Perfect by Pauline C. Harris Page B

seemed to pass slowly,
but quickly at the same time. Before I knew it, the door to my cell
was being unlocked and an android was pulling me to my feet.
    I didn’t struggle as he led me down the
hallway, our footsteps making a loud, hollow sound in the corridor.
The android waited outside as I entered a room I had seen before. I
felt like I might throw up. It was the room where I had seen the
boy laying on the operating table, unmoving, his arm sliced open,
his unblinking eyes staring and glazed over. I still didn’t know if
he had been alive or dead. It seemed so long ago, but I knew it had
been barely a month. I saw Glen and a few others creators standing
there, watching me come in. I didn’t glare. I didn’t even meet
their eyes.
    But just then I noticed someone else in the
room—Yvonne. She looked at me and smiled, although I couldn’t tell
what kind of smile it was. The creators’ backs were to her because
they were staring at me.
    “Drew,” Glen said with a sickening smile
dancing in his eyes, but he never got to finish was he was about to
say.
    Before I could even register what had
happened, Yvonne had swiped Glen over the head, and the other two
creators standing beside him. They were on the ground now. They had
no idea she had snuck up behind them.
    I gasped at Yvonne in shock.
    “Run,” she snapped at me. “There’s a gray
truck in the parking lot. The keys are in the driver’s seat.”
    I turned and fled from the room. I darted
down the hallway, trying to quiet my frantic footsteps while
running as fast as I could. The Institution seemed quiet, too
quiet. As I burst through the double doors at the end of the
hallway and entered the lobby, I heard a shout from the woman
sitting at the desk.
    I ran faster down a different hallway in the
direction of the back door. I heard footsteps running after me, but
I didn’t turn around to see who it was. Their footsteps were as
fast as mine, only a few feet behind me, confirming they were
androids.
    I got to the back door and shoved it open
before bursting through on my way to the parking lot. I spotted the
truck immediately and sprinted toward it. I jumped inside, locked
the doors, and turned the vehicle on. I hit the gas pedal and
backed up, sending the few androids that had been trying to pry my
door open, falling backward.
    I looked toward the exit and saw that five of
them had scrambled to their feet. They stood in the middle of the
road, obstructing my way. I would have to run over them to get by.
I squeezed my eyes shut. They’re androids. They’ll live. And
with that, I floored the gas pedal.
    I saw them getting closer at a dizzying speed
and watched in horror as I crashed into them. But to my surprise, I
didn’t go through them, or knock them out of the way as I had
hoped.
    My eyes widened as they gripped the metal on
the hood of the truck, leaving inch deep handprints as they tried
to hold their ground. I kept my foot on the pedal. The truck wheels
spun and moaned, but the truck did not move. One of the androids
looked up and met my eyes through the windshield. He smiled.
    In panic, I turned the truck in reverse and
backed up. I saw the androids run after me, and hoped that they
couldn’t tear the truck apart to get to me.
    I saw the fence that lined the edge of the
parking lot. On the other side was another parking lot to another
place of business. I wondered, briefly, if the truck could run
through the fence, but decided quickly that I had a better chance
at that than trying to plow over the androids. I hit the gas pedal
once again and shut my eyes just as the truck slammed into the
fence. I felt it slow, but only for a second. The truck bounced
over the flattened fence and into the other parking lot.
    I let out a scream as I almost hit a parked
car and scraped against another one. I hadn’t actually driven
before, and I wondered, with this in mind, how Yvonne could have
offered me a truck. I was pretty sure this wasn’t her truck,
but she would