Chương 360: In the kitchen

"Hey Airon, you're here."

That's right, this guy is Jim who was with Shane's group at the beginning of the end of the world.

He was supposed to be bitten the day the undead in the quarry attacked the camp, and subsequently the protagonist's group left him on the road to the CDC, but due to Airon's intervention, this guy didn't die and is now a blacksmith working at the central base to create some of the things they need in this place.

"I talked to the foreman and everything you ordered has been done, but the gears you mentioned are still not finished."

As he spoke, Jim pointed to some metal shell-shaped things on the floor around him. Airon stepped forward to check and found that everything was well done and everything was handled perfectly, so he nodded in praise.

"I don't have much to mention, I'm no expert in this field but I know one thing or another and I can say you did a great job. Now that there are new blacksmiths on base, they will be working on this place."

Jim is a person who doesn't like to express himself, but he seemed very happy to hear the compliment, left his work and walked to a table next to him.

"I like having new help, not everyone is an expert in blacksmithing. If this job was already a problem in the world before the dead came, can you imagine now? See, this is the gear mold that was in the design and it's still not finished."

"Well, we had a lot of complications in being able to find people who were experts in electrical. If Georgia and Atlanta have a full schedule and can't send experts, imagine now..

Airon went over to pick one up and looked at it closely, and found that these metal gears were in good shape but needed a lot of improvement.

He had a need for this work to be in as soon as possible as time was running out, so he signaled everyone to come forward.

"There will be some good smiths coming, I'm not belittling their work, not at all, I just want this job to be in good shape."

"Don't worry, boss."

The attention of the few people quickly returned to the work again, because Airon introduced them to new people who would help them and some with more experience would serve as a guide, so the few people have been busy with this matter for the past two days, and this morning reached the final stage.

After some people were busy for half an hour, basically everyone called it a day. The few people who got up early in the morning and started to get busy finally took some time to rest for a while.

Jim pulled out a pack of cigarettes, took one out and lit it, and unconsciously looked at Airon, who was still watching those people work.

Then his expression became dull, and the cigarette in his mouth fell to the ground unknowingly, and the people behind him were not much better, they all looked at the result of the work those people were doing

They all watched that old man named Earl Sutton adjust quickly, shaping the gear at a visible speed with the help of other te amadors.

The place sealed by the bumps and the quality of the shape were good, each of the teeth has its size and only had to be worked a little to complete the job.

"Gosh, what kind of old man is that?"

"It was a very quick job."

"All the men brought in by the commander are always excellent at the job, it's nothing to be surprised about."

"Shall we learn from him?"

Earl, who was very focused, had no time for others at all. At this moment, he wholeheartedly devoted himself to the team in front of him. Since he had the experience and skills to do this job, he could only help where he could. Although he had never machined anything as precise as gear parts, he was confident he could do it.

At some point, Earl married Tammy and had a son with her, Kenneth. He was an alcoholic and drunk when Ken was born. He can't even remember the first time he saw him. And now, he had immersed himself in work remembering what he was engaged in in the early days and before the end of the world.

Earl thought that Airon was a good leader and what he sought at all times was the safety of his people, something that brought him closer to working in this place as soon as he came to settle in the base.

Looking up again, he was startled by the situation around him, he saw that the not-so-small smithy was full of people, everyone was looking at him with eyes filled with inexplicable thoughts.

"What's wrong, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're amazing Earl, we're all surprised." Airon said with a smile.

There was a burst of cheers from the silent crowd, followed by applause.

"God, your moves are so good."

"That prayer can be misunderstood."

...

Airon looked at his watch, and was startled to learn that it was already close to noon, remembering how long he has been here without realizing it.

Even sitting here all morning, the problem is that it clearly feels like it's only been a short time.

He waved to the crowd and dismissed them, only then did he hear Jim say off to the side.

"Sir, the job is almost complete. Definitely with Earl we'll finish it much faster."

"Hehe, I feel very reassured to hear that. I think these few gear molds should be fine. They can be molded after polishing them."

"You know a lot to know nothing..." Earl said from a corner.

"Well, I worked in a lot of places before all this started."

...

It was already 11:30 when Airon came out of the blacksmith shop, he hadn't had lunch so now he was heading to the dining hall.

As soon as he entered the dining room, there were very few people due to the time, but as he approached the kitchen he noticed that the atmosphere was not right, as there were very few people eating.

Behind the kitchen window, several members of the kitchen staff were looking angrily at a man standing to the side.

Airon didn't care, stepped forward and asked with a smile.

"Hey, what's up, Jorge?

The guy named Jorge, who was the chef before the official cafeteria, was the most excited of all.

"Sir, this person is here to deliberately find fault with our food."

When Airon approached, he also saw Charon standing there, shaking his head and complaining about the way they cooked.

Even if he was starving, that chef had the time to criticize the food in the pot in front of him and said in disgust, "How can you blame me, it's obviously the fault of this horrible food preparation!"

"You bastard, we've been cooking for a year too, and no one said it was disgusting, I think you're deliberately finding trouble!"

"We cook for thousands of people! You think you can do better than that? This isn't a goddamn ten-star restaurant or whatever crap you used to work at, we create food here to survive."

Seeing that the two parties were about to fight again, the cooks stepped up to act if things went wrong.

"I'll tell you why, because you got a pretty good recipe but it doesn't take advantage of all the wonders of a simple dish, you create crap with valuable resources."

Jorge looked at Charon speechlessly and said in disgust. "You're really sick, you think my food is bad? You've been here for a few days, I've been here for more than half a year..

"You've only created garbage for hungry people..." Charon looked at him with disdain, then turned his head and smiled at Airon, the speed of the change of expression was amazing.

"The more the end of the world, the more attention should be paid to the taste of food. Everyone is tired from a day's work. It is our chef's duty to let everyone enjoy delicious food and not the same simple junk, do you understand?"

The few members of the kitchen staff who were angry were left speechless, and Jorge even opened his mouth, but could not speak.

Seeing that the two parties were still arguing, Airon had no choice but to clap his hands, and seeing that both parties were looking at him, he said, "I know it's hard everyone's job. Listen Charon, there are different groups that are in charge of thinking and cooking new things with the resources that must be used at that time. If you want to make a change, you have to teach them first. You can start with joining the kitchen and making rich and filling plans for people's stomachs."

"Listen, Jorge! It's also true what Charon said, after the reformation is over there will be more than four cooking groups so your work is one step away from lessening its intensity."

"No need to cause trouble over food, we seem all since we don't know when we will stop having food on our table."

"Understood, Chief!"