Kevin asked Lee Jihyeon, who was on the elevator ceiling.
“Do you think the elevator ceiling is sturdy enough to support everyone’s weight? Can we all climb up there?”
Lee Jihyeon thought for a few seconds before answering.
“We have to climb up there to escape anyway. Whether we stay below or go up there, it’s the same. Even if the ceiling collapses, I think it’s better to climb up.”
Put that way, there was nothing more to say. Since Lee Jihyeon didn’t have the strength to pull the others up from above, they decided to send up one person with some physical strength first. All the men said they should go up first. Kevin shrugged at me when he caught my gaze.
“My upper body’s fine.”
I’d known that ever since he smashed the phone away with an ax. Kevin addressed the others.
“The people who climb up to the ceiling first have to keep helping everyone else.”
At that, Carter and Benjamin’s brows furrowed. Carter grumbled, but didn’t say much. Benjamin, however, complained bitterly.
“In a situation like this, everyone should just survive on their own. Do we really have to help each other? What a bunch of wannabe good guys. Are you going to write down the names of anyone who doesn’t help and sue them later?”
······Right. It was better for him to say it now than keep his mouth shut and later cause a scene asking why he had to help the others. Everyone seemed to be barely restraining themselves from punching Benjamin. Kevin, who was standing beside me with his arms folded, asked him,
“If you’d been alone, you wouldn’t have made it this far. The same goes for me and everyone else. If we hadn’t cooperated, we’d have ended up as fish food in the flooded base. ······Why do you hate helping people so much? Why do you act like you’re going to die the moment you suffer even the slightest loss?”
Benjamin looked at Kevin as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Because naturally, all that matters is that I survive! Why should I suffer a loss because of other people? And why should I care whether someone else lives or dies? Who’s going to give me back my precious time and energy? It’s not like anyone’s going to make up for what I’ve lost!”
Did this guy think helping someone was a loss to himself? What did people who volunteered without compensation look like to him? Sam pointed a finger at Benjamin and said,
“Guys like you are called selfish fucking assholes. How unloved must you have been your whole life to grow up into such a goddamn piece of shit?”
“Not as much as you, you pig. Who the fuck are you to butt into someone else’s life?”
“I’ll kill you with my bare hands, pig!”
“With those hooves of yours? Good luck!”
“This is perfect! I’ve wanted to beat the shit out of you for a while!”
Kim Gayeong and Yu Geumi, who had been sitting on the floor, hurriedly stood up and moved toward the wall, afraid of getting dragged into the fight when it looked as though one was about to break out. As the people trying to stop the fight, those egging them on, those charging in, and those shouting while throwing punches all crowded into the corner of the elevator, Emma shouted,
“Don’t gather so closely together!”
This time, even Emma’s shout was swallowed up by the screaming. I saw Carter fall backward after taking a punch from Logan. Throwing a punch was easy. You just had to stop holding back. I looked at Lee Jihyeon’s pathetic gaze as she peered down at us from the ceiling, then said to Yu Geumi beside me,
“Geumi, you go up first.”
“Uh······what?!”
“Once you find your balance, step on my palms and stand up.”
I knelt on the floor, grabbed one of Yu Geumi’s legs, and hooked it around the back of my neck. Then, as I gritted my teeth and stood up, Yu Geumi shrieked and braced herself against the elevator wall with her hands. Forced to ride on my shoulders, Yu Geumi flailed about, touching my face and hair with her hands, but before long she found her balance with her waist. Her stomach was pressed against the back of my head. I placed my palms beneath the soles of her shoes and said,
“Stand up!”
Still sitting on the back of my neck, Yu Geumi tried to stand as I instructed. This was something you could only do if you trusted the person supporting your weight completely. Now that I was actually giving someone a shoulder ride, I realized how unstable it was.
When I pushed Yu Geumi’s feet upward with both palms, she stood. Then both her arms reached toward the ceiling. Lee Jihyeon, who had been watching us from above, immediately reached out toward Yu Geumi as well.
The two of them caught each other’s arms in midair, but I couldn’t relax. Neither of them had the strength to pull the other up safely. I had to push her up!
I could hear the arms that had lived without exercise cursing me. Their owner was treating his body brutally. Right? I raised my arms almost as if in celebration, lifting Yu Geumi’s feet over my head. I saw Lee Jihyeon pull Yu Geumi up and fall backward. Yu Geumi disappeared toward the ceiling, then soon poked her head back out.
Breathing hard, I turned to look at Kim Gayeong. She shook her head vigorously at me.
“No. No. What you just did would be too much for me.”
Kim Gayeong ran her tongue over her dry mouth, looked at the ceiling, then slung the backpack I handed her over her back.
“I’ll stand like a hairtail fish underwater.”
For a moment, I didn’t understand. What did she mean by a hairtail fish?
“How does a hairtail······stand underwater?”
“It holds its long body upright like a blade. Don’t lift me up like a person riding on someone’s shoulders. I’ll just go straight up.”
Kim Gayeong brought her hands together as if in prayer, then raised them vertically toward the ceiling. Hairtail fish didn’t move around in winding curves like snakes? Their bodies were that long?
The method itself······wasn’t bad. I just had to present Kim Gayeong, stretched out in a straight line, upward like I was handing someone a long umbrella. The problem was how firmly Kim Gayeong could maintain her hairtail pose. If she lost her form, she wouldn’t be able to go up.
Kim Gayeong raised her hands, which she had pressed together at chest level, straight toward the ceiling. Then she stopped with both arms fully extended overhead. If she raised one leg in that position, she would look like she was doing yoga.
Kim Gayeong gave a small nod from that position, and I moved behind her. I crouched and grabbed her calves with both hands. Her calves and thighs came into contact with my neck and collarbone, and I swallowed hard before holding my breath.
I lifted Kim Gayeong’s calves and tried to straighten my bent knees. Since I was lifting her with my back as straight as possible to avoid straining my waist, it seemed like all I had to do was straighten my knees.
It wasn’t as easy as I’d thought. I should have done some squats. Even lifting a woman who weighed barely sixty kilograms made my entire body cry out in agony. The thing I regretted most after coming to the undersea base was not exercising in my everyday life. If I could just get out of here, I would start exercising immediately.
······The last time I’d been examined, they said there was nothing wrong with me. They’d said my back and spine were perfectly capable of handling normal daily life! A groan escaped me, so I bit down on my lips.
Once I finally straightened my knees and stood on both feet, I exhaled and raised the calves I was holding in both arms. All I’d done was lift one person, but my stomach and forearms were screaming. Looking at Kim Gayeong’s feet as they rose to my chest, I said,
“Kick off.”
Kick off and use the recoil to climb! But Kim Gayeong merely pushed against my chest with her foot. I quickly thrust my shoulder and forearm beneath her next step, which was floating in the air, so she could step on my shoulder and climb up.
Four arms reached down from above and grabbed Kim Gayeong’s outstretched arms. When the weight pressing against my shoulder suddenly lightened, I looked up and saw Kim Gayeong’s feet disappear into the ceiling as if being sucked inside.
I’d only sent two people up about three meters, but my entire body was drenched in sweat. It felt as though steam was rising from my head. I panted and wiped the sweat running down my chin with the back of my hand. The surroundings were quiet. Had they finished fighting?
A few people had new wounds on their faces, as if they’d been beaten bloody, while their hair and clothes were a mess. Kevin was keeping Benjamin and Sam, who were trying to lunge at each other again, at bay with the length of his arms and the length of his ax. Canoe was propping up his chin and watching what I was doing as if it were interesting.
Emma was sitting motionless in the same spot as before. She was a little taller than the two people who had gone up ahead of her. After taking one deep breath, I beckoned to Emma.
“Come quickly. Before I get tired.”
After lifting two people in two different ways, had I figured out the trick? ······Not at all. Instead, I’d only learned which muscles hurt and how much. My arms were trembling. I was still all right for the moment, probably because the adrenaline was flowing, but I didn’t think I’d be able to lift anyone after Emma. Emma hesitated, then stood up.
James, whose sleeve button had flown off, asked me,
“Why are you the only one doing all this?”
“······Don’t you know the Korean phrase ‘quickly, quickly’?”
Judging by their expressions, they really didn’t. I ran my tongue over my salty mouth and said with a sigh,
“I don’t want to waste even a speck of my energy fighting with each other. And I want to get out of here quickly.”
None of the people who had gone up had said they couldn’t do it or didn’t want to. That was fortunate.
Emma tucked the entire bottom hem of her long-sleeved shirt into her pants. Then she took off her shoes and socks. She rolled the two socks together and stuffed them into one of her shoes. After giving her laceless shoes a few quick shakes, she opened the neck of her shirt wide and pushed them inside. I was briefly surprised to see her use her shirt as a shoe bag, but Emma didn’t seem to care in the slightest if the underwear she was wearing got dirty from the dirt on the shoes. Well, if she’d only worn them inside the undersea base, the soles were probably clean. Emma told me,
“Put one leg forward and bend your knee. Turn your palms upward, press your fingers tightly together, and hold them against your chest. Raise your other hand toward the ceiling with your fist clenched.”
I awkwardly took the position she instructed, and Emma continued,
“I’m going to step on your knee, palm, shoulder, and fist to climb up. If the timing is off, I might step on your head or shoulder as well. Stiffen your body.”
What? I looked over my left knee, which I had extended forward, the palm pressed against my chest, and my shoulder. She was going to use my body as a zigzag staircase, stepping on it in the shape of the character 之. Was that it?
Just then, Emma started running. ······W-wait! The moment I tensed my body for the impact, Emma was already right in front of me. She stepped on my left knee. Then, as soon as she stepped on my palm with her other foot, impact struck my shoulder. I forced my collapsing body upright.
Estimating where the foot about to step on my fist would land, I pushed up against the sole with my fist. When Kim Gayeong and Yu Geumi caught Emma’s arms as she leaped toward the ceiling like a peregrine falcon, I heard what sounded like Lee Jihyeon dragging the three of them backward. Emma’s legs kicked at the air before disappearing through the ceiling hatch.
There was no need for me to lift Emma and pass her over. It felt as though she had simply stepped on a flimsy staircase and flown up stylishly. I stared blankly at the ceiling, then weakly sank down onto the floor. The palm and left knee she had used as stepping stones began to ache belatedly. Now I understood why she had taken off her shoes. If Emma had stepped on me while wearing them, I might have broken my fingers if I’d been unlucky.
Kim Gayeong poked her head out of the ceiling and said,
“Park Muhyeon is going up next, no matter what. If you send up any other bastard, I’m not catching him.”