Chereads / TWD: A New Beginning From the End of the World / Chapter 71 - Working for the future

Chapter 71 - Working for the future

As Airon approached the cell where Hershel's family was having a conversation, he slowly approached and said, "Hershel, do you have some free time? There are some things I want to discuss with you, I won't be long." 

Hearing the voice calling him, Hershel looked back and then noticed Airon, he turned to speak a few words and then nodded towards Airon. 

"Well, Meggie, take your sister out for some fresh air, she should still be pretty shaken up from the loss of Jimmy." Hershel's voice sounded a bit guilty, but he still indicated to Airon that they walked to a secluded spot.

Seeing all this, Airon looked at Hershel's daughters carefully, these two sisters seemed to have a very close relationship just like the original story. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something and stepped aside to let the sisters out. 

When the two came to an open space, Airon looked carefully at this good land. The two stood still and looked at all the people who were busy working. 

"How things change in such a short time, right?" 

After hearing this, Airon sighed lightly, knowing that quite possibly the other party should continue to suffer in silence all their losses. This was inevitable, nowadays who doesn't suffer in this decaying world? 

After giving Hershel a look, Airon said, "Hershel, what is your first impression of this place?"    

Speaking of this, Airon paused deliberately, waiting for the old man next to him to express his thoughts, receiving no answers as he looked to the side, waiting as long as necessary.

Hershel looked at the ground and picked up some dirt, he looked at his hand carefully and then said, "This land is very good, there is a large space and apparently they have water sources in this place, suitable for what you are looking for." 

When he heard this, Airon realized that although Hershel apparently decided to give up on the farm, he willingly did not give up just like in the original story. After Jimmy's death, he thought that maybe this old man would not want to move on even if his daughters were by his side.   

But it's too early to jump to conclusions, he just barely made it to the prison and he still has to think long and hard before focusing on other things. 

Hershel knew that when Airon called him he had a vague assumption when he heard some words from his daughter about this place, so he thought there were many more reasons why he called him right when he arrived at this place. 

"If we ever manage to expand our safe territory, we can get your farm back and you can return home. Of course, to accomplish that I would have to consider many other very important things. But what I want to tell you is that we still have that possibility in the future." 

"I'm sorry about what happened to Shane at the farm, I know that a lot of your family were infected..." After pausing, Airon guessed that they could expand their harvesting grounds later. 

But when he looked at old Hershel's originally calm expression becoming more and more abnormal, his eyes slowly closed, and his hoarse voice reached Airon's ears some time later.

"You don't need to do that to reassure me, you know what's the dumbest thing? Back at the farm, when Shane shot that walker as you call it in the heart, I knew how stupid and selfish he was. My family, neighbors and son, were all dead." 

"I tried to convince myself that this was all just a simple reversible disease, I tried to feed all those people in the barn, their bodies were increasingly decomposing. Now that I accept that reality, does it make any difference where I stay?" 

After listening to Hershel's long words, Airon couldn't help but say, after knowing that this old man's thoughts were a bit similar to what he thought, but it seems he still didn't know what he wanted to explain to him.

"Hershel, I want to tell you my deep thoughts. The reason I set up this place and took it upon myself to bring all these people here is for an important purpose. I see this place as a starting point for survivors who have no place to feel safe to come and join us!" 

"Slowly everyone will understand that many will try to do horrible things to harm us, some of us have already learned the hard way. But I believe that as long as our power is strong enough, there will come a time when the virus is not a dangerous thing for us. Even if we don't find a cure, the hope of getting through it will be in our own hands." 

"But in order for me to accomplish that, I need to have enough food to feed you all, enough weapons to protect you all, and the territory for everyone to live peacefully." 

"You have some big goals ahead of you, but you must know how to take care of yourself first. If everyone in this prison depends on your determination, you must know that you will be someone irreplaceable in this place." 

After hearing Airon's words, Hershel knew he was not wrong when he first looked at this young man. He knew that he was quite possibly desperately looking for light in this dark world, but that was also a very heavy chain on his shoulders.  

"Haha, I'm not looking to be someone that important, I just want to live being someone who keeps fighting to keep our world as intact as possible." 

Smiling a little, Airon wasn't looking to be someone that important, he just wanted to survive and accomplish his goals according to his abilities. He wanted to prove how far he can go and how far he can continue to lead all those people behind him into a new future. 

Sighing, Hershel turned his attention to a group of people who were busy carrying resources and picking up the machine guns on the ground that had been placed the night before. "You know, I am a devout believer and have never lost faith, but I know very well that God did not bring us this hell into our world, I am sure of that and I want to thank him for letting me meet you." 

Hearing a new tone in Hershel's words, Airon felt a little calmer and thought it was time to tell him the main topic of the conversation.

"Alright, let's not talk about that for now, I want to tell you something important." After pausing to order his words, Hershel instructed him to speak directly.

"We have had enough food for a long time, but we are now only about 210 people in this prison and the problem of food wastage must be slowed down as soon as possible. At present, food is not a problem, but we can't have the same security later and I don't want everyone to just sit around waiting for us to run out of resources." 

"As I plan to welcome more people in the future, we need to build a solid and sustainable base, not only to hold the walkers and protect us from them, but also to keep the bad people away." 

"We need to take advantage of the land here as soon as possible and think about moving cattle while we farm this land. Later of course we will expand the range with better land, but for now we can work from this point." 

Discussing with Hershel about how he wanted to work the crops and the plans that needed to start developing. After a long conversation, Hershel was amazed at all the well laid plans in Airon's mind. Is this man a person who does not rest? Determined mind, leadership with a well-defined dignity, and seems to be prepared for anything. 

Hershel even felt that he had been wasting his life, this man's ability to think and move is seemingly always at its peak. 

Because there are too many things to do at the base of this community, Airon does not have time to supervise this, so he would entrust Hershel with this job. 

Airon gave all authority to Hershel to choose good people with the help of some guards to start working in this place. Then he would take care of going with Guillermo to work together with Hershel on the production issue. 

For now, Airon finally left this matter settled. He still has a lot of things to deal with, and right now there is a bit of a strange factor, apparently some troubled students were brought by Shane to the prison and right now they were in a separate unit.