Once everything was ready, Natalie climbed confidently into the excavator. She had once seen a TikTok video with over 3 million likes teaching people how to run one of these machines. The instructions had been so simple that the comments were full of jokes like, [I graduated from TikTok Technical College in heavy equipment.] Following her memory, Natalie turned the key, lifted the safety lock, and pushed the levers forward. She practiced a few moves, and within minutes she had the hang of it. Clang, clang, clang ... The hydraulic breaker pounded the pavement, quickly breaking open a hole in the concrete. At first, she'd chosen the wrong spot, so nothing useful was underneath.No problem—she just moved the machine forward and kept digging. After drilling a few more holes, Natalie was already controlling the angle and depth with ease. Confident now, she shifted closer to the fueling area. This time, when the hydraulic breaker cracked open the ground, the corner of a giant storage tank appeared. Excited, Natalie reached inside and pulled the tank straight into her storage space. Fuel—precious fuel—was finally hers! Even before the apocalypse, gasoline had cost more than 8 dollars for 0.3 gallons. Now she was getting 300 gallons for free. A gas station usually had anywhere from two to six underground tanks, side by side. Natalie grabbed one, then repeated the process for the others. By the end, she had collected 3 tanks. Each could hold around 6,000 gallons of fuel, though none were completely full—drivers had already been pumping gas before everything collapsed. Altogether, she pulled in about 12,000 gallons: 3,000 of diesel and 9,000 of gasoline. That much fuel could keep her Ford Transit running until it wore out. But for her armored SUV, which guzzled gas like a beast, it was far from enough. After nearly two hours of hard work, Natalie packed up and drove toward the next station. She avoided the city—too many people, too many eyes. Instead, she headed farther out. At the next stop, she used the same method as before, but this time she was much faster. In just over an hour, she pulled out 4 more tanks, adding another 18,000 gallons to her stash. By the time the night was half over, she had raided four stations in total. 14 tanks now sat safely in her storage space, giving her more than 60,000 gallons of fuel. That was already enough to last a lifetime. But Natalie had gotten hooked. Fuel in the apocalypse was as valuable as gold. The more she had, the better. She drove on, heading toward a fifth gas station. The state highway was pitch-black, with only her headlights cutting through the darkness ahead. Just as she figured she was almost there, she saw something unexpected—bright lights up ahead, along with the roar of heavy machinery. Natalie quickly killed her headlights and slowed down, hiding her presence. She crept forward, parking about a few hundred feet away. From the shadows, she watched carefully. The bright lights came from the very station she was targeting. Five workers were there, tearing up the ground.They had brought in a generator and floodlights, turning the place into a glowing worksite. The pounding noise of the hydraulic breaker echoed across the night, rattling the still air. Natalie frowned. So, they were after fuel too. But unlike her, they didn't have a storage space cheat. Their method was slower and far more dangerous. The crew had dug up a huge section of ground, then used professional tools to separate the underground tanks. A crane was already swinging into place, ready to lift the tanks out and load them onto massive trucks. Watching them work under the floodlights, Natalie couldn't help but wonder—were they government people, recovering fuel to build a base? Then she shook her head. That didn't make sense.The government didn't even start building bases until the middle of the Great Heat. And when they finally did, fuel was so scarce that they were scrambling everywhere to buy it up. Back then, she had run all over with Braxton and Tiffany, siphoning gas from abandoned cars just to trade it to the government for drinking water. In her memory, there had been a mysterious big boss who cornered all the fuel and then partnered with the government by supplying it. That deal had given him control over even more resources. Could these workers be his people? Whoever they were, one thing was clear—this gas station was already spoken for. Natalie watched for a while longer, then decided to leave. The road ahead was blocked by several heavy trucks waiting to be filled. She slipped her car into the storage space and moved on foot, skirting through the darkness until she passed the worksite unseen. Once she was far enough away, she summoned her armored SUV again and drove off. But when she reached the next gas station, her heart sank. All that was left there was an empty pit.