As I was thinking about lightning strikes, I suddenly remembered a Q&A from the undersea base guidebook about what to do if lightning struck Daehando. The answer had been to quickly enter the undersea base, or take shelter inside a building on Daehando. Then what would happen if the escape craft capsule opened, and lightning struck right above it?
Even if lightning struck the surface of the sea hundreds of times, it would only flow along the surface of the seawater, not enter the ocean itself. And since most lightning formed from updraft clouds was created over land, lightning strikes didn’t occur often at sea in the first place. When the weather turned bad, fish descended to deeper waters than usual. Only the fish that happened to leap out of the water while lightning was striking were unlucky enough to be burned to death.
Large ships installed lightning rods and grounding electrodes, so even if lightning struck, they would channel the current into the sea surface. If lightning struck while the escape craft capsule was open and the lifeboat was deployed, the people aboard would probably be roasted whole on the spot. They did install proper lightning protection measures on the escape craft, right? ……Thinking about it again, even being roasted whole would feel like a blessing if it happened on the sea surface.
I swept my eyes over the red escape craft as it passed the -150m mark, then turned my head elsewhere. Since there was nothing I could do here, I had no choice but to pay attention to whatever came into view.
Inside the escape craft, all sorts of pictograms were drawn here and there, and I could see text in all kinds of languages saying not to open the door. Once it reached the surface, the escape craft capsule would open automatically.
There were illustrated instructions for opening the door in case the escape craft capsule failed to open automatically even at 0m. ……Please let me not have to use this method. I’m not going to do anything. I’m just going to float on the surface. I’ll stay still with the Rhaphidophora until the people in the undersea base come up, just breathing and lying in the sunlight.
Being trapped in the middle of the soft, pale green fluid, standing upright wasn’t all that burdensome. It felt a little like floating in the air, and at times a sense of security came over me, as if I were wrapped in a soft towel.
My desire not to move a muscle was forcibly satisfied now that I was inside the escape craft. Once some of my tension eased, I even thought it might be nice to stay trapped here forever. ……The human body was made to move, so if I was getting this lazy when there was nothing particularly wrong with my body, it had to be a mental problem. It seemed my body and mind wanted to rest. I wanted to eat something delicious and sleep for about ten hours somewhere warm and safe.
Thinking that, I dozed off for about ten seconds without realizing it.
I woke to a buzzing noise, and the escape craft was passing the -30m mark. Red lights had come on inside. At first I was startled, thinking something had gone wrong with the escape craft, but soon figured it was telling me to prepare because we were about to reach the surface.
I pulled the cloth bag to me and hurriedly hugged it to my chest. Would there be an impact? ……I didn’t know. With a faint tension, I waited for the escape craft to rise to the surface.
When a message appeared on the panel saying that the rescue boat had already deployed successfully outside, I felt at least a little relieved. Now buoyancy would force the escape craft toward the surface too. Just as I thought something like, So I won’t have to deploy it manually, a tremendous chill swept over my body.
At around -3m, the escape craft tried to surge upward, but my body plunged downward as if an anchor were tied to my ankles. My body, which had been wrapped in fluid and positioned at the very center of the escape craft, was gradually dragged down until the soles of my shoes were nearly touching the floor. The escape craft kept trying to rise upward, while my body was pulled downward by some force.
After that tug-of-war of an unknown force continued for a while, the escape craft AI, struggling to get to the surface, seemed to decide it had already performed its duty properly and opened the escape craft capsule just like that. Wa—wait!
On the panel, a message appeared in four languages: [Congratulations on your successful escape.]
Before I could react in any way, seawater came pouring into the escape craft like a waterfall. The pale green fluid surrounding me was diluted in an instant. I swallowed a breath until my cheeks puffed out, then took off my shoes first so I could swim out at once.
As I flailed to get out of the escape craft and lifted my head, I saw the surface where light was streaming in. I reached toward the place where sunlight blazed down and swam with all my strength. But my body sank heavily downward. Looking at the sunlit surface, it seemed there wasn’t much farther to go, but even though I moved my legs until my thighs and calves hurt, I couldn’t get out no matter what.
I tried not to swallow seawater, but my lungs and bronchi, made uncomfortable by the presence of perfluorodecalin without an oxygen supply, violently triggered a cough as if asking why the hell I was holding this crap in my body. The moment I could no longer hold back my coughing and expelled it once through my nose and mouth, seawater began filling that space.
After being forced to swallow seawater once, it was hard to stay conscious. My eyes, nose, lungs, and throat didn’t just sting; they burned. I took off the cloth bag slung over my shoulder and threw it toward the surface with all my might. Perhaps because the cloth bag had no strength, and because the Rhaphidophora inside didn’t weigh much, it failed to shoot out above the surface as I had hoped. The cloth bag, soaked with water, sagged limply and slowly began to sink.
There was no strength left in my legs now. As seawater surged into my nose and mouth, I swallowed it without resistance and looked at the surface. The water filled with pouring sunlight was more beautiful than any jewel in the world.
The light is dazzling.
The moment I thought that, darkness rushed in all at once.
I woke from the impact of falling off the bed. To be precise, my body had been flung onto the bed. It had happened slightly off from the bed, so my powerless body dropped straight down and rolled across the floor.
Lying on the floor, I coughed meaninglessly and tried shaking my arms and legs. The salty taste that had filled my head, the burning pain in my chest, and the agony in my leg muscles that had felt as if they would tear off were all gone. My breathing was fine. There wasn’t a single injury anywhere on my body. And yet my body would not move.
I hadn’t been able to reach the surface through the escape craft. Why? Why was that? Why had I returned to my room again? What happened? Someone explain it to me. I want to go to the surface. Why do I have to go through this? Why on earth!
Why can’t I get out!
I lay on the floor doing nothing, crying for about three minutes as tears flowed. At some point my nose started bleeding, but like my tears, I didn’t stop it and just let it be.
I cried that I wanted so badly to get away from this damn workplace and go home, and as I sniffled, I started feeling like an office worker on a Monday.
Just in case, I looked around with my eyes and saw that the cloth bag Tumanako had given me was gone. The Rhaphidophora was gone too. If Tumanako had taken the escape craft, would Tumanako have been able to get out? Had I wasted a precious chance because of myself? When I thought that, I was so sad tears wouldn’t even come.
I crawled onto the bed and lay on my side. I didn’t want to lift a finger. I even felt that everything was futile.
Why can’t I leave? What on earth is the problem? But as I thought this way and that……there were so many problems that I didn’t even know what the problem was anymore.
As I blankly dirtied the blanket with my nosebleed and tears, John Doe’s words suddenly came to mind. [We head to the past in order to live.] At the phrase that had abruptly surfaced, I shouted inwardly as if venting my anger.
You bastards!
Is this living?
I asked, is this living!
After sobbing my heart out, the tangled mess of my emotions seemed to loosen at least a little, but the problem was that a fatigue that made me not want to do anything came along with it, surging over me like a blanket and covering my whole body.
Didn’t I just die? If I died, why do I want to sleep so badly? Wasn’t sleep something you could get plenty of after you died?
My head was as heavy as stone, and my eyelids closed on their own. I wanted to sleep so badly that a light chill ran over my back. My arms and legs sagged like waterlogged cotton, and my chest felt heavy. If I don’t sleep now, my heart might overload.
But I can’t just not move now. I have to run out of here right away. In a little while, water is going to fill the room. Seawater is going to come sloshing in. Get a grip.
I stared blankly at the time, 7:07 a.m., and thought. I don’t know what will happen if I sleep now. I need to get up and move right away. Reason beat me senseless and hounded me.
Then my brain soothed me in a whisper.
Let’s sleep for just ten minutes.
Set an alarm and sleep for exactly ten minutes.
We’ll sleep for exactly ten minutes and then move. Just ten minutes. It’s not even that long. The water won’t fill up that quickly either.
I knew better than anyone that this was not logical thinking. Water filled a place in an instant. I had to run out of the room right now.
And yet I set an alarm on my phone for 7:17 and closed my eyes. Sleep was sweeter than honey. The moment I shut my eyelids, my consciousness vanished as if my brain had been waiting for it.
Have you ever overslept and been late? The moment you wake from unconsciousness, your body feels more refreshed than average. You face the world with a clean, clear state of awareness and a remarkably good physical condition. Then you cannot help but feel puzzled without realizing it. Why does my body feel so light?
Because you slept late, your brain, which had no choice but to rest poorly, starts turning faster than before and grasps your surroundings. Everything around you is too quiet and still. Nothing seems wrong. But almost instinctively, you realize the environment surrounding you is different from usual.
The sunlight entering the room is thicker, brighter, and warmer than usual. Birds chirp and sing beautifully, as if asking whether you’ve really been sleeping until now. The moment you grab your phone in instinctive terror and check the time, you realize you are completely screwed.
I woke with a splash, flailing in the water. Only after I got up did the sound of the emergency alarm enter my ears. I had woken because I had been sleeping in bed and water was just about to enter my nose.
Am I insane? I can fall asleep when water has filled the room like this? An alarm had gone off on my phone, but I couldn’t tell at all whether I had ignored it and kept sleeping, or whether my unconscious had moved my finger on its own and turned it off. The time on my phone was 7:25.