Born 01 - Born

kisses everywhere across my face.
    "Where is Anna?"
    His kisses stop but his grip on my face stays strong. "They took her."
    I want to collapse into his arms and sob.
    "Jakey."
    Jake drops to his knees in front of me. His hands leave my face and fall onto the tops of his knees.
    "Will? Will? Is that you?"
    Will rushes at him and lifts him up. He pulls him into his embrace. The brothers’ hug is fierce, but all I hear is the sentence 'they took her' repeating in my mind.
    Jake looks back at me. "You found him?"
    I shake my head. I have no words.
    They hug and cry and laugh, but I am stunned. Finally able to speak, I mutter, "Where did they take her?"
    Their reunion no longer means anything to me.
    People pass by me, becoming a sea of faces. All I can think is how I will get her back, too. I will do anything to get her back. It seems it has become my centennial project. I wonder if I will ever just have the people who have become my new family all together, or if I will die still looking for one.
    "Where did they take her?" I ask again.
    The huge boys hug and rub each other's hair. I want to shout, but Will saves me the trouble.
    He looks around. "Where's Anna?"
    "Hunters got her two days ago. She went looking for Emma, and I heard her screaming at the edge of the field. I couldn’t run. They took her in a truck."
    "I'm so sorry, Jake."
    He shakes his head. "Emma, you went for food after you went for medicine to save me. None of this is your fault. We'll get her back." He looks at Will and smiles. It amazes me how much they look alike.
    "I can't believe you're alive, man."
    Will ruffles his hair again. "You too, little bro. You should have died a long time ago with your survival skills."
    Jake blushes and laughs. "Anna."
    "We need to get her back, Jakey."
    He nods.
    I can't laugh with them. I can't pretend that everything is warm and fuzzy.
    I shove him. "So how did you end up here? Why didn’t you stay at the farmhouse in the barn bunker?"
    "I tried to go after them. I went over the hill and broke the branches like you told me. I knew you'd find me." He shakes his head at Will. "She's like a terminator."
    Will laughs, "I know."
    Jake fixes his hair. "Anyway, I came here yesterday. They all know you, Will."
    Will shrugs. "I made friends at camp, just like I always did, Jakey."
    I hate the way he calls him Jakey. I hate him in a horrid way. I wish he was at the breeder camp and Anna was with us. Him and his girlfriend in the shorts.
    They have their mini reunion. I turn away and walk to the nearest small tent. I look in the flap. A younger looking guy is asleep inside. Half his face is burned.
    I walk from one small tent to the next, until I find one with a barrel-chested man with red hair holding a pen and looking at a map that’s spread across a table. "Are you Marshall?"
    He nods, but looks suspiciously at me.
    "I need to know where the closest breeder camp is."
    He chuckles. "Little girl, you aren’t thinking about volunteering, are you? The food's not that bad here."
    I don’t laugh, I look at the map. I don’t really know how to read maps. I add it to the list of things my dad should have taught me, before.
    He stops laughing and raises his eyebrows. "Why?"
    "My friend was taken. I need her back."
    He starts laughing again. "What do you plan on doing?"
    I look up into his older gray eyes and his bright red beard and stare him down,. "I'm going to get her back."
    He scratches the back of his fuzzy red head. "Look kid, I get you're upset but there is no getting them back. They go in and nine years later they get a nice house in the city. It's not a bad gig. They get healthy food and a place to sleep. Your life here is harder."
    I feel my face change.
    He puts his hands up defensively. "Look, we have bigger fish to fry than worry about one girl at a breeder farm."
    He turns his back on me and looks at the wall of the tent where other maps are hung. I feel my fingers twitch. I want to pull an arrow.
    I leave the tent disheartened and lost.
    "Emma, where did you go?"
    I look up at Will and Jake walking toward me.
    I scrunch up my face and walk away from them both. I don’t know how to be dramatic. I feel the need burning inside of me, but I don’t physically know how to get angry without using my hands.
    I walk to a group of ladies who are standing around a fire.
    I smile sweetly and look at the one who looks the most like my mother did. "Hi."
    She raises her eyebrows and the corners of her mouth at the same