Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens Read Free

speeches, but the attack had caught everyone by surprise and they were pretty slow to do much else except for talk. There was fighting going on but nobody was anywhere near overcoming the chickens. Canada and Australia were supposed to be getting ready to launch a counter attack but that hadn’t happened yet.
    There was nothing new to hear so I left the room and continued towards the dining car. The walls were papered with pictures, warning people about what the chickens could do. Surprisingly, I was one of the few people who had actually seen a robot chicken. A lot of people who’d seen a Catcher had been taken. Noah had told us to draw posters so that everyone knew what we were dealing with. Some of them were prettygood. There was a stylish shot of a chicken with lasers coming out of its eyes, one showing the explosive eggs they laid. There was even a diagram of the inside of a giant robot chicken. It had a kid being pecked up and swallowed, sliding down the chicken’s throat and being trapped in its stomach. A lot of people had got freaked out by that one. As I slid the door to the dining car open I was just curious how the artist had known what it was like.
    Maybe with a zombie apocalypse we would have seen some action… a lot of blood, maybe. But with the chickens we were in danger, but not able to actually go anywhere. Our free time was usually spent in the dining car of the train, talking, playing cards or reading. I found myself a seat and started doodling in a notebook I’d found in Union Square. With half an ear I listened to those around me.
    The conversation was always the same, different people going through the same motions. It would be about TV shows or YouTube videos from when there
was
TV and YouTube. Games that they’d played on the Xbox or PlayStation. Causal stuff, like you’d hear in any playground.
    And sometimes, when someone had had a bad day or the monotony was getting hard to handle, they’d talk about their families. Where they were, if they were still free. Everyone had given up hope that any parents were still free – the Catchers took the adults first – but there were older and younger brothers and sisters that no one knew about.
    I could hear a couple of girls talking about it.
    “I mean, my sister was smart,” one of them was saying. “She was in the Guides and everything. I’m sure she’s OK.”
    I wasn’t sure. Guides were tough, but being tough hadn’t helped the army.
    “And we don’t know the chickens attacked everywhere in Scotland. They could just have hit the cities. Maybe if we got far enough away we’d be safe. We should try it some time. Get as much food as we can and just follow the train lines south.”
    No one who went outside the city ever came back. I mean, it might be that they got to safety. Or they could have just been captured. I know which one I thought was more likely.
    The other girl was smarter than her friend.
    “Look,” she said, putting an arm round her friend’s shoulders. “If there was help out there then they’d come and get us. No adult in Aberdeen managed to hide for more than a few days. We’re safe here. It wouldn’t be smart to leave.”
    I was just nodding to myself when the first girl burst into tears.
    “I miss my sister so much. Where is she? Where could she have gone?”
    And that was the worst thing. No matter what we told ourselves, whether we thought our family and friends were captured or whether we hoped they had escaped somewhere, we just didn’t know. We had lots of thoughts, lots of guesses – but in the end they were worth nothing.
    The girl’s sobbing was beginning to get to me, reminding me of my brother and how much I missed him. I closed my notebook and got up, ready to leave. If Noah wanted me, he could find me in my room.
    I’d just reached the door when it slid open and the Boss himself was standing there. He smiled at me then noticed the girl wailing. A frown creased his brow andhe gently pulled me through