Jeong Sanghyeon ran frantically, barely avoiding stepping on the corpses of those gunned down. In such haste—perhaps because he hadn’t seen it in time—he stepped on Daniel’s fingers and tumbled to the floor.
He fell forward, but the problem was that the spot was a pool of blood from three people. With a heavy wet splat, he was drenched in blood from head to toe. Perhaps some had gotten into his mouth, because Jeong Sanghyeon made sounds like “Ptui-ptui-ptui-ptui-ptui!” spitting out air and saliva wildly. Then he tried to stand up from the floor covered in blood.
Perhaps because it was quite slippery, he fell to the floor two more times, but Jeong Sanghyeon ended up stepping right on Daniel’s corpse and crawling as if swimming, barely managing to drag himself out of the pool of blood. Damn it! Seriously!
“What do you think you know?”
Bart, who had been watching this spectacle from afar alongside me, asked me, blank-faced, what Jeong Sanghyeon’s muttered words meant. I just shook my head. It wasn’t exactly something I could explain as cursing.
Jeong Sanghyeon, drenched in blood, didn’t seem to care whether Tamaki was holding a gun right above his head or not. Perhaps worried that someone behind him would catch up and take the escape pod given to him, he kept looking back this way as he walked, making whimpering sobs. Hobbling as if he had banged his right knee somewhere, he ran up and pressed the escape pod activation button first. Then he rubbed his aching knee frantically with his hand. Korean curses mixed with sobs spilled out of him before the escape pod swallowed Jeong Sanghyeon.
Shin Haeryang, who had been watching his team member’s antics, only let out a small sigh after the escape pod was ejected. Sato snorted and spoke toward Shin Haeryang.
“Your teammates are all quite entertaining. Anyone would think they’re comedians.”
“Worry about your own team members.”
Shin Haeryang jerked his chin toward Yamashita lying on the floor. Sato acted as if Yamashita, who had lost the fight, wasn’t even a member of his own team.
Instead, Mark—a team member from another team—seemed to feel pity for the suffering Yamashita, to the point of picking up Leonard’s metal liquor bottle rolling on the floor and placing it beside Yamashita’s head. Shin Haeryang, who had been watching Yamashita rolling around clutching between his legs with his hand as if it were none of his concern, asked Sato in a blunt voice.
“Why did you egg Yamashita on to attack?”
“…They say a good swimmer drowns and a good climber falls from a tree, don’t they? I wanted to see you slip or fall once. I hadn’t expected Yamashita to lose that miserably, either.”
Shin Haeryang looked at Yamashita’s back, curled up like a pebble, and said to Sato.
“He can probably hear everything we’re saying.”
“Let him hear. What can you do? He’s a beaten dog. Still, I’m satisfied with one thing—you can’t take an escape pod either.”
Shin Haeryang didn’t seem to care much about that outcome. Rather, he rarely sneered at Sato.
“Three out of five members of my team escaped by escape pod. Your team: one dead, one escaped, one incapacitated, and one threatening you—and yet you’re satisfied with something so petty.”
“You may not know, but Japanese people cherish the small happinesses of daily life.”
Shin Haeryang seemed like he didn’t even want to exchange words with Sato. Shin Haeryang approached his one remaining team member close by and began to interrogate him about what had just happened.
“Is there a separate reason you gave your escape pod to Sanghyeon?”
“Sanghyeon wanted to go first. So I yielded. He pretended to be fine on the outside, but he must be terrified of the current situation. The one who wants to leave should leave first.”
“Sanghyeon knows the value of an escape pod. That’s why he rushed like that, afraid it would be taken. Don’t ever yield your share again.”
It was just my guess, but thank goodness Kim Jaehui had yielded his escape pod to Jeong Sanghyeon. I thought that if he had said he would yield his escape pod to Yamashita or Sato, another fight might have broken out. Or else Shin Haeryang would have covered Kim Jaehui’s mouth and shoved him into the escape pod.
Kim Jaehui answered Shin shamelessly.
“Yes. But through this opportunity, Sanghyeon might turn into a decent human being, you know.”
“……”
From Shin Haeryang’s expression, he seemed extremely skeptical. It was easier to make an opponent kneel through violence; reforming their very spirit to turn over a new leaf didn’t seem to be his forte.
They say a bear ate garlic and mugwort and endured for one hundred days in a lightless cave to become human. What thoughts ran through its mind in that dark cave? Tigers and bears are both equally threatening animals. What is the difference between them? Why did one remain a beast while the other acquired humanity?
Bart looked at the remaining escape pod and asked me.
“Who’s going out next?”
The moment those words were spoken, a terrible sound echoed throughout Hyeonmudong. Screeeeeech! Screeeeech! It sounded like someone’s scream, yet also like a metal plate being crumpled. As the noise continued from the ceiling, I could see fear creeping onto people’s faces.
I looked in turn at Bart, Mark, Leonard, Sato, Kim Jaehui and Shin Haeryang, and Yamashita, and just as I opened my mouth, Mark suddenly grabbed my forearm. Startled, I found Mark gripping my forearm as if to hang off it, and he began speaking in a loud voice.
“I have to go next! I’m not a mess like Leonard over there! I don’t do that kind of thing to my kids. I work hard to feed my wife and daughter, and our dogs Charlie and Max! I already have four dependents! I can’t die here with terrorists and thugs like these! If I die here, how will my wife and children survive in this harsh world! If you help me escape, you will absolutely never regret it! I’ve donated diligently! I’ve prayed to God diligently! I’ve done a lot of volunteer work! I’m really a decent guy! If you let me out, it’s not just my family that survives! My parents have hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, and even depression! Both of them are relying only on me, who sends them living expenses!”
“Ah, ah. I see.”
“I have a lot of loans, and as soon as my salary comes in, the credit card bills take it all and there’s nothing left! If I disappear, my household is literally finished! Saving me is the same as saving four people plus two more dogs!”
Mark clung to my arm, tears pooled in his eyes and whimpering. When a white man weighing nearly 120 kilograms hung on my arm, my body literally swayed.
Kim Jaehui, watching from a distance like a spectator, scratched Mark’s opposite forearm with his prosthetic fingers. Mark jumped up from his spot at that sensation, and as he moved away from Kim Jaehui, he simultaneously let go of me too.
Bart, seeing that, let out a small “Puhaha!” laugh, then spoke to Mark in a bewildered voice.
“When did you ever do volunteer work diligently? You’ve never once participated in the weekend beach trash cleanups. You said you’d rather sleep than go volunteering. The shortest woman from Team Ga who took the escape pod earlier was picking up the most trash, you know. And what? Donations? What donations? You cursed out your neighbors, saying it was a waste of money to buy even one box of cookies from the Girl Scouts.”
“When did I!”
Mark’s already-red face flushed even redder at his coworker’s testimony. He seemed to want to shout at Bart right away, but he held back, probably thinking it would only further damage his image. Then he quickly made excuses to me.
“Th-th. Dentist. I can explain! I think Bart is somehow misunderstanding. I can explain well.”
“You don’t need to explain.”
Mark seemed to take my words strangely; deflated, he fumbled and closed his mouth. Once Mark fell silent, Bart began to speak to me.
“Should I do it like Mark? I don’t have kids. And I’ve never married. Since I broke up six months ago, I don’t have anyone I’m dating. Both my parents are still in good health. I don’t have any pets I need to take responsibility for. I don’t have the confidence to take responsibility for something for 20 or 30 years. I can’t even cover my own living expenses. Also. What else. Ah. I don’t have many friends. And… hm. And I don’t have much money. I still have a ton of student loans left. Volunteer work… here, I only picked up trash on the beach occasionally, and in the US, I taught free Mongolian classes for an hour on weekends? Donations, I only donate a dollar after grocery shopping at the mart, or five dollars if I’m in a good mood. Prayers… I don’t have a religion. My parents dragged me to church sometimes, but I never developed faith. They tell you to make wishes to a man hanging in only his underwear, but I never really wanted to. And my name is Baterdene. It means ‘solid jewel’ in Mongolian. I don’t really like my name. The guys around me tease me saying it sounds like an animation character name.”
Baterdene looked back on his life coldly and said.
“All things considered, no matter how much I think about it, I’m not sure if I’m a decent guy. I’ve lived roughly. I don’t really have any particular strengths. I’m living an insignificant life, and saving me would just be saving one person, but still, I want to take the escape pod.”
Mark seemed greatly flustered by Baterdene’s self-introduction. Mark, who had armed his entire body with confidence and boldness, seemed to have expected Baterdene to do some tremendous self-promotion. Mark, who had been looking for an opening to attack, stopped with his mouth hanging open, then frowned and said.
“Y-you… you think you can get on the escape pod talking like that?!”
“It’s the truth, so what can I do? It’s not like I’m here for a job interview.”
In a situation like this, who should I send on the escape pod? Who has to survive for it to count as having survived well? Do you normally choose the person who talks like Mark? Then what happens to Baterdene?
Sato, who had been watching the spectacle of the Team Ma engineers, spoke as if amused.
“So if I put on a tearful begging show, I can get on the escape pod and leave too?”
“Give it a try. Our savior seems to have a weak heart. Try saying you only have one testicle. You might earn some sympathy.”
“……”
I held back a burst of laughter because of Kim Jaehui. After a brief silence, I barely managed to speak.
“……Both of you, go take the escape pod. Quickly.”
Surprise flashed across Mark and Baterdene’s faces, then soon turned to joy. Mark ran up in one stride, patted my shoulder wildly, and grabbed and shook my hand.
“Thanks. I won’t forget this favor. I’ll definitely remember it. So… what was your name again?”
“Park Muhyeon.”
“Right. Bang Muyeong. I’ll definitely remember it.”
“……Please leave quickly.”
Mark glanced at Leonard and Shin Haeryang glaring at people from the corner, then began dashing toward the escape pod. Baterdene seemed bewildered, as if he had received an unexpected gift, then said.
“You don’t know me well. You don’t know what kind of person I am, or what thoughts I live by. Still, you chose me. If I get out, I’ll report to the whole world to come save you. I’ll tell the US military and everyone to come. I’ll use a white-sounding name as the informant, so don’t worry.”