The people sitting in the elevator all stood up when they saw the sea color, which had grown much brighter than before. Color returned to their faces. It was anticipation born from the hope that they could get out of here. As they rose to a level where even the few remaining sea creatures were visible to the naked eye, sighs and exclamations of relief filled everyone’s ears.
Their expressions frankly revealed how terrible it had been, constantly clashing with people they did not get along with in this nauseating, inescapable little space.
My first thought was that it was fortunate none of the people gathered here had claustrophobia. If there had been such a person here, they would have already fainted or be half-dead by now.
To think that simply being unwillingly trapped with strangers in a narrow place could cause this much stress. When the epidemic had been severe in the past, people could barely go outside—how had they all survived? Was it all right because they were trapped at home? What about people without homes? Back then, chickens, pigs, and cows too had been forcibly confined in cramped spaces, unable to move at all until they died. ……Come to think of it, this elevator is similar to corporate life.
If I compared when Yu Geumi and I had been trapped in the elevator together to now, it might sound strange, but being trapped with just the two of us without any plan had been psychologically much better than being trapped with this many people. Right now, it felt like hugging a single plastic bath ladle and sailing across the open sea.
……No. Let’s think good thoughts. Let’s think positive thoughts. Negative and pessimistic thoughts won’t make my situation any better. Let me find the advantages in my current situation and try to overcome the difficulties through them. Let me put sadness and despair off for later, when I have the leisure. Right now, I do not want to waste my stamina and time being swept up in such feelings. I took one deep breath and sat alone on the floor, scanning the people who were standing.
The people who boarded this elevator aren’t all good people. No, correction. There are strange and bad guys, but they have not become evil human beings. People who completely lack law, morality, and empathy, or who judge that there is no need to keep such things depending on the situation, will not hesitate to harm others in pursuit of their own interests. Of course, there could be one or two such people here too.
Hadn’t they said about 4% of humanity were sociopaths? The比例 of psychopaths was said to be between 5% and 15%. Then that means over 81% have normal brains.
When laws and systems cannot stop people, if those with normal moral standards block, stop, or prevent such acts early on, I believe we can survive while maintaining a certain level of ethical consciousness without breaking down, preserving each other’s bodies and minds.
Assembled on the spot for survival, we are a mess in many ways. But even while under enormous stress, have any of us suffered irreversible injuries, harmed one another, received similar psychological wounds, or died?
Looking back on the long day, I answered no with a sand-chewing feeling. Then I looked at the cuttlefish-like people and, in comparison to them, the trout, minnows, and bitterlings. All right. Let’s cheer up. The greatest asset we have right now is human resources. While seated on the floor, I spoke to the people standing inside the elevator.
“The elevator might shake like before, so everyone sit down.”
“No way? I’m going to be the very first to burst out of here!”
Benjamin, looking excited, shouted at me. ……Had I been wrong after all?
Sitting is safer than standing, and lying down is safer than sitting. We are unstable sorghum stalks barely holding ourselves up on two feet. The posture that can receive force most stably is sitting or lying down. It’s safe to get up and get off only when the elevator comes to a complete stop. What are we going to do if this junk elevator suddenly stops again?
Gim Gayeong and Yu Geumi quickly plopped down on the floor upon hearing my words. Gim Gayeong crossed her legs as if she were in her own living room and leaned her back against the elevator wall. Then she stretched both arms straight toward the ceiling, loosening her shoulder and forearm muscles. I Jihyeon and Kevin looked at the standing people before sitting down, while others slowly sat or ignored my words and remained standing.
The elevator had been rising smoothly when it suddenly stopped again. The people standing immediately fell hard on their bottoms. Because Carter tumbled over Logan, who had been sitting, fists and groans briefly crossed. Now people were no longer afraid of the darkness and were simply annoyed.
Emma, who had been sitting in the corner, saw the fish models hanging outside the window and sprang up from her seat.
“Look outside. This is right below Daehan-do. It’s incredibly close to the first floor!”
The stopwatch time on the pad I had stopped was 9 minutes 42 seconds. If an elevator moving from -3000 meters took exactly 10 minutes, that would mean we were a distance equivalent to about 18 seconds away from the first floor. Or maybe I had failed to press the stopwatch properly because I was surprised or flustered. Even taking that into account, we should be quite close to the first floor.
At Emma’s words, everyone tried to get up and go toward the window. Then Emma grabbed the hems of Kevin and I Jihyeon, who were trying to stand up, in alarm.
“Just look! You can’t have all the weight rushing to one specific spot in the elevator! The balance will break! You blockheaded bastards! Really! Are you all trying to die!”
At the pouring curses, Gim Gayeong and Yu Geumi, who had been awkwardly trying to get up, sat back down. And Sam and James, Logan and Kanu, Carter and Benjamin slowly dispersed from around the window and meekly sat down on the floor. I Jihyeon looked around at the people in the elevator and pointed at the ceiling to James.
“James. Be my stairs for a moment. I need to see how close it is.”
James groaned as he got up and came to the spot I Jihyeon indicated, then knelt halfway. As I Jihyeon stepped on his knee and climbed up, James had already made the next step with his palm against his belly. I Jihyeon stepped on James’s knee and hand to climb up, then slowly got onto his shoulders. I Jihyeon sat stably on James’s shoulders. However, James made a motion as if staggering once, startling I Jihyeon, who was sitting above. James said lightly.
“Whoops!”
Startled, I Jihyeon instantly grabbed and yanked James’s hair hard, and James cried out “Ow ow!” shouting to stop pulling his hair. Angry, I Jihyeon grabbed James’s ear hard and said.
“If you joke around one more time, I’ll pull out your hair or your ears, everything!”
“Sorry~.”
I Jihyeon spewed curses like “I’ll fry you to death in holy water” as she struggled to open the elevator ceiling. There was a handle on the elevator ceiling, so turning it 90 degrees wasn’t difficult for I Jihyeon, but the ceiling door seemed quite heavy as she grunted trying to lift it with her arms. After struggling for several minutes, I Jihyeon gave up and said.
“I don’t have the strength to open the door.”
No wonder. She had rested sitting in the elevator, but I Jihyeon seemed to be enduring this situation almost entirely by willpower. James looked down at I Jihyeon, then looked around at the people and chose me. He probably didn’t want to lift Logan or Kevin, who weighed more than me. Then again, he also seemed even less willing to lift Carter or Benjamin onto his shoulders. James, who had been frowning, said to me.
“Don’t kick with your feet. No, just take your shoes off.”
I took off my shoes, handed my bag to Gim Gayeong next to me saying I was asking her a favor, and rolled up the sleeves of both arms.
“Let’s do it in one go. One go.”
“I’ll try.”
James grunted as he lifted me onto his shoulders. Sam seemed worried and began pacing around us. Aside from when my father put me on his shoulders as a child, I had never sat on someone’s shoulders before.
Having mounted James’s shoulders for the first time in almost 20 years, I felt so anxious I wanted to get down immediately. He went on about how unpleasant the sensation of me against his neck was and shuddered, and we exchanged warnings that if he played around shaking me, he would have had all his dental work done right here in the Pacific.
Unlike when he had lifted I Jihyeon, dying groans began to come from the mouth of James, who was standing straight. I pushed the ceiling door with all my strength, but I was surprised when it didn’t budge at first. This is quite heavy. But when I pushed with both arms, the ceiling door lifted upward. It seemed to weigh about between 10 kg and 20 kg. I Jihyeon spoke to me.
“Lift it up and push it aside.”
As I lifted the ceiling door upward and pushed it aside as she said, the thickness of the door was visible; it was thicker than expected. No, is the door this thick? This thickness was almost the thickness of a person’s waist. I was blankly thinking that when I remembered the person who had been struck by the elevator ceiling material with their whole body. That blood and the crushed white bones.
A physiological feeling of vomiting welled up instantly. Whether I had dry-heaved or not, James lowered me to the floor in alarm as if throwing me down. The moment my feet touched the floor, the dizziness and panic that had momentarily rushed in quickly subsided. James rubbed his head wildly with his hand and shouted at me.
“Did you throw up on my head?!”
Benjamin giggled from afar hearing those words. I shook my head and said while lying prostrate on the floor.
“No. I didn’t throw up. ……It’s because of the dust. Because of the dust.”
Yu Geumi approached my side.
“Are you okay?”
I waved my hand while lying face down to indicate I was okay. I’m not particularly weak of stomach. To the extent that I could clean up excrement, squeeze out a bowlful of pus from the mouth of a patient with severe periodontitis, or extract all teeth and still not be picky about food at lunchtime. ……Had the scene of someone dying like that been such a great shock to me?
I Jihyeon looked at me lying face down and the ceiling, then demanded James lift her up again. Perhaps because she lacked strength in her arms, I Jihyeon tried and failed to pull her body through the ceiling door, and only managed to go up when others held her legs from below. With her feet the last to go, her entire body disappeared toward the space outside the elevator.
And then it was quiet. Everyone raised their heads toward the ceiling and stared at the space where I Jihyeon had disappeared. Logan asked as if anxious.
“How is it? How close is it to Daehan-do? Close enough to climb up from there? Huh? You didn’t go alone, did you? You’re still there, right?”
Before a minute had passed, I Jihyeon poked her head down and spoke.
“I can see the first-floor elevator door from here. The elevator was going up and stopped without aligning properly with the door panel; it stopped in a state slightly overlapping with the first-floor door. We can get out to the first floor.”
Before she even finished speaking, people let out cheers.
“Yeah!”
“We’re finally getting out!”
“We can finally get out of this terrible elevator!”
“Why can’t this fucking elevator even stop properly! Anyway, thank you! Fuck!”
“Oh! Jesus! I expected that You had not forgotten me! But You do not give me easy paths! Still, where are we. Thank You!”
The people in the elevator were frantic to get out immediately. I had been covering my mouth with one hand for a while, and when I seemed to have calmed down, I removed my hand and asked I Jihyeon.
“……Is there no one outside? Someone to help us?”
Or someone armed with guns. Since one window of the rectangular elevator was full-length glass, the outside should be visible. I Jihyeon’s voice came from above.
“There’s no one.”