Fire Meets Gasoline : After Ashes

Chapter Fourteen : Forgiven

 JOHN MCHALE. We were in the middle of nowhere, we were all covered in dust and unknown blood, we were thirsty and hungry, we would see the long highway with nothing and no one and slowly go insane. Through all the bad stuff that happened in my life, the hardest thing was watching Mike softly cry at the back of the truck and ask himself in a whisper tone on why things happened the way it did. It wasn't until sunlight could be seen again that Mike suddenly stopped crying, and asked for us to stop the car immediately, and for some reason his voice was strong and angry.

"What is it Mike?" Lin asked him as he got out of the car as well.

"Why-where are we even going?" He spoke before throwing up.

I tried helping him out but I was pushed by his hands as I got close, it was definitely not a good time to be around him.

"What do you mean 'where are we going'? We have to go back to LA!"

"Are you insane? W-we need to go back to that casino they might be-"
"Alive?" Lin interrupted Mike with a thunderous tone "I'm gonna tell you I don't think they are!"

"You don't fucking know that! Why leave Vegas anyway huh?" Mike tried to push Lin but he was too weak to have done that successfully.

"What are you even talking about man? We had to leave otherwise they would question us!"

"Who are you talking about now?" I let myself get into their discussion.

"T-the police of course!" Lin answered me.

"That's it? Where were you when shit went down then?" Mike cried uncontrollably.

I've seen Mike cry, but nothing was like that morning, his bone and flesh were shaking and so was his entire face, his tears came furiously down his cheeks and his skin got redder among the minutes of him screaming everything that came out of his mouth. Mike was extremely hurt, and the last time I noticed that happen was right before he made his father get down on his knees and plead for his life.

"I got a message from Marta's men saying some people were going towards the casino-I tried to stop them!" Lin explained.

"You didn't do a good job on that!" Mike screamed again "Cause now look! Marta's dead, Jen's dead and-"

"I know I know..." Lin struggled to empathize with Mike and that was very visible.

"We have to find out who did all that stuff!" I tried to cheer everyone up.

"And then what? Get more people killed?" Mike looked deeply into my eyes with his rage.

"That won't happen..." I answered him.

"It will, it will and you know why?" Mike got closer to me "Because it's not the first time that this happened John!"

"Wait, what do you mean?" Lin questioned us while worried.

"I think you gotta be filled up on the stuff that happened Lin!" Mike took some steps away from me and started going around "A boy died because of me, you knew that?"

Lin was too stunned to speak, quite literally, his eyes jingled from side to side, his mouth was almost full open without moving a muscle, he tried to say something but was caught with speechless reactions every time, I walked up to Mike, tried to calm him down, but he dodged me and pulled me away softly with his powers, I could feel the dirt under my feet moving to the front while I moved backwards without a choice, Lin noticed it and kept me from falling on the ground, it was the only thing he could do even though he was still surprised.