20 minutes on the road, p.1
20 Minutes On the Road, page 1
part #13 of 20 Minute Series
20 MINUTES
ON THE ROAD
DANIEL HURST
www.danielhurstbooks.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
20 MINUTES ON THE ROAD.
First edition. July 5, 2021.
Copyright © 2021 Daniel Hurst
Written by Daniel Hurst
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
20 Minutes On the Road
Jelena *
Noah
Jackie
Harry *
Ronnie *
Shane
Abdul *
Gaz
Jill *
Carol *
Lizzy *
Valentin *
Paula *
April *
Mick
Will *
Louise *
Lindsey *
Diego *
Bogdan *
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Books By Daniel Hurst
Events take place between 17:25 – 17:45
Two months after events in 20 Minutes In The Desert
If you see the * then the character has featured in the series before...
Jelena *
17:25
Jelena Markovic changed gears and gently applied pressure to the accelerator pedal, aware that doing so with too much gusto could send the vehicle she was in shooting forward much faster than she had anticipated. She had to be cautious with the pedals because this wasn’t just any old car that she was driving. This was a bright yellow sports car capable of going from 0-60 in less than five seconds.
In hindsight, perhaps buying a high-performance motor like this one hadn’t been the best decision on her part. She wasn’t an experienced driver, nor was she someone who chased the adrenaline rush that came with zooming along roads at frightening speeds. A more practical car would have sufficed. But for a woman as wealthy as Jelena after her lottery win earlier in the year, practicality didn’t always come first. It certainly hadn’t come first when she had visited the car showroom a few weeks ago to buy herself a new vehicle, and while she had walked in fully intending to purchase a sensible option, she had quickly become dazzled by the spectacular sports cars on display, none of which she actually needed but all of which she could afford.
It hadn’t taken long for a slick salesman to sell her on the benefits of the more expensive models, and before she knew it, Jelena was sitting behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, feeling the smooth steering wheel and sinking into the luxurious leather seats. It had been hard to stay sensible then, and by the time the salesman had stopped talking, Jelena was parting with a significant chunk of her and her boyfriend’s lottery winnings. But any buyer’s remorse she might have felt in the immediate aftermath was soon tempered by how fun the car was to drive as she took it home back to her mansion in North London, as well as the knowledge that life was far too short not to do things that made you feel good. Jelena knew that better than anyone, not only because of what she had been through in her past at the hands of the sex traffickers but also after what had happened when she had visited Las Vegas back in May for a holiday with her partner.
It had been the trip of a lifetime in the desert for Jelena and Bogdan, two Serbians who were struck by the beauty and awe of Sin City, and who were having a wonderful time right up until fate had struck a telling blow. Jelena had been alone in their hotel suite, waiting for her boyfriend to return from his dawn helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon, when there had been a knock on the door. When she had opened it, she had seen the ashen face of the butler who had been tasked with keeping the holidaymakers comfortable during their stay at the hotel. But that time, he had not come with good news. Instead, he had something terrible to say.
A helicopter had gone down in the desert just outside the city.
The helicopter that Bogdan was in.
Jelena had fallen to the floor at the news that her beloved boyfriend had been involved in a tragic accident, and things were only made worse by the early reports that seemed to suggest that there had been no survivors. Believing that she had lost the man she loved, Jelena had struggled to breathe, let alone seek out any more information about the accident or chase updates from the crash site out in the Mojave. But as the painstaking hours had gone by, there was a glimmer of hope. Somebody had been found at the site of the tragic accident, emerging from the wreckage and badly hurt but alive. It seemed there was a survivor after all, and Jelena dared to get her hopes up, especially when she found out that the survivor was a male adult estimated to be around the same age as her missing partner. Having rushed to the hospital where the survivor was being given urgent medical attention, Jelena did her best to find out if it was her man who had made it out of that helicopter in one piece while the rest of the poor passengers on board had perished. And finally, after several more long and draining hours, she got her answer.
It was Bogdan in the hospital.
He had survived the crash.
Jelena had wept tears of joy at the news while also battling to deal with the shock she was going through after such a tumultuous turn of events. Having gone from believing that he was dead to suddenly finding out he was alive, the poor woman’s mental state was a mess, and it was little wonder she had needed support from some of the medical staff at the hospital in Las Vegas. The kind staff in attendance had calmed her down and given her refreshments while monitoring her for further signs of shock, but she had been able to keep it together until there was more news to come from the part of the hospital where Bogdan was being treated.
When the news came, it wasn’t damning, but it wasn’t good either.
Bogdan had suffered some terrible burns in the crash, and it was considered a miracle that he had survived the impact at all. Those burns were now being treated but assuming he pulled through the first twenty-four hours, Jelena was told that he would require medical attention and rehabilitation for several months before he could make what would be considered a recovery. But at that time, Jelena hadn’t cared about how long a recovery might take. She was just relieved that he had a chance to make one at all. That was because by then, the news was filled with the identities of those who had not been lucky enough to make it out of the helicopter and along with the poor pilot, there had been a Chinese couple onboard called Zheng and Kei, and an English couple called Curtis and Karen. Jelena could remember when Curtis’ image had flashed up on screen, and the journalist reporting the unfortunate events had said that the victim had been a firefighter from London who had served the city for many years. It was a terrible tragedy, and Jelena had felt awful for all the families involved, but she had also been relieved that the person she knew on that helicopter was still clinging to life.
As Jelena concentrated on keeping control of the feisty vehicle that she was currently navigating towards the motorway, she checked the time on the dashboard and saw that she was running behind now. Her delay was all down to the heavy traffic that seemed to surround her in all directions and had made her journey towards the motorway even more arduous than it usually was. She had been travelling this route from her home to the rehab facility in the countryside just outside London for three weeks now, ever since Bogdan had been declared fit enough to be flown back to the UK from Las Vegas, and she still hadn’t got used to how busy it was at this time of day.
Everybody called it ‘rush hour’, but Jelena had another name for it.
She called it ‘hell on Earth.’
That might have been a slightly overdramatic way to describe a set of busy roads, but Jelena felt it was apt for how it felt to be driving in and around London after five o’clock each weekday. Unfortunately, that was the time Jelena had to be driving around because it was in the early evening when she was able to visit her boyfriend at the facility he was currently staying in full-time. Bogdan was now in the care of professionals who specialised in treating burns victims and helping them recover from their injuries, both physically and mentally. That meant he couldn’t come home with Jelena until he had been discharged, and it was still unclear when that might be because he still had plenty of work to do to get himself fit enough to look after himself again. As Jelena waited for the red light in front of her to turn green, she thought back to how Bogdan had looked when she had first been able to visit him in the hospital when he was recovering from his emergency surgery.
It had been quite a shock to see the extent of her partner’s injuries, most of which were confined to the lower half of his body, and while Jelena had been thrilled to see her man still alive, she knew he had a long road ahead of him when he woke up. The fire from the helicopter crash had burnt his legs, feet and hands, and it seemed that he had pulled himself out of the fiery wreckage just in time before the flames had engulfed him entirely. Jelena couldn’t even imagine what Bogdan must have experienced as he fought for his life while the rest of the people in the helicopter around him had already succumbed to their injuries, but she was g
lad he had found the strength to make it out somehow and get help, even though it was clear he had not escaped the incident unscathed. After several more operations, Bogdan was finally back in England and now residing in the best facility for his injuries that money could buy. Jelena didn’t mind making this drive every day to see him when visiting hours began at five-thirty because she knew he was in the place that gave him the best possible chance to recover. Set on a hill in the countryside not far from the motorway, the facility was now Bogdan’s home as he continued to recover, and it was the place where Jelena would keep going to in order to spend time with him until he was allowed to get in this car with her and return to their luxurious home.
Thankfully, Bogdan was in good spirits now he was out of Las Vegas and closer to his home address, and he was attacking his rehab and the extent of his injuries with fierce pride and determination. To highlight how well he seemed to be coping mentally, he had even laughed the first time he had seen Jelena arrive at the rehab facility in her Lamborghini, surprised by her choice of vehicle and even more surprised that she was actually able to drive it to come and see him. But she had got plenty of practise now, and as the light turned green, Jelena put her foot down and sped towards the ramp that would lead down to the motorway, and as she did, she prayed that the traffic would be a little lighter on there.
She was already going to be late for visiting hours, and that was annoying because it would mean she would have less time to sit with her partner and hear about his day. She only had until seven o’clock before she would have to leave and drive back again, and she liked to make the most of every minute. But thanks to the traffic being even worse than normal now, she estimated it was going to be at least another twenty minutes or so until she got to him.
Unless, of course, she put her foot down and reaped the benefits of this supercar of hers.
Arriving onto the motorway, Jelena wasted no time in moving out into the fast lane and used the accelerator to get up to 70mph in the blink of an eye. She was already whizzing past the other drivers on the motorway, none of which possessed a vehicle as powerful as her own. She wanted to go faster, and she knew she was more than capable of it with an engine like this, but she decided to stick to the speed limit and be sensible, going as fast as she was legally allowed but certainly not any slower than she needed to.
The traffic was still fairly heavy, but it was much less dense than it had been on the smaller roads leading to this motorway, and Jelena felt much better now that she was actually driving rather than just hitting the brake pedal every ten seconds and waiting for several traffic lights to change colour. To her, it wasn’t really driving until you could put your foot down and pick up some speed. All that stop-start stuff at 30mph was annoying, and she didn’t enjoy getting around like that. She much preferred it when she had an open road in front of her and no red lights telling her she had to brake every time she had just started to get somewhere.
As she sped along in her spectacular car, Jelena wondered how many drivers in the other lanes were glancing at her in awe and wishing they were at the wheel of a vehicle like hers. She had bought this car simply because she liked the look of it and not because she wanted to attract attention, but there was no denying that she had gotten plenty of that since she had taken the Lambo out onto the streets. It was mainly men and boys who she had caught staring at her as she had driven around, and she was under no doubt that they were more interested in her vehicle than her looks, but she did find it amusing all the same. She couldn’t wait until Bogdan was in this car with her, one, because he deserved to experience the thrill of being in a magnificent motor like this and two, because she knew it would mean fewer men looking at her if they realised she was with somebody else. There had been that time a couple of weeks ago when a guy had approached her at the petrol station and asked her out for dinner, clearly enamoured by both her and the vehicle she was pouring petrol into, but Jelena had simply smiled and shaken her head to let him know that neither she nor her car was interested in whatever he was after. It was funny, but Jelena didn’t remember too many men approaching her when she had been a waitress back in Serbia, but now she had a flash car, all of a sudden, she felt like a Kardashian.
Zooming along at seventy and gripping onto the wheel tightly as she went, Jelena kept her eyes focused on the road ahead through her windscreen, not interested in what she was passing by or what was going on behind her. All she was interested in was what was ahead of her, and that was the rehab facility where Bogdan was waiting for her. She didn’t plan on spending a second longer on this motorway than she had to, and that was a good thing because while nobody on this long stretch of tarmac knew it yet, there was going to be an unfortunate incident here any minute now, and it would be one that would not only ensure the road was clogged up for the rest of the evening but that several drivers would never make it to their final destination at all.
Noah
17:26
Noah Carter ran his fingers along the edge of his car window, making them move in such a way that it made it seem like they were two little legs running over the terrain that was passing by on the other side of the glass. He always liked to do this when he was in the car and his dad was driving fast because it was a fun game, and it also made the journey go quicker. Sometimes car trips could be boring, especially if the traffic was bad, and Noah wasn’t the most patient child in the world, while his father, Hugh, wasn’t the most patient driver in the world either. That was why both of them had their own way of passing the time when they were on the road. Noah would play this game with his fingers in front of the window, as well as sing songs and look out for spaceships, while Hugh would listen to rubbish music on the radio and mutter under his breath something about “bloody cyclists”.
The pair were on their way home after Noah’s after-school martial arts class had just finished in the city. The young boy had plenty of extra-curricular activities to keep him occupied in his free time, and rolling around on mats with other children while a judo instructor told him what to do to defend himself was just one of those ways. Noah quite enjoyed martial arts, even though he was still very much a novice, but he didn’t enjoy the specialised systems of combat as much as his dad did. It was very much Hugh’s idea to get his son involved in learning self-defence at a young age, and being only five years old, Noah didn’t have much say in the matter, just like he didn’t have much say in what song was playing on the radio right now.
‘Can we put wiggly worm on again?’ Noah asked his father in the driver’s seat as they continued to move down the motorway at a steady speed.
‘Again? We had it on all the way there!’ came the weary reply from the weary father in the front, but that was never going to be a good enough answer for the child who absolutely loved the wiggly worm song.
‘Please!’
Noah was fully prepared to beg a lot more than that to get his own way, but thankfully, he didn’t have to because his dad let out a deep sigh before pressing the button on the dashboard that started the familiar song playing again.
Noah wriggled in his seat as his favourite song came out of the speakers, and he went back to running his fingers over the fields that were passing by his window again while singing along to the words and feeling as happy as a boy his age could feel.
It was just as the song was starting again for a second time when Noah felt the car slowing down, and he looked up to see the vehicle in front of them going very slowly.
‘What is this guy doing?’ Hugh complained, as he indicated before speeding up and driving around the slow coach.
‘What is this guy doing?’ Noah repeated, mimicking his father because that was also another fun game to play in the car sometimes.
Now they were back in the fast lane, Noah watched as his dad increased the speed so that they could overtake all of the slower cars that were out on the motorway tonight. But there was one car up ahead that definitely wasn’t going slow. It was bright yellow, and it was easily the coolest car Noah had ever seen before in his life.
‘Wow, what’s that!’ Noah cried as he sat forward in his seat and pointed through the windscreen.
