Ghosts

Chapter 6

"What the fuck do you mean you lost him?"

Mickey had her back turned to Lou and the Highwayman lackey who found himself at the bruiser's mercy. The man was crying out, pleading with the twins. Mickey has been expecting an easy night: they'd finally have this Thomas Rush character broken down to obey their demands, they'd be set up for life, and the other chapters of the Highwaymen would be begging for the secret to their success. The only problem was that their number one problem solver was now missing.

"I tell you boss, we had no idea anyone had gotten in. We was too busy with those nomad freaks-"

"Shifting blame huh? Typical." Lou stated as she bashed her helmet once more over his head.

Mickey turned around as the man's body collapsed to the floor. She looked to her sister, disgruntled with her sister's more "hands-on" methods.

"You really gotta stop killing em' before we can get any information outta them."

"Whoops," Lou smirked, "I don't know why we're questioning these idiots anyway. We know who took Rush, I say we march up to Prosperity and burn it town, teach them a lesson."

"That is our last resort." Mickey lectured.

Prosperity was full of resources they could not afford to lose. Not while their newest problem maker was out running about causing issues for them. Getting the coal mine up and running would have meant a steady source of steel, fuel, electricity, you name it. Now they were back to square one, all because some newbie wanted to run around playing hero.

"What we need is the girl to make an example of."

Since the night of the train crash, Mickey had been pondering how the young girl who accompanied Rush had survived that fall in the first place. She'd be lying if she said there wasn't some value to that type of durability, and from the way she fucked them by taking Rush right out from under their noses, it'd be a waste of potential to just kill her.

"We need to destroy their morale. Remind them just who's in charge around here. Best way to do that is to get to their one and only hero."

She could see she was losing Lou's interest with every word. If it didn't involve bashing someone's face in, she tuned it out.

"I don't know why we don't just kill the bitch. Problem solved."

Where Lou sought immediate gratification, Mickey was thinking long term. Whoever this girl was, she knew her way around the area, and judging from the work she had done to their boys, she had her own mean streak as well. Perfect Highwayman material.

"We try my way first. The girl has some promise to her. We help her see the error in her ways, and boom, we got ourselves an Enforcer with inside knowledge of these Scavvers. If not-"

Mickey gestured to Lou's bloody helmet, eliciting a smile from her. The two sisters joined together with their little handshake, laughing grievously. If this newcomer wanted to disrupt the natural order, well, she was about to find out who the real queens around here were.

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"You don't have to baby me Mai, I'll be good as new before you know it."

"I'm just giving you the same helicopter-mom treatment that you've given me these last two years."

Mai had found herself spending the last two days in the designated infirmary with Thomas who was on "light-duty" until further notice. She less on caring duty and more on guard duty, making sure he didn't exert himself before they could actually begin their battle plan of how to handle the Twins and get Prosperity up and running. To be quite frank, everything was fucked for the most part. Nearly everyone that had been a vital asset to Prosperity was either taken by the Highwaymen or took off on their own accord to take on the Highwaymen themselves. This included both of her doofus Uncles, Hurk and Sharky, as well as her Auntie Grace. Nick Rye was the only one they knew for sure had been taken, leaving her mother's fate still up in the air.