It comes up quickly, the fuel price sign cutting through the
darkness of nighttime travel on Alberta’s Highway 16. Pulling off from the flow
of 110 km/h traffic gives way to a deserted gravel lot of Gas Plus, just east
of Ardrossan, it is open for business, but there are no human employees here.
Three gasoline and one diesel pump stand under the buzzing
gas arc lights, which cast eerie pools as they hang from the unfinished steel
girder super structure. Behind them is the former convenience store, dark and
unoccupied, flanked by a much older building, rotting and sinking into the
ground.
Were it not for the steady hum of traffic along the highway,
it wouldn’t be hard to believe you were the last person on earth, a post-apocalyptic
survivor even. The scarred and vandalized pumps, Fallout-esque robots as they
are, stand ready to deliver fuel with the swipe of the credit or debit card, no
cash, no change.
From the darkened storefront a single bubble camera stands as
silent sentinel, giving no indication of if anyone is monitoring its feed. Peering through the scummy windows, only a single computer
terminal illuminates the vacant interior, the pump controller presumably,
always on duty.
Wheeling back onto the highway, throttle down, boost gauge
reading high, accelerating away from that lonely place.
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