Last Fuel For 500 Kilometers

 

    It was a hot summer day in the middle of the Australian outback. The sun was beating down on the red dirt, and the only sound was the occasional rustle of a lizard or the distant call of a bird. In the distance, a lone car could be seen making its way down the long, straight road.

    Inside the car, a young couple, Jack and Sarah, were on their way to visit Sarah's family in a small town 500 kilometres away. They had been driving for hours, and the fuel gauge was getting dangerously low. They had passed the last petrol station over an hour ago, and there was no sign of another one in sight.

    As they drove on, the tension in the car grew. They had no idea how much fuel they had left, and they were in the middle of nowhere. They tried to conserve fuel by turning off the air conditioning and driving at a slower speed, but they knew it wouldn't be enough.

    Finally, they saw a sign up ahead. "Last fuel for 500 kilometres," it read. They breathed a sigh of relief and pulled into the petrol station. The attendant looked at them sympathetically as they filled up their tank.

    "You're lucky," he said. "We're the only petrol station for miles around. If you had missed us, you would have been stranded out here for days."

    Jack and Sarah thanked him and got back on the road. They drove on, the fuel gauge slowly creeping back up to a safe level. As they approached the town, they saw Sarah's family waiting for them at the side of the road. They pulled over and were greeted with hugs and smiles.

    As they sat down for dinner that night, Jack and Sarah couldn't help but feel grateful for the small petrol station that had saved them from being stranded in the middle of nowhere. They knew that they had been lucky, and they vowed to always be more careful about checking their fuel levels in the future.