

He nodded uncertainly. “You can stay here for the night,” he said, gesturing around. I looked at Rayna hopefully. I didn’t really want to walk all the way to the sofa shop again. Night was only about an hour away and I didn’t want to risk meeting whatever might be lurking out there. She shrugged and nodded.

We had tea together. I’m not sure if Glen really was covering for anyone, but if he was then he didn’t go to see them that night. The meal was a tense affair. Glen seemed uncomfortable with our presence and seemed to want to escape to his TV and books as soon as possible. Rayna was glum, probably looking ahead at the huge task in front of us.

“So what do we have to do?” I said to Rayna while Lizzie slurped away happily. “To defeat the chickens. If we make a rough plan now then it’ll be easier to know what to do.”

Rayna leaned towards me slightly, staring intently. “What do you mean we?”

“Oh.” Right. I was only supposed to be along for
negotiations with Glen. After this I’d be going right back to the train station. I really didn’t want to. I wasn’t exactly enjoying having to walk for hours, dodging giant birds and mad chicken cults, but it beat lying on my bed back home.

“Well I just thought that it would be better if we didn’t bring Lizzie so close to her old home. I mean if she ever ran away then it would be easy enough for her to lead them there. And I can’t just leave her with you. It wouldn’t be fair.” Beside me Lizzie hummed in agreement. “Do you not want me around?”

Rayna cast her head back arrogantly, but smiled at me while she did it. “I guess I’ve got used to you hanging around,” she replied.

I smiled. “So what do we need? First we find the signal. Then what?”

She shrugged. “We’ll need an army to take it down. And then we’ll have to actually attack it. Once it’s down… I guess none of us know what will happen after that.”

I nodded and thought that the next few months wouldn’t be that bad. Travelling around Aberdeen, trying to work out where the signal was coming from. When it was actually time to do something about it then it would be terrifying. But for the moment I was pleased with the job I had in front of me.

Then Glen had to come and ruin it all.

“I’ve got it,” he said, hurrying over, his eyes shining. “I think I know what’s transmitting the signal.”

Suddenly Rayna was all business again. “What?” she asked. “Tell me.”

“Aberdeen used to have a broadcasting house as part of the BBC. I bet that it’s there. I think it was working on the same frequencies. And it would be
powerful enough to cover the city.”

“Do you know where it is?” Rayna asked urgently.

Glen nodded. “Yeah, it’s just off Beechgrove Terrace. I think that’s where they originally filmed that gardening show – the Beechgrove Garden.”

Rayna nodded. “There’s a high chicken presence around that area. I’ve never been able to get close to it. But it would make sense.” She looked out the window, where the sun was slowly setting. “We’ll have to go and check it out, just to make sure.”

I followed her gaze, then it hit me. “You don’t mean now, do you?”

“Of course not,” she said. I just had time to relax before she added. “It’s not dark enough. We’ll leave in an hour.”

I took a step back from the window. I hadn’t been out at night for months. Not since the whole thing had begun. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“It’ll be easier to sneak up on them at night. Besides,” and here she hesitated for a moment, “this way we’ll be able to avoid any trouble.”

I said, “What?” at about the same time Glen muttered, “Cody.”

I turned to him and stared. “Who’s Cody?” I asked.

“Someone you don’t want to meet.” He replied. Before I could question him more Rayna butted in.

“Can you look after Lizzie for us while we’re away, Glen?”

He nodded, though he didn’t look happy. “Of course. But look, Rayna. Whatever you find there… just be careful, OK?”

I’d never really had a problem with the dark before the chicken apocalypse. Kemnay is right out in the country and sometimes Dad would take me out late at night to go star-gazing. The air would be crisp and my breath would form clouds in front of my face. We’d go up the nearest hill where the lights from the town wouldn’t block out the night sky. It always took my breath away.

But this dark was different. This time I didn’t have Dad standing next to me, holding my hand. Now I only had Rayna and the threat of chickens in the dark.

She took us up a different street to the one we had arrived in. We had been walking for only five minutes when I realised I had no idea where we were. Everything was different in the dark. The retail park we passed was like a deep pit, just waiting for us to fall in. The railway line after that was like a river. I moved so I was walking a bit closer to Rayna and hoped that she didn’t notice.

Further on into the night we trudged, through a maze of streets. Finally we were on a better road; there was only a park on one side. On the other side was a solid line of houses. It didn’t last long, though. Another crossroads and we left them behind. I could almost feel ghosts in windows behind us, waving us goodbye. I began to shiver. But there, in the distance, was some light. The street lights were on, showing the empty road ahead.

Rayna saw the lights as well and stopped. “Is that where we’re heading?” I asked her.

I could just make out her shaking her head. “We’ve
still got a few streets to go. We’ll… what is it?”

I’d grabbed her arm and hauled her over to the side of the road, putting my hand over her mouth. The vibrations that I’d felt grew worse and then the chicken appeared from the right side of the crossroad. It didn’t pause, just turned down the lit street and kept walking.

As soon as it was gone Rayna shook me off. “You didn’t have to grab me,” she said, her voice angry. “You could have just said.”

“Sorry,” I replied, my eyes still focused on where the chicken had gone. “I didn’t want to take the chance that it might hear me.”

“Well fine,” she said, her voice slightly less annoyed. “I guess it’s OK if you…”

I felt another chicken coming and grabbed her again. She elbowed me in the ribs, but stayed still and quiet until it had come and gone, following exactly the same path as the first one. “Next time, just tap me on the shoulder,” she said, her voice a growl. I just nodded.

“That’s two,” I said, my voice shaking slightly. “I’ve not seen any together since the first attack.”

She was about to reply when I tapped her shoulder. A third chicken appeared and disappeared, exactly like the others. “What are they doing?” I murmured.

Rayna turned and looked at me, her eyes shining. “They’re patrolling,” she whispered back. “Glen must have been right. There’s something important to them here.”

“But if they’re patrolling like that, how are we going to get in and check it out?”

“We’ll have to wait until we see a gap, then hide in someone’s garden to get closer.”

Twenty chickens later and we sat panting on the grass, a wall pressed against our back. The chickens
had been going by like clockwork and there had been a gap of only a few seconds to dash across the road and vault a high wall, which we’d got over by climbing on some bins. Another two chickens passed by us before we got our breath back enough to speak.

“How many chickens do you think they have here?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not sure. First let’s find where the signal is coming from. Then we’ll worry about how to get past the chickens.”

We began making our way forward, scrambling over walls and freezing any time we thought we heard a noise. The darkness had terrified me on the way here, but now I wished it would come back. All the street lights were on and we ducked between shadows when we could. After about ten minutes Rayna nudged me and pointed. I followed her finger and saw a massive TV mast poking out above the surrounding houses.

“Is that it?” I asked. She shrugged.

“If Glen is right then yes, I think so. We’re going to have to get closer though. Come on.”

I didn’t move, just stared at it. “It’s huge,” I said. “How are we supposed to take it down?”

“Jesse!” Rayna snapped her fingers in front of my face. “One thing at a time. Let’s get there first.”

I shook myself out of it. “OK. If we get into one of the houses over there we should be able to see it properly.”

In the streetlight her teeth glowed orange when she grinned. “OK, let’s do it.”

It was another tense ten minutes, but finally we made it to one of the houses by the antenna. The back door was unlocked and we let ourselves in, careful not to leave any sign of our presence. The inside of the house was totally dark and I almost walked into
a table. We managed to make our way upstairs and found two bedrooms.

“We should sleep here tonight,” Rayna said. “Then check out the security tomorrow.”

The idea of spending the night in a house so close to so many chickens would normally have scared me half to death but it had been a long day. At the very mention of sleep I felt a blanket of tiredness drop over me, blocking out any fear.

“All right, see you in the morning,” I said.

Tired as I was, it would be hours before I could actually get to sleep. The stomping of the chickens going past outside kept jerking me awake and when I finally did begin to slumber the chickens marched straight from reality into my dreams.

I was woken the next morning by Rayna putting her hand over my mouth. I’m fairly sure she did it as a kind of revenge because when I woke up panicking she just grinned at me. Shrugging her off, I swung my feet out of bed and accepted the breakfast bar she gave me.

“What have I missed?” I asked between bites.

“Come and see,” she replied, her voice grim. She grabbed my arm, pulling me over to the window. I looked out and my heart sank.

The chickens had turned the place into a fortress.

Beechgrove Terrace might have been a nice place in a different time. There were trees and I could see some lawns and things. But you couldn’t ignore the chickens. There was one of the Catchers standing in the car park, idly perched on the dented bonnet of a red Ford. Even as I watched, another Catcher thumped past on the road on the other side of the building. The mast towered over everything. I could just see its base. And,
more importantly, I could see what was next to it. A green wooden gate led into an area protected by yellow warning signs covered with black lightning bolts. Behind it I thought I could see some machinery, like a generator or something. That must be important. If we could smash that up, maybe it would cut off this signal.

“Rayna…” I tugged her sleeve and pointed towards the area, but she’d already seen it.

“Look closer,” she said and passed me some binoculars.

I put them up to my eyes and twiddled the nobs. I could see something moving down there, but it wasn’t until I got the binoculars to focus that I saw what it was.

Before, when I’d heard rumours about other types of chickens, I’d asked myself what else the chickens could need if they had giant metal robot chickens. I got my answer here.

Smaller chickens, just a little bigger than normal size. Their metal skins glinted in the weak sunlight and it looked like they were wearing robotic suits. Their eyes gleamed green and they marched back and forth, obviously guarding the area.

We crept away from the window so we wouldn’t be seen. My heart was pounding.

“Why did the robot cross the road?” I asked.

“I don’t know, why did the robot cross the road?”

“Because the chicken was out of order.”

She groaned but I thought I saw her smile a bit.

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

The hint of that smile disappeared. “We’ll keep watch for the day and try and see if we can spot any weaknesses in their defence. Then we get out of here and work out what to do.”

“Rayna, this is crazy. We can’t do anything here. We
had no idea there were so many of them. And we don’t even know what those chicken commandos can do.”

The smile was back again. “Chicken commandos?”

I shrugged. “That’s what I’m calling the smaller ones. It seems fitting.”

“I guess.” Rayna thumped me on the shoulder. “Well look, we’re stuck here for the rest of the day anyway. It can’t hurt to just look.”

I wasn’t so sure. There was something about Rayna, some echo in her voice, that unnerved me. I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

But there was no arguing with her. “OK,” I said. “Just one day.”

It was worth it. Rayna borrowed my notebook and filled page after page with detailed notes about the chickens’ positioning, timing and movements. We spent most of the morning creeping around the house, peeking out of windows. Rayna had worked out that there were four chickens patrolling the perimeter, recognising one with a scratched wing and then counting until it came round again. However, I was the one who saw the other guards.

At first it was just a flash of white out of the corner of my eye. It was my turn with the binoculars and I was able to take a quick look. Then I’d scuttled off to get Rayna and shown her.

It was the Brotherhood of the Egg, or people a lot like them. They were dressed in the same ridiculous costumes, though they all seemed older. There was a big church just down the road that they seemed to be using as a base, because every so often groups of them would come out of it, like bees from a hive, and buzz off in several different directions.

“Why are they doing this?” I’d asked Rayna. “I
thought the chickens were just ignoring them, but they seem to be working together here. Why?”

She’d turned to me with eyes shining. “There must not be enough chickens to keep the area secure. They must need humans to help them watch.”

“Why are you saying that like it’s a good thing?”

“Because that means there may be a way we can get in.”

It was a lot more dangerous in daylight. When we finally did sneak out, we weren’t able to get far. When we were almost at the perimeter we had to duck into a house when we heard people coming. We were stuck there for the rest of the day but that did have an unexpected benefit. The people
were
a huge bunch of the Brotherhood, marching with another batch of chicken commandos to a park just across the road. And there they ran drills.

I’ve seen many weird and funny things since the chickens came, but these drills were something else. The Brotherhood tried marching around the grass, but they weren’t organised and kept getting in each other’s way. I was trying so hard not to laugh by the third time that two of the Brotherhood walked into each other that Rayna sent me to another room so that I wouldn’t give us away. I got back just in time to see the Commandos take a turn. If anything, they were worse. They just spent all their time rushing from one side of the field to the other. One of them had to be new, judging by his size and clumsiness. He kept tripping over his own feet and falling into the others. Their leader, who had an impressively large comb, kept stalking over and squawking at him. Finally he was sent off to stand with the Brotherhood. By this point I had to go back to the other room until I’d calmed down. I took the notes with me and started trying to find
a way around their defences. They looked shambolic – but that didn’t mean they’d be easy to defeat.

Night began to fall and I pored over the notes as the streetlights started coming on outside. After twenty minutes of counting everything up I sat back on my heels and shook my head.

“Rayna, this isn’t going to work. Rayna?”

There was no sign of her. I got up and walked into the next room, but she wasn’t there either. I began to get frantic. I dashed through every room in the house, calling her name as loudly as I dared. But she wasn’t there. Rayna had gone.

I sat down on a bed in one of the upstairs rooms. What was I going to do? I couldn’t think of any reason Rayna could have for leaving the house. Had she been taken? Should I get out while I could?

I was agonising over it, frozen to the bed in shock. Then I heard the back door slowly creak open and softly snap shut. Then footsteps on the stairs, coming closer.

“Jesse?” At first I didn’t recognise the voice, but as it came a second time I knew it was Rayna.

“In here,” I called back. The door opened and her head poked round. She was grinning.

I scowled back. “Where were you?” I asked. “I was worried to death. I thought you’d been taken.”

She shrugged. “I went to have a look at the perimeter. I wanted to see how big an area the chickens are protecting.”

“Huh.” I gathered up the notes and began packing everything into my backpack. “And?”

She began to grin again. “It’s too big for them to control properly. To keep the mast safe they’ve got to patrol a massive area. They’ve got to walk almost a mile around it. And the Brotherhood headquarters
aren’t even inside that area!”

I settled the backpack on securely. “That doesn’t matter, Rayna. We still don’t have a chance.”

Her grin slipped away. “What?”

I gestured out the window. “I counted up everyone they’ve got here. There’s about five Catchers, at least two squads of Commandos and who knows how many of the Brotherhood there are. There’s a Commando squad by the generator at all times and we couldn’t slip past them. We’d have to fight – and as soon as we do, everyone will know that we’re there and all of the chickens around here come and get us. Maybe all the Catchers in Aberdeen. It can’t be done.”

“Huh,” Rayna said thoughtfully. “So what we need is a distraction.”

“What we need,” I said levelly, “is an army.”

She nodded. “I might know where to get one.”