Mechanical (15 page)

She looked up and after a moment, smiled
hesitantly. “Okay.”

Suddenly, I felt this terrible feeling
gnawing away at the pit of my stomach, threatening to consume me. I
felt so guilty about what I was doing. Gloria had no idea what lay
in store for her. And neither did I. All I knew was that it wasn’t
good. But somehow I found myself still leading her down the
sidewalk, closer and closer to the Institution.

We talked a little on the way, not about
much, just small things that didn’t really matter. Just things to
pass the time and make the situation less awkward. I silently
screamed at the creators for putting me through this, and at myself
for wishing it.

When we finally came just a few yards away
from the Institution, I blanked. What now?

“My house is that way,” Gloria informed me,
pointing across the street where the road forked.

“Um, okay,” I said, trying to think fast. I
looked frantically back and forth between Gloria and the
Institution. What should I do?

They’re going to be so angry if I don’t
get her in there,
I thought.

A part of me told me to just grab her arm and
haul her inside, but for some reason my body just wouldn’t
move.

Do your job, Drew,
something inside of
me screamed.
Just do it.

But before I could make any decision, the
doors to the Institution burst open and about five androids ran out
towards Gloria. I saw the curiosity in Gloria’s eyes turn to fear
when she realized they were directed at her. She screamed and tried
to run the other way, but they were faster and caught her quickly.
Almost too quickly. The way an owl might easily devour an
unprotected mouse.

“Drew!” she cried, looking at me in
disbelief.

Her imploring eyes turned accusatory, but any
words I might have said died inside of me and shriveled into
nothing. I could only stare in horror as they hauled Gloria towards
the steps, guilt entwining itself within me at the realization of
what
I’d
done.

They dragged the screaming Gloria into the
building and I ran after them. I watched as she was pulled through
the doors at the end of the hallway like all the others. I grabbed
one of the creators by the arm as he came out the door. “What are
you doing to her?” I asked him.

He shook me off. “Nothing.”

“It’s not right, whatever it is,” I called
after him. “It’s not right!”

He turned around to confront me. “Look,” he
told me. “This is your mission. It’s what you were created to do.
So
do
it.” He didn’t look happy. “This school you’re going
to and your friends are getting in the way of all this. So unless
you shape up, we’re gonna take you away from it.” He turned and
headed out of the room.

I watched him go, not even sure what emotions
were bubbling around inside of me. They weren’t nice emotions like
I had first experienced—happy, laughing. They were cold and sickly,
threatening to turn me into something evil I never knew I was
capable of becoming. And it scared me.

“Just play it right to get what you want,” I
heard Yvonne’s voice from behind me.

I didn’t even turn around to greet her. I
wasn’t sure which Drew would spring to life upon seeing her; the
old Drew, the rebellious Drew, or this new girl, full of anger and
hatred and emotions that frightened me more than creators did and
whatever they were doing.

I didn’t look at Yvonne. I just left the
room.

Chapter Thirty-One

“His name is Dustin Bennett,” David stated,
handing me the paper from the driver’s seat. I looked down at the
boy in the picture with light brown hair and blue eyes like mine.
Dustin was a grade older than I was, but was still in my Spanish
class. He sat a few seats behind me and we had been assigned in
groups together before.

“Okay ... You want me to bring him to the
Institution?”

David nodded.

“On one condition.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re in no position to
be making conditions.”

“Whatever. I just don’t want it to be like
the Gloria incident,” I said firmly. “I do not want screaming and
struggling. Please.”

David was silent for a moment. “Okay. Just
get him inside. Tell him you like him or something.”

There was a pause. I gave him a look to
demonstrate my disbelief. “Like him? What do you mean?”

David rolled his eyes. “Drew, you’re very
pretty.” It wasn’t a compliment and I knew he hadn't intended it to
be one. He stated it like he might state any other fact, such as
the way I was created, the mechanical wiring inside of me. I turned
to gape at him.

“You’re an android. You’re appearance far
surpasses any of the other girls at your school.” David parked the
car on the curb outside the front doors and leaned over to me,
glancing briefly at the picture in my hand. “Believe me when I say
that Dustin will be ecstatic to walk home with you,” he
declared.

I stared at David for a few seconds, the
image of Dustin ingrained in my mind. The creators wanted me to
lure him to the Institution by professing my eternal love for him?
For some reason this just seemed ... wrong. Not to mention,
weird.

David’s intent stare was unnerving me, so I
grabbed my bag and hopped out. I headed up the school stairs,
already formulating a plan in my mind. I mentally cringed at the
thought, but I knew I had to do it. No matter what my reservations
where, I was an android and this was my mission. I wasn’t even
supposed to have emotions, so letting them get in the way was
completely unacceptable.

I spotted Dustin in the hallway standing by
his locker and I walked his way. “Hello Dustin,” I said as I
approached.

He looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Um ... hi.” He smiled tentatively.

I smiled back, forcing down the embarrassment
of what I was doing and hoped I looked as pretty as David had
declared. Yvonne came to my mind and I admitted briefly to myself
that she probably would have had no problem at all with this
assignment.

I brought the memories of the few times
Dustin and I had talked to the surface of my mind, trying to draw
anything I could from them.

Dustin put his books down and gave me his
full attention. “How are you?” he asked, although he still seemed
confused as to why I was here.

“I’m good,” I replied lamely. I decided at
that moment to desert any effort of eye-batting or flirty smiles
and just get to the point. “Would you want to walk me home today?”
My words hung flatly in the silence around us. For a moment, I
thought I had totally blown the whole mission, but then Dustin’s
eyes slowly lit up and he smiled back at me, although still looking
surprised. “Yeah,” he said slowly, incredulously. “I would love
to.”

I internally sighed with relief and flashed
Dustin the brightest smile I could muster without looking creepy.
“I’ll see you later, then.” With a wave, I headed on my way,
feeling utterly embarrassed and guilty about leading him on.

This is your mission.
I heard the
creator’s words again and again in my head.
This is what you
were made for. This is your purpose.

After school, Dustin met me outside and we
started walking in the direction of the Institution. “So ...”
Dustin began, eyeing me. “What was all this about?” Amusement
lingered in his eyes and I could tell he wasn’t the least put out.
His house was kind of in my direction, anyway.

I smiled, although it felt forced. “I just
wanted to walk with you.” I looked up to see him smiling back. I
turned to look straight again, feeling nervous and upset. I didn’t
know how to do this. I didn’t know how I was supposed to act, how I
was supposed to get him into the Institution and most importantly,
what would be done to him while he was there. But in the meantime,
I would have to act.

Dustin and I chatted most of the walk there.
He asked me about my interests and I made up hobbies and activities
I claimed to do on a regular basis. When he started talking about
what he liked to do, that gnawing feeling returned and I forced
myself not to care about him.

“Is your house far from here?” he asked after
awhile.

I shook my head. “Not that much. It’s
actually a condo.” My lie and my smile felt hollow.

Finally, we reached the Institution and I
hurried up the front steps, Dustin right behind me, claiming to
walk me to my door. Once in the lobby, my gut wrenched when I saw a
creator and two androids hurrying towards Dustin. He frowned in
curiosity when they approached him, glancing to me and back to
them. When one of the androids grabbed his arm, he tried to pull
away and I knew he was shocked by their strength.

“Drew?”

I backed away from the androids and the sound
of Dustin’s startled voice, wishing it would all disappear. Dustin
struggled and both of the androids needed to hold him as he was
hauled through the ‘forbidden’ doors. I stood there for a moment
staring at the doors swinging back and forth and slowly coming to a
stop, hearing the echo of Dustin’s shouts in my mind.

For a moment, I felt frustrated, determined,
and I sat down on the lobby bench. I decided I would wait there
until Dustin came out. I wanted to know what they were doing and
maybe if I caught him right away, I would be able to tell. I needed
answers. I needed to know. If I was going to be able to live with
what I was doing, I had to understand why.

As the minutes turned into hours, the thought
of leaving to go do something,
anything,
lingered in my
mind, but I knew I had to wait for Dustin. I would never forgive
myself if I didn’t.

By the time he finally walked through those
doors, it was almost three o’clock in the morning and I had busied
myself with tying and re-tying my shoelaces in various knots and
bows. When I saw him, I sat up quickly then stood, intending to
speak to him. Strangely, he didn’t look at all like the Dustin I
had walked home with and for a brief moment, I wondered if I had
been mistaken. He walked with extremely good posture, unlike his
usual slouch, and his eyes glazed over as he stared straight
ahead.

“Dustin,” I called, walking towards him.

He looked at me, no sign of recognition in
his face.

“What did they do?”

He kept walking towards the door.

“Dustin?”

He ignored me. I watched him leave, feeling a
hollowness overwhelm me. I knew it was no use going after him. He
wouldn’t answer any questions. I wasn’t even sure he knew what had
happened. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been
holding.

What had I done?
The words swirled
around in my head over and over again. No. How could I have stood
by and let this happen? How could I have actually
helped
this happen? I felt like crying. I felt like screaming—screaming at
the creators who had designed me for this. I kicked the wall
closest to me, leaving a dent.

I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t.

I
wouldn’t.

I ran down the hallway towards Glen’s study.
A few people saw me and gave me strange looks as I ran by, but I
didn’t care. I knew he stayed up late most of the time. That was
the reason why David drove us to school. There was a good chance
Glen was still there.

I burst into the room and Glen looked up,
startled. “I want to talk to you about bringing people in,” I said,
breathless.

“Oh,” Glen replied, surprised. “Yes, I wanted
to talk to you about that, too.” He started fumbling around in his
desk and when I saw him pull out some papers, I gave an exasperated
sigh.

“Glen, I—”

“Her name is Beatrix Ellis,” he went on.

“I can’t ...”

“She’s in one of your classes at school,” he
elaborated, apparently not noticing my urge to speak with him.

“Glen, I can’t ...”

“Bring her here tomorrow, we’ll ...”

“No!” I nearly shouted, causing Glen to look
up, his composure slipping for a brief second.

“What?”

“I won’t do it anymore,” I said firmly,
staring him in the eye. “I can’t do it anymore.”

There was a tense pause while Glen fought to
understand exactly what I had just said. “You won’t do it anymore?”
he repeated, his tone turning from shock to anger.

I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re
doing to them, but I can’t be a part of it unless I know that it’s
something good. But from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look that
way.”

His gray eyes grew cold. “This is your
mission.” His voice was hard. “This is what you were created for,
your one and only purpose.”

I glared at him, my teeth clenched. “I am not
your play toy to order around as you please,” I snapped. “I’m more
than just a hunk of metal and wires. I’m a person,” I declared.

Glen stood up, his glare pinning me to the
wall. “You are what I say you are.
I
created you and you are
mechanical. You will take orders from me.”

No,
I tried to say, but Glen went on
talking.

“This school and your little friends are
changing the way you act and the way you look at things. You need
to remember you’re not like them. You may be perfect, but you
didn’t get there without
me.
And if this school is getting
in the way of your mission, I’ll take you away from it in an
instant. And I’ll turn you off as well.” His threat hung in the air
as we stood there staring at one another.

I swallowed. I didn’t want to be turned off.
I had spent years in nothingness; complete terror that eventually
faded into a dull depression. I couldn’t go back there. I looked
away and stared down at the floor, feeling submission wash over me
in a dejected wave. “Okay,” I whispered.

Glen thrust the papers into my hands.
“Good.”

I turned and ran from the study, from the
portraits’ unnerving stares, from Glen’s glaring eyes and his
heartless threat. I kept running down the twisting hallways until I
found an empty room to sit down in. I couldn’t go back to my own
room, not with Yvonne there.