The believers of the Infinite Church seemed momentarily startled after hearing Seo Jihyeok’s words. Then they asked us again.
“Which one of the people in the corridor are you talking about!”
······Fair point. There were three dead Asian men in this corridor, and all three of their faces were a bloody mess. One man’s neck had been gouged open by a blade to the point that the white bone of his throat was visible, leaving his face drenched in blood; another had literally had his face hacked apart with knife wounds. The last had died after taking bullets to the chest and face.
All of them had builds similar to mine. Fortunately, they were all wearing ordinary clothes, so there was no telling whether they were engineers or dentists freshly hired into a special position at the undersea base. No wonder Seo Jihyeok would tell a lie like that. But what if one of the Infinite Church believers knew my face? Wouldn’t the lie be exposed easily? Tyler’s face suddenly came to mind. If any of the Infinite Church believers had ever visited Deep Blue, they probably already knew what I looked like.
Judging by how visibly flustered they were, my death seemed extremely important to the Infinite Church believers currently facing us down. ······Right. After I died, I would return to my room in Baekho Wing this morning, but what would happen to the lives of the people living here now?
Suddenly, Jeong Sanghyeon looked at the pad and showed it beside Seo Jihyeok’s face. It was a message from Baek Aeyeong that had arrived on Michael Loacker’s pad.
[Engineer Team A Baek Aeyeong]: Request to proceed with existing work as planned
Was that a message Shin Haeryang had sent through Baek Aeyeong’s phone? Seo Jihyeok only turned his head slightly to look at it, then frowned and spoke to Jeong Sanghyeon while facing forward.
“Ask only whether a good housewarming gift would be lighting (switch) or a clock (timer).”
“What is that supposed to mean? Why do I have to ask?”
“You think I’m going to type while holding a gun? Hurry up and ask whether mood lighting is better or a big clock is better.”
Just then, a shout came from the Infinite Church believers.
“All three of their faces look messed up—”
“We don’t know! We’re trying to figure it out too! You’re confusing us, so shut uuuup!”
Seo Jihyeok shouted loudly toward the outside. Beside him, Jeong Sanghyeon flinched at his voice, then grumbled as he typed on the keyboard. A moment later, the reply came back: clock. After hearing the answer, Seo Jihyeok let out a deep sigh and said,
“······All right. First, everyone behind me is running to Ophion. Got it?”
“The gym? Why there?”
Carlos, his face twisted as though he didn’t like the idea, asked that, and Seo Jihyeok answered the question flying in from behind him without even looking back.
“Do you have anywhere else to run to right now? That place is coated well with concrete, so at least bullets won’t get through.”
“Am I going too? Is there nothing I can do to help?”
When I asked Seo Jihyeok, he thought for a moment, then nodded while still staring straight ahead.
“I don’t need you right now, so hurry up and go. Staying here won’t help.”
Wow. Now that I thought about it, he was right, but that really stabbed deep into the heart. At those words, Jeong Sanghyeon widened his eyes and said,
“Ah. We should just hand him over. What the hell is all this for, because of one person! What you asked earlier was whether Aeyeong was hurt, right? Wasn’t it?”
“She’s alive. So be quiet. Don’t make a sound. Run while I’m holding this place. ······Hey! It’s one of the three, so come out and check!”
After shouting that toward the Infinite Church believers, Seo Jihyeok waved his hand at us as though shooing birds away, as if he had said all he needed to say. But we weren’t birds, so we couldn’t fly off. We just stared at the back of Seo Jihyeok’s head before reluctantly lifting our heavy asses from the floor. Then we began following Carlos, who was crawling forward almost like a caterpillar. Tumanako looked at Seo Jihyeok’s back growing smaller and asked,
“Is it okay to leave him like that?”
At his worried tone, Jeong Sanghyeon answered irritably,
“He told us to go! Then we should hurry up and go!”
At that voice, Kim Jaehee looked at Jeong Sanghyeon as though amazed and said,
“Our Sanghyeon. Listening so well to another teammate’s words. I’m so surprised. This hyung is so proud of how Sanghyeon grew up before I knew it.”
“What do you take me for, hyung!”
“What else? A coworker on the same team who doesn’t listen.”
We crawled with our bellies pressed to the floor as though we meant to wipe up every speck of dust there, then crawled on all fours using our palms and knees, and when we thought we had finally put some distance between us, we rose to our feet. The farther we got from the guns, the more we seemed to recover the shape of humans who walked on two legs.
Ignoring the stinging in my knees and the pain in my reddened palms, I stood up, and Kim Jaehee leisurely asked the others,
“So what do we do now? Are we going straight to Ophion like this?”
His voice sounded relaxed, as though everything happening around us had nothing much to do with him. When everyone fell into their own thoughts, Kim Jaehee asked Jeong Sanghyeon beside him,
“Aeyeong seemed a bit hurt. Sanghyeon, do you know what he meant by asking whether it was lighting or a clock?”
“I have no idea. They’ll handle it themselves.”
“Really? Was he asking whether she was hurt a little or hurt badly? Mr. Muhyeon, in any case, it looks like Team Leader Shin won’t be able to go help Kim Gayoung right away.”
Kim Jaehee said that to me in a gentle voice. If Baek Aeyeong had been shot, then Shin Haeryang would be stopping the bleeding. He was probably in no state to do anything else. I took one deep breath and asked,
“Yes. So I’m going to the Jujak Wing dormitory. ······Are there any engineers who would come with me?”
Kim Jaehee and Jeong Sanghyeon looked at each other and didn’t answer. I hadn’t expected much. As I thought. Kim Jaehee checked the undersea base bulletin board on his pad and said,
“Well. Isn’t it too late? There aren’t even any new posts going up now.”
After checking the times the posts had been written, Kim Jaehee lightly shrugged. The undersea base bulletin board had been almost plastered with posts from Kim Gayoung begging to be saved, but from ten minutes ago, not even those posts had appeared anymore.
Her pad could be broken, or it might have plopped into the seawater. We can’t just conclude she’s dead. Ms. Gayoung will be trying to survive somehow until the very moment before she dies. And I’m not going to give up easily either. Jeong Sanghyeon grimaced fiercely and asked me,
“Do we really have to go save her?”
“The door is broken, and Ms. Gayoung can’t open it by herself.”
“What do I gain by going with you?”
“······There’s no separate benefit.”
The benefit Jeong Sanghyeon wanted seemed to mean something monetary, so I answered that there wouldn’t be any. What could Kim Gayoung, who was in danger, promise in this situation? I had nothing either.
“There’s no reward, and I’m busy trying to stay alive myself, so why should I go into the flooding Jujak Wing and suffer like that? You’re funny, Doctor Dentist. Why do you care so much about a stranger who isn’t even family? Are you two dating?”
“No. I’ve never even met her.”
Before today, Kim Gayoung was someone I had never met at all. I hadn’t even met her at the clinic. But in the time only I remembered, we had both struggled to survive, and we had been able to save someone else. I had received countless forms of help, and there was no way I could ever repay that.
Since he kept bringing up compensation, I asked Jeong Sanghyeon,
“What would I have to give you as a reward for you to consider going to rescue Ms. Gayoung?”
“······Unbelievable. Ha. Seriously. Now that I think about it, even if you gave me a reward, I still don’t really want to go. What if I go through all that trouble and we can’t save her anyway? And if I get hurt while going to save her, who’s going to compensate me?”
“What about you, Jaehee?”
When I asked the other engineer beside me, Kim Jaehee made a low hmm sound and thought for a moment before answering.
“I think it would be fun to go with you, Mr. Muhyeon. But it’s not even work, and I don’t want to put my legs into seawater. You understand, right?”
As Kim Jaehee said that, he gently patted my shoulder.
“Don’t worry too much, Mr. Muhyeon. If she’s fated to live, she’ll manage to live even if no one goes to save her.”
Kim Gayoung was currently in a situation where she desperately needed someone else’s help. I hadn’t meant to ask, but the words came out on their own.
“What if she dies?”
I felt like I had asked Kim Jaehee something similar before.
“We’re not the ones who killed her. Don’t feel guilty.”
Kim Jaehee said that as though it were no big deal and walked on, and Carlos, who had been at the very front, heard it and grumbled,
“Ah. This is why I hate those engineer bastards. They only stick together among themselves. These bastards, those bastards, all of them are selfish. Not an ounce of loyalty in them.”
When I had asked the other people from Engineer Team A to go save Kim Gayoung, they hadn’t refused like this. As if he had heard Carlos’s words, Jeong Sanghyeon snapped and shouted,
“Why does Engineer Team A have to help other Koreans? It’s not like anyone’s paying us! Why should we!”
“There are people on Engineer Team A who contracted to protect and rescue Korean civilians. Even if that weren’t the case, why do you hate helping people in danger so much?”
Jeong Sanghyeon snorted with a look of disbelief and said,
“That would be Team Leader Shin and Aeyeong and Jihyeok hyung. And the people they’re officially supposed to protect are only the engineer team members! Even if they save Korean researchers or Koreans hired for special positions, they don’t get anything out of it! Ah, shit! I really hate people like this. Sneaking onto the engineer bus without paying and desperate to grab whatever crumbs they can. Ugh. Fuck. Seriously. If you want to save them so badly, go save them with your own hands. There are always people who talk bullshit while poking at your guilt, trying to shove someone else into a hard place.”
“Sanghyeon.”
Kim Jaehee called Jeong Sanghyeon’s name in warning. But Jeong Sanghyeon pointed at me and said,
“I’m right! Those three were hired because of the engineers! So why should other Koreans enjoy our welfare benefits?!”
Something about that sounded strange. Only engineers of Korean nationality? Shin Haeryang, Baek Aeyeong, and Seo Jihyeok had never explained it that way to me even once. With a blank look on my face, I asked Kim Jaehee beside me,
“Wasn’t the contract with the government to rescue all civilians of Korean nationality?”
If Seo Jihyeok were here, he probably could have explained it more clearly. Kim Jaehee smiled awkwardly and answered,
“From what I heard, they were saving everyone together while they were at it. But I heard the contract itself only specifies engineers of Korean nationality.”