Reclaim

Hostage

                                           Javier
               Illinois
                      12/23/26
Well, I guess I was right. Aslan really is a two-faced idiot. He held a gun to a Mom's head right in front of her infant daughter and kept her as a hostage. Trusting him was a bad idea.

We made it to the woods, and the baby calmed down a little. The mom was trying to hold it together for her kid's sake. We could have made it out of there without a hostage, but Aslan just had to make things hard. He was a walking casualty.

We found a secluded spot to sit down and take a quick break.
"If you let me go, I promise I won't say a word."

Aslan looked conflicted, like he was thinking of something to say. Letting go of them would get them out of our hair, but they might snitch, either that or we can keep her hostage and make traveling harder than it needs to be. Letting her go seemed like the sensible option to me.
"What's your name?"

It took her a minute to speak, but she said quietly, "June."
June looked scared. I wanted to let her go, but it didn't seem like Aslan wanted what I did, so I'd have to convince him.

We stepped out of hearing distance and discussed our options, option dumb, and option stupid.
"We have to let her loose, that baby is gonna be a dead giveaway, we can't take care of her, and having a hostage is stupid. We have nowhere to take her. There's no l reason to keep her."

He thought for a minute and then spontaneously asked, "Hey June, do you have a phone?"
She slowly pulled out her smartphone from her back pocket, and he took it.

"Do you have any contacts? Any family or friends that could help us out here?"
I didn't think using our hostages phone was smart whatsoever, considering technology today, and tracking capabilities, it'd be like sending out a flare telling the cops where we were, and who were working with, but I did have a friend who might help us.

"I know someone, but I dont think it's a good idea with tracking and everything."

"What other choice do we have?"

A couple, actually.

"Hey, June, do you have money? Quarters?"
She shook her head.

"What would we even do? Use a payphone? They don't even exist anymore."
It made me mad that he was probably right. Even then, I had no clue where a payphone would be around here. I grabbed June's phone and mustered some courage to make a call. I called the only person I knew could probably help, my mom.

I told her about the situation and how I needed help. She was disappointed, but understanding, because she would do the same thing and she knows it. She was out in Georgia, but she could get me a ride from my aunt who lived around here. We agreed to meet up at a nearby road. All I could do was pray the cops didn't pick up the call and meet us there instead.

We started walking through the woods down to the road. It was half a mile away, and the only thing meeting us together was that she would drive up and down the road twice in 30 minutes. If I didn't show up, I was on my own.
I hoped we would just walk in silence, but Aslan kept trying to play the nice guy and get a conversation going.

"You got a husband?... Or family that would worry about you being gone?"

She nodded with a confused look.
"My step dad... but he won't even be home for the week, so it doesn't matter."

I was about ready to strangle Aslan, but I tried keeping a cool, even as he kept going on, asking dumb questions to get to know her.

"Your daughter's cute. What's her name?"