Read Skylark for Free Online Page B

fright!” Her round face gleamed with a faint sheen of perspiration, as if she’d just been hurrying somewhere.
    “There’s a—” I gasped, unable to articulate anything for my trembling. “And she looked at me, and— and—”
    “Heavens,” she said. “Come along, poor gosling. We’ve had quite enough delay for one morning, don’t you think? We’ll get you through the Machine and on to your feast, and all the lovely things we’ve got planned for you. Won’t that be nice? You’ll love all the delicious food we’ve cooked up.”
    With a mixture of cheery cajoling and brute force, the Administrator ushered me through the corridor. She took the second door we came to, sliding a badge into a slot beside the doorknob until there was an audible click. I barely noticed where we were going until we reached a set of tall doors that slid open sideways with a faint whirring of gears.
    She led me into a tiny room, and the doors hissed closed behind us.
    “But what was that—” I began, before the floor rushed up to meet me with a scream of grinding machinery.
    I flung my hands out to catch myself, and realized that the entire room was moving. There were no windows, but I could feel it rushing upward. The Administrator bent down to help me up. “I’m sorry, duck,” she said, beaming at me. “Elevators can be quite the ride if you’re not used to them. Don’t worry, it’s quite safe.
    “This will all be over in no time at all,” she added as the room stopped and the doors hissed open. “The Machine’s just up ahead.”
    I had a fleeting image of myself in place of the light creature, with glass wires protruding from my veins. I nearly threw up all over the Administrator’s vast red coat.
    She propelled me into a grey room containing a single low bench against one wall. The Administrator gave me a cheerful little wave before bustling back out through the doors again. “Just relax, and we’ll be done before you know it,” she said, as the doors whizzed closed. The unique mechanical sound of the Institute was quickly becoming familiar.
    There was no sign of any machine in the room, only a dim gray light from a panel overhead. The room had only the one door, and after a few seconds I crossed over to it, to ask if there’d been some mistake. I nearly walked into it, when it failed to slide open the way it had for the Administrator. A bubble of panic rose in my throat. Maybe they were punishing me after all.
    I was about to bang on the door when the dim lights wavered overhead. A strangely tinny voice coming from all around me said, “Please remove your clothing and leave it on the bench.”
    I moved toward the bench and then hesitated. Most girls who came through here were eleven or twelve at the oldest. I was sixteen. The thought of being naked was intolerable. No one had told me about this part. But then, no one had told me much of anything about what it was like to be harvested, other than that it was great.
    “Um,” I called, directing my voice upward in the hope that someone would hear. “Can I just—”
    “Please remove your clothing and leave it on the bench.”
    The voice spoke in an identical tone. This time I heard it catch in places, unnatural brief clicks in the voice. A machine’s voice.
    I shuddered and pulled off my shirt and pants, leaving them in a crumpled heap on the bench. I kicked off my shoes and nudged them underneath. When I straightened up again, the voice came a third time, repeating its message. Someone, somehow, was watching me. Even in the dim lighting, whoever it was would be able to see everything. Shivering, miserable, I took off my underwear, too, tucking it under my pants. As soon as I did so machinery clanked and whirred, and a second door appeared opposite the first. It had fit so seamlessly into the wall that I’d missed it before.
    Why had no one prepared me for this?
    I swallowed the humiliation and confusion, watching the new door as it slid aside. Beyond I saw