Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens (9 page)

“He’s pretty scary,” I said to Rayna as we headed back to the train station. Ever since the meeting with Cody had ended she’d been in a foul humour, stomping along and kicking whatever lay in her way. Even Lizzie knew that something was wrong and was walking along quietly instead of running and yelling like she usually did. Glen had headed back to his library as soon as he could.

“He’s a jerk. But he’s a useful one,” she said through clenched teeth. “I never like being around him, but I can’t deny that he runs things well.”

Cody’s ‘territory’ apparently extended for quite a distance in every direction. Rayna was able to take us a much quicker route, back along Clifton Road and by the Sainsbury’s that kept him and his army fed. As we were walking past a guard appeared on the road before us, vaulting over a fence from where he’d been hiding in some bushes, and demanding identification. I could almost hear Rayna’s teeth gritting, but she pulled out the paper that Cody had given her and showed it to the guard. He looked it over and nodded.

“That’s fine, thank you, Ambassador. You’d best be careful if you’re going in that direction though. There have been reports of a Catcher down that way.”

Rayna nodded, her expression still grim, and took the bit of paper back from the guard. She kept walking without saying anything. I hurried after her with Lizzie in my wake. I was instantly worried. There might have been shops around here but there was a whole
car park between us and them. If there really was a chicken somewhere around here then there wouldn’t be much chance to hide.

Rayna didn’t seem to care about that and just kept marching on, her expression thoughtful. We were about halfway along the road before she finally said what was on her mind.

“Do you agree with him?” she asked me.

I was too busy keeping an eye out for the chicken to remember what we had been talking about so I just raised my eyes at her. “With who?” I asked.

“With Cody. What do you think of the plan?”

I thought I heard something in the distance and froze, trying to see if it came again, but after a minute of listening I couldn’t hear anything. “It does seem like a pretty big risk. He’s got a lot of guys behind him, but the chickens were able to capture most of the adults in Aberdeen in a just a few days. Noah’s guys are well organised, but if we don’t even have any weapons that can take them on then what are we supposed to do?”

“Do you think we need more people?” she asked.

I thought about it for a second. “Well it probably couldn’t hurt,” I replied. “Do you think you could get some?”

She nodded. “Yeah, there’s a few groups that I think would be up for it. I’m just not sure that we could get them all together in time.”

I was about to agree with her, but then the ground wobbled slightly beneath me. I froze, as did Rayna. We looked at each other for a moment in panic.

Usually if there was a chicken coming I could feel the vibrations long before they were noticeable. But I hadn’t been paying proper attention, too busy thinking about the battle ahead. And in that time the
chicken had somehow been able to sneak up on us.

I looked around frantically. Thankfully we’d passed the large car park behind and were now stuck in the middle of a crossroads. I couldn’t see the chicken anywhere and that hopefully meant that it couldn’t see me. There was an old church nearby. Both Rayna and I ran towards it at the same time. I grabbed Lizzie as we went past and dragged her along with me. We made it to the door and slipped inside. We carefully closed the door behind us, making sure that we didn’t make a noise and attract attention. Then we lay flat on the floor.

“Ouch, let go,” Lizzie squealed, tugging her arm away from me. “You’re hurting me.”

I released her but clapped a hand over her mouth instead. “Lizzie, you’ve got to be very quiet,” I told her.

She squirmed a bit and I took my hand away, putting one finger to my lips and going “Shhhh.”

She repeated the gesture and nodded. Then said, in a whisper, “Why?”

“Because there’s a giant chicken out there,” Rayna hissed at her. “And we’re hiding from it.”

“Why are you hiding from the chickens?” she asked. “They only want to help us.”

Rayna and I exchanged a look. We’d been hoping that she would have forgotten everything that the cult had told her by now. I guess, thinking about it, that it was a bit naïve.

“No they’re not,” I told her very calmly. “They want to grab you and take you far away. That’s why you have to be quiet.”

She shook her head firmly. “No, the chickens are good to us. And you said that you believed that too. Back at the church.”

“I was lying,” I told her. “I’ll explain it later but for now you’ve got to trust me.”

“Lies are evil,” she whispered, but settled down and didn’t say anything else. I let out a breath, relieved.

The ground shook once again and a bulk blocked out the light from one of the windows. A shadow sprayed itself across the floor. It was the shadow of a gigantic fowl.

We’d got Lizzie to be quiet just in time. The chicken was here.

It stood outside for what felt like hours, occasionally turning its head from side to side as if looking for something. Finally, though, there was a reassuring thud as it took one of its huge steps and moved away.

Rayna let out a gasp of air beside me. “It took its time,” she said, her voice still pitched low.

“Well you know how dedicated they are,” I replied. “They work eggs-tra hard.”

She rolled her eyes at me and didn’t reply. Lizzie laughed a bit but it sounded forced. I looked down at her and found her staring back with large worried eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Chickens aren’t bad,” she told me seriously. “They’re the good guys.”

“I’ll explain it to you later, OK? For now you’ve just got to trust me.”

“OK,” she said, though she didn’t sound very sure. I turned around and saw Rayna already leaving the church. I walked after her but by the time I stepped outside she was already a fair distance down the road. The wrong road.

“Rayna, where are you going?” I called after her softly. There was still a giant chicken around.

“You’re right, Jesse. We need more people. So you go
talk to Noah and I’m going to go round some up.”

“Where will we meet up?” I hoped I didn’t sound desperate, but I had a bad feeling about this.

“I’ll see you back at the train station a little later, OK? If Noah agrees with the plan, tell him to get everyone to the Aberdeen Market in two days’ time. Make sure you go in through the side entrance, not the one on Union Street. Everyone else will be there then. OK?”

“OK,” I called after her as she turned away. “Walk softly.” I had no idea what that meant but I’d seen it in a movie once and it sounded cool.

She smiled at me. “You too,” she said. Then she turned her back and was gone.

We got to the station and, just like a few days ago, Noah was there waiting for us, sitting on the edge of one of the platforms and dangling his feet in the air. I guess the lookouts must have told him that we were coming. Not much got past Noah.

“Jesse,” he greeted me. Then he looked at Lizzie and raised his eyebrows. “And is that the Ambassador? Did you shrink her or something?”

Lizzie giggled and shook her head. “My name is Lizzie.” She held out her hand, as a proud parent had probably taught her to do a while ago.

Noah’s eyebrows rose even further and he jumped down onto the tracks, taking the outstretched hand and shaking it solemnly. “Where did you find this one, Jesse? There must be quite a story behind it.”

“You have no idea,” I told him. “We’ve got a lot to talk about. We should probably do it soon.”

He nodded to me, then bent down and swept Lizzie up into the air. He was stronger than he looked.

He put her on his back then turned to me and
nodded. “All right, let’s go.”

We walked along the track together and I was surprised at how nice it felt. I wouldn’t have believed it a few days ago, but I’d missed this place in the time that I’d been away. I guess it was a kind of home. I didn’t like it while I was there, but a little time away had made me appreciate it more.

We got on the train and Noah sent Lizzie off to play. She had an odd look on her face but nodded in agreement and scampered off. Then he led me into his office.

I sat on one of the beds while he sat on another and I told him about everything that had happened, leaving out very little. The only thing I left out was the Brotherhood of the Egg. Rayna had known about it for months and she hadn’t told him. She had to have a good reason. And if he found that she’d been keeping important information like that of him then he might decide to pull out from the attack. So instead I just told him that we’d picked Lizzie up while looking for the TV. Noah nodded along and asked a few good questions from time to time so that he could get a better idea of what was going on. Eventually I was finished and he was quiet for a long while, mulling things over.

“Well, that’s quite a tale,” he said at last. “So now we’ve got to back up this Cody guy or it was all basically worthless?”

I nodded. “Basically. Rayna is right. This is a golden opportunity. And it could be the only one we’ve got.”

Noah shook his head and ran a hand over his forehead. “Is that really what you think? Truly?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think we’ve much of a choice. Either it happens now or it never happens at all. We will never be more ready for this. I really don’t like it,
I’ll be honest with you. But that’s the way things are.”

Noah nodded abruptly and straightened up. “Good job,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. “I knew I’d made a good decision in choosing you to go with her.”

“I thought that you only sent me out because you found me annoying.”

I’d meant to say it jokingly but it came out a lot more seriously than I was expecting it to. I hadn’t expected saying it aloud to hurt quite that much.

Noah looked down at me and shook his head. “Do you really think that?”

I nodded, unable to meet his eyes. I heard him sigh.

“So you thought that I sent you out on all those missions, more than anyone else, because…?”

“Because no one would really care if I got caught.” I finished his sentence, though I didn’t really want to. A second later I felt his hand pat me on the shoulder and looked up to see him crouched down before me.

“You’re an idiot,” he said, though he said it with feeling. “I sent you out so often because you’re good at it. You’re a smart guy and I knew that any group you went with would have a better chance of succeeding. I thought you knew that too. I didn’t know that you felt like this.”

I frowned. “But if that was the case then why didn’t you put me in charge? It was always someone else leading. I could have done it.”

“I think you know the answer to that,” he told me gently.

I nodded. I did.

“They don’t really respect me,” I said.

“Because….?”

“Because of the chicken jokes.”

“Because of the chicken jokes.” He echoed. “I understand that you can laugh at our enemies but
you’ve got to know that others don’t. They just think that you’re being dumb. They wouldn’t follow someone who didn’t take things seriously. Maybe there will be a time when we can laugh about it, but right now we’re all too scared. You’ve got to know that.”

I did know. I guess I had always known. But this was the first time I’d cared.

I suddenly felt exhausted. The last few days had really taken a toll on me. I yawned and Noah noticed.

“Get some sleep,” he ordered. “I’ll tell you when the Ambassador is back.”

I tried to get up but couldn’t quite manage it. He rolled his eyes and pushed me back on to his bed. I was just able to get my shoes off so that I didn’t make his covers filthy then I dropped into sweet dark oblivion.

It was the next day before I was finally woken up. The sleep had been good for me and the talk I’d had with Noah had been even better. I felt a lot more relaxed than I had in a long time.

Noah woke me by knocking on the door. I struggled out of sleep and found that someone had put a blanket over me during the night. I felt quietly touched.

“Is the Ambassador here yet?” I asked him.

“Yeah, she got back late last night but she was tired so we felt that it was better to wait until morning. She’s had a rest and is having breakfast. Coming?”

I hopped up and slipped back into my shoes, pushing the blanket aside. Then I followed Noah down the length of the train to the dining carriage.

There was no one else up. There wasn’t much to do if you didn’t actually have an assigned job for that day. So many people just stayed in bed until they got hungry.

Rayna was sitting at a table, eating some soup and
looking happy. There were bags under her eyes which suggested that she hadn’t got as much sleep as I had, but she was eating with a passion and seemed ready to set off again at a moment’s notice. She smiled when she saw me.

“Hello,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “Sleep well?”

I nodded and sat down across from her. Noah slid me a bowl, then disappeared deeper into the train on some errand. I dug in and was surprised to find that it was actually beef stew. And it was hot. I thought we’d run out of that ages ago.

“So how did it go last night?” I asked Rayna while tucking in. She grinned.

“Pretty well. I’ve got maybe another forty people to join us and they should be at the meeting point tomorrow along with everyone else. And Noah has given his word that you guys will be there. He even wrote it down for Cody. It’s all going according to plan.”

“Good,” I said. “So now all we need to do is go and get Cody and bring him and his army here?”

She nodded. “We’ll leave right after breakfast. I want to get there early to make sure that he doesn’t have the chance to back out of the deal.”

We finished eating and were just getting ready to go when something occurred to me. I looked around, puzzled. “Where’s Lizzie?” I asked. “I want to say goodbye to her before we go.”

Rayna looked at me. “I thought she was with you.”