Free Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall

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. Vendingmachines 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.