6 Standoff

"A spook? I should have known it earlier, you former special forces type can't keep a secret, can you?"

Two of us were standing in front of the center of that ruined town, with both of our guns aimed at each other's temple. I knew it. He wasn't just a regular engineer appearing out of nowhere.

"A fake doctor like you, I should've known you're a fake," he aimed his pistol at me.

"Who sent you? CIA? ISA? What? Did they send you to exterminate old assets?"

"Does it matter?"

"Put the gun down, Sawyer. We don't want to do this," I said.

"After you, Alfie, better give me an explanation who the hell are you?"

"Me? I'm just a regular surgeon attending a conference, what's the matter with you?"

"Impossible. That move, that stance, and the fact that we manage to get a square fight. You and I are the same," Sawyer said.

"You sure?" I asked him back as I put my pistol closer to his face.

"What's your back name, Alfie?" Sawyer asked.

"Bell."

Suddenly, Sawyer put the gun down without any hesitation. He put his pistol into his pocket and he sighed loudly. The gush of wind from his mouth came out quick. What? Some kind of revelation came to him.

"Why don't tell me sooner?"

"Huh?"

"Fucking agent Bell. Gee, so why we were fighting earlier?"

"Both of us have a secret to be kept." I put my pistol back in my holster.

The bandits' appearance was a blessing in disguise. If they didn't appear, we wouldn't know each other at all.

However, at the same time, I was sure that we wouldn't be bruised if those bandits didn't appear. If Sawyer wasn't an agent, we wouldn't be killing each other at all. The guns were just the icing on the cake.

In the grand scheme of things, though, it made sense why that higher being paired us together. Both of us were ordinary people with extraordinary pasts experiences which would be useful for his plan B.

Still, with how low the security in this village and how "well-maintained" the village was, the task of rebuilding would be way harder than sooner anticipated.

Still, with the special ability that the vending machine had, it wouldn't be hard as long as we had the funds to do so. It also meant that we would have to work very hard to restore several parts of this village of this ruined colony.

"Bloody hell, what agency is doing in Japan?" I asked.

"Security job. What? I'm not a bad omen," Sawyer replied.

"Suspicious... Still, let's work together. So, after we fix the somehow useful vending machine, what we should do next?" I asked for the next thing to do.

My main job, both in the military and in the civilian sector, involved fixing people's health and wellbeing, not fixing a broken water pump. Sawyer was the engineer, I'd do whatever he told me if it involves fixing things.

Still, if it was about a social thing, I'd handle it, even though basically if need to befriend those people whose identity I didn't even know and whose trust ability remained questionable at best.

"I know, I think we best ask around for a place to bivouac, a room would be nice, but sleeping outside is fine," I added.

"Good thinking. Let's see, how about the abandoned estate that the previous governor used?" Sawyer asked.

"I... Don't know about that."

Located on the side of the village, plants and vines surrounded the abandoned and unfinished mansion. A bunch of scaffoldings was scattered around the mansion, some were still standing while wrapped in vines while the others were on the ground.

Wild guess? That thing would be filled with animals at the very least, and the building was probably pretty fragile for its own good. The bunker was practically a coffin, so nope.

"C'mon, it's not like every room would fall down," Sawyer added.

"I think we have a bigger issue to deal with..."

Too busy with our personal fiasco, we were practically forgetting the people. A wounded man was holding on to his wound without any aid in the vicinity. Of course, I wouldn't expect Sawyer to do shit about that.

I walked in the direction of the person. A laceration stretching in his left forearm alongside debris could be seen. It needed to be sewn to promote better wound healing alongside preventing infection.

Well, in this kind of remote village, something like that is supposed to exist, right? After all, we were pretty far from any practical civilization.

"Please, help me, stranger..." The young man mumbled.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Does anyone have a suture kit?" I asked.

"Suture? Needle and string, you mean?" The woman that accompanied the man answered.

"Yeah, I guess???" I forgot that this was a village in the middle of nowhere, I should have avoided using modern terms.

The woman ran into her home and grabbed a literal needle and thread before returning it to me. It was a literal needle for clothing, not suturing. Would it be enough to close the wound, though?

"Do you have anything for the wound?" I squinted my eyes, wondering whether this woman was playing with me or genuinely didn't know.

"Huh?"

I further squinted my eyes as I tried to stop the bleeding by making a makeshift tourniquet using his clothing, "Is there any doctor in this village?"

"Doctor? What's that?"

Damn it, quit using modern terms, Alfie. "Healer, where's the healer of this village?"

"Gone."

"Gone? You all stayed in the middle of nowhere without a healer???"

"Yes, she left after his husband died and the chief threw her out of this village."

"Your chief threw her out???"

Without any option, I started sewing the wound using the available material even though I knew that it would probably be a bad idea based on modern standards. Still, it was better than letting him bleed until he turned up unconscious from blood loss.

The man gritted his teeth as the needle punctures his skin. After closing his wound, I figured that there would be no bandage in this village. So, I just used another torn-up clothing to close the wound and be done with it.

"Alright, should be done now. Sorry, can't do anything for the pain," I stood up.

"Thanks, nah, I can take it."

A village without a doctor, eh? It seemed the situation was direr than previously expected. The broken facilities were also the evidence of it, it was surprising that people stayed in this failed village for some unknown reasons.

And where the hell was Sawyer? Was he fixing something else other than the pump? Well, he could do his business while I took care of mine. So, right now, let's assess the manpower that this village probably had.

I strolled around the small village. There were only small houses and those were located too close to the city center. There were probably six houses on the road leading to the village center.

The village center itself was only a well alongside a guild building. There was nothing else surrounding the circle itself. Looking at the land surrounding the village, it might be used to be a field before the pump broke.

Suddenly, someone approached me, "Young man, thanks for the assist, but who are you?"

"Me? Just a random passerby, who are you?" I asked him back.

"I'm the village chief, name's Lobus," he said.

'Fucking idiot...' I mumbled before smiling and finally gave him my reply, "Nice to meet you, Lobus."

This village chief had blundered too much for my standard, or in short, he fucked up too much in my own opinion, and kicking the doctor out of the settlement was the last nail in the coffin.

"It seems that your village is in quite a big ordeal, Lobus, sir."

"Truth be told, yeah. Our pump is broken, our healer left, our last maintenance person died from a monster attack, and so on," Lobus said.

"Seems to be a big problem, so, hmm, how can we help?"

"You two don't mind helping us?" Lobus asked.

"Yeah, we're lost and have nowhere to go, and to be honest, this seems to be a great place to stay," I lied.

"Oh, I see. Well, suit yourself then, kind stranger."

Lobus left me alone. That idiotic village chief needed to be replaced, sooner or later, if he wouldn't improve. Back to counting manpower, the village wasn't self-sufficient. Even if the whole village planted crops, it wouldn't be enough. There might only be 12 working force maximum in this village.

Ah well, I'd just focus on what I needed first, which was money. This village could survive on its own, to be honest. I doubted that my capacity would be enough to help this village at this moment.

"Walking alone?" Sawyer asked.

"Damn, don't surprise me like this, where have you been?" I asked.

"Preparing a place for bivouac, what are you doing?" Sawyer asked.

"Me? I'm just scouting and counting the amount of manpower that we will probably need in the future in case the higher being plan went awry. Anyway, it seems that we would have to wait a while."