I wished I had some water to drink. Had I finished everything in my backpack? Only after fumbling behind my back with my hand did I realize. Ah. I’d already sent it up. I swept my tongue across my dry mouth. When Gim Gayeong started making threats, I could feel everyone’s eyes turning to stare at me.
I didn’t even have the strength to look back at them. In this cramped elevator, whether with fists or words, no matter what they fought with, only the weak would suffer. At least if those idiots were going to hold a fighting tournament, it would be held in a stadium with evenly matched contestants.
Logan, hanging upside down from the ceiling like a ghost, looked at Gim Gayeong peering down at the people below, and at me slumped on the floor, then asked.
“So this is why you sent them up first?”
“What?”
“To seize power?”
I couldn’t understand what nonsense he was spouting. Maybe my expression showed as much, because Logan looked at me and spoke as if annoyed.
“The ploy of sending the women you’re close with up first so you can boss the rest of the survivors here around however you please.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would I do something like that?”
“What if they stop the rest from coming up, or run off? What were you planning to do then?”
It was still a question I couldn’t understand. Stop them from coming up? Maybe that was possible. But wouldn’t it be more constructive to think about escaping from here in that time instead?
And would something bad happen if those people ran off? If Gim Gayeong, Yu Geumi, I Jihyeon, and Emma escaped here first, wouldn’t that be a good thing? There are eight men here right now. We aren’t lacking in strength or stamina compared to those above. It’s not like we can’t climb up. Why would it be a problem for them to run away from here first when they aren’t anyone’s possessions?
“······Isn’t this a good thing? The people here can just leave using the same method as the ones who went ahead.”
Benjamin, his face swelling with bruises, spoke to me.
“Cut the innocent act, punk. Even back at the research center, you kept getting in the way acting like you didn’t know anything.”
“That’s because you’re a twisted bastard who reads too much meaning into my actions.”
Benjamin took a step toward me.
“Stop it and think about getting out of here. ······Logan. Help me lift this Muhyeon guy up.”
“You’re going to listen to what that woman says? What if that engineer named I Jihyeon deliberately stopped the elevator like this to toy with us? Doesn’t it feel like she’s playing with us?!”
“······Maybe. But I don’t care.”
Kevin knew that I Jihyeon had tried to abandon some people on the fourth floor. But he must have also known that she changed her mind and decided to take them along. Kevin, who had shut his mouth, linked shoulders and arms with Logan to create an improvised chair made of human arms.
I put each of my legs between the two men’s arms, and after they counted one, two, three, they stood up from their positions. Perhaps because Logan and Kevin were roughly similar in height, when the two of them stood up, my view suddenly rose tremendously. I felt James, standing beside me, pushing me upward.
Gim Gayeong and Emma were looking at us, and they immediately stretched out their arms. ······Could the two of them lift me? Emma had far more arm strength than Gim Gayeong. Depending on the pulling force of her arms, I was jerked upward almost like an ascension. Holding onto me, Gim Gayeong and Emma fell backward near the ceiling. Panting, Gim Gayeong spoke.
“This is no joke either. I have no strength in my hands.”
Gim Gayeong said, her arms trembling. If I dropped someone while lifting those guys up, it would be an even bigger problem. Looking at the other’s arms, I replied.
“Let’s switch places.”
I wasn’t in a comfortable situation either, but I was probably better than Gim Gayeong, whose arms were trembling. After making Gim Gayeong step back, I took position and followed Yu Geumi’s gaze to look outside. On the side opposite the elevator door, through the front glass window, I could see trees and the inner island hill.
It seemed that the elevator had been arranged so that the sea and beach would be visible directly on that side if the door opened. On the opposite side of the elevator door was the hill. Following where Yu Geumi was looking, I saw smoke rising from the high hill.
“Where is that?”
I Jihyeon, lying sprawled out somewhere, answered in a tired voice.
“It’s the direction of the helipad. You must have seen it when you first came here. Either a helicopter is on fire or the helipad is on fire, it’s one of the two.”
An anxious voice was heard from inside the elevator car.
“Aren’t you going to lift us up?!”
I quickly lowered my head. It was after they had settled the order with rock-paper-scissors. James was trying to come up with Sam, Kevin, and Logan’s help, so Emma and I quickly pulled him up. ······Damn it. How did Gim Gayeong do this two or three times?
Supporting and pulling a person’s weight with both arms took just as much strength as lifting them from below. For James to come up, everyone except I Jihyeon had to pitch in.
After that, Kanu and Logan came up. I switched places with them. The problem was that when Kevin, Sam, Carter, and Benjamin were left below, a commotion broke out. Benjamin was fighting because he didn’t want to help Sam go up, and Sam likewise argued that he didn’t need to help Benjamin.
Come to think of it, the order to come up had been wrong. We should have sent Sam and Benjamin up separately. Logan, who had already come up, was cheering for them to fight each other, when Kevin, below, was startled by an axe aimed at himself and hurriedly yanked his upper body back.
According to the order decided by rock-paper-scissors, Kevin was dead last. When Kevin threatened that if they weren’t going to go in order, he would also do as he pleased, both Benjamin and Sam shut their mouths. Sam was the next turn, but Benjamin grumbled incessantly while lifting him up.
“When we get out, you absolutely must go on a diet! Before I forcibly cut you up here and there myself!”
“You bastard who never even bought me a meal, talking so much! Is this all the strength in your arms?!”
“Hey! You crazy bastard! Really! I’m coming to kill you when I have time to spare!”
It was when Sam was coming up. I Jihyeon, Yu Geumi, and Emma were huddled together, discussing how to open the elevator door. They were talking about whether to wedge Kevin’s axe in the gap of the door and force it open with strength.
At that moment, I felt someone’s gaze watching us. I turned my head behind me, and on the elevator glass window side, a woman in jeans and a leather jumper was crouching down. She rested her chin on her hand, watching the things we were doing.
As Sam got stuck in the ceiling door while coming up, Kanu, Logan, and James were pulling on both of Sam’s arms. That person was watching our actions as if observing ants transporting food, but rather than the woman’s face I was seeing for the first time, the rifle she was carrying looked more familiar. Along with a bright blue rifle strap, green jewel-like accessories or keyrings were dangling abundantly from the rifle. It seemed she had customized the rifle to her taste.
······Where have I seen this before? When Sam, who had been stuck in the elevator ceiling door, finally came up to the ceiling with everyone’s help, the woman smiled amusingly and clapped her hands lightly. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
Sam, Logan, and James lowered their heads toward the elevator car to tease Benjamin, who was next. Kanu looked at me, then discovered that person through my gaze. Kanu looked carefully at the green jewels hanging from the woman’s rifle and spoke to me.
“It’s Pounamu. A gemstone from New Zealand.”
Does the gemstone catch your eye more than the gun she’s holding right now? The moment I thought that, I remembered that Kanu was someone who had once donated a jewel of enormous size to a pseudo-religion.
I barely recalled the memory of Baek Aeyeong holding that rifle in the past. A chill ran down my spine. I felt as if my hair was standing on end from tension.
After Benjamin, Carter whined and almost crawled up from the elevator. Now people were contemplating how to lift Kevin, who was left alone inside the elevator. Tall James stuck his upper body halfway in to grab Kevin, and with the rest lifting him up, they were in the process of pulling Kevin up too.
I called out names like Yu Geumi, I Jihyeon, Gim Gayeong, and Emma to make them look at the corner of the front window. People slowly turned their heads and realized the existence of the woman observing them. At first they were surprised and glad, but their faces hardened when they saw the rifle.
Finally, when the men had safely extracted Kevin from inside the elevator car as well, forgetting their animosity until now, they hugged each other tightly and shouted in celebration. While they were rejoicing with their arms raised to the sky, the woman who had been watching us also smiled and clapped her hands even faster.
Amidst the noisy cheers, Emma screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Look at the front window! You idiots!”
Then even the people celebrating turned their heads, and noticed the existence of the armed woman leaning against the door and watching them. The woman, who had been clapping her hands happily while going clap, clap, clap, began counting the number of people one by one from the corner.
One, two, three, four······.
She was counting the number of people by pointing her finger at each one in English. That simple action alone made people feel truly eerie. Benjamin scowled at that action and tried to hide behind James to avoid the woman’s wagging finger pointing at him, but she ignored him and continued counting.
After counting all the people from right to left, she bared her teeth, formed the word “Twelve,” and smiled broadly.
The people inside the elevator seemed to feel this strange mood too. Logan spoke simply about how he felt.
“What kind of crazy bitch is she? Why is she counting us?”
Kiaaaaaaack! Only when I heard Yu Geumi’s scream did I realize what Kevin had done. Kevin had grabbed Yu Geumi, who was beside him, and pushed her down below the elevator ceiling door he had just come up through.
Kevin urgently grabbed Gim Gayeong, who was next to me, and without any explanation, pushed her through the ceiling door right after Yu Geumi. Gim Gayeong, dragged along without understanding anything, reflexively got kicked by Kevin’s foot and plummeted back down. What, what. Aaaaack!
A huge smile spread across the face of the woman watching us from the window. And she said something, but the glass was too thick for her words to be heard. Then she aimed the rifle at us.