It was just like any other day at the Tweedy's farm as Ginger was in solitary confinement for trying to escape. Again. Mr. Tweedy soon let her out and the feisty hen returns to the chicken yard, being greeted by Babs, Ethel, and her husband Rocky. Ginger met Rocky when he crash landed on the farm though no one knew that he was from a circus. The two chickens had different views on each other but they also had an instant attraction. They dated for awhile before deciding to become mates. The Rhode Island Red didn't have to hide from the farmers since it seemed like he was a lost chicken that wandered onto the farm
"Hey baby doll. How was the brig?" Rocky smiles at his wife
"Like any other time I've been there." Ginger brushes coal crud off of her feathers
"You still look beautiful even with coal soot on your feathers." Rocky kisses the hen on her cheek
"It's nice to get a bit of time to yourself, isn't it?" Babs smiles at her green eyed friend
A loud ringing filled the chicken yard, hens scrambled about and lining up into rows. It was their weekly routine of roll call. Ginger and Rocky stood beside Bunty just as Fowler came over and started telling the others to show discipline in the ranks
"Give over old fool, they just want to count us." Bunty rolls her eyes
"How dare you talk back to a senior ranking officer! Why back in my RAF days-" Fowler began when the gate of the chicken yard opened
"Fowler, they're coming. Get back in line." Ginger tells him
"Oh right, right." Fowler squeezes between a short dark brown and made her fall over
"Doll face, where are the kids?" Rocky whispers as Mrs. Tweedy stood in front of the chickens, having Mr. Tweedy hand over the clipboard
"Darling, they're fine. They're two years old." Ginger whispers
"Correction. Grayson and Lillian are three years old." Rocky reminds his wife
"I hate to interrupt but do you have a new plan, hen?" Mac buts in
Ginger subtly gives her a torn piece of paper
"I thought we tried going under." Mac said
Ginger flipped it around for her
"Ah. Over. Right." Mac skims over the plan
Mrs. Tweedy began walking down the different rows as she stared at the paper from egg count. Ginger and Rocky tensed up after the dreadful woman stopped in front of their youngest daughter, Ava. Ava glances up at the evil woman and prepared for the worst when a hen to her right was picked up instead
"Edwina. Bunty why didn't you give her some of yours?" Ginger looks to her friend
"I would have. She didn't tell me. She didn't tell anyone." Bunty explains
They watched the Tweedy's leave the chicken yard with Edwina, taking her to the chop which was in the old barn. Ginger and Rocky went up onto a roof of one of the chicken huts to get a better look. The feisty hen puts a wing on her neck as she watched the whole thing happen, looking away after hearing the axe come down
"Come here." Rocky embraces her
"We've got to get out of here." Ginger spoke softly
"We will. We just haven't perfected any of our plans yet." Rocky assures her
"What if she had taken Ava? I can't bare to think of losing our children if they're taken to the chop." Ginger rests her head against his chest
"Sweetheart, it's going to be ok. Just take a deep breath." Rocky soothes
"Ginger? Are we still on?" Mac asked from down below, staring up at the couple
"Oh we're on alright. Spread the word, Mac. Meeting tonight at hut seventeen." Ginger moves away from Rocky
"What's our next move?" Rocky asked
"You'll see." Was all she said
Ava was talking to Agnes, Ducky, Babs, Buttercup and Millen about her heart dropping experience of almost being taken by Mrs. Tweedy. It was definitely something she hoped wouldn't happen again
"You were very brave, dear." Agnes told her
"I'm sure your parents would have done something if that dreadful monster took you." Buttercup said
"Maybe she'd take you on holiday like Ginger." Babs smiles, knitting away on goodness knows what. All she ever did was knit
"Aunt Babs, I wouldn't have gone on holiday." Ava rests a wing on her neck at thought of Mrs. Tweedy bringing that axe down onto her
"How many eggs did you even lay this week?" Millen asks out of curiosity
"Three." Ava replies
Two roosters walked over to the group of hens, Buttercup, Millen, Agnes and Ducky swooning over the heartthrobs
"Hey sis. How are you holding up?" Grayson scratches at an itch on one of his elbows
"What do you think?" Ava glared
"Calm down, it was a scary thing for all of us." Ricky puts his wings on his hips. He glanced at the gawking hens, winking and clicking his tongue
Buttercup fainted while the others giggled and waved at Rocky's look alike
"How are you, ladies?" Ricky smiles
"Hi Ricky." They reply
"Have you done something different with your feathers, Agnes? You look even more beautiful than I remember." Ricky flirts with the hen. He picked up quite a few things from his father and he didn't regret it, especially since he had a way with the hens
"Where's Lillian?" Ava ignores her flirtatious brother
"I think I saw her with aunt Mac. Oh! There's a meeting tonight at hut seventeen. But I'm probably going to take a nap. I don't see why mom can't have the meetings elsewhere." Grayson tells her
"And why do you care? We live at that hut, you ninny." Ava folds her wings
"It's going to be too noisy for him. That's why." Ricky buts in
"Bugger off. At least I won't be flirting with every single hen." Grayson glared at the young rooster
"Knock it off!" Ava sighs. What was it with her and roosters?
"For the record, I won't be flirting with everyone. I broke up with Ethel last week and that would just be awkward. Plus, I would never flirt with my own mother. That's just creepy." Ricky said
"Why don't you two walk aunt Babs home? I'm sure she'd love to hear about your day." Ava rolls her eyes. Some days she hated her brothers and questioned their existence
Grayson and Ricky walk with Babs to hut eleven, the young hen watching them fade from view. Buttercup, Ducky, Agnes and Millen look to Ava
"I'm glad someone noticed I did something different with my feathers. Ricky is such a ladies man. Did you see the way he looked at me?" Agnes sighs contently
"Ava, you shouldn't be too harsh on them. Especially when those two are working their magic." Ducky said
"You're lucky you're not related to them." Ava turns to face the hens
Later that night at hut seventeen, Ginger was trying to get the attention of her fellow hens but they were all too busy doing their own thing, tuning out Ginger
Grayson sulks in his nest, annoyed at the chaos. "I hate my life..."
Fowler pounded his cane on the table to get everyone's attention. "Quiet! Quiet I say, what what!"
"Thank you, Fowler." Ginger looks at the old rooster
"Why back in my RAF days, we never wasted time with unnecessary chitchat!" Fowler went on
"Yes, thank you, Fowler." Ginger tried to get the point across to him that everyone had settled down
Fowler was about to say more when he noticed all of the hens were staring at him in silence. "Right. Carry on." He walked off to a corner of the hut
"I know our last attempt was a bit of a fiasco, but Mac, Lillian and I came up with a brand new plan! Show them Mac!" Ginger looks to the Scottish hen
Lillian reveals a strange looking contraption that she pulls a piece of cloth off of
"How does it work?" Rocky stroked his beak
"This is us, right?" Mac holds up a turnip and places it in the round end of the doohickey. "We sit in like this, wind her up and let her go!" She presses down on a release mechanism, launching the turnip. The chickens watched the vegetable splat onto the hut wall by the doorway. This causes the hens to panic
"Good grief! The turnips bought it!" Fowler said
"Lillian helped, huh? Brilliant idea, sis." Ricky shakes his head
"Shut your beak." Lillian glared at him
"Farmers coming!" Delores said, sounding an alarm
The hens scurried around the hut, hiding their escape plans, putting out candles, hiding underneath the floorboards and getting into their nests.
"Operation cover up!" Fowler shouted, Agnes throwing a blanket over him
The roof of the hut opened just as Ava got into her nest, Mr. Tweedy shining his flashlight over the 'sleeping' hens and roosters. He did a double take after he swore one of the chickens nests had a teapot in it but it didn't. However, the head looked a bit odd to him
Ricky made cooing noises to make the dummy head seem real, Mr. Tweedy still staring at it when he was startled by Mrs. Tweedy calling for him. "It's all in me head, it's all in me head, it's all in me head." He closed the roof of the hut before leaving
Ginger hopped out of her nest, the others doing the same. "Think everyone, think. What haven't we tried yet?"
"We haven't tried not trying to escape." Bunty puts her wings on her hips
"Hm. That might work." Babs said
"What about Edwina? How many more empty nests will it take?" Ginger gestures to the absent nest, the others looking over at it
"Perhaps it wouldn't be empty if she spent more time laying and less time escaping." Bunty folds her wings
"She has a point." Ava spoke up
"I agree with aunt Bunty. Why don't we just accept the fact that we're not getting anywhere with these escape plans." Grayson approached his mother, walking through the crowd of hens
"So laying eggs all of our lives and getting plucked, stuffed, and roasted is good enough for you is it?" Ginger looks at her son with her wings folded
"It's a living." Babs smiles
"If you haven't noticed, I don't lay eggs." Grayson replies, ignoring his aunt
"You know what the problem is, the fences aren't just around the farm. They're up here. In your heads." Ginger taps a finger on the side of her head, looking to everyone. She made her way through the crowd as she went on. "There's a better place out there. Somewhere beyond that hill. It has wide open spaces with lots of trees and grass. Can you imagine that? Cool, green grass." The British hen stands on a crate and rubs a picture on one of the bunks that had a hill with grass on it, closing her eyes for a second as she visualized being free
"Who feeds us?" Mable asked
"We feed ourselves." Ginger replies
"Where's the farm?" Gertrude asked
"There is no farm." Ginger turns to face her
"Then where does the farmer live?" Babs stops knitting for once
"There is no farmer, Babs." Ginger tells the clueless hen
"Is he on holiday?" The knit wit wonders
"He isn't anywhere! Don't you get it? There's no morning egg count, no dogs, no farmers, no coops and keys and no fences!" Ginger tries to get through to everyone
"In all my life I've never heard such a fantastic...load of tripe!" Bunty raises her voice
Ginger fell silent at this
"Oh face the facts, ducks! The chances of us getting out of here are a million to one!" Bunty pokes Ginger on her chest
"Then there's still a chance." Ginger said, looking Bunty straight in her eyes and getting down from the crate she was standing on, heading for the doorway and turning around slightly to look at everyone. A bunch of blank stares and silence
Ginger stepped outside and hits the side of the hut, making the door come down
"That went well." Ricky comments
"You're such an idiot." Ava rolls her eyes at him
Rocky went outside to talk to his wife. "Ginger?" He walked after the irritated hen
Ginger hits the wired fence and groans in frustration
"I'm sorry about what went down in there but you can't give up on them. At least not yet. They need you to lead them to freedom and I know that you'll find a way to do it no matter what." Rocky places a wing on her shoulder
"Thank you. I'm fresh out of ideas, Rocky. We've tried everything." Ginger glances at the American rooster
Rocky rubs the back of his neck. "Maybe not. We haven't tried flying. I used to fly back when-"
"You flew?!" Ginger's eyes lit up
"Well, yeah. But you should know-" Rocky tries to get a word in
"That's wonderful! You can teach us all how to fly and we'll be free!" Ginger smiles widely, now facing her mate
"Uh...yeah." Rocky smiles nervously
"Thank you, Rocky." Ginger hugs him
Rocky pats Ginger on her back. Now how was he going to tell her that he couldn't actually fly, that he flew back when he was in a circus? In fact, that's how he truly got on this farm but he never told anyone his secret. Ginger went back inside with Rocky and told the others the news
"I never knew you could fly, dad." Lillian raises a brow
Rocky gives a nervous laugh and averted his gaze from the tan hen
"I didn't know chickens could even fly." Ava smiles. She felt hopeful that there a good chance of escaping this time
"When are we starting? I have important things to do tomorrow." Ricky asked
"First thing in the morning." Ginger said
"Since when are you ever busy?" Grayson scoffs at the green bandanna wearing rooster
"Since always." Ricky answers him. He walked to his nest, unintentionally brushing his tail feathers against Buttercup and Agnes and the hens gushed over it
"Mom, you know I don't believe in second chances. You in particular have had far too many. What if this isn't our saving grace?" Grayson wasn't persuaded by the flying idea
"I know, Grayson. But I have a feeling that this is the one. This is the plan that's going to work and we'll all be free at last!" Ginger said in a determined tone
"Look, all I'm saying is don't pin your dreams on this whole flying rubbish." Grayson warns the feisty hen
Rocky had a hard time getting any sleep that night. He had to think of something to keep the flock busy tomorrow for flying lessons. Maybe he could do a bunch of different exercises that they could workout to
Hope you guys are liking it so far!