Chapter Forty

The creator smiled eerily as Jessica shrieked and jumped back.

Michael started to run towards the living room and Jessica and I followed, but another creator stood blocking the doorway.

“Where you going?” he asked derisively, his eyes glimmering.

“Leave us alone,” I spat. “Or at least them,” I gestured to Michael and Jessica.

The creator only smiled at me. “Drew, Drew, Drew,” he trilled, shaking his head. “Don’t you want to be perfect?”

“No!” I nearly shouted.

His mocking air faltered and for a moment he looked truly taken aback. “Why not?”

“Because I’m not perfect, and I never was.”

His eyes narrowed as if I were insulting him and not myself. I glanced over the two creators. I could probably take them down in a few seconds. My mind raced over the steps I would take, the time, the precision.

The creator spoke again as if reading my thoughts. “Don’t get any ideas. We have androids outside who are a better match for you. No getting away again this time.” He smiled, regaining his composure.

My heart sank a little but, I wasn’t ready to give up—not yet. I knew I didn’t stand a chance against several androids, especially with Michael and Jessica in tow.

But I didn’t see them now and I had to take the chance. It was now or never because defeat was something I wasn’t ready to face. I lunged for the creator blocking the doorway to the living room, shoving him over and knocking the breath out of him while he lay on the floor fighting to inhale.

Michael, Jessica and I shot past him into the living room and were out the back door before the other creator had a chance to reach us. We sprinted across their lawn and into the trees at the far end of their backyard. We raced through the brush and slowly the thinned outcrop of trees became dense. The area was leading into a forest, large enough, I'd hoped, to conceal us for as long as we needed.

We plunged into the woods, running blindly through the trees and bushes, hearing the brush unsettle beneath our feet as we dashed through. It was completely quiet except for the sounds of our breathing, disturbing the tranquility of whatever had been before us. But all of a sudden we heard shouts, far away shouts, telling me that we had made it farther from the house than I had thought. I heard voices calling to one another and I knew instantly that they were sending androids after us.

I started to run faster, but slowed a little when I realized Jessica and Michael were having a hard time keeping up. My breath was starting to come in gasps and my eyes were starting to blur. Suddenly Jessica stopped, gasping and coughing from running so hard. We all paused to catch our breath, while Jessica sat down.

“What was that?” she cried. “Are they trying to kill you?” She was close to tears and I couldn’t blame her.

“In a way,” I admitted. I opened my mouth to proclaim their plans of shutting me off before I realized that it wasn’t like I was talking to Yvonne or Jeremy ... this girl was human. I stood there for a moment, my mouth partly open while Jessica’s frightened expression turned puzzled.

“They want to shut me off,” I eventually whispered, desperately trying to find some gentler way to put it, but not finding one.

Jessica looked blankly back at me.

I glanced over at Michael. He knew what I was, but not everything about my mission. Actually, the more I thought about it, his knowledge barely skimmed the surface of my existence. He gave me a look that I guessed was trying to be encouraging, but it only made my stomach knot.

“Jessica ... I need to tell you something,” I said, glancing nervously at the forest behind us, praying that the androids wouldn’t come too soon.

She looked at me with fearful expectancy, her eyes rounded, anxiety written all over them.

I hesitated, but then reminded myself that I didn’t have time to beat around the bush and that whatever Jessica’s reaction was, she deserved to know. I ran my fingers through my hair, combing through the knots and pulling it out of my face. “I’m an android,” I said simply, forcing myself to look her in the face. “Those people were my creators. I was designed for a mission to observe people and bring them to the Institution. I kind of ... rebelled and now they want to shut me off.” I said it quickly, the nutshell version, and hoping they wouldn’t freak out, but knowing deep down that was a crazy wish.

Jessica’s fearful expression morphed into something more like shock and terror, like Michael’s had when he had found out. I forced myself to look back at her, to not look away or stutter some inconsequential excuse. This is what I was and there was no use trying to explain it. Michael looked equally surprised, like my newest declaration had only confirmed my earlier talk with him.

“Uh ...” Jessica started, “any other time I would have said you were joking , but after what we’ve been through, I can’t think of any reason why you’d be kidding me right now,” she said slowly.

“It’s true,” I answered.

Jessica didn’t reply. She just sat there staring ahead of her. I couldn’t help but notice the way she wrapped her arms around herself and twisted slightly away. It was as if she couldn’t stand the thought of me being so close to her, almost touching her. Me ... an android, a machine.

Suddenly I heard a twig crack and twisted in the direction of the noise. Only then did I realize I couldn’t hear the voices or footsteps of the creators anymore. Had they gone a different way? My heart pounded as dread slowly seeped through me. I saw a dark shape out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned nothing was there. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and I hoped it had only been my imagination, but deep down I knew someone was there.

“Drew?” Michael asked, noticing my uncertainty. “You okay?”

“I heard something,” I said quickly.

Just then, a figure stepped out into the clearing, her expression smug, eyes glinting. I started to pull Jessica to her feet to run, but the figure’s voice stopped me.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Yvonne’s syrupy voice called.

I turned stiffly around, meeting her gaze. She smiled at me, both hands on her hips while worry and dread raced throughout my body and seemed to engulf me. Yvonne could turn me in if she wanted. Or she could save our lives. It was all up to her.

“Don’t worry.” She smiled, dangling something up in the air. “They’re at least a few miles from here by now.”

I frowned slowly. “What’s that?”

“A tracking device. For you.”

“Me?” I asked numbly.

She nodded. “Didn’t you know? We all have one,” she stated matter-of-factly as if this were common knowledge.

Jessica was now standing beside me, glaring at Yvonne. Apparently, she recognized her as the one who had “stolen” Michael from me. I was surprised to see her in such a defensive mood, considering what I’d just revealed to her.

“I just happen to be in charge of yours. You see, there are so many androids and there’s a lot of maintenance that has to do with these little things,” Yvonne explained, as if her job of keeping track of mine was the burden of a lifetime. “So they assign some of us to be in charge of a handful or so. Those of us they trust, of course.” She laughed, but her smile didn’t meet her eyes. “They told me to get you. I sent them off in the other direction because I wanted to talk.”

I relaxed a little knowing that they were far away searching for us, but was still tense knowing that Yvonne was in control here. Not a good combination...

“I wanted to tell you something that I’ve been trying to tell you for some time now.” She gave me a look and I remembered all the times I had snubbed her at the Institution.

“Go on,” I said, trying to be polite. I knew I was walking on fragile ground.

“Well, like I had said before, this should interest you a great deal.” She looked at me, her smile gone, replaced by seriousness. “I saw what it meant to you to be able to have a soul,” she stated, sounding almost human for a moment; something Yvonne would rather die than be to called. “I saw how badly you wanted it. I mean, I already had my suspicions about what the creators were doing, but when I looked into it, I found out a lot ...” She paused. “Quite frankly, I didn’t care at all, but I thought you might.” She rolled her eyes. “Those people we bring in, they’re brought in to become one of us.”

The memory of the boy on the operating table came rushing back to me and suddenly things started to click, to fall into the only logical places they could be. He had been there to be turned into one of us ... not to be used as a template. My mind was whirling with dozens of thoughts, but all of a sudden, something hit me. If they were once humans and now they were mechanical...

“They’re turned mechanical, just like us. So that means, at one time or another, we were just like them.” Yvonne stopped for a moment, watching my expression with the same amusement a cat might have watching its prey die.

We had been one of them? The words swirled through my head like weighted feathers, light and airy before crashing down to earth with unquestionable reality. I felt like I had just been knocked off my feet. I had been human? The thought was absolutely staggering. But did that mean ...? I looked up at Yvonne and I knew she could probably read the hope in my expression. And she was enjoying every minute of it. Not the fact that my dreams were coming true, the fact that everything I had hoped for was already mine, but just the control of it all. She liked watching my reactions and having power over them.

“Yes, Drew,” she affirmed, like she was talking to a child. “You do have a soul.”