Bar Code

Catch, Don't Release

This is a long drop. I'm plunging down a long, metal tube. What's that light down there?
I land in the grass with a thump. The sudden light is blinding and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. My first thought is Tanner. I'm desperately wanting to run back in, to help him, but I hear footsteps around the corner. I quickly tie up my shoelaces and start running. I don't know where I'm running to, but I've never been so grateful to be one of the faster girls in school. I bulldoze through some bushes, never wanting to look behind me, afraid of what I might see. I stop at an unusually large evergreen tree. I crouch behind it. My lungs feel like they're on fire. My heart races. Is this what Grandmother had been talking about? "They're coming back"? That means they've been here before. What had happened then?
Footsteps.
My breath catches and I slowly move away from the tree, careful not to step on any pinecones. I see a girl I recognize. She lives a few houses down from me. She's obviously been running for a long time, and is struggling under the weight of her clearly heavy backpack. She tries to quickly shrug it off her shoulders, constantly looking behind her. She wriggles out of it and kicks it to the side, and then runs like her life depends on it. It probably does.
I quickly get back, real close to the tree. I hear more footsteps and crouch beneath some of the lower branches. I see a tall man wearing all black running in the direction the other girl went. He suddenly pauses and looks all around him, looking for something. I'm careful to stay low. As he turns, sunlight glints off something silver pinned to his clothes. A silver letter, a J.
Suddenly, everything falls into place. Grandmother survived, Mother survived, but what about Tanner? Is that where he'd gone? Taken by the Js?
In the midst of my epiphany, I hear a twig snap behind me. I flinch. I slowly look over both my shoulders. No one is there.
Seconds later, something grabs me around my waist. I shriek and yell for help. No one answers. This thing drags me away from the tree before hoisting me up and carrying me, as I kick and scream and attempt to escape from its grasp.
I barely calm down enough to look over one of my shoulders to see what has ahold of me. A man in all black. They've got me. The Js. One has captured me.
I resist a few more yards, but eventually give up. This man is too strong.
He carries me toward a building and up through the door. He throws me down to the floor. I look up to see a woman. A woman wearing white. She kneels beside me and grabs me by the shoulders. She pulls the sleeves of my shirt halfway to my elbows and tugs part of my shirt down, showing my lines. Another man in black holds an odd object in his hand. As this woman keeps a strong grip on my shoulders, preventing me from moving, the man places the object on my lines and presses a dark green button. It burns and I struggle to get away. This scene seems familiar, but I don't know where I've seen it before.
I whimper as the white and black object suddenly brings up a floating screen. The man studies it. The words appear backwards to me. He takes the object off me and gives the woman a nod. She shoves me back to the floor and yells a word at the other man in black, the one who brought me here, a word I don't understand.
The man grabs me by the collar of my shirt from behind and drags me through the door and down the steps. He drags me toward a black vehicle. I can't make any sound, by my thoughts have never screamed so loud. Mother. Grandmother. Portia. Derek. Jackson. Tanner.