Perfect (13 page)

I leaned back again. Programmed? I had never
even thought about it, but it seemed so obvious. The creators were
making a better model of us, faster and stronger, so it would just
stand to reason to make them more controllable.

There was silence as we all sat, thinking. We
rode for at least fifteen minutes with no sound at all except for
the noises from the car—the soft hum and the bumping noise as we
skimmed across potholes.

“I’m taking you back to the hotel,” Jeremy
said after awhile.

“Okay,” I replied quietly.

All of a sudden I realized Michael was acting
strangely. He hadn’t uttered a word and was staring moodily out the
window. I looked over at him and touched his arm. “Are you okay?” I
asked him, trying to get a look at his head.

He shrugged, but didn’t turn his gaze away
from the window.

My brow furrowed in concern. “No, really, is
your head hurting a lot? Or anywhere else? Because it looked like
you slammed the bars really hard.”

“I’m fine,” he mumbled. He didn’t even turn
toward me as I stared at him in confusion.

“Michael?” I asked, nudging his arm. “What’s
wrong?”

He heaved an irritated sigh. “Nothing.” He
stared at his lap.

“There is, too, something,” I replied. “And
this doesn’t seem to be about the pain.” I watched his expression
closely.

His face darkened and he frowned. “It’s
just...”

“It’s just what?” I urged him, noticing
Jessica was watching us with a puzzled expression as well.

He shook his head. “I’m pathetic,” he
murmured and I stared at him incredulously.

He looked away and started watching out the
window again.

“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked him. “You
are
not
pathetic. Where did you get that from?” I tugged on
his arm and he turned to look at me.

He shrugged again. “Well, I mean, how do you
think it feels to not be able to protect you?” he asked, his voice
hard with frustration. “I can’t do anything. You don’t even
need
me to protect you because you’re stronger than me,
anyway. I can’t even have a real fight with that guy. I mean, look
at me.” He threw his hands in the air. “I barely touch him and he
practically breaks my neck.”

I paused for a moment, shocked. “Michael.” I
touched his arm again, but he didn’t look at me. “If you hadn’t
shoved him, he probably would have killed me,” I told him
truthfully. “You saw how angry he was. You pushed him back long
enough for me to step away and for him to think twice about what he
was doing. No one else was going to do that, and no one else could
have done that.”

He was still staring out the window, avoiding
me.

Just then, I noticed that Jeremy had pulled
up to the hotel. The car stopped and as the three of us got out, I
thanked Jeremy.

I followed Michael and Jessica up to the
room. Once there, we checked it out since we hadn’t had time before
we left to find Jessica.

“We bought you some worms,” I called to
Jessica, tossing her the bag.

She gave me a funny look then laughed once
she saw they were gummies. She opened the bag and popped one in her
mouth.

“So, what happened when they found you?” I
asked Jessica.

She kept chewing her gummy worms. “It was
literally like five minutes after you guys left. They just
recognized me and hauled me back to the Institution.” She gave a
relieved sigh. “Thanks.”

I nodded.

“You know what?” Michael voiced from the
corner. “This is getting crazy.” He looked from me to Jessica. “We
can’t just keep running and then being caught again. And you know
why we keep getting caught; it’s because of Yvonne.” He looked at
me like our conversation in the car had never happened. His
expression was earnest. He’d returned to his old self again. His
brown eyes were watching me with concern.

“Well, what do you suggest we do?” I asked
him hopelessly, my voice somewhat high pitched. I sat on the bed
and studied him from across the room.

“Just run away from her.” Michael shrugged
and paused for a moment. “We need to find a way to get away from
her,” he said it firmer this time, like there was a real chance of
it happening.

“I agree,” Jessica said from a few feet away.
“She’s done nothing but get us into trouble the whole time.” Her
voice was starting to harden, a rare tone of voice for Jessica.

I looked back and forth between the two of
them as they stared at me. “I...” I started to say. “You guys are
free to go whenever you want to. There’s nothing holding you here,”
I said quietly.

“What do you mean nothing?” Jessica asked
incredulously.

“We are
not
leaving without you,”
Michael said. Jessica nodded in agreement.

I sighed and look up at their determined
faces. “You guys,” I said. “I can’t go anywhere. Yvonne has my
tracking device.”

Michael sighed irritably and looked away.
Jessica’s expression looked pained.

“Can you get rid of it?” she asked
quietly.

I looked at her, puzzled. “Get rid of
it?”

She shifted. “Yeah. The one
inside
you. Obviously, Yvonne has the device to find you, but there has to
be something on you that tracks your location.”

I nodded in understanding.

“It must be somewhere. Can you somehow get it
out?” Jessica’s expression looked hopeful but scared at the same
time.

I sighed and shook my head slowly. “I have no
idea where it would be, Jessica,” I told her. “Until just awhile
ago, I didn’t know I even had one. And I can’t just go hacking into
my arms and legs hoping to find it.”

Jessica sighed and sat next to me on the bed.
“That’s true. It was a stupid idea anyway.” There was a long pause.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered.

My brow furrowed. “The situation seems pretty
hopeless. For me, at least,” I admitted, finally realizing how
hopeless it really was. How was I ever going to get away from
Yvonne? She was always there, she always seemed to know what I was
up to, and she had my tracking device. How could I beat that?

“Why don’t you guys just go?” I asked
them.

“What do you mean?” Michael asked.

“Well, nothing is stopping you from leaving.
All you’re doing is getting yourself into more trouble and more
danger by staying with me.”

“We’ve been over this, Drew,” Michael said,
sounding somewhat exasperated. “Jessica and I aren’t leaving
you.”

“Please!” My voice rose and I stood while
Michael and Jessica gave me startled looks. “I can’t stand myself
when I think about what I’m putting you both through! Please, just
go.” I whispered the last word, every part of me wanting to hug
Michael and never let go.

There was a long silence as we stared at each
other in sadness.

Michael gave me a strange look from where he
was sitting and I knew his answer before he even opened his mouth.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said with finality, his eyes telling me
more than his words.

I met his gaze with a frown.

“But, I agree that Jessica is in danger.” His
gaze shifted from mine to hers.

Jessica’s mouth fell open in astonishment.
She leaped from the bed. “What?” she nearly yelled. “You’re telling
me you should stay, but I shouldn’t?” Her eyes were blazing.

Michael stood. “Jessica, Drew is right. It’s
dangerous for us to be here, and I think you’d be better off going
to find Mom and Dad.”

Jessica gave him a shocked look and then let
out a humorless laugh. “Oh yeah, whenever anything goes wrong,
I’m
always the one to go crying to Mommy and Daddy. What are
you trying to do, Michael? Be the big hero? Only thinking about
what’s best for me?” Sarcasm lined every aspect of her voice.

“I need to stay with Drew,” Michael said
stubbornly.

“What, and that means I don’t?”

“Guys, stop,” I tried to say firmly, stepping
in between them.

“Drew doesn’t only mean something to you.
She’s my friend and I’m
not going to leave her
,” Jessica
spat.

Michael glared and opened his mouth to spit
something back, but I stopped him. “Michael! Jessica!” I snapped
loudly. “
Stop
.”

Shaking her head firmly, Jessica sat back
down. Michael sighed and returned to his seat.

“I wasn’t trying to start a fight,” I told
them both. “Although, I kind of expected one.” I shrugged. “If you
both feel so strongly about it, I can’t force you to leave.”

Everyone was quiet, wrapped in their
thoughts.

I turned the TV on to cover the silence. The
blaring noise of the show caught the others’ attention and soon we
were all watching. I leaned back against the pillows on the bed and
thought about how we would ever get away from Yvonne.

Chapter Nineteen

I was startled by
the sound of a key card sliding in the door lock. Blue morning
light was barely starting to peek through the curtains as I glanced
at the clock across the room and saw that it was 6:00 A.M. I
frowned, my gaze flickering from the sleeping forms of Jessica and
Michael toward the door. Someone was trying to break in. The key
card swished again in the lock, but it wasn’t working right—yet. I
hurried to the door and peered through the peephole. My heart
started racing and I stumbled quickly away, running to the beds to
shake Jessica and Michael awake.

“There’s a creator outside with two
androids,” I whispered urgently. They were instantly awake.
“They’re trying to use a key card to get in!”

I looked around and saw the sliding glass
door that led to a balcony outside. I slid it open and hurried out.
I looked down, remembering we were on the fourth floor. My heart
sank as adrenaline coursed through my veins. I knew I could climb
down balcony to balcony in less than a minute, but it wouldn’t be
as easy for the others, especially Jessica. I beckoned for them to
follow me and although they both looked a little nervous, they
agreed to do it.

I went first, letting them watch me and try
to copy my movements. I grasped the bars of the balcony and swung
my legs down, letting my grip slide until my feet were resting on
the railings of the balcony below ours. I did this once more and
then let myself fall ten feet to the ground below me. I stood and
looked up. Michael and Jessica were both starting to climb down,
much slower than I, but I prayed that they wouldn’t slip and
fall.

Once they were safely on the ground beside
me, I let out a breath of air I hadn’t realized I had been holding
in. “Let’s go,” I said, barely breathing, and we started to
run.

It seemed like we couldn’t get away fast
enough, but once we were a safe distance from the hotel, we slowed
to a walk and started looking around.

“Where are we going to go?” Jessica asked,
slightly breathless.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It was stupid to
hide in another hotel. They’re probably checking them all.” I was
angry at myself for letting this happen again. We were too close to
being caught. Way too close.

“Well, we can’t just go camp out in the
wilderness,” Jessica said nervously.

“Uh, yeah we could,” Michael protested. “We
could hide better in there.”

“No!” Jessica whined. “It’s gross out there.
There’re bugs.”

Michael sighed irritably. “Jess, we can’t go
to another hotel.”

“We could go back to that old house we stayed
at first,” I said, just now remembering it.

“What?” Michael asked. “But wouldn’t they
know to find us there?”

“Well, they already did. It’s such a
ridiculous move on our part that they wouldn’t waste their time
looking there again,” I explained, liking the idea more every
minute.

Michael looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Sure,” he finally agreed.

There was a pause.

“But, isn’t that a really long walk?” Jessica
asked. “Uphill?”

I thought for a moment. “It’ll take us awhile
to get there, yeah,” I agreed. “But I think we can make it.”

Michael nodded. “Yeah.”

Jessica’s face fell. “Ugh,” she groaned.

I shot her an amused grin and we started on
our way.

It took us two hours to finally get to the
house, Jessica whining the whole way. I wasn’t tired at all, but by
the time we finally reached the cabin, Jessica collapsed on the
couch.

“That walk was exhausting,” she breathed, not
even seeming to care about the condition of our new hideaway.

Michael only laughed at her. “You’re such a
sissy.”

“Shut up,” she snapped at him, although she
seemed too tired to say it with much force.

I sat next to her on the couch and Michael
soon followed. “Now, hopefully they won’t find us here,” I said. We
sat there in silence.

I had forgotten how boring the cabin had
been. Obviously there was no TV. There were no beds, no food, or
board games. There was nothing to do.

I noticed there was a bloodstain on the couch
still left over from when I had been shot. It filled up a few
inches of the surface and was dark. I tried to rub it out but
couldn’t.

We ended up sitting on the couch and floor
playing games like I Spy and Twenty Questions, but soon gave
up.

It was hours later, when Michael and Jessica
were sitting on the couch sleeping, and I was curled up next to
Michael with my head on his shoulder, that the door flew open and
Yvonne was standing there. I immediately stood while Michael and
Jessica slowly awoke from the noise.

“Yvonne,” I said, surprised. It had to be at
least past midnight. Why was she here?

“You’re here,” she said, her expression
strangely surprised and her voice oddly relieved. But quickly she
changed, and her composure became like her old self again. “Just
thought I’d check up on you,” she said swiftly, shifting her feet
to a more comfortable position.