8:30, August 24th

"Maria is not going to be here throughout all of next week," David said tiredly. He perks up.

"So, you are going to have to take over the as captain of the ship." He says with laughter in his voice.

He pats me on the shoulder and continues on his daily rounds of checking in on the different parts of the warehouse. I just stood there a few moments after he left, still slightly tired from the rough morning I had. It was not my first time I had to cover for Maria, sometimes she had to go to Mexico for this and that, but it always left me with a feeling of dread. It doesn't help that I was not as famililiar with the Duskcellars department as I used to be, I had been moved to the WineSales department a couple months back when the Perogi virus first started. People seemed to think it was the end of the world, and instead of buying essential goods like food and water, they bought up as much wine and beer as they could.

"Idiots. the lot of them." I thought.

I was recently moved back over here after the initial crazyness died down, but I was still finding my feet since alot has changed since I was Marias' second. I had been keeping my head down since I have been back to try and get out of the responsibility....but it seems it wasn't good enouph, I had honestly thought he would have made Gary be the one that would take over. She had been pretty much doing what I had been doing before, but alot better since she could actually speak spanish, since most of the workers over here are latinos that do not speak much english. This department is pretty much just a row of six, no eleven tables..."I forgot they added five more tables when buisiness picked up from the virus." I thought. If you were to stand at the front of the area to your left would be the wine racks where you would grab bottles for your orders, and to your right is the tables that you would put the bottles after you picked them. Also where the packers would pack the orders that you put on their table. And on the other side of the wine racks is where most of the pallets of wine is stored, when the racks start to run out either I or one of the other guys has to go refill them.

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I am sitting in my usual spot at the front on the steel conveyor line that the packers would send their boxes down after they packed them. I like to sit here in the mornings while I wait for the clock to hit 8:35 so I can start working, don't ask me why the work day is sheduled for 8:30 but nobody gets started until five whole minutes after. *BZZZZZZZZZZ* I hear the alarm go off after the clock hits eight thirty-five, and I see a small stream of people slowly walking my way. I hear a steady stream of "Hola" and "Buenos dias" as they all say hello and good morning to each other and me respectively. I see Gary rush past me to put her bag in a box underneath one of the tables. She is a very attractive looking latino girl, around 5'2 in height, she is one of the new temps that got hired on around when I got moved to WineSales. I will admit I had a crush on her when I first saw her since I am a sucker for very cute girls, but these days I barely even notice her looks. She can be a very hard working person if she is able to stay focused on what she is doing, I attribute that to the fact that she must be very young, I believe one of the other ladies said that she was around nineteen.

"Good morning." I hear a woman say to me as she slips past me into the first table. This woman is only a couple inches shorter than me at around 5'8 in height, with a very slim but homely build. I just nod to her and say "Good morning...Anne?" with a questioning tone. "Mhm..si." she says with a smile before she pulls her mask back up to cover her face.

I look at the stack of orders on the table I will be picking for. "Seven packs it seems," goes though my head. 

I get up with a groan, and a small sigh escapes my lips.

Time to start the day.