by Alex McCall
“What is that?” Rayna asked while I began to chortle.
The little girl looked up and said, deadpan, “That’s the warning bells.”
Rayna frowned down at her. “It’s the Birdie Dance song.”
I burst out into laughter. “Oh, Egbert’s group is the best.”
Rayna shot me an angry glare and together we staggered into the museum and to safety.
Chapter 8
We crept through the museum and into Aberdeen College itself, finally finding a coffee room with comfortable looking couches. The little girl walked over to one and curled up without saying a word, falling asleep quickly. Rayna and I grabbed a couch each. It might have been the adrenaline of our close escape, but we just lay there, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling.
Rayna was the first to break the silence. “What would you have done?” she asked.
I really didn’t want this conversation, but Rayna wasn’t likely to drop it any time soon. So I sighed and said, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Her voice was perfectly smooth, like quicksand. I had a feeling that I had to tread carefully during this conversation or I’d find myself in deep trouble.
“No, I don’t know. I want to say that I would have said that we couldn’t be separated, but I don’t know if that’s true. I might have cracked at the last moment. Like an egg.”
“Stop that,” she said, her voice a harsh whip crack. The little girl stirred slightly in her sleep and we didn’t say a thing until she had calmed down. Eventually I spoke again.
“Look, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s the truth and at least it’s better that than a lie.”
There was the sound of her releasing her breath, slowly, like a balloon deflating. “That’s fair, I guess. I’m sorry, I was just so scared back there.”
I nodded up at the ceiling. “Yeah, me too.”
“No you weren’t,” she corrected me. “I was watching you all day. You were just sitting there, cracking jokes without a care in the world. I don’t know if you’re really brave or really stupid but you don’t seem to be afraid of anything. I guess… I guess I kind of envy you that.”
“Don’t bother,” I told her. “I spend most of the time terrified. I could hardly think straight for fear.”
“What do you mean?”
I guess it was time for the truth. She still hadn’t told me that much about herself but right then I didn’t care. Maybe it made me weak, but she was the closest thing to a friend I had in this world.
“I don’t make jokes because I’m brave. I make them because I’m really, really scared.”
There was a brief moment of silence. Then she went, “Oh,” drawing out the o to show that she understood.
I spelt it out anyway. It felt good to just be honest.
“I mean, look around us. We’re in an apocalypse caused by chickens. Or giant chicken shaped things anyway. How can anyone take that seriously? I mean, if I actually stopped and thought about it, about how giant robot things are stalking the streets, I’d probably just collapse and cry. How can we even take those things on? They’re bigger than tanks, their beaks can peck through concrete and they lay explosive eggs. So I make jokes. Especially about chickens. I refuse to take it seriously. It’s just my coping mechanism. It probably helps that I’ve never actually seen anyone taken. I can pretend it’s as stupid as I want. So there you go. There’s the big secret. I’m actually a huge coward.”
I let out a huge breath. She now knew all my ‘secrets’; everything important about me in this new world. It was scary but also kind of nice. Even if I hadn’t traded a secret for a secret like I had wanted to.
Then she began to talk.
“I actually lived just outside Stonehaven, on a farm. A chicken farm. And I was there the day that the chickens came.”
I blinked up at the ceiling. She had lived on a chicken farm? I couldn’t even begin to imagine what the chickens would have done about that.
She kept on talking. “The day started normally. I’d helped to feed the chickens with Dad. I remember that they all seemed unusually alert but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I was getting ready to go into town. Then there was this noise like a plane getting closer and closer. I hurried outside and saw these giant shapes coming right towards us. I yelled to my family and everyone else came piling out. My mum, my dad and my little sister, Hazel, who was two years younger than me.”
I did the maths in my head. That would have made Hazel a year younger than me. Eleven.
“We didn’t know what it was but we knew it was bad. We all ran towards the car but Dad wanted to make sure the chickens were all locked up first. He was just coming out of the barn when a chicken landed right in our front garden. Did you say that you’d seen their laser eyes?”
I nodded. I’d seen them in action.
“Well, it swung its head around and took the top right off the barn, like it was cutting open a packet of cereal or something. It was between Dad and us so he just yelled at us to go, backing away towards the house. It seemed more interested in him and we managed to get away.
“We had no idea what to do. We just drove toward Aberdeen. Mum made us try and call the police or something but none of our mobiles would work. Then we got to Aberdeen just as the chickens hit there.”
There was a catch in her voice and I knew she was crying. I didn’t say anything and just let her get on with her story. Interrupting now would be wrong.
“It was like something out of a nightmare. It’s still in my nightmares. We got to the police station and a rush of people came at us. We all got separated in the crowd. I ended up hiding in a house somewhere. I don’t know where. I guess Mum must have got taken along with everyone else because I haven’t seen her or any other adult since. I searched and searched for my little sister.”
She didn’t talk for a long while. Eventually I had to prompt her.
“Did you ever find her?”
“Yeah,” she said, swallowing a sob. “On Union Street.”
And now everything made sense.
“She’d fallen in with the Egbert’s lot. I tried talking to her, to make her see sense. I think that I was getting through to her because the next thing I knew Egbert had turned her over to the chickens. I still see it, Jesse. I can still see the Brotherhood coming for us, trying to grab us. Hazel just calmly told me to go and then she walked over to them. A chicken was already there. They formed a circle around, made sure that she couldn’t get away. She didn’t even try. She was just frozen to the spot, terrified. The chicken leaned down, looking at her through first one eye then the other. Then it just pecked down and grabbed her. If you look carefully I’m sure you can still see the mark its beak gorged into the concrete. And she was gone. I couldn’t do a thing.”
The last word ended with another sob.
“Later I learned all about the Brotherhood. The chickens use them for guarding and keeping an eye out for troublesome kids. They give them food and leave them be, as long as they do what they want.”
She swallowed, obviously gathering her thoughts and trying to calm down. “A couple of days after they took Hazel I found a guy who said that he’d been captured by the chickens but managed to escape. They’d taken him to the Pittodrie football stadium down by the beach and put him in a cage with some other kids they’d caught. I went to take a look for myself, hoping that I could find her, but the security was too good. The Brotherhood was all over it. And I couldn’t ask the guy who escaped for more information because the chickens got him again. They have a way of tracking down anyone who escapes. My sister didn’t stand a chance. And then I realised something. It wasn’t that I was weak. The chickens were just too strong. There was nothing I could do on my own.”
She raised her head and looked at me. Even in the dark I could see the gleam in her eye.
“But all of us together? We have a chance. That’s why I don’t join anyone. Why I’m so set on getting everyone together so that we can
take the chickens down. To pay them back for what they did to me and my family.”
Rayna didn’t speak after that. I wanted to go over and give her a hug, just to let her know that it was all going to be OK but I felt too awkward. Hugs were something mums gave.
So I said what I could.
“You know, people reckon that the Catchers don’t kill kids when they get taken. If they wanted to kill them it would be easier to do it where they are, instead of taking them off somewhere else. I saw plenty of lasers being fired when they first attacked, but I never saw them hit anyone. They just destroyed some buildings and some roads. So I think that it’s pretty safe to say that your sister is still alive. And if that’s the case, we will get her back.”
She turned her head and I could see a tiny bit of hope in her eyes as she looked at me. “Yeah?”
“You better believe it. I’m not getting beaten by some overgrown feather duster.”
She chuckled slightly. “So we’ve both learned a lot about each other tonight,” she whispered. I nodded in agreement, though I knew she couldn’t see me.
“I promise not to tell anyone that you are obsessed with beating the chickens because of your family.”
“And I promise not to tell anyone that you only make chicken jokes because you’re scared. But… uh… could you do me a favour? Your chicken jokes are still really, really annoying. So could you please try and dial them down a bit?”
I smiled at her. “I promise to try.”
Chapter 9
I woke up the next morning to find the little girl staring down at me, wide-eyed and silent. She was still wearing her cult outfit and looked very creepy. I started and jerked away from her. She seemed shocked and did the same thing.
“Sorry, but you gave me quite the surprise there,” I told her, glancing over at Rayna. She was still asleep and I decided to leave her like that. I hadn’t found yesterday pleasant but it had to have been even worse for her. “What’s your name?”
“Henny,” she said, in a little voice as clear as a bell. I frowned at her and got to my feet.
“Is that your real name?” I asked her. She thought about it for a second then slowly shook her head. “What is your real name?”
“It’s Lizzie,” she told me. I smiled down at her.
“Well Lizzie, how would you like something to eat?”
She almost tore the cereal bar that I offered her out of my hand and ripped off the wrapping before stuffing it in her mouth. I guess having corn on the cob every day wasn’t that satisfying.
I left her with another cereal bar and told her to watch Rayna while I went to explore. I was hoping that I could find some other clothes for the little girl. I was getting uneasy around that costume she was wearing. But I was out of luck.
I did manage to find a vending machine. Vending machines were like treasure chests in our world. Usually they just taunted anyone who found them. It was almost impossible to break the glass quietly and it was always possible that a chicken could hear you if you did. Since there was no electricity any more we couldn’t even steal money to pay for the chocolate inside. But I’d managed to find a vending machine key a couple of months ago, so I was able to open any that I came across. I didn’t let others know that I had it. It was probably the most precious thing that I owned, which was pretty sad when you came to think about it.
I walked back to the room with my pockets filled with bars of chocolate. When I got in I found Rayna staring at Lizzie suspiciously, while the little girl sat as far away from her as possible. What was needed here was something to diffuse the atmosphere, but I’d already promised to lay off the chicken jokes. (Get it?)
Instead all I had was mindless chatter.
“I quite like being back here,” I said as I got in. “It reminds me of home.”
Lizzie looked up at me with wide eyes. “You used to live in a castle?”
I laughed and shook my head, knocking a hand against a nearby wall. “No, but it’s made of stone from near where I live. See this? Kemnay granite. A lot of things in this city are made of it. It’s nice to be reminded of where I come from.”
I handed out some of my vending machine loot and Lizzie grabbed at hers with a shriek of delight. Rayna ate hers more slowly, savouring the taste. Then she looked at me with what looked like interest.
“They seriously took granite all the way from Kemnay to build this?”
I sighed. “That’s nothing. There’s stuff built from Kemnay granite all around the world. The parliament building in Edinburgh has some in it. So does the Cenotaph in London. And the Sydney Harbour bridge.”
Lizzie looked up at me then the walls, her eyes wide. “Wow.”
“Do you know where Sydney is, Lizzie?”
She snorted, apparently disgusted that I’d even asked the question. “Of course I do. It’s in Australia. We have a map of the world in our classroom at school. I’m not a stupid baby.”
“Sorry,” I told her, chucking her another chocolate bar. “My mistake.”
“How do you know all that?” Rayna asked me, while Lizzie tore into her prize. I groaned.
“I didn’t want to. I had this teacher in school who was obsessed with all of that. Said we should be proud of our cultural heritage. I’d have been prouder if the village had a swimming pool.”
After that Rayna got some cans out of her pack and we feasted on more cold soup. I made sure that none of them were chicken. It was probably better to ease Lizzie gently into stuff like that. Which reminded me…
“Lizzie, why did you help us yesterday?” I asked her. She looked up from her vegetable soup, a look of simple contentment on her face.
“You seemed nice. And you told funny jokes. I didn’t want you to get hurt. So I waited until everyone else was asleep then I stole Egbert’s knife and rescued you.”
“Well I’m really glad you did. My name is Jesse and this is Rayna. Do you want to come along with us now?”
She thought for a second then nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. Now we’ll be walking for quite a long way today. Do you think you can handle that?”
She nodded again. “Yes, I can.”
“Good. Now why don’t you go to the toilet before we set off? It’s just down the hall.”
She turned and darted out the door.
“What do you think?” I asked Rayna quietly. She just shrugged.
“Well we’ve got her now, for better or for worse, though you know she’ll just slow us down.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But I think it’s the only thing to do.”
“Besides,” Rayna added. “They got my sister. They’re not getting this little one. We’ve just got to be careful. She’s been with the Brotherhood for a couple of months now. It will be hard to undo that.”
“But we will,” I said. There was no point in telling Rayna that I’d already started thinking of Lizzie a bit like a little sister. I’d always wanted a little sister. And this felt like fighting back against the chickens in some strange way. We weren’t giving up and we were sticking together. It seemed like the most important thing we could do for our future.
Lizzie didn’t hold us back as badly as I thought she would, but she soon began complaining that her feet were hurting. I wasn’t really surprised. Her slippers probably did well on the worn floors of the church but they weren’t really practical for outside use. Luckily by this point we were close to the Morrisons I’d spotted earlier so we ducked in for a quick spot of looting. We were able to get Lizzie to exchange her chicken outfit for some more normal clothes and shoes quite easily. We also gave her a backpack with a change of clothes and some cereal bars in it. Then we left again, back on King Street.
It took longer than it had before because we kept an eye on Lizzie and stopped every time it looked like she was flagging. It was late in the day before we finally arrived back at the University Library. Glen looked quite surprised to see us, and even more surprised to see Lizzie.
“I asked you to bring me back
a TV, not a brat,” were his first words on seeing all of us. Lizzie behaved in a more civilised manner and merely stuck her tongue out at him.
“Calm down, we’ve got your stupid TV.” I hauled it out of the bag and handed it to him. He took it, with a gleeful expression.
“Finally. Oh, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.” He was so happy he was almost dancing with delight.
Rayna stepped forward, all official Ambassadorness. “We’ve upheld our end of the bargain and proved that we can be trusted. Now give us what we want.”
Glen was distracted and for a moment I thought that he hadn’t heard what we’d said. “What? Oh, the way to defeat the chickens.”
“What?” Lizzie hissed, shocked. “But you can’t defeat the chickens.”
“If we can’t, then there’s no point in worrying about what he’s got to say, is there?” I reasoned. She frowned and then nodded.
Glen stared at her, unsure for a moment. Rayna snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. “Focus. What’s the way?”
“Uh? Oh. Right. Well, naturally the first question you’ll be asking yourself is, why chickens?”
Rayna and I looked at each other and I shrugged. “You know, I hadn’t actually thought about that.” I said.
“Seriously?” Glen looked shocked. “That’s the first thing that came to mind. I mean, it’s not something you’d expect to happen, is it?”
“Well I always just assumed that they were robots or aliens that were posing as chickens for some reason.”
“Nope, it’s chickens. There are chickens inside each of the Catchers, wired in somehow. Trust me, I’ve seen it.”
Well this was news; we really were fighting chickens. The very fact that he could have claimed to see inside one of the robots was pretty astonishing. But it wasn’t really worth all the food he was asking for.
“Anything else, Doc?”
He looked absurdly pleased with the nickname for some reason and nodded. “Oh yes, much more. I think I might have found out why they’re so smart.”