Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens

by Alex McCall

  Blake growled, “Either fight us or run away. We can do this all day.”

  The chicken stared at us for a moment longer, obviously considering its next move. I imagined the little live chicken in the cockpit of the machine, looking at all the gauges, assessing the damage and figuring out a way around us. Maybe it was checking the power levels and realising it couldn’t go on any longer.

  Finally it came to a decision. It turned away and sped off into the darkness.

  There was a quick quiet moment of shock. I don’t believe any of us actually thought it was gone. Surely this was some trick. We couldn’t be that lucky. Could we?

  Eventually we began to give a ragged cheer. The thing wasn’t coming back. We’d done it. We’d driven it off. Noah was safe.

  Then came the sound of footsteps, impossibly fast. Closer and closer they got, and staring into the darkness I was able to make out two rapidly approaching green glowing lights: its eyes.

  “Brace yourselves,” Blake roared.

  We scrambled together and stood firm, shoulder to shoulder, shock-sticks held out before us.

  Which did no good whatsoever. The chicken just ploughed through us all, not even slowing down, its wings held out in front of it like enormous shields. I felt a juddering down my arms as I was thrown back and realised that my shock-stick had broken.

  I lay there, stunned and unable to move. The edges of my vision grew black but I wasn’t sure if I was about to fall unconscious or if my head torch had just been broken.

  Then the chicken loomed over me. It seemed to limp slightly and one look at its face told me it was angry. More than angry it was furious that we’d made it fight so hard. Children.

  A small smile creased my lips. That was a start: one small victory.

  It bent over me, its beak raised viciously. I realised it was about to strike me and I knew that would hurt. It might even break one of my arms. I’d be stuck in the hospital, in incredible pain and unable to fight against the chickens. That was possibly the worst thing it could do to me. I tried to roll away but the blow had knocked me silly. Even with all my effort I couldn’t get my arms to move.

  I was defenceless.

  The Chickenator looked me right in the eye, forcing me to connect with those strange green lights. Then it very deliberately raised its clawed foot and held it above my leg.

  “Stop.” The voice came from behind me and, though I couldn’t see him, I recognised the voice as Noah’s. He walked forwards into my field of view and placed a hand against the chicken, pushing it firmly backwards.

  No! I tried to scream out. But the words wouldn’t come. Don’t do this, Noah. Start running. If I distract it, you can still get away. Run and hide and leave me to my fate.

  But Noah wouldn’t do it. Noah couldn’t do it. That’s why he’d managed, despite not being a great fighter, to become the leader of one of the largest groups in Aberdeen; and why he’d maintained enough power to check Cody when he went too far. Noah was compassionate and Noah cared. He was about as able to walk away from helping someone as he was able to fly.

  “You’re here for me. Well, you’ve got me. Just take me without hurting any of the others. I won’t even struggle. I promise.”

  The chicken looked at Noah and its chest slid open. It wasn’t the smooth slide I’d seen before. No doubt about it, we’d damaged it. That was something to hold on to. Noah took a step towards the Chickenator and turned around, preparing to back into it.

  “N-n-n-n-n…” I said, trying to say his name, but I felt like a computer that had suffered an unexpected shutdown. My programmes hadn’t finished loading up yet. Some of them hadn’t even started.

  He knew what I was trying to say. He looked down at me and smiled.

  “Take care, Rayna. And keep up the fight.” Then he stepped backwards and the chest closed over his face. The chicken glared at me, raised one leg then turned and sped away. In a moment it was gone.

  I lay still on the floor, unable to move and not wanting to. That was it. We’d failed.

  Another council member, and one of my closest friends, Noah, had been taken.

  CHAPTER 18

  Council meetings these days sucked. Every one just signalled that something else had gone wrong. The empty spaces around the table spoke of those we’d lost. So far we’d only been able to replace Jeremy. Kyle now sat on the council, looking around nervously. He’d make a good replacement. He’d basically been doing the job even when Jeremy was around, making sure everyone had the supplies they needed. But no one had come forward to fill the other vacant positions. I wasn’t surprised. With four council members taken in as many days, they’d just be making themselves a target.

  For once Cody was late. Around me sat Deborah, Blake, Kyle and Hazel. We didn’t say much, just stared at the table. I don’t know about them but I was trying to figure out who was the spy and who’d get taken next.

  When Cody finally turned up he got right to the point. He sat down, Percy standing behind him as usual, looked at us and said, “I’m taking over as leader.”

  We all stared at him for a moment. Then Deborah raised a hand. “Does that mean I don’t have to be here any more?” she asked.

  Cody nodded.

  “Fantastic. I’ll be with my patients. Let me know what happens.” Then she stood up and left.

  I looked at the others, aghast. “Are you all OK with this? He’s taking over.”

  Blake shrugged. “I just take orders anyway. Makes no difference to me.”

  Kyle nodded. “I’d feel more comfortable with it, honestly.”

  “Hazel?”

  “Doesn’t matter if I like it or not. You never listen to me anyway.”

  Cody smiled. “Great, now that we’ve got that sorted let’s get down to business. Blake, what can you tell me about fighting the Chickenator?”

  I looked on, amazed, as Blake recounted the story. Did that really just happen? I’d expected Cody to try something like this. He’d never made his desire to lead a secret. But I’d expected some resistance. I’d expected him to have to do more than just say he was leader.

  “I definitely think we were close to beating it,” Blake finished up. “A small, enclosed space so it can’t move about much, and tougher weapons.”

  “You don’t think running would be a good idea?” Hazel looked at Blake intently, all business. He shook his head.

  “No, I think we did the best we could in those tunnels. It’s too fast to outrun. It wasn’t familiar with the terrain and we were able to hold it up and do some damage. Those were as close to ideal conditions as you can get and they weren’t enough. We need to attack in a confined space in formation with better weapons.”

  “Alright. Hazel, you said the Brotherhood has been working on new weapons to take it down. How’s that going?”

  “It’s been a day,” she told Cody frankly. “We’re working as fast as we can but it’ll be at least two more before we have anything to share.”

  She hesitated then said to him, “You do know they’ll be going after you now, right? If you’ve just declared yourself as our supreme leader then you’ve just moved to the top of their list.”

  “I know.” Cody’s face was perfectly calm. “And I’m counting on it.”

  Hazel hesitated again. “Alright, then I’ll try and get some personalised weapons for you and Percy. That might help.”

  Percy grinned. “Make mine big and sparky.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  As if working his way down a list, Cody turned to Blake. “What’s the state of our army and defences?”

  “Defences?”

  “Yes. If there was a full-scale chicken attack and they threw everything they could at us, how would we handle it?”

  Blake rubbed his head. “Right now? Probably not very well. The Chickenator put all my best guys in hospital. They’ll be out soon, but they’re no use to us right now. And we need them.”

  “You have at least a few days,” Hazel said calmly.


  Blake looked at her, surprised. “Yeah?” he asked.

  “By the sound of it, you did that chicken some serious damage. They’ll have to fix it up, which will take a while. Trust me.” Hazel directed that last statement at me. She must have heard it from Clucky.

  “Alright then,” said Blake. “Well, the only thing that could really stop an army of chickens if they came flying in would be lasers, but we don’t have many set up. The Brotherhood warehouse is probably better defended than this place or the power plant.”

  “That’s not good.” Cody made a few notes on a piece of paper and turned to Hazel. “Do you have more lasers?”

  “Yes, a lot. We’ve been trying to put them on wheels to make them portable, but we haven’t succeeded yet.”

  “Well, forget about that for the moment. I want them mounted on buildings that we can hide in.”

  “Alright. Just this hotel?”

  “No.” Finally Cody turned to me. “What will we need to fire up the GPS satellite locator?”

  “The one we got from Robert Gordon’s?”

  “Of course. What other GPS satellite locator do we have?”

  I took a breath and ignored the sarcasm. “Well, it has to be positioned somewhere high and have access to signals. Then you just turn it on and it automatically finds a satellite to target.”

  “Right.” Cody motioned to Percy, who handed him a map. He looked over it for a moment before tapping it with his finger. “There are some tenement flats at the beach. Can you set the GPS and lasers up in a top flat there?”

  Hazel, Blake and I nodded.

  “Good. Now that we’ve got that gadget, and sacrificed Glen in the process, we need to use it. I want it broadcasting as soon as possible and I don’t want any chicken to disrupt it. If this really is a testing ground, then the Chickenator will be heading after world leaders next. The Allies could use that information. They might even be so grateful that they send a rescue party for us. Stranger things have happened. Install lots of lasers on the building to protect the GPS, and we’ll all bunk down there. We’ll also need an escape plan. I’ll figure that out and circulate the plans. I’ll also elect someone to take over from Sally. Rayna, you’re in charge of Communications for now. Kyle, gather enough supplies to last a week. Anything else we need to talk about?”

  Hazel looked at me beseechingly. She must be worried that I’d bring up Clucky and expose her. I still wasn’t sure what to do about that, so I just shrugged at her and kept my mouth shut. She smiled at me gratefully.

  Cody glowered at us and nodded. “OK. Well then, you’ve got jobs to do. Go and do them.”

  Blake, Hazel, Kyle and Percy left. Once the door had swung shut Cody looked up at me. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

  “You won’t get away with this,” I told him simply. “You may be in control for now but it won’t last.”

  He was round the table in a moment, standing before me, staring into my eyes.

  I couldn’t help myself: I shivered.

  “You think I’m doing this just because I want to be in charge?” he said, his voice barely ruffled by emotion. I swallowed.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you’re right.” He turned away and paced around the table. “We’ll be better off if I lead us. There’s barely any point in arguing about it. But that’s not the only reason. Do you remember that graph I showed you? And remember I said people would get scared?”

  “You said that in six months we’d all split up and go back into hiding.”

  “Well, that was before a Chickenator decided to start pecking up all our leaders. Right now I’d be surprised if we had weeks.”

  “What? I mean things are bad, but they’re not that bad.”

  “It waltzed in here, Rayna. Right into our headquarters. And you know how highly people thought of Noah. They’re scared, and if one more of us gets taken, I think we’ll be finished. We need to take it out. We need to show everyone in Aberdeen that we’re strong enough to handle anything the chickens throw at us.”

  I’d been running all over the place for the past few days and I hadn’t really hung out with any other kids. I tried to remember if the people I’d passed in corridors had seemed more stressed than normal. I think they had.

  I said the first thing that came to mind: “And you’re the one it’ll come for.”

  He smiled slightly. “Yes, which is good for us. It means we know where it’ll be heading.”

  “So that’s your plan? You’re acting as bait?”

  “Kind of. But I don’t want to be grabbed any time soon. I’ll keep a low profile for a few days, while we get prepared. Only council members will know where I am. Then by the time it finds me we’ll be ready: we’ll have lasers up and running, Blake and all his chicken hunters will be armed to the teeth, and we’ll jump it.”

  “But the spy will probably just tell them where you’re hiding.”

  He shrugged. “There’s not a lot I can do about that, other than get everything set up quickly. As far as I can see, it’ll either be you, Blake or Hazel. And you’re all key to the plan.”

  “Do you really think I could be the spy?”

  “Do you think I could be?” My silence was enough to tell him that I did. “Then you’ve no right to be offended.”

  “And if you get caught?” Cody must have a Plan B. Unless he didn’t care what happened to us after he was taken.

  “Use the GPS satellite locator, contact everyone out there. Tell them about the Chickenator. The chickens won’t like you transmitting that data so they’ll try and stop you. You, Blake and Hazel will have to round up some guys to operate the lasers and you’d better do it fast before the chickens cut our power off…”

  I stared at Cody. “You really have thought of everything.”

  He nodded. “I’ve tried. Now you’ve got a job to do. Get that communicator set up and ready. I’ll see you in a few days – hopefully.”

  He walked towards to the door.

  I nodded and saluted, only half sarcastically.

  “Yes, Cody,” I said.

  CHAPTER 19

  A few days later, the councillors met Cody at the tenement flats by the sea.

  “So you’re still with us,” I said, secretly pleased to have our new leader at the helm of the operation.

  Cody shrugged. “So far so good. We’re out of the way and well protected. Right now I’ve got enough lasers around me to take down a fleet of Catchers.” He had to yell to be heard over the sound of hammering coming from outside.

  Cody had set up an office in the flats. A fast flood of paper was quietly flowing across his desk. I’m not sure where it all came from – we didn’t usually write much down – but Cody seemed to sustain it somehow. He would probably make a scary lawyer or something when he grew up.

  A laser was even being fitted inside the room, one of the many that should keep the giant robotic Catchers off our backs while we were sending the signal. Hazel was installing this one herself, probably so fewer people knew where Cody was.

  The building was heavily guarded, to protect the satellite locator and prevent surprise attacks. But Blake and Percy had been told to guard just Cody himself. I knew Percy was looking forward to trying out his new toys.

  “Check these out, Ambassador.” Percy was brandishing a pair of gloves, gauntlets really, made of metal, glinting in the light from the window. After hearing how Percy had gone down punching a Catcher, the Brotherhood had tailor-made these for him. “They’re like shock-sticks for punching.”

  “Those look awesome,” I replied, genuinely impressed by the Brotherhood’s skills.

  “The signal defences are almost complete,” Blake said, standing tall to present his information to Cody. I think he liked to consider himself a soldier with Cody as his general. “Most of the lasers are in place and the rest will be ready in a few hours. The safe room that you asked for has been built, as well as we could manage. Kyle has filled it with supplies so you could hide out there for a whil
e without going hungry. We’ve also reinforced the power station with spare lasers.”

  Cody nodded in a business-like way. “That was good thinking,” he said. “And we’ll have enough power to run them all?”

  “We should; all our tests have been going well until now. Of course, we can’t be sure until we actually try to power everything at once.”

  “Fine.” Cody looked out the window at the sun setting in the distance. “And the GPS satellite locator?”

  I shrugged. “It’s set up but I don’t know if it works. If you’re right and it draws in a ton of Catchers, I’d rather wait until all our lasers are operational before we try it.”

  Just then there was a knock at the door. We looked at each other suspiciously. Cody had given express orders that he was not to be disturbed. I didn’t know who would dare to annoy him. He’d been scary enough before he ran all of Aberdeen.

  Percy looked through the peephole to see who was outside. His face went white and he stumbled backwards. Then there was a massive thud and the door came flying into the room.

  In the empty doorway stood the Chickenator, one foot raised after kicking the door in. With slow, measured steps it started strutting forward.

  “How does it keep finding us?” I yelled as we all scrambled into defensive positions. “No one else knew we were here.”

  “Shut up and get ready to fight,” Percy snarled at me.

  Four of us went to meet our adversary. Blake led the way, staff crackling in his hand. I stood next to him, quietly watching his back, gripping my shock-stick uncertainly.

  Percy strode forward, an ugly grin on his face, smashing his fists together. Sparks glowed and then fell like dying stars to the ground. He looked like he was going to enjoy this.

  Beside him was Cody. I wanted to tell him not to fight, but the look on his face told me there would be no stopping him. He had a brand new baton, smaller and easier to wield than a cumbersome shock-stick; it would allow him to move quickly and keep himself defended.