Escape
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Tobin is silently keeping track of where they are heading, noting the road they’re on and direction they’re traveling, curious as to the why they’re moving south along the Willamette River. The area becomes heavily wooded with no houses or businesses in sight and Tobin senses they’re cutting through one of the state parks whose name she can’t recall. She’s been this way only a few times, usually when her and Chris take a day to get lost in the car and enjoy time with another and she doesn’t really pay attention to those details.
It’s unnerving to sit there in the silence next to the woman as the miles click by through the winding tree lined road. The woman had turned off the main road some time ago, making a sharp left at a crazy intersection. This road, one Tobin has never been down before and didn’t catch the name of, is even more secluded and Tobin hasn’t seen more than two other cars on it. The trees have enveloped them, the headlights showing the two lonely lanes with bushes and trees on each side with the air hazy from the smoke. It’s unnaturally dark here, combined with the lingering smoke to make it appear closer to sunset. The interior clock on the console shows it’s only 5:20, which shocks Tobin because
she feels they’ve been driving for over an hour and it’s become so dark so quick out here in the woods.
She recognizes her phone chirping and Tobin glances over to the strange woman’s lap, seeing a text notification from Nadine Angerer pop up. Okay, she thinks, they know I’m not there. Maybe they’ll ask the parking lot attendants if they saw me. It would be weird if I parked and then left. That’s a weird thing to do, so maybe they’ll know something is wrong, she reasons.
But what about Christen, she wonders. How did this other person get her out of the condo, she wonders. Fuck, she curses silently, Chris was already really anxious, it might not have taken much to convince her. Her guard would have been down. That other person could have told her the same thing- she would have to go with her to see me. Someone could have convinced her to leave. Fuck.
Her phone goes off again and sees now Christen is texting her. Baby, where are you? she squints to read. More messages come from Chris. Her phone is making noise non-stop with notifications. It sounds with a phone call with Christen’s ringtone. Renewed dread fills Tobin.
“You don’t have her,” she accuses the stranger driving her car, “you never did,”
The woman laughs coldly, “Had to get you in the car somehow,” she says as she switches hands on the steering wheel. Her right hand is now holding the gun and loosely holding the steering wheel. The woman presses the button to lower the driver’s side window with her left hand and then she holds up Tobin’s still ringing phone. “Guess you won’t need this anymore,” she chuckles at her as she chucks the phone out of the car.
The relief Tobin’s feels for realizing Christen is safe is now replaced with the horror that her own life is still very much in danger and if she manages to get out of this, her phone, her only hope for help, is gone. She feels so stupid to so willingly go with this woman, to believe what she said, to not put up some kind of a fight. She should have questioned her more, not just blindly accepted what she was telling her. But she reasons, she does have a gun and was pointing it at me.
I have got to figure out how to get out of this, she thinks, there’s no way I can talk her out of letting me go.
Keeping her body still, she considers her options. She glances at the dashboard, seeing they’re traveling around sixty miles an hour. To jump out of the car at this speed would certainly seriously injure her, maybe even kill her. Fighting for the gun or the steering wheel would probably result in her getting shot or making the car crash. She has to think fast, she doesn’t want to be further from the main road. She has to do something that is unexpected and yet quick, so this crazy woman doesn’t have a chance to react and shoot her.
She unclicks her seatbelt.
“What are you doing? Put that back on!” the woman angrily demands, her eyes boring into her.
“My foot itches,” Tobin replies with annoyance, sliding the strap off and bending forward to scratch the non-existent itch.
She sits back and takes a deep breath, then in one swift movement, she reaches for the console, pushing the gearshift into Park and then yanking back the emergency brake, sending the tires screeching on the pavement. She’s thrown forward as she hits the door lock, pushes open the door and throws herself out of the still moving vehicle.
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