Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to TWDG's Final Season) [Walking Dead]

9. Fill'er Up

"Where should I put this?" asked Sarah as she toted a pair of small bolt cutters towards the front of the gas station.

"Just set them next to everything else." Clem watched the older girl drop the bolt cutters by the stash of goods they had scavenged from the adjacent auto shop. They had found dozens of red and yellow gas cans, funnels, a plastic siphon, several containers of fuel stabilizer, a crowbar, and most recently the bolt cutters. It was nearly noon now, but Clem felt confident they had everything they needed now.

"So, now what?" asked Sarah as she removed her raincoat, placing it near Clem's coat and tomahawk, which she had set near the front of the gas station.

"Well, I guess we need to get this off." Clem knelt down to examine the small round metal cover sitting on the pavement. There was a series of small openings running around the lid where Clem could stick her fingers. She tried pulling on the lid, but nothing happened.

"Worth a try." Sarah handed a crowbar to Clem, who threaded the tip of the tool into one of the openings.

"Okay, we gotta do this together." Sarah took hold of the crowbar with Clem. "On three, push as hard as you can."

"Got it."

"One, two, three!" The pair piled every bit of strength they could muster onto the long end of the crowbar and immediately found themselves hitting the pavement.

"Ow!" Clem sat up and saw the lid had popped clean off. "Okay, that was easy." Clem scooted over to the now open hole and looked inside. There was a large pipe sticking up capped with a metal lid that was held in place with a padlock.

"When you looked through the gas station, did you find any keys?"

"No, and I checked everywhere because the bathroom was locked."

"Okay, we'll just have to break the lock." Clem took the crowbar and threaded it through the opening between the lid and the end of the lock's loop. "Just like before." Sarah gripped the end of the crowbar with Clem and nodded. "One, two, three!" The girls threw the weight against the lock with the crowbar's help, but nothing happened. They might as well be trying to move a whole building for all the good their straining and grunting was doing.

"Okay stop," said Clementine, gasping for breath. "I... I guess if it was that easy to break a lock... people wouldn't use locks." Clementine set the crowbar aside.

"Well, Cruz did say to get bolt cutters." Sarah grabbed the tool and sat down near the hole. "So these should work." Sarah positioned the cutter's blades right on the lock's loop and tried to cut the lock off. Clem watched her friend strain to make any progress, then quickly joined her and started applying her own strength, but it didn't help.

"Wait, stop." Sarah let go and Clem wrapped both hands around one of the cutter's handles. "You grab the other one, and we'll try to push them together." Sarah nodded and grabbed the other handle with both hands. "One, two, three!" Again, the girls strained against the immovable handles until their arms felt like they were going to snap, but the lock would not break.

"I don't get it," said Clem between breaths. "She said use bolt cutters."

"Well, she also said heavy duty bolt cutters." Sarah removed the tool from the lock, frowning at the sight of the measly scratch they had left upon it. "I guess these aren't strong enough."

"Were there any bigger ones in the store?" asked Clem.

"No, this was the biggest one I saw."

Clem sighed. "Well, maybe we can break it with something else." Clem retrieved their hammer from the Brave's storage bin.