The Badlands had plenty of ghost towns. Some had been built to support oil drilling, but once the oil ran out, everyone left.
Others had been built on a developer's whim, only to be abandoned when it turned out they couldn't make money.
Some had once been gathering places for farmers, but for one reason or another, they could no longer farm the land, and the farmers disappeared too.
Now, the former farmers and workers-the outlaws of today-had gathered in one such ghost town.
Bang.
Panam shut the door and strode off as if she were about to take flight.
"It's been ages since I've had a job this satisfying! Thor, see? I told you we should've gone back to our old line of work sooner!"
"But it's too early to decide whether it was worth it."
"Worth it? Look at these four armored vehicles. With a few modifications, they could serve as our main rides. The armor, the engines!
"I heard a long time ago that someone down south had gotten their hands on a Behemoth from somewhere. Now we've got something good too!"
"Vehicles won't get us through a crisis. What we need isn't vehicles, it's weapons and supplies."
Thor stayed calm, but Cedric soon climbed down from the vehicle and said, "Thor, look at that sourpuss face of yours. If I were one of your people, I'd slap you to knock some sense into you! And this is only the beginning!"
Everyone instinctively looked up. Thor felt uncomfortable under their gaze-
Were they actually thinking of slapping him?
"But it really was a good haul. There's just no turning back now."
Cedric prodded Thor with his cane. "Come on. The people in the city have always seen us as criminals. This one job won't make a difference."