"Well fancy seeing new faces around here!~" A pretty looking black woman with her long black hair wrapped up in a hairnet said as she stood over a boiling pot of some sort of stew in a large cafeteria. She had a distinctly southern voice and looked as cheerful as could be. She then noticed Buddy walking around and smiled even brighter. "And looks like our robotic guest is finally moving around! How wonderful!"
"This here is Rachel Jones, the best chef in the entire world!" Chet said enthusiastically.
"He's a flatterer, honestly." She smiled. "But I ain't going to say no to compliments~"
"Well just hearing that you are that good makes me hungry already." Adam smiled.
"Well then grab yourself a tray, honey, I got stew, corn bread, and a rice pilaf on serve today!"
"How much for the meal?" Adam asked as he grabbed a tray like instructed.
"Oh it's free, sugar. You made it inside, that's a meal ticket if I've ever seen one." She smiled warmly. Adam looked at her confused.
"Its free? How do you guys afford to feed everyone if you don't charge for anything?" She waved Adam off as she began to fill bowls and plates for Adam and Deccanus.
"It ain't nothing, sugar. We grow what we need here, and everyone here helps out when needed. Working together works far better than charging for every little thing."
"What's stopping someone from taking advantage of your kindness?" Adam asked as he got his food and smelled it, it smelled heavenly.
"Well I suppose, if someone were to be so uncouth, I guess we would start charging them. But most people know better than to act out, and if you made it inside you are smart enough to realize what we are all about. So enjoy the meal and don't worry about the silly caps system." She smiled warmly as she finished plating Deccanus' food now.
"Well um… thank you." Adam said, not really sure how to respond to this unexpected generosity.
"You are welcome, sugar. And you too handsome~" She said to Adam and then to Deccanus in turn.
"Come on, I'll bring you two over to a free table, you can eat Rachel's food and tell me about where you've been!" Chet said enthusiastically as he led the two of them, plus Buddy, over to a table.
The three men sat down at the table and Adam began to eat. Holy crap, this was good. The best food he had eaten up to this point was the food at the Gourmand, but this eclipsed even that. Honestly, this was good enough that chefs from the old world would be jealous of her skill.
"It's good right?" Chet asked with a wide smile, seeing Adam enjoying it thoroughly.
"I'm shocked a woman with her skills is here, if she was in Midway or something I'm sure she could make a killing." Adam said between bites.
"Well maybe." Chet shrugged. "But she's here for the same reason the rest of us are. Freedom. We are all artists here." He chuckled.
"Even her?" Adam asked, surprised to hear she was not only a top tier chef but also an artist.
"Cooking is an art, duh!" Chet said with a grin.
"How do you guys have the resources to trade with traders if you don't use caps here?"
"Simple, we trade and barter what we need. And we also sell our skills as needed. Everyone pitches in. Maybe they need a good tailor, or a sign maker, or a builder, or dancers. Who knows? But we can usually work out a deal. Been this way for a long time, doubt it's ever gonna change, man." Adam had mixed feelings about all this. This sounded like communism… or socialism… The very thing he fought to stop the Chinese from spreading, and here it seemed to start naturally. But the most surprising thing is that it seemed to work? He was happy to see people thriving and happy but this was… strange. Still he kept his thoughts to himself.
"And what about you?" Adam asked, curious. "What kind of artist are you?"
"I'm glad you asked! I am a graffiti artist, got my start marking buildings in an old place called Dog City. Not much to do up in the rooftops other than to make art." He shrugged.
"I got lucky though, escaped and made my way here, found my tribe and been here ever since." He smiled
"So some of this?" Adam said generally pointing around to the walls some of which had clearly spray paint art on it.
"Yeah! I did that one over there!" Chet said proudly as he pointed to a mural of a broken cityscape where the focus was all on the tops of the buildings with small fires on top of each one, while a light orange haze obscured the bottom of the skyscrapers. "Based on it off home. Not that I would ever go back." he laughed.
"Wow, you are talented." Adam said as he admired it for a moment.
"Thanks man!" He said with a bright smile. "Anyway, we all got our things. You got any art skills?" Chet asked curiously. Adam chuckled softly.
"Oh no. I have zero artistic skill." Adam smiled. "I am a scaver and a repair tech, other than programming I don't have any unique skills."
"No man!" Chet said with a bright smile correcting Adam. "Programming is art too! We got one of those here, if robo-bro here sat around for too long she was going to take a look at him, but she doesn't like to come out of her room much so..." He shrugged.
"Well… I had never considered programming to be an art form." Adam said, thoughtfully.
"Everything is!" He smiled. "Sure, for me I can't wrap my head around all the mumbo jumbo of the long strings of words used in programming but our resident programmer made a few art pieces that are only doable with artistic skill in programming! Plus she keeps the hydroponics systems functioning so she's the real MVP."
"Maybe I will need to meet her some time." Adam said casually.
"Ah, well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble but she kinda… hates people, she stays in her room all day like I said and gets food delivered to her, so you will probably never see her." Chet said, almost apologetically.
"Oh. Well then nevermind." Adam chuckled.
"And what about you friend?" Chet said, turning to Deccanus now. "Does Mr. Silent have any art skills?" There was a few long moments of silence as Deccanus quietly ate his soup before he offered a single word:
"Woodworking." He said without any more elaboration.
"Yo! That's awesome man! I love people that can work with wood!" He laughed.
"Well when you two are done eating, want me to give you two the rest of the tour? You can bring Buddy along as we explore and it will give you plenty of time to get back to the boats before it gets dark." Adam shrugged in agreement.
"Sure. Sounds like a good plan."
"Radical."