The Red Bird

Chapter 15-The Red Bird Needs To Think Of Something

(And Fast)

This is where my quick thinking needs to come into play.

Unfortunately, it is sprinting away from me faster than Gladys can insult me.

So I just stand there, dumbfounded. 

No one moves. We all just stare at each other.

I pry Scott's fingers from my arm and stand in front of everyone.

"Clearly, you have to turn me in," I start, trying to think of how to do this as I speak.

"No! You can't do that!" Scott says, looking terribly upset.

"I'm not done yet," I say, holding up a finger to shush him. "I need to be prepared first."

"How do you prepare to die?!" Scott says frantically.

"That's not what I'll be preparing for, though. I'm going to be preparing for a fight."

Scott doesn't interject this time.

"You can turn me in. That way, she'll, hopefully, think that you're doing what she wants and you'll be off the hook. Then, I'll use the element of surprise and spring an attack. It'll be tough, but it's for the good of the world!" I say, throwing a fist in the air in an attempt to lighten the mood a little.

Scott looks unimpressed, but Harvey cracks a small smile and Gladys seems to be processing what I said.

Heather emerges from the bathroom, looking exhausted, but much better than she had when she went in.

"What did I miss?" she asks, even though she seems to not want to know the answer to her question.

"We have a plan," Harvey says excitedly. "We have a plan!" he says again, louder this time.

"Yes, we do," Gladys agrees. I can't tell if she thinks it's a good plan or not though. However, she hasn't really said anything about it yet, so that could be a good thing...

"What's the plan?" Heather asks, her curiosity taking over.

"Carol's going to turn herself in, pretty much," Scott says sourly.

"But not without a crap-ton of training and preparing first!" I throw in quickly, before Heather can get really sad again. 

She looks skeptical, but she definitely could've reacted in worse ways.

"So, how are you going to do that? You don't know what kinds of tricks she could have up those ginormous sleeves of hers..." Heather says. She always used to poke fun at the Queen's 'special event' robe that has sleeves longer than the Great Wall of China.

"Well, then I guess I'll just have to prepare for everything!" 

"How are you gonna do that? That's physically impossible, not to mention if it were possible, it would certainly extend our deadline..." Scott adds.

"Stop being a Debbie Downer and start being a... Uh..." I pause, trying to think of something clever. "A Happy Happinson!" 

"Happinson?" he says slowly.

"IT COULD BE A NAME!" I yell. "DON'T MAKE FUN OF IT BECAUSE IT'S WEIRD!"

"Why are you getting so defensive? You made it up!" he says, failing to hide a small smile.

"YOU'RE MADE UP!" I yell back, which for whatever reason I'm getting the impression that it's true.

He smiles lightly and takes one of my hands that just stop waving around in the air.

"So... You really wanna do this..." he says, looking down at my hand.

"Yeah... We don't have too much of a choice now, do we?" I say, also looking at my hand.

"I suppose," he replies, looking up with sad eyes and a matching smile.

"Well then, let's get down to business!" I say, 

"To defeat!" Heather continues. Yay! She's fixed!

"The Queen!" Scott finishes.

I internally scream. I've always wanted to have a Disney song moment in real life. I'm still really salty about them deciding not to make any more movies... I shall fix that first thing when I become Queen!

Scott, Heather, and I laugh, and for a moment there I think we forgot about all of our worries. It was a good feeling while it lasted.

Gladys wheels over and pats my back. "So, miss warrior, how do you think you're going to prepare for this?"

"By training. Isn't that what I had said."

"Yes, but did you get past that part and decide how you're going to train?"

"Uh..."

"That's what I thought. Luckily for you, I could probably round up something for you," Gladys replies as she wheels around the corner and disappears into their garage.

"I can make some kind of robot that you could fight with! I could even try to make it look and sound like the Queen!" Scott says excitedly, clearly ready to do some nerdy stuff.

"I'll just do my best to make it look like I'm helping the Queen instead of you guys..." Harvey says, looking us all over. "Perhaps I'll find some useful information along the way that I can slip to you. For now though, why don't you all go back over to your house and do some planning and training there. I'll be here if you need me, but if I don't answer, I'm probably talking to the Queen." He turns away, but then seems to have second thoughts, as he turns back and adds, "If she calls any of you, answer it when no one else is in the room! Make sure you're alone, and don't spill any information or it would be over for all of us!" And with that, he leaves us.

Back at the Queen's conference room...

"I don't know, my Queen..." my head servant says meekly. "What if he's helping them?"

"Of course he's helping them!" I spit, slamming my fist on the table, which makes everyone jump back in their seats. "What, do you think I'm so stupid as to let them all live no matter which route they choose? They're all going to meet the pointy end of my sword whether they like it or not!" I yell, standing up abruptly to pace the room for the fourth time in this little meeting. My servant stumbles out of the way as I brush past her.

"Perhaps we should just infiltrate their houses and get it over with. What good is it doing anyone to leave them free to run around whenever they please? They could be getting people to riot for all we know," my police chief says, following me with his eyes.

"I have thought about that before..." I say, more to myself than him. "Perhaps we should call a lock down."

"What should we say our reason for it is? People may get suspicious if we just call one out of the blue."

"Hmm..." I say, pausing my pacing to think. "Maybe- no... Perhaps we could say we need to practice in the event that we are getting attacked by another country."

"That makes sense..." he says, nodding his head and stroking his beard. "What should we threaten them with if we see them out and about?"

"If someone other than them is out, a good few days in jail would do, but a good threat should keep them in anyway. Maybe we can say we'll try them for treason and they'll be executed."

"Sounds good... How long will we do this for?"

"Until the deadline I gave them."

"How are we going to keep them all from communicating?"

"We'll cut the lines, or maybe just theirs... Or, we could listen into their calls..." I say, the idea lighting up into many different ideas on how I can keep answers.

"So, what's our plan then? Shut down and cut all the lines except for theirs?"

"Yes," I say, smiling widely. "That is what we're going to do. Now, go announce it and make sure everyone is preparing to stay home for a while."

As the chief stood up and prepared to leave, I stopped him and added, "Oh, could you also give the Head Scientist a call? I want him to join us for the second part of the conference..."