Then who’s the ringleader here. Who hired you. Shin Haeryang, rolling across the floor, neither rose nor complained at that rough handling.
Watching from the side as someone who had been alive moments ago became a thing in an instant, tsunami-like fatigue and shock engulfed my body. The stress was so severe that I could barely see straight.
And yet, what brought even the slightest relief was that no one approached Shin Haeryang. No one laid a hand on him. As I struggled merely to breathe, David looked my body over openly, laughed, and asked.
“I heard there’s a miracle that lets you go back to the past—is there also a miracle for dodging bullets?”
And then he looked at me with the eyes of someone observing a rare animal. The gazes watching me from all around were equally bizarre. I felt as if I had become the proudest monkey in the zoo.
Someone touched the bloodied spot on my back with their hand and spoke. There’s really no wound. There’s not a single injured place anywhere? Others began touching and examining my back, shoulders, and arms—stained with Joseph’s blood—without permission and recklessly.
I wanted to hurl some curses, but I didn’t even have the strength to breathe. The reason I was unscathed in that rain of bullets was because of others’ sacrifices. Perhaps such a miracle could only be obtained by Korean civilian nationals.
As I stared at David, unable to say a word, those around me seemed to decide I didn’t wish to speak, and began supporting me—half-carrying me—out of the corridor.
I had absolutely no strength to walk on my own feet. I just wanted to collapse on the floor and do nothing. I wanted to sprawl in a safe, empty space and cry for a long time. I wanted to do nothing but sleep. I’m so tired today. ......So tired. I want to lie in bed, drink coffee, and laze around.
The two men holding my shoulders and arms to support me, and the woman wiping me this way and that or talking to me, seemed eager to drag me out of Deep Blue—overflowing with blood-drenched corpses and wounded.
If anything obstructed the path ahead, they kicked it aside; if a believer couldn’t move due to gunshot wounds, they dragged them to the side and cleared the way. Overturned chairs that had posed a threat, or parachute cords that had been attacking people’s ankles, quickly vanished from the corridor. I tried to say something about what the believers were doing, but lacked even the strength for that, so I was simply dangled and dragged along.
One medic unit had been hanging vertically on the corridor wall, but perhaps one wasn’t enough to transport all the wounded, because it seemed another medic unit had arrived. A medic unit that had been trying to enter through the Deep Blue entrance retreated with a troubled expression at the gestures of the Infinite Church believers. Outside Deep Blue, the medic units had been singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” as if in protest, but though they sang outside the door, they couldn’t enter the corridor. Why weren’t they coming in? Was it because I was in the corridor? The moment I exited Deep Blue, a medic unit rushed inside as if it had been waiting. Sorry.
Outside Deep Blue, everything was decorated with flowers. The fragrance of all kinds of flowers struck my head. ......I think I’m going crazy now. The smell of blood and bitter gunpowder that had filled my nasal passages was suppressed by the overwhelming scent of flowers.
Even after closing and opening my eyes, flowers covered the floor so densely that the flooring was barely visible. Only the massive white shark skull located a short distance from the Deep Blue entrance proved that this scene wasn’t an illusion and that I was still sane. Why are flowers in the deep sea?
Roses and violas, daisies, tulips, lilies, patrinia, thistles, irises, lilacs, dandelions, white daffodils, azaleas, rhododendrons, pansies, morning glories, forget-me-nots, rose of Sharon, lily of the valley, carnations, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas, cosmos. Is that red thing over there a poinsettia? An anemone? Red spider lilies, lotuses. Is that big one a sunflower? ......It is a sunflower.
The flowers were being grown in a botanical garden located at the First Undersea Base. At the First Undersea Base’s farm, they were attempting to grow all crops humans could cultivate—rice, barley, wheat, rye, corn, beans, millet, buckwheat, red beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and so on—but the harvest wasn’t enough to meet the consumption of everyone living at the undersea base yet, so I understood that ingredients were imported from outside. The guidebook had said that making sustainable self-sufficiency possible within the undersea base was the First Undersea Base’s primary goal, but.
From what Wang Wei, who had used the room next to mine, told me, it seemed base staff would steal small amounts of research sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, beans, and such to roast for late-night snacks. Wang Wei had congratulated me on my move and handed me a handful of sunflower seeds. I hadn’t thought much of it then, but seeing the sunflowers laid out over there, I suspected those sunflower seeds had come from the First Undersea Base’s botanical garden.
Seaweeds like sea mustard, laver, and kelp were also being cultivated at the First Undersea Base and Daehan Island, and all kinds of marine life growing within -50m of the North Pacific Ocean—including seaweeds—were reportedly being raised in the First Undersea Base’s tanks and aquariums for research and conservation.
They said that next year, through special glass, special lenses, and countless optical fibers, they planned to grow crops with sunlight even at the Second Undersea Base located 200 meters under the sea; honestly, I had found that hard to understand while reading the guidebook. Can’t plants be grown on land in soil, like when humanity first opened the agricultural age ten thousand years ago? I wished flowers grew under the sunlight on the surface. Instead of hiding in the deep sea or fleeing into space even now, couldn’t they focus on eliminating pollution on land?
Something touched my toes, so I looked down at the floor—I was already barefoot. My shoes seemed to have become ragged scraps from the bullets, so someone had removed them. Under my bare feet, not hard, cold flooring, but a soft, smooth blue fabric was spread out lengthwise across the ground.
From what I had felt while walking around the lodging area, the Fourth Undersea Base received no light at all; aside from potted plants individuals kept in their rooms, marimo, strange things that served as drug ingredients, and artificial flowers, I hadn’t seen any plants.
A blue fabric—as dark as the night sky—divided the central wing of the Fourth Undersea Base. Seeing the flowers stretched endlessly above it, rather than thinking them beautiful, I only felt the labor required to harvest and bring them all here and the madness of the people cutting each flower one by one. They had said the First Undersea Base was the largest before the Fourth Undersea Base was completed. Just how many flowers had they brought here? Did they strip the entire botanical garden?
Each time I was forced to walk forward while held, there were flowers I didn’t know and flowers I could barely recognize. As I was forced to walk while bent over, looking at the flowers, a strange doubt arose.
How could such diverse flowers all be seen blooming at once? Did they all bloom at the same time? I didn’t know how they did it, but plants that didn’t seem to be in season were all in full bloom. Cosmos definitely bloomed in autumn, didn’t they? It wasn’t even full summer yet—what was going on?
Looking closely, all the flowers were cut from their stems and densely packed together, decorating the floor without gaps. It felt as though only the heads of flowers were piled all over the floor. Where did the stems and roots go? Were they still at the First Undersea Base? Though there were only flower stalks, it gave me a bizarre feeling, as if human heads had been severed. Though beautiful in appearance, it was strangely chilling.
Some flowers seemed to have bloomed on trees; white flowers lay strewn across the floor without gaps, along with their branches. Stepping on them as I passed, the sensation was strange. Was it because I had never stepped on flowers before? Is this what stepping on flowers normally feels like?
Someone who had been watching me draped a pitch-black cloth over my half-naked upper body. And spoke. ‘I wove this with my wish.’
Looking around, the Infinite Church believers were all just like me......wearing black clothes. The black fabric was so long that as I moved my strengthless body, I almost tripped stepping on it. But unfortunately, since the people beside me were gripping my arms and waist tightly, I didn’t fall over completely.
As I was out of my senses looking at the floor that looked like a tomb of flowers and the surroundings, someone approached me and hung the gold necklace they were wearing around my neck. And then spoke to me as if pleading. ‘Please grant my wish.’
Someone clasped a necklace of deep green jewels around my neck and put a large blue gemstone ring on my finger. Then they briefly pressed their lips to that finger and the jewel before disappearing.
Another person approached, kissed the end of my black garment, and carefully placed something over my head. Something draped down over my forehead and hair, swaying slightly to the side each time I moved. The other spoke as if vomiting blood. ‘I want to right my wrongs.’
Someone suddenly crept up and touched my ear; in an instant, something seemed to be dangling from it. It didn’t seem to be a translator device. ‘I want to see my child again.’ Someone shouted and then moved away.
The approaching people kept filling or fitting something into my ears. Each time I moved, the weight on both ear rims and earlobes gradually increased. ‘Please let me meet my mother just one more time. Just once is enough.’ ‘My daughter was murdered unfairly! That child was guilty of nothing!’
Someone touched my waist, fitted something with a clicking sound, and left. I lowered my head weakly; it was a sash embedded with purple jewels. Then they kissed my fingertips and moved away.
Someone tried to put a bracelet on me, but the clasp didn’t seem to catch properly; they fumbled with my wrist for a while before barely fastening it, then sighed and spoke while crying. ‘This is my younger sister’s bracelet. Please, save her.’ A bracelet hung with several crimson jewels shook on my wrist. A man who had been waiting behind that person instantly fastened a bracelet with several black gems onto my wrist and spoke. ‘I want to go back to the past.’
With each step, my feet trampled countless petals and flowers. Each time flowers were crushed under my toes or heels, the petals were soundlessly mashed together with moisture. Like small pieces of flesh. A man pressed his lips to the back of my hand, then put an old diamond ring on my index finger. ‘It’s a wedding ring. I miss my wife.’ A man approached and clasped a bracelet decorated with gold and green jewels. ‘O Savior. Please save us.’