Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens Read online

  Chapter 4

  We walked in silence. I didn’t want to push the little trust that Rayna had given me and she seemed relieved by the quiet. Besides, it was usually a good idea not to make noise. You wouldn’t think it but cities without people can be eerily quiet and any noise can echo. So I spent my time looking at the shops to either side of us and memorising them. The group was still pretty well stocked for supplies, but they would run out eventually and it was always good to know where else to go to look for them. The great thing about a chicken attack in the middle of the day was that most of the shops were still open, meaning that we didn’t have to break in to any. I got really excited when we passed a Morrisons. There weren’t all that many supermarkets near the centre of town and it could potentially keep us in food for the rest of the year.

  After about forty minutes, we came to a crossroads and the four streets stretched out in every direction, long and straight. The one building off to the right was barely one story high and when I glanced left I found myself looking at a wide expanse of green grass and bushes. It looked too open. Open was not good. Open got you caught.

  Rayna seemed to sense that I wasn’t happy. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “It just seems a bit… exposed,” I said weakly. “What’s a field doing in the middle of Aberdeen?”

  She looked at me strangely. “It’s not a field. It’s a metre wide space, then there’s a lorry park or something.”

  “It’s still pretty open.”

  She nodded. “I guess, but this is the fastest way there. Look, there’s a pretty solid building along here that I sometimes camp in. We can rest up there for a while and get something to eat. Are you hungry?”

  I was, but I hadn’t wanted to mention it. Breakfast had been a long time ago, before I’d set off to the library, and it was midway through the afternoon by now. I followed Rayna as we walked carefully across the intersection and towards the building she had been talking about. It was pretty impressive, long and brick, with a turret on the wall at either end. I wasn’t sure if you could get in them or not but a turret was a turret.

  She let us in the back door and up some stairs to the second floor. She wasn’t kidding about having camped there in the past. There was a sleeping bag, a table with a few chairs and a couple of boxes full of what looked like tins. Even more impressive was the gas-powered stove with the pots and pans. We had one back at base but we didn’t use it that often. Getting the fuel for it wasn’t easy. Mostly we just ate things cold. My stomach, which had been pretty quiet up until now, suddenly twisted in anticipation of a hot meal.

  Rayna saw the look on my face and grinned. She carefully lit the stove and gestured at one of the boxes. “You can pick anything you like from there.”

  I went to have a look and found it full of tins of soup. I looked through for maybe half a minute before returning, clutching two tins in my hands. She glanced at the label before raising an eyebrow. “Chicken soup?” she said, her voice sarcastic.

  I shrugged. “It seemed fitting.”

  She laughed a bit and emptied both tins into a pot, putting it onto the stove and pulling out a spoon to stir it with. “You’re odd.”

  “Everyone is,” I replied, echoing my brother. Then I swept my arms around in a circle. “The whole world is.”

  “True enough,” she said. The soup quickly came to the boil and she pulled the pot off the stove. Then she handed me another spoon.

  “No bowls, I’m afraid,” she said. “We’ll have to share the pot.”

  I wasn’t bothered and had already taken my first spoonful of chicken before she’d finished talking. It was still very hot and I almost burned my mouth as I swallowed, sending it rolling down my throat in a warm, delicious wave. It had been so long since I’d had anything hot, let alone anything that was well cooked, that I had to remember to let Rayna have some as well. She was a lot daintier than me and took a lot longer. I had to stop to let her catch up.

  “Hey, Rayna. Why did the chicken end up in the soup?”

  She looked annoyed, then sighed irritably. “I don’t know. Why did the chicken end up in the soup?”

  “Because it ran out of cluck!” I beamed at her.

  She stared at me a second then went back to eating. “Ha ha. Very good. Are you going to keep doing that? Telling jokes?”

  “Oh. Probably.”

  “Could you not? Please?”

  I was about to tell her no, but then I stopped and held up a hand.

  “Feel that?” I asked.

  She looked at me, exasperated. “If this is another joke…” she began but I cut her off.

  “No, no, I’m serious. I think a Catcher is coming.”

  She immediately got out a glass and poured some water into it. Sure enough, it began trembling a second later. One of the giant chickens was nearby.

  We both hit the floor. She got down before me because I grabbed the pot of soup and brought it with me. She looked at me weirdly, but we’d probably have to stay down for a while and I really needed that food.

  Still, I could get to that later. First I had to find out what was going on. I crawled across to the window and took a look.

  The Catcher was closer than I thought it would be, plodding its two-legged way along. It was so close that I could see the detail on it. Each of the feathers seemed to have been carved individually out of metal and they rattled slightly with each step. The beak looked realistic as well. This wasn’t good. When they’d first attacked, the giant chickens had seemed pretty basic. Just a round body on a pair of legs. If more time was being taken to make artistic changes then that suggested that the makers weren’t too concerned about being attacked. Whoever they were. Worse, it meant that there were more of them being made.

  There was a rustling noise and Rayna pulled herself up next to me. We were both quiet for a second, watching as it came level with our building. It was zigzagging slightly, wandering about as if drunk, and it seemed to be peering into random windows. Silently, we both lowered ourselves out of sight.

  “Hey, why did the chicken cross the road?” I asked, only half joking. My heart was racing. I actually really wanted to know.

  “It’s probably hunting for us. It must know that we’re in the area and that’s why it’s acting oddly. I just can’t figure out how it got wind of us so fast. We haven’t done anything that could have alerted it.”

  I shrugged and pulled the pot closer to us. “It was probably already in the area. I’ve already seen one today. Maybe they’re increasing the amount of patrols that they’re sending out.”

  She frowned, but she picked up a spoon as well and joined me in eating. “I hope not. We’ve been pretty lucky so far. There are still a lot of kids out there.”

  “I reckon the Catchers don’t really care about us.”

  She looked at me, her head cocked slightly to one side. “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, I’ve seen some of what those things can do. They can fire lasers from their eyes and their beaks can peck through rock. I think that if they were really serious about catching us we wouldn’t have a hope. I think that they only catch us when they see us so that we keep our heads down and don’t interfere.”

  She took another spoonful. “But they captured all the adults.”

  “Yeah, the ones who could attack them and do them harm. I think they just don’t see us as the same sort of threat.”

  Most of the soup was gone by then and our spoons were scraping the pot edge, trying to get every scrap of food that we could. I gave up first, now feeling pleasantly full, and heaved myself up to look out of the window. The chicken seemed to be gone.

  “You know, we can still be a threat,” Rayna said. “Especially if this plan goes ahead.”

  I turned and watched as Rayna packed everything away and got ready to move again. “I hope you’re right,” I said. “Because if they’re sending out more patrols, something’s got them spooked.”

  We set off again after giving the chicken a
ten minute head start. Ten minutes should be more than enough. Their legs were just so much longer than ours that they could cover the ground a lot quicker. We were right. Once we’d left the building there was no sign of it except for a few cars nudged into different positions. Still, I glanced at the sky, worried. It would be night soon and I didn’t think we had enough time to get back to the train station.

  Rayna led us up to College Bounds, which was a cobbled street that led straight to the university. I couldn’t help but be impressed. She really knew her way around and had been able to take us the entire journey without missing a step. It was only once we were outside the university that she paused, uncertain.

  Aberdeen University has been around for hundreds of years. The part we were standing outside, Elphinstone Hall, towered into the sky. It wasn’t that big compared to, say, a skyscraper… but skyscrapers are modern things. This building was old before skyscrapers were even thought of. I had the feeling that it would be here long after we (and the chickens) were gone.

  Eventually Rayna started walking towards the entrance. I fell into step beside her. “Nervous?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I was just trying to work out where he’d be,” she said. Aberdeen University was pretty big. It could take a while to find the guy she was looking for, especially if he didn’t want to be found.

  As it turned out, he did want to be found, if the large piece of paper with, ‘In the library’ written on it was any clue. It was taped to the inside of the door where it wouldn’t be seen by giant chickens but would be seen by anyone coming through the entrance.

  “Great,” Rayna said through gritted teeth, grabbing the sign and yanking it off the door. She turned on her heel and stalked back the way she had come.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, hurrying after her.

  “I don’t like the library building. It looks creepy.”

  I had to agree with her. The library looked like a bad modern architecture joke gone wrong. It was a giant cube, towering high above everything else around it. Where all the other buildings around here were made out of stone it was almost entirely glass. About halfway through construction it seemed that the designers had noticed how much it stuck out and tried to lessen the effect by camouflaging it with zebra stripes. All in all, it looked weird and out of place. And it didn’t look like a great place to hide.

  Once inside it was a little better. Seven floors curved away above our heads, each opening to the foyer we were standing in. There was a café off to our left and a round white donut in the middle of the floor was probably the admittance desk. There was no sign of anyone around.

  “Hello? Glen?” Rayna called.

  There was movement on the top floor and someone stuck his head over the bannister. It was too far away for me to see anything expect blackish hair hanging messily around a wide face. “Ambassador? Is that you?”

  “Yes,” Rayna called back. “I’ve brought a representative with me from one of the city gangs.”

  “And it’s not…?”

  “No, it’s not Cody’s. This guy’s from the Train Station Gang.”

  “Excellent. Bring him up.”

  The head retreated from view and Rayna turned to me.

  “Come on. We’ll have to take the stairs; the lifts don’t work.”

  “Who’s Cody?” I asked, but Rayna didn’t answer.

  We clambered over one of the barriers and into the nearest stairwell. The stairs looked like something you’d find in a multi-storey car park, just solid slabs of undecorated concrete. It even smelled faintly like a multi-storey car park. And climbing seven flights of those stairs was not fun.

  We emerged at the top, gently panting, to find the person we’d come to speak to sitting at a table surrounded by stacks of books. He’d somehow managed to stay quite plump, despite a shortage of food and the exercise he must have got by walking up those stairs every day. He looked up as we approached and smiled slightly. I might have been paranoid, but it didn’t look like a nice smile. “You took your time,” he said.

  “Then why don’t you use your genius to fix the lifts?” I shot back immediately. He looked surprised.

  “Excuse me? Who are you?”

  Rayna stepped between us. “He’s the one you wanted me to bring, Glen. The one from a city gang, to assure you that we’re good for the price. Because you didn’t trust my word.”

  Her voice hardened slightly at the last bit and I took a step away from her. Glen didn’t appear to notice.

  “Yes, well, I’ve got certain needs. You’re just one person. How was I to know if you could provide what you said you could? In fact how am I supposed to know now? This could be anyone that you dragged up from anywhere. Did you bring any food?”

  Rayna looked at me, annoyed that I’d been proved right. I didn’t gloat; I’d save that for later. Instead I dug around in a pocket of my jacket before pulling out a chocolate bar and tossing it to Glen. He looked at it in surprise and immediately ripped the wrapper off before stuffing it into his face. I watched him, feeling slightly jealous. I’d been looking forward to doing that.

  Rayna waited until he’d finished, then continued talking. “Is that enough for you?”

  Glen shook his head again. “Don’t be silly. It helps me trust you, but one chocolate bar isn’t anywhere near the price that I was asking for. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  I took a step forward, threateningly. I wasn’t actually going to attack him but he didn’t know that. Rayna grabbed my shoulder.

  “So what do we have to get?”

  Glen thought about it for a moment. “Well the first week’s delivery would help. That way I know I could trust you.”

  I butted in before Rayna could answer. “We can’t do that. You’re asking for a fair amount of food. We can’t just let you have it before we know if what you’re offering’s worth it.”

  He sneered at me. “So don’t ask for my help. I’m giving you a chance to stop the chickens. I just need to know that I will be given what I ask for in return.”

  “If your information really does all that it’s supposed to then you should just give it to us anyway. If we can defeat the chickens then you’ll profit too.”

  He laughed. “What do I care? I’m happy enough where I am. I’ve got enough food to survive for a while and the chickens can’t get me in my fortress here.”

  I laughed right back. “Your fortress? This place?” I gestured around at the glass walls of the library. “Haven’t you ever played Angry Birds?”

  He scowled at me and Rayna chose this moment to butt back in.

  “So, Glen – you need to know you can trust us first?”

  He turned back to her. “No offence, Ambassador. I just need to know that your word is true.”

  She shrugged. “All right. So why don’t you pick something else for us to get, something that’s not quite such a big deal but that will still prove that we can be trusted?”

  He thought about it for a second, then nodded.

  “I’ve got it. I know exactly what you can get me. Wait here a moment.”

  He disappeared off among the shelves. Rayna and I just had time to exchange a confused look before he was back, flipping through what looked like a thick book. As he got closer I saw it was a catalogue.

  “It was here somewhere…” Glen muttered to himself, then nodded. He turned the catalogue round and handed it to Rayna, tapping an item. “There. I want that.”

  She took the book and gave it a quick look. “A TV,” she said. “You want me to get you a TV?”

  “Not just any TV. That very specific TV.”

  “Why?”

  He just smiled at her. “I need it. Now, are you going to get it for me or not?”

  “I guess. It won’t be easy, though. Which shop even stocks this?”

  She turned the catalogue round to get a look at the front cover as Glen answered.

  “Argos.”

  “Argos?” Rayna asked, fear creeping into h
er voice. I realised what the problem was.

  “Yes, Argos,” Glen replied, all grins. “You’ll find it on Union Street.”

  Chapter 5

  “Look, I’m sure that there’s something else we could get him. A nice new jacket or something. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

  Rayna grunted at me and kept walking. I tried again.

  “You don’t even need to go. I’m sure that he trusts you. I’m probably the one at fault. So why don’t you stay with him and I’ll go get it alone?”

  She seemed to consider that for a while then shook her head. “No, we’ve got to do this. If we get split up then we might not be able to find each other again. And we can’t just get something else. If we don’t bring back exactly what he wants us to then he’s not going to trust us and this whole thing is pointless. So we go, we get the TV, then we get out as fast as we can.”

  I sighed and nodded. “I guess you’re right. But what has you so freaked out about Union Street?”

  She stopped for a second as if considering telling me, then shook her head and walked on. “You still wouldn’t believe me. Now come on.”

  I followed her, wondering if she was right. After Glen had told us what he wanted, she’d nodded in a sort of trance then turned to leave. I’d followed her, sending a threatening glare back over my shoulder at Glen so he’d know not to double cross us. I’m not sure it had worked; he was taller than me as well.

  After that we’d gone to a retail park just up the road and spent the night camping in the sofa store there. This morning, Rayna had seemed better, but she still wasn’t in what I’d call a good mood. So as we walked I tried to take her mind off it.

  “Hey, I’ve got a question,” I said to her. She didn’t look at me, just kept on walking.

  “If it’s a chicken joke then I’m going to punch you in the face,” she said, matter-of-factly. Yikes.

  “No, no, it’s not that,” I answered quickly. “I was just wondering… if Glen has enough food to live comfortably, why is he wanting more? Was he bluffing?”