AJAX Tarnished, Book 1 of the AJAX Chronicles... Part 2: From Cough To Nightmare, Chapter 4

This is the fourth Chapter of AJAX Tarnished as I serialize it on the Steemit Blockchain. I hope you continue to enjoy the story... please forward to any of your friends and family that you feel might enjoy the story.

If you didn't get a chance to read the previous sections:

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

In addition, if you're too antsy to wait and would like to purchase a copy of the published version, you can do so by going here at Amazon. If you want, you can also go there to leave a Review regarding the book.

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Part 2: From Cough To Nightmare
Chapter 4

Aaron was flummoxed. His insides writhed with feelings he hadn’t felt since he was younger, with no direction and no money and no counsel. He did not know what to do. His footsteps echoed loudly in his ears. ‘What do I do now?’ he thought. He had no answer.

Had he been aware of anything happening around him, he would have noticed the lack of machinery sounds. It probably would have made him even more nervous about what was to come; however, his emotions were so knotted up that the silence itself was noise.

He swallowed hard as he reached the final landing. It was then that the silence suddenly crushed down. No work was being done. They awaited his news… and he would have to bury these people in hopelessness. He just hoped that they didn’t turn on him or become one of those angry mob scenes in the old tales. In his mind, as he stood there, he could already envision the angry fists and pitch forks and torches and hatred.

He shook himself free of the images and thought, ‘Aaron, these people do not blame you… besides, these are not the old days and none of these people even own a pitchfork. At least, I hope not. Now go out there and break the news. Get it over with and get out of here.’

With a deep breath, he turned the handle and pushed the door open. He stepped out into the room, every worker seemingly in the same place as they had been when he had left earlier. There was only a moment, though, before a wave of cheering erupted. Shouts and hand clasping followed as he was gently but firmly guided to the stairs. He hung his head, walking the shame-filled steps to the exact spot where he had given his first speech.

Slowly the crowd fell silent, listening. The metal railing felt even colder now with his hands as clammy as they were. He felt so nervous. He bit his lip and closed his eyes. An impatient voice in the crowd demanded him to speak, but cut off like the hard edge of a knife… the others must not have appreciated his demanding tone.

Aaron only started speaking after quiet and questioning murmurs began to grow. “I am sorry everybody. I have failed.”

“What happened?” asked a random voice… the same that had demanded a response a few moments ago?

“What did they say?”

“What did they do?”

“They fired me,” he answered with a harshness he had not intended. “That’s what they did. They said that they would find someone else that would do the job and they fired me.”

“Can they do that?” one voice questioned.

“Of course they can… they own us.”

“They don’t own me!”

“Yes they do, they give us credits! That’s how they own us!”

Aaron stood there and watched as the crowd turned to each other and the babble of questions went back and forth. The voices seemed to grow angrier and angrier as they debated back and forth. Then, out of nowhere, a single individual began to clap his hands together. It was Hake. Aaron’s eyes locked on the man and he nodded thanks.

Hake’s sentiment was contagious and, one-by-one, the voices cut off and other hands began to clap. Heads nodded. Aaron could feel their appreciation and breathed in slowly. His eyes burned and his throat clenched. Suddenly the applause swelled to a complete cheering crescendo. Shivers climbed up and down his spine and he reverently lowered his eyes. His feet shuffled. Unshed tears threatened to fall.

‘Thank you all,’ he thought. ‘Now I am done with this place.’

He could feel a great weight fall from his shoulders. It wasn’t lifted, because it was still there and in his way; however, it wasn’t pushing him downward. He now felt that ‘this was meant to be and we will make it through as a family.’ His steps were lighter and clanged on the stairs. His former coworkers, still applauding, stepped back and let him pass unhindered.

When he was out of sight, he heard a voice screech “Get to work or you are all going to be FIRED!!!” It was Eila. Boy could she scream loud. The clapping subsided, all but a few.

Aaron couldn’t let himself care. He shut off the uprising of voices and what might have been fighting. He marched into the locker rooms and withdrew all of his personal effects. In addition, he took his safety goggles, his gloves, his apron, and several other manufacturing items. They WERE GIVEN to him, after all… and he might need them in the future in his search for a new job. Maybe he wouldn’t go into the manufacturing field and would look elsewhere. Maybe an office would be nice, if he could get one.

‘Well, Aaron, first you need to leave this building,’ he scolded himself. ‘Then, you can do whatever you NEED to do.’ He smiled and inhaled deeply, almost as if to take in one final breath of molten metal and foundry air. It was a mixed bag of emotions that he pushed down as he marched out, pausing only briefly before leaving for the last time.

_The air outside held the scent of steam, smoke, and fumes from dozens of factories and industries. He took a seat on the bench at the end of the sidewalk and waited for the next Electro-Slider to pull up to the curbside. _

‘What WOULD I like to do? I don’t know. An office DOES sound nice, not having to come home drenched in sweat in the Summer or freezing from the sweat in the Winter. That would be nice.’ He took out his lunch and crammed half of the sandwich in his mouth, tasting the saltiness of the meat and the tang of the mustard-sauce. It would have been a great sandwich to eat while feeling empowered. Now, unfortunately, it was only a tasty sandwich to eat while feeling power-LESS. He groaned at that thought and drank the thermos of cold-spiced tea.

‘The truth is that I don’t have a whole lot of experience,’ he thought, sighing in regret, ‘but I did a number of odd jobs before the foundry. I was pretty good with the pruning shears and the tamping rod; and I think I did a good job with the letter-writing campaign as well. Maybe I can enroll in the Advancing Academy and learn an entirely new trade…’

It was only a small handful of minutes before the Electro-Slider’s low hum was pulling him out of his musings. He hadn’t reached any decision, but he DID feel a little better about things… at least, he thought he did. He didn’t feel any worse about it, so that was good. He crinkled his brow and looked back over his shoulder at the sign post. It read ‘Pickup Times On The Hour’ and listed those times below, ending at 8-hours-past-noon.

He climbed the steps as the driver, the same as had dropped him off earlier, called to him, “Are you getting on? Or are you waiting for someone?”

Aaron held out his pass to be read by the scanning system. “This is earlier than it should be, right?”

“What is?” the driver responded.

“The Pickup time.”

“Oh, so you haven’t heard about the change?” asked the driver in answer. He watched and, in response to Aaron’s confusion, continued on. “No, obviously you haven’t… well, with all the sickness going around, the Big Guys at the Main Branch decided to increase the number of pickup times. Well, at least you’ve heard of the sickness. It’s pretty bad.”

“Is it THAT bad?” asked Aaron.

The driver just motioned with his head toward the rear. There were about 10 or so people boarded. “It’s been like this with almost every pickup today and most of yesterday afternoon. Anyway, take your seat because I’m now running behind. Sorry.”

“That’s perfectly alright,” Aaron responded. He thanked the driver and took an empty seat near the middle of the vehicle. The seat was removed from the other passengers by a number of seats… he didn’t want to risk the possibility of contagion. He looked around at the others.

‘Wait,’ he thought, ‘Is that Ralf?’ He looked down the aisle and saw that, indeed, it was Ralf. He was coughing. He suddenly felt really bad about the morning and wanted to apologize. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t make himself do it. So he sat there and let the Electro-Slider buzz down the street while his mind loosed and thought about nothing in particular. He watched the sky outside and just let the time pass until he was pulling up to his own stop.