But because you can't spell "Good Samaritan" without S-M-A-R-T, before letting Thomas into her car, Nicole dialed a 9 on her cell, and kept her hand on it in case something went wrong. Something went wrong.

"When I started to turn left to go to the hospital, he loudly and forcefully said, 'NO, keep going.' I tried to calmly talk to him, but he just kept yelling, 'KEEP GOING.' I'm not a wimp, but something about his tone made me want to cooperate until I could decide what was going on." And like that, Nicole was kidnapped.

Thomas leaned toward Nicole, and with a half-smiling, half-serious look on his face, said, "You know you're gonna die tonight, right?" Well, if she hadn't thought so before, she certainly did then.

"In my mind," Nicole told us, "I was convinced that he had a gun, and I just knew he was going to shoot and kill me. All I could imagine was him shooting me in the stomach. I don't know why, but I kept imagining being shot in the stomach ... I tried to remember which organs were down there, and assumed that whatever he hit when he shot me would be a vital organ and I would bleed to death. I did briefly hope that I was fat enough that the bullet wouldn't penetrate anything major, but at such close range, that was improbable."

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"OnlyHitTheAppendixOnlyHitTheAppendixOnlyHit--"

Yes, one day you might actually regret not eating the Double Deep-Fried Ranchilada at Taco Bell. It's a remote possibility, but it could happen. At one point, Nicole was so sure that Thomas was going to shoot her that she almost swerved off the road into a tree. She didn't have her seat belt on at the time, but she was seriously considering eating high-speed bark because she feared that what he was planning to do to her would be worse.

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Pictured: the "positive" option.

"I still didn't know where he was taking me. I ran through every worst-case scenario in my head that I could think of. Rape? Rape then murder? Dump my body in the lake?" Chances are Nicole would've gotten the answer to that soon enough, if Thomas hadn't then made his biggest mistake of the night.

"The road was becoming curvier, and there was ice on the road," Nicole recalls, "and every time I slowed down, the guy would scream for me to speed up and remind me again that 'YOU WILL DIE TONIGHT!!!!!'" To be clear, so far Thomas only twisted Nicole's arm and sort of indicated that he might have a gun in his jacket, but nothing more serious than that. Up until then, he had only gotten by with a vague promise of violence. But then, out of nowhere, he started keeping promises.

"He suddenly grabbed his head and started rocking back and forth going 'Oh no! No, no, no!' Seconds later (I only glanced in his direction occasionally due to the road conditions) he slapped/punched me in the head as hard as he could. Everything went black and I saw stars. It felt like my eyelashes had been embedded in my eyeballs. As soon as he hit me, I was done. Done." It was as if Thomas's punch had literally slapped Nicole back to reality, and that's what might have saved her life.

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One of the rare instances when getting face punched by a total asshole is a good thing.

"I knew then that it was either get out of the situation right now, or he would kill me. I had stopped worrying about a gun (not that I didn't know he didn't have one) ... The ONLY thing I thought of in those moments was that this was my only chance to get out alive, and fuck him for making me do this!"

Nicole slammed on the brakes and started swerving all over the road. Thomas was yelling for her to keep on driving, but Nicole kept repeating "I am," hoping that the guy was nutty enough to take her word for it. Fortunately, he was.

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Besides, if you suspect somebody because they drive shitty in the snow, you're going to have to suspect everybody.

"It wasn't a gradual stop, and I don't remember if I was able to get the car in park before I jumped out. It happened so fast. I slammed my shoulder into the door and opened it as fast as I could. Everything was in slow motion. I can still see myself pushing myself through the door backwards, and slowly watching the stars and black sky above me appear."

But to remind Nicole that it's still a jerk, the Universe had her lose a shoe during her daring escape. One of the last things she remembers is karate-kicking the door shut with her pink-sock-clad foot.

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To her credit, Ronda Rousey kicks people's heads clean off while wearing only slightly less.

"I don't remember feeling myself hit the pavement," Nicole continues. "I had major bruising on my left knee, thigh, and right shoulder from it. My hoodie and winter coat prevented me from getting any scrapes. My face had welts and swelling from being hit." Then Thomas jumped into the driver's seat and took off.

And that was it.

What? A little sudden for an ending? Tell that to Nicole ...