Ginger and the flock were up early, gathered outside hut seventeen and anxiously awaiting for Rocky's flying demonstration though Grayson and his sisters weren't entirely convinced. Especially Lillian. She found her father's circus poster and she felt betrayed by his lie. How could he stoop so low as to leading everyone on? Ginger left to go get Rocky
"I bet a bag of chicken feed that no one will lift an inch off the ground." Grayson said
"Oh yeah? I'll take you on that bet because I know we're going to fly out of here." Ava holds her head high in confidence
"Lil? Ricky? You in on it too?" Grayson looks past his little sister
Ricky isolated himself from the others. He was in a slump and didn't want to be bothered for a long...long time. He glances at his brother for a quick second before shaking his head
Lillian refused to make eye contact with her siblings
Ginger returned without Rocky which confused the others. Where was he? He promised to be there bright and early
"I don't understand. Where could he be?" The British hen thinks for a moment
Lillian clears her throat which gets everyone's attention. She reached under her scarf and pulled out something that was folded. She unfolded it, staring at it for a moment with hatred before showing it to the others. Rocky's circus poster. It showed the rooster being shot out of a cannon. It started to downpour on the chickens as they stared at the poster, shocked that they had been lied to. They had lost all hope again
"No." Ricky said to himself. He approached Lillian and took the poster from her. This had to be some kind of cruel joke. This couldn't have been the same rooster who was his father. The rooster he had always looked up to for as long as he could remember
"Dad couldn't fly after all. Not on his own..." Ava trails off
"Talk about disappointment." Grayson shook his head
"I knew he was lying all along. In fact, I'm not even certain he's American." Bunty folds her wings
"How many other lies has he told us?" Lillian furrows her brow and marched away. She went to the main gate and leaned against it, thinking intensely. This was a hard pill for her to swallow. How could she trust her dad again after all of this?
flashback*
A six month old Lillian was playing by the fence, not having a care in the world as the sun began to set. She heard her parents calling for her to come inside as it started to get cold and it was close to her bedtime
Lillian ignores her parents calls and continues to play. She saw a scary monster by one of the huts and chirps out of surprise
The young chick trembled in fear and started to back away when she bumped into something. She looked up to see her father smiling down at her
"Hey sweetie. Haven't you heard us?" Rocky puts his wings on his hips
"There's a- a monster, daddy! It's gonna get me!" Lillian tells the adult
"Monster? What monster?" Rocky looks all around. He didn't see any monster of sorts until his eyes landed on something that might have been scaring his daughter. Her shadow
"I think I found your monster." He chuckled, pointing at her shadow to show her it was nothing to fear
Lillian jumped and scrambled behind her dad. "Monster!"
Rocky turns around and picked up the chick. He tried his best to comfort his daughter though she didn't really like to be held by her parents. "Listen. I won't let anything harm you. Not even your own shadow."
"Pwomise?" Lillian sniffled
"I promise, sweetheart. I'd never lie to you." Rocky kisses her on the forehead
Lillian felt better at this and moved closer to her father before letting out a yawn
Rocky walked back to hut seventeen. "Let's get you to bed."
"I'm not tired." Lillian yawns once more
"Mhm. Sure you aren't." Rocky smiles
end of flashback*
Lillian sighed softly and shook her head. He'd never lie to her? Well things have definitely changed since then. She heard footsteps on the fresh mud and glances over her shoulder
"Hey..." Rocky greets
"Where have you been, Mr. Liar." Lillian scoffs
"Lillian, I know you're mad, you're not the only one but I'm truly sorry. I didn't know what else to do. I- I don't how I could possibly make this up to anyone." Rocky looks away
Ginger, Grayson, Ava and Ricky came over to see if Lillian was ok
The green eyed hen marched up to her mate and slapped him. "How could you?! We all trusted you and you lied!"
"Ginger, I'm sorry. I-" Rocky rubs the side of his face
"Dad, why did you do it? You always lectured us about being honest but what do you call this? I always looked up to you and now I'm not sure if I do anymore. I don't know how many other lies you've told us. I wish you weren't my father." Ricky speaks up. He had to get this off of his chest regardless if it hurt Rocky's feelings
As a matter of fact, his words did hurt Rocky. The Rhode Island Red was speechless as he let his son's words sink in. "Look, I- I don't expect anyone to forgive me but I just couldn't get the words out that I couldn't fly on my own. Ginger, I never saw you look so happy before and full of life when you thought I could. I gave everyone false hope about being free and I'm terribly sorry."
"Sorry doesn't change what you did, dad." Ava said
Grayson turned to his mother. "I told you not to pin your dreams on the flying thing." He folds his wings
"I know..." Ginger sighed
Rocky hung his head and walked away from his family. He knew that he messed up big time and there was nothing he could do to fix it
Lillian overheard Fowler rambling on about his RAF days and something about a crate. That's when she had an idea. She went to her grandpa's whereabouts and asked him what the RAF stood for
"Why the Royal Air Force of course." Fowler answers her
The old bird took her to his hut and showed the hens a few of his trinkets from his RAF days, Lillian taking an envelope he had handed her. It showed a flying machine on it
"You mean you flew? In one of these?" Ginger asked, peering over her daughters shoulder
"Gorgeous, isn't she?" Fowler said before going on with one of his stories
"Grandpa gave us the answer to our prayers. We're still going to fly out of here!" Lillian smiles, everyone giving her confused expressions
"Did you say fly?" Grayson asked
"I sure did. Grandpa provided the answer. We'll make a crate." Lillian tells everyone
"Babs you'll be in charge of manufacturing, Mac you'll handle engineering, Fowler will be chief aviation advisor, Grayson- diversions. Bunty. Eggs." Ginger assigned jobs to those she felt were suitable
"Eggs?!" Nick and Fetcher pop up from under a floorboard
"Eggs." Ginger confirms
"Right. Just like the ones that rooster was gonna lay. Only roosters don't lay eggs, do they?" Nick said
"Don't they?" Fetcher asked, confused
"No, you pillock." Grayson rolls his eyes. "Mom, do I really have to do distractions? Is it because of what I told you?"
"Maybe. Now get moving." Ginger shoos her son away. The feisty hen returned her attention to the rats. Lillian handed her a list of the materials they needed. "One egg for every item on the list. First payment in advance." An egg landed in her wing
"Right, when do we start?" The rats replied eagerly
Grayson ran over to the fence, waving his arms and squawking wildly. On the other side of the fence, the dogs barked and rushed at him. Grayson ran along the fence one way and the dogs followed. He ran the other way and the dogs followed, wild to get through the chain link. Fortunately, the fence was strong enough to keep the dogs out
"What do I have to do, paint a target on my butt?" Grayson laughs at the mutts
Meanwhile, Ava and Agnes were scurrying toward hut seventeen, carrying a wingful of various and sundry supplies. "Your brother is so brave." Agnes sighs, glancing back before heading inside. Ava rolls her eyes. Oh brother...
The flock was hard at work, not stopping for anything as they hurried to get this plan into full swing. There was absolutely no time to lose if they planned on escaping before the pie machine was back up and running. Lillian approaches her mother with Ava since the young hens weren't sure what to help with next
"Mom? What needs done?" Ava taps her on the shoulder
"I need you to talk to your father. We need all the help we can get." Ginger turns to look at them
"Why can't you do it?" Lillian raises a brow
"I need to make sure everything is running smoothly here. Please, go find him and talk to him." Ginger begs of her daughters
"Fine." Ava sighs. She left the hut with Lillian, hearing Ginger giving orders to the others from outside. They went to ask Grayson if he's seen their mother but he was still busy with the dogs so they let him be. The sisters decided to split up in order to cover more ground. It took about twenty minutes or maybe even less for Ava to find the Rhode Island Red, standing in one of the corners of the fence, secluding himself and wallowing in misery
"Dad?" She approaches him
"What is it?" Rocky doesn't even bother looking at her
"We need your help. We can't do this alone." Ava takes a step forward
"I- I can't. Not after everything I've done." Rocky sighs
"Nobody's perfect. We all have flaws. Sometimes we learn to forget about them and move on. If you don't want to help then you don't have to." Ava said, going off to find Lillian so they could go back to hut seventeen
They were only a few inches from the hut door when they stopped in their tracks at the sound of the machine running. The chickens froze for a moment before hearing the machine die again
"That was close." Lillian mutters
Rocky was busy debating if he should help out or not. What good could he do? He broke away from his thoughts after seeing something near the old shed. He squinted his eyes to see it was Ricky. What on earth was he doing outside the fence?
"Ricky?" He calls out to him an attempt to get his attention
Unfortunately Ricky couldn't hear his father, disappearing behind the building. Rocky had a lot of questions buzzing around in his mind. Was Ricky leaving for good or did he have a plan? Was there something he needed for the escape plan? The questions were endless...
Until the next chapter