30 Mile Hell, Chapter 3 – Bad Luck Stranded

Shortly after a pit stop in the gas station, Daniel continued his solo drive to Whiskers Lake. Two hours into his trip along the highway, he noticed a muddy road just off to the right.

'Hmm? What's this?'

Daniel stopped his jeep at the side of the highway and disembarked. He walked towards a crudely made signpost that was embedded on the mud and the nearly illegible writing even put a smile on his face.

'Oh, boy. It says Whiskers Lake here.'

The young man sighed in relief and he took his smartphone from his pocket but to his annoyance, Daniel noticed that the mobile phone was unresponsive again.

'Ugh. Not again.'

He tapped the side of his smartphone but it doesn't work.

'Urk.'

He tapped it again and there's nothing.

'Come on, damn it.'

Daniel tapped his phone again with the palm of his hand. Finally, the screen of his failing smartphone shone up.

'I think I should buy a new replacement after this. What a joke for communist Chinese gadgetry.'

He checked the time. It says 11AM. As he raised his head, the man looked down the muddy road.

'Guess this muddy road will not be too far to the lake.'

Once again, Daniel kept his smartphone away, boarded the jeep and drove through the muddy road.

…

Traveling through the muddy road towards the lake was a bit different for Daniel. Although his vehicle of choice was a jeep, the path proved to be a tough one even for such a robust wheeled vehicle since it was studded with rocks of uneven sizes. As he continued to drive through the unfamiliar road, Daniel kept on hearing the sound of axles of his jeep scraping on the jutting rocks.

'Oh, man. All of these rocks were scraping the chassis underneath. Hope my jeep could make it.'

Despite the concern, he kept on driving. As time goes on, thunderclouds started to block the sun and then, a downpour begins to fall.

'What the? I didn't know it's going to rain today.'

He turned on the windshield wipers and pushed through. As the heavy rain continues to fall, the muddy road that he was travelling on slowly started to flood. His jeep struggled to move forward through.

'Damn it. This road is a catch basin.'

Just minutes after the downpour started, the road had turned into a flooded area. To put it simple, the floodwater was about one half of an automobile tire. Daniel's jeep continued on to struggle forward at a slow speed of five miles per hour. Even though the progress was painfully slow to get through, the lone human hoped that if he can get through to the lake, he'll just have to camp out until the weather improved and the floodwaters receded.

'Come on, come on, come on. Get through, get through.'

Right after saying that, Daniel was surprised to feel something sinking suddenly from behind. He also noticed that his jeep suddenly stopped as well.

'Oh, come on! What now?'

Daniel growled through his gritted teeth in annoyance but thinking that his jeep was just stuck in some kind of pothole, he tried to move his vehicle forward and backward. Forward and backward, back and forth but it didn't worked at all.

'Oi, Shaya.' (Oh, shit)

He put his hoodie on and disembarked the jeep to investigate. To his horror, Daniel realized that the rear axle had buckled under the murky floodwater.

'Goddamn it!'

In anger, Daniel kicked the rear passenger door with his foot. He then entered back to his jeep and took a moment to calm himself up over the issue.

'Alright, Daniel. Calm down. Maybe there's still someone at Whiskers Lake so I can hitch a ride with, right?'

He then remembered that he still have his smartphone on. Immediately, he grabbed for it.

'Wait! Maybe I should call for Aleixos or anyone else for a lift back ho…'

Before he could finish his sentence, Daniel's smartphone was unresponsive again. This made him very annoyed now.

'Oh, not now!'

Gripping it with frustration, he tapped his phone numerous times to get it working again. The screen was still black, though.

'Come on!'

He slammed his palm on the back of the smartphone. Still, it doesn't respond and this is the final straw for him.

'You Made in China!'

Daniel angrily squeezed his faulty smartphone in his fist and it snapped in half. Frustrated and quickly breathing in and out, he tried to calm himself down again despite the bad luck, his slightly wounded palm, the heavy rain and the sound of thunder.

'Alright, calm down already. Maybe I'll just wait here for someone to pass by. Hope that will work.'

He sighed tensely as he waited inside his disabled jeep while the thunderstorm raged on relentlessly.

…

Hours goes by and Daniel was still stranded in the flooded area. He tried everything to keep himself company while waiting for anyone to come by and get help. The built-in radio of the jeep and a few reading materials keep his mood stable a bit but the continuing bad weather negates all of these. To make things worse, dusk approaches.

'Min Buwah. (My God) When will this bad weather ends?'

With nothing else to do other than just wait for the weather to improve or for anyone to discover his disabled jeep, Daniel tried to pass the time by rereading the newspaper that he bought from his pit stop at the gas station earlier. After a boring hour or so, he took a look on the pictured mugshot of the missing female ferret.

'If I were you, I shouldn't leave that house and cycle around to somewhere unfamiliar. Just like this flooded road I took.'

The bored male human sighed.

'I hope you're still okay somewhere or at what God knows where you are. I'll bring you home to your family once I find you soon.'

Feeling somewhat thirsty at the moment, Daniel took a plastic bottle of soda and he gulped down its sweet contents but since he knows that he only bought a few drinks for his trip to the lake alone, he had an idea to replenish his drinking supply. Checking on the passenger's cargo compartment beside him, Daniel found a black trash bag.

'Hmm. This will do the trick.'

He then donned his hoodie on, went outside his jeep and constructed a crude raincatcher. The heavy rain quickly filled it up and this gave him a timely opportunity to refill the empty plastic bottle.

'A little pick-me-up, eh? Guess I'll just have to leave this thing outside while there's still rain.'

Daniel went back inside to his jeep again and waited at the driver's seat. He waited as long as he could and soon, he drifted to a deep sleep through the thunderstorm.