"You did the right thing." He said cutting off my stammering. "Where are you right now?"
I told him and the pause on the phone was telling.
"That's a bad area Lisa!"
I couldn't help the quiver in my tone as I responded, "I know. I saw my badge and gun on the front seat of the car that they brought me here in. I think they made a deal with a gang to make my death look like random mob violence."
I thought I heard muted swearing from the other end of the line. I didn't know this man from Adam and yet I could tell he cared and I needed someone to care right now because I was losing it.
"If its gangs they've made a deal with they won't just kill me, they'll..."
His voice cut me off, his tone serious and confident, "Nothing like that is going to happen to you Lisa! Understand me?"
I nodded jerkily, forgetting that there was no way he could see such an answer.
"We're going to get you out of there, you have to trust me!"
I don't know why I trusted this man, but somehow I did. "I believe you, what do you want me to do?" As I finished the words I saw movement further up the street from my hiding spot.
"I'm on my way to you, but it will take me a while. I have some friends that are a lot closer to you and they are already on their way to you. Keep your phone on and with you. It's probably best for you to keep moving away from where they dropped you off. And Lisa!"
"Yes?"
"Stay alive!" and then the phone went dead.
It was clearly a gang coming down the street and they looked like they were hunting something. Me!
I ducked back into the side alley and made my way out the back end of it to the parallel street. Every person I met on these streets would be an informant against me. I ducked into side alleys and made my way up others. An old woman pointed me out to a group of gang members and for several fast paced moments I thought they had me, but I managed to slip away by ducking into an abandoned old building.
I glanced at my phone, as I leaned back against an old brick façade completely out of breath. It had only been a little over a half hour, but I could have sworn that it had been an hour or more since I had called my one and only lifeline.