Todos os capítulos de Gasoline: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

The wind was blowing differently this morning, and Max sat at Hael's table munching down Weet-Bix."Do we have business today?" He asked when a cold sliver of doom traveled down his spine.Hael looked up from the Newspaper he was reading, took a gulp of the slush he called coffee, and opened his mouth to speak when the first volley of shots blasted through the kitchen window. Both men dropped to the floor as low as they could and crawled in unison toward the hallway, seeking a place with no windows for safety.The shots stopped momentarily. "Reloading," Hael said grimly, as he took his chance, army crawling the rest of the way with Max right behind him."They'll flank us. I didn't lock the back door." Hael pushes a part of the wall, and a small door opens. " Well, that's new," Max laughs, in his element whenever he's about to go to war, and Hael looks back at him as Max crawls through. Once the door whispers back into place, the sound of gunfire resumes, but in here everything is mute

After the morning's brush with death, I tended to business quickly and decisively. Men were scattered throughout Mercy, gathering intel so we could figure out the next steps. Max called the other factions, and we were set to meet on neutral territory later today to see if this was an isolated incident or whether we were about to engage in a territorial war.But I was doing something completely random while everyone else was talking shop."Just sign here and here and initial over here, then it's done, save for the down payment, and which bank are you securing your mortgage with, Mr Wilder?" The agent was an older woman; she was all about business, and I appreciated that." I don't need a mortgage, thank you, Mrs. Clayton. If you give me a minute, I'll transfer the agreed payment into your company's account. I don't need escrow, and the current owners have ninety days' notice to move out?"The older woman looked speechless. "It's a twenty-four million dollar investment, are you sure you

Jack Scott sat in on the founders' meeting, half asleep. Although he wasn't a member of the founding family, he represented the other families in town and had to take minutes at these meetings. The gunfire he'd witnessed yesterday morning was weighing heavily on his conscience, and for the first time ever, he'd made an excuse to stop Hael from coming to dinner tonight. It also eased his mind to hear that Ariana was out with her friend Daniel in another town this evening, because the unease was creeping up his spine again, suggesting something wasn't right in Mercy.He looked around at the vacant seats, noticing people fidgeting. Then someone else sat down beside him."Anything interesting, Mr. S?"Raymond popped a bubble, chewing gum in the most obnoxious way possible, before taking it out and sticking it under his seat. He was the kind of kid that you expect to do weird stuff, and Ariana and he were as thick as thieves; there weren't many seventeen-year-olds who knew what they wanted

The back of the van smelt like old socks, and Ariana struggled to calm herself at first. She practiced the relaxation technique her dad had taught her before she started reaching for more than just a basic understanding of Silva's mind control. She was already in the beta state, wide awake and hyper-alert to what was going on around her, so Ariana began to slow her breathing, ignoring the sounds, the way the vehicle moved, and the different voices that wouldn't help her right now. Muscle memory took over, and Ariana felt herself begin to relax, entering what her Dad called the Alpha state. It took Ariana months to master the Alpha state and reach the point where she was relaxed enough to let her body rest while her mind opened up, entering her creative state. The place where she could problem-solve. It was a simple trick to get her mind from beta to alpha; often, repeating a backward countdown was enough. So she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1, exhalin

The van rolled to a stop. There were a few moments of blissful silence before a black hood was pulled over Ariana's head and the door swung open."Move, little girl."One of the Neanderthals who snatched her shoved Ariana out of the door, where a pair of rough hands stopped her from falling on her face. Without a word, rough hands took hold of her, guiding Ariana to wherever she needed to be.She only had sound and smell to use now; there was no point in talking, so she didn't bother. The air went from smelling like straw to smelling like cow shit, and she had to fight to keep her stomach contents where they belonged. They had to be on a farm, which matched her inner map as they drove.As they drew closer to what must be the main house, Ariana heard one of her favorite bands playing through the house system, and she found it oddly appropriate that "Crawling" greeted her as one hand opened the door, guiding her inside.Expensive cologne assaulted her nostrils, and her footsteps echoed