"Ricky? What's going on?" The dark brown hen becomes frightened
"I don't know." Ricky answers truthfully
The flock stood at the fence to see what the commotion was about. Something was happening and they were afraid to find out what. The chickens backed up when Mr. Tweedy entered the chicken yard with one of the guard dogs and backed Ginger up into a corner. The frightened hen turned to run when Mr. Tweedy grabs her. "I've got a score to settle with you."
Ricky ran over to the farmer and pecks at his boots in an attempt to let him free Ginger. It only resulted in the rooster getting picked up too, Mr. Tweedy leaving the chicken yard and taking the two to the barn
"Aunt Babs, hanger!" Lillian orders
Babs dug through her handbag and pulled out a clothes hanger, handing it over to her niece
"Gray, Ava. Ladder." Lillian said
"Not so fast, missy. I'll get your mother and brother. I don't need to worry about you, your brother and sister getting into danger too." Rocky approaches her and took the hanger
The siblings gave him the boost he needed and he made his way into the barn after gliding over on a telephone wire. What he saw inside the building made his blood go cold
Down below he saw Mr. Tweedy hang Buttercup upside down and strap her ankles to a conveyor belt. Ginger struggled to get free but it was no use. Mr and Mrs. Tweedy left the barn for a moment, leaving the hen and rooster all to themselves, dangling upside down from their locked shackles
"Brilliant. What's the next move, ma?" Ricky glances at her
"I don't know." Ginger admits
"Yo, baby doll!" Rocky shouted
"Rocky!" Ginger looks over at him
"I'm coming!" Rocky lands on the metal surface, his feet slipping from not having enough friction. He wasn't moving anywhere
"Hurry!" Ricky pleas as they drew near the chute
"I'm getting there!" Ricky's feet finally get going and he launched himself at his son and mate though Ricky had already dropped down moments before Ginger did as Rocky jumped towards her, missing the hen as she fell down the chute. "Aw, shoot!" He made an unintentional pun
"Rocky!" She called for him
Rocky peered down into the chute, unaware that he was standing on a lever and that it was moving downward under his weight, activating the vegetables
"I'll be down before you can say-" He gasped and looked up. "Mixed vegetables?!"
The potatoes, mushrooms and carrots poured down onto the rooster, making him fall down the chute. As he slid, he saw a sign ahead that said vegetables but flipped over to another sign just before he arrived which said meat. Still zooming downward, Rocky was diverted down another chute that sent him toward a set of rotating saw blades. There was almost no time to think. At the last second, Rocky noticed a pole he could reach and grabbed onto it and slid down, finding himself plummeting down a dark shaft. He landed in a big clump of dough that was chugging along on a conveyor belt and to his surprise, Ginger and Ricky were ahead of him, stuck in their own clumps of dough
"D'oh! Get it? Dough." Rocky tries to cheer them up
"Nice of you to drop in, dad." Ricky said
"We're stuck!" Ginger tries to move her feet
"Nothing to it. Oops." Rocky looks down after trying to take a step forward. He was stuck too
The three chickens heard a loud noise, looking ahead at another menace. A giant roller, flattening all the clumps of dough. They panicked at this since they'd be squished in a matter of minutes. Rocky struggled to get free with no luck. He had an idea and hopped towards his family
"Hang on!" He reaches out a wing, Ginger grabbed hold of it. She extended a wing towards Ricky, the young rooster almost getting squished by the giant roller. He held his mother's wing rather tight
Rocky grabs hold of a chain to his left, freeing himself and the others as they were hoisted up before being knocked off and onto another conveyor belt, plopping down onto a flattened piece of dough
Ginger glances up as a crust presser came down towards them. "Look out!"
She quickly got to her feet, along with her two boys. The roosters had their tail feathers almost completely straightened out as to not let a single feather on their bodies touch the contraption. They relaxed a tad bit after it raised up, however, the ground beneath them raised up as well. They were in a pie tin! The chickens were on yet another conveyor belt, a gravy dispenser up ahead, squirting the brown liquid into each pie that went by. The trio suddenly had diced up vegetables Rain down on them, their pie getting closer to the gravy dispenser. There was nothing to grab onto or use
"This is going to sting." Ricky prepares to be doused in scalding hot gravy
Rocky found a whole carrot in their pie. He had an idea! Once they were in front of the gravy dispenser, he plugged it up with the carrot. It worked! Ginger and her boys high winged each other when a layer of pastry came down on them, covering them up and moving the pie into a large room of sorts. They broke free of the pastry and wiped off the dough from their feathers
"It's like an oven in here." Rocky said
"Uh, dad?" Ricky hoped out of the pie and cautiously approached the wall of the room
Blue flames began to light all around them, shooting out of the floor. Ricky had gotten too close to one of the flames and shields his eyes, stepping back. His left eye was throbbing in unbearable pain. At the front of the room there was a large heavy door and it started to close
Ginger races for the door, the two roosters following after her. Rocky had fallen into a pie while Ginger and Ricky made it safely to the door. They saw Rocky was falling into nearly every pie and knew he needed help. Ricky found a wrench and propped it under the door to keep it open a little longer
Ginger rushes inside to retrieve Rocky while her son stayed at the door
"Hurry!" Ricky calls out, the wrench showing signs of being crushed from the weight of the door
Ginger and Rocky made it just in the nick of time before the door closed completely. Ricky rested for a moment since his left eye was still in a lot of pain and he couldn't really see out of it that much while Rocky cleaned himself off with a rag
Ricky felt gravy dripping onto him. "Dad, get that stuff away from me."
"It's not me." Rocky said
They looked up to see the gravy dispenser above them. Uh oh. They had to go! Now! The machine started to rumble and rattle "She's gonna blow! Run!"
The gravy squirter finally spat out the carrot, shooting past the three chickens and knocking some gears loose, clattering down a ramp after the birds, gears and cogs flying past them every which way. One of them made contact with the right side of Ricky's beak, the young rooster holding back from crowing in pain. The cogs behind them were on their heels and were about to shred them when Rocky grabbed a chain after taking hold of Ginger's wing, Ricky grabbing onto Ginger's arm at the last second as they swung out over a frightening chasm of gears and out of the pie machine. They landed on a pie box and rested for a moment
Ginger and Rocky moved out of the way as a giant press came down from overhead, stamping a label on Ricky's chest. Ginger peeled it off of him after reading it, horrified
"Ouch!" Ricky holds his chest
"We've got to tell the others, come on." Ginger said and scrambled off, Rocky and Ricky following the British hen
Ricky sat down outside on the roof of hut three, his head hanging low as Ginger held together a meeting about what they were up against. How much longer would it be until they would all become chicken pies? He heard someone behind him but didn't budge from where he was sitting. The chicken sat down next to him though kept a good distance from the rooster
"Hey. Are you alright?" Buttercup noticed the fresh scar on his beak, red still on it. Mac had cleaned it up a bit before he left but it was still oozing red liquid a little
"No. I didn't think I'd make it out of there alive. I- I was scared the whole time to be honest." Ricky puts a wing over his left eye
"I wanted to tell you that you were very brave, escaping from the pie machine." Buttercup turns his head towards her more and removed his wing from his face, slightly gasping at the sight of his left eye being almost hazy or milky
"Thanks." Ricky turns away
"You know, I think that was the first time I ever heard you do something courageous. I must admit, I admire that. I'm not a very courageous hen but I try to be." Buttercup went on
"I was scared of my own shadow when I was a chick. My parents always protected me from the scary mud puddles and killer water troughs." Ricky laughs a bit at recalling those memories from his younger days. "Never in a million years would I ever have thought of myself as courageous. I didn't even know where it came from. I suppose it was because I want to try and keep those I care about the most safe."
"Any of us would have done the same thing if it was one of our family members." Buttercup looks out into the distance
"Near death experiences aren't the greatest." Ricky sighs softly, putting his wings on the surface of the roof
"I wouldn't doubt it." Buttercup said. She went to put her wings down when she felt something warm and soft below one of them. She had accidentally touched wings with Ricky, both of them moving away from the surprising contact
"Sorry." She glances at him
"Don't be." Ricky smiles a bit. Was it just him or did she look tantalizingly beautiful in the moonlight?
Buttercup kissed him on the cheek. "Goodnight Ricky." She said before standing up and making her way off of the roof
Ricky blushes slightly and touched his cheek where she had kissed him. He couldn't describe it, feeling things he never felt in his life. What did it mean? He got down from the roof and went back to hut seventeen were he saw a nervous Rocky standing outside, using a toothpick
"You ok, pop?" Ricky watched him fiddle with the toothpick in his mouth. It was easy to read the emotion on his father's face, one he rarely saw. He was feeling bad, feeling responsible. But about what?
Rocky couldn't bring himself to tell his family and the rest of the chickens that he had led them all on and now Ginger was pinning all her hopes on something that would never- could never- happen. "Hm? Oh I'm fine, son. So...you and Buttercup. Are you both..." Rocky trails off
"We're not a thing, dad." Ricky looks away
"Strike while the iron is hot. She cares about you a lot, among other things, and you don't want to miss your chance. I know you've dated a lot of hens here but maybe she's that special someone you've been looking for.Your mother and I want you to be with someone who makes you happy. I've dated my fair share of hens before settling down with your mom." Rocky throws the toothpick onto the ground
Ricky lets his father's words sink in. He certainly wasn't wrong. And he had to admit that he did feel a bit of a connection between the hen as well as getting the feeling of butterflies in his stomach when she was around
"Goodnight kid. And put a bandage on your beak." Rocky walks off
Ricky watched him leave for a second before he went inside the hut. He went over to Buttercup just as she was settling in her bunk. She jumped slightly upon seeing the young rooster. "Can we talk? Outside?" Ricky rubs the back of his neck
Buttercup nods and got out of her nest. She followed after him to behind hut seventeen. What could he possibly want to talk to her about?
"I want you to know that I- i...like you...a lot. And I know you do too." Ricky tugs at his bandanna
"Are you suggesting that we date?" Buttercup asked
"If you want to. I won't pressure you into it." Ricky holds up his wings
"Ricky, I'd love to but...not under these stressful circumstances." Buttercup glances down at her wings
"We can make this work somehow if that's what you're worried about." Ricky said
"I mean I can't commit myself to you without knowing if we're even going to make it out of here alive! It's only a matter of time before we're all doomed." Buttercup explains, Ricky's tail feathers lowering. He had never been turned down by a hen before
"I hope you find what you're looking for." Buttercup walked away
Ricky watched her leave. "I think I did..." He said to himself. He walked back to hut seventeen and got ready for bed
Lillian, Grayson and Ava crowded around his bunk just as he got comfortable
"Wow. You look awful." Ava cringed
"I'll say. You know, you're a fruit loop for going after Mr. Tweedy." Lillian folds her wings
"Hey, give him a break. At least he got out of there alive. You holding up ok, little brother?" Grayson had a look of worry
"I'm fine. My eye and beak hurt but I'm sure it'll pass." Ricky shrugs. He didn't want to admit that the experience also traumatized him and he'd feel like the odd bird out with his injuries
"At least it'll keep you from landing a girlfriend, chap." Grayson laughs lightly
"Jolly good, Gray." Lillian laughs
"Alright you three. Leave your brother alone." Ginger came over to her kids
Lillian, Grayson and Ava did as their mom asked, returning to their nests
"I'm sorry about what happened, darling." Ginger looks at Ricky. She felt guilty about putting her 'little' boy through that traumatic experience
"Its not your fault. You and dad did everything that you could to save us, ma." Ricky said
Ginger kisses the young rooster on his forehead. "I know. Get some rest." She said before going outside to dream about freedom like she always did
Ginger found Rocky sitting on a rooftop and joined him. She had an apology to make and so did Rocky
"I'm sorry that I've been harsh on you lately. What I mean is...thank you. For saving my life. For saving our lives." Ginger said
"It's not your fault." Rocky glances down at his wings
"You know, every night I look out to that hill and just imagine what it must be like to be free. It's funny, I've never felt grass beneath my feet." Ginger goes on
Rocky looks to his mate with a sympathetic expression. It must have been awful for her to grow up in this place
"I'm sorry, darling. Did you have something you wanted to tell me?" Ginger smiles at the rooster
"Uh, yeah. Um...it's just that...life, as I've experienced it, you know. I uh...came to realize that it's full of disappointments." Rocky chooses his words carefully
"You mean grass isn't all that it's cracked up to be?" Ginger teases him
"Grass! Exactly grass! It's always greener on the other side! And then you get there and it's brown and prickly. You see what I'm trying to say
Ginger nods for a second then shakes her head no
"What I'm trying to say is..." Rocky clenched his wings and looked his mate in her eyes, losing his train of thought after getting lost in her green orbs
"You're welcome." He sighed, propping a wing up and resting his face on it
"You know, that hill looks closer tonight than it ever has before." Ginger stares off into the distance
Rocky smiles to himself as he watched Ginger. He certainly was a lucky rooster to have the feisty hen in his life. But he felt guilty about keeping this lie from her. He didn't know how to tell her he couldn't fly. He'd feel even more guilty. Rocky didn't like to give anyone false hope especially considering how much Ginger dreamed of being free. When the American rooster met her, he remembered Ginger telling him all about how she wanted to live her life off of the farm, somewhere secluded where she could do as she pleased with no hassle of laying eggs everyday. Though of course she had to put her dream on hold after their kids came along, until they were old enough to care for themselves that is
"Come here, doll face." He chuckled softly
Ginger moves closer to Rocky and the couple shares a tender kiss, hoping and praying that everything would work out in the end
Lillian went for a walk around the chicken yard since she had trouble sleeping. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye and went to check it out. An old tethered backpack was sticking out from under one of the huts. Odd. She picked it up and searched the contents inside of it. What she found completely shocked her, horrified yet putting together the pieces of the puzzle. Everything made sense now...
I hope you're all enjoying the story. Until the next chapter