Stuart

 The green digital display read 6:18.

Stuart's fingers ached as he gripped the steering wheel. His wrists had a different kind of ache from the chains that held him to the steering column. There was just enough slack for him to freely turn the wheel. He kept an even speed and tried not to look at his passenger in the backseat. 

The passenger had a gun poking into the back of the Stuart's seat. He couldn't see it but the passenger had shown it when Stuart woke up chained to the wheel. It was a nightmare. After his initial panic the passenger hit him with the gun and gave him instructions to drive at a normal speed without pulling any stunts. When they got to their destination the passenger would leave the car and the key for the chains on the front seat. Stuart would wait five minutes before he could use the key and exit the car himself.

It all seemed very reasonable to Stuart, for being chained up at gunpoint. 

The passenger would utter "turn right here" or "the next left up there" occasionally. Stuart tried not to think of his wife and son as he dutifully followed directions. 

But the thoughts kept creeping in. He could not keep from remembering how he tampered with his wife's car. He was no master mechanic but he found out various things he could do to make the car unsafe to drive. She had no concept of anything to do with the car aside from getting from here to there.

It only took a week or so for his effort to succeed. When the police came to inform him of the fatal crash he put on a good show for them. It was all- "stop right here." The passenger didn't mean at the fire hydrant. 

"I said stop!" There was no argument to be had. Stuart stopped where he was told. 

The passenger went over the instructions again and set the key on the front passenger seat as close to the door as was possible. "Remember, five minutes. I'll be watching. If you try anything before then you'll get a bullet."

Stuart watched in the side mirror as the passenger went down the street away from the car. After a short time clenching his eyes shut to try to make the whole ordeal go away, he opened his eyes and looked around. 

It was mostly little shops on the ground floors around him with presumably apartments upstairs in the older buildings. He looked to the right and saw he was parked in front of a little cafe. He reconsidered. Perhaps it was more of a diner, he would really need to see the inside to tell for sure.

There was still two minutes left before he could grab the key and get out of this predicament. Stuart felt the heatwave and had the sensation of floating off the seat as the detonation engulfed the car.