As I lay still with my eyes closed just as Gim Jae-hui had shut them, the people who had just entered through the submersible port passed by us lying on the floor. Perhaps someone had looked around my face, because their gaze made my face feel hot and ticklish. I felt the urge to open my eyes and see who it was, but I held my breath and endured it.
The believers of the Infinite Church seemed to have mistaken the blood-soaked corpse and those lying around the pool of blood for people they had already killed. They apparently couldn’t imagine that the masterminds behind the arson would be lying there like corpses.
Besides, they were too busy staring at the fire swallowing the inside of the submersible port, the smoke spreading toward the ceiling, and the places spewing out fire-evacuation alarms with tremendous noise. They didn’t seem to have the leisure to check each and every corpse lying on the floor. Once the gaze that had lingered briefly around my head disappeared, the itchy sensation as if someone were tugging at the back of my head vanished along with it.
I slowly and carefully exhaled the breath I had been holding. From beside me came a faint sound of air escaping from Gim Jae-hui. Was this funny?
Men’s voices reached me in English from very far away. …So this was the problem with my hearing being bad. I couldn’t tell how near or far away they were. Perhaps because the fire alarm was so loud, I couldn’t make out the men’s voices properly.
“What the hell caused the fire?”
“What is that place? What are we supposed to do now? Do we just put it out with fire extinguishers?”
The flustered men continued speaking, then suddenly a series of explosions rang out.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
As sounds like firecrackers exploding rang out one after another, screams rose with them, and vibrations trembled through the floor as people apparently threw themselves down. It seemed that oxygen tanks or hydrogen tanks had exploded in succession.
I was desperate to open my eyes, but I held my breath and endured it in case someone was looking at my face. One of the men heard the explosions and shouted.
“Why aren’t the sprinklers working here!”
Huh. Come to think of it, why not? If a fire got that big, shouldn’t the sprinklers automatically spray water? …Judging by the fact that he knew as little as I did about this submersible port, whoever had asked that question wasn’t an engineer. Among the group that had entered through the submersible port, I heard the voice of an especially young man.
“That’s where they’ve gathered the hydrogen and oxygen gas tanks. And there’s a battery-charging station next to it, so it can’t be put out with water at all!”
I didn’t know who he was, but this person was an engineer. That huge warehouse tucked away in the corner was a battery-charging station? I had seen it and still hadn’t realized.
Then again, now that I thought about it, whether manned or unmanned, a submersible would need an energy source or fuel cell to move. It had to be charged at the submersible port before it could operate.
“We can just put it out with a fire extinguisher. Fire goes out when you pour water on it, doesn’t it?”
At the leisurely voice of a man who seemed to think it was no big deal, the engineer replied irritably.
“You can’t put it out with water! That battery-charging station contains lead, nickel, lithium, cadmium, sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide, and all kinds of other substances! If you pour water on it, things will become even more horrific than the explosion that just happened!”
“We can put it out with a fire extinguisher, so quit making such a fuss. Things will become even more horrific~”
When one of the men imitated the engineer’s voice, the whole group burst out laughing. …What the hell was so funny? With my eyes closed like a corpse, I couldn’t properly understand the situation. If I’d known this would happen, I should have lain there like a corpse with my eyes half-open. Ah. Gim Jae-hui had closed my eyes.
One of the men in the group spoke hesitantly.
“But I’ve heard chemical fires have to be put out separately too. I can’t remember exactly. There was some mandatory training before, so I watched a video, and it said something about it.”
“What did it say?”
“I think the video said to cover it with a blanket or quilt to put out the fire.”
“How are you supposed to cover an area that big with a blanket? Do you have a brain or not? Open the fire hydrant and pull out the hose.”
“I told you it can’t be put out with water! We have to shut this place down immediately! Forget the fire—the toxic gases are pouring out right now! We need to get out of here, fast!”
However, I could hear footsteps moving in every direction, as though several people were attempting to put out the fire. You idiots! One man spat out an impressive stream of intelligence-related curses at those around him, then dashed out of the submersible port. Through the floor against my cheek, I felt the vibrations of him fleeing the submersible port.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Cowardly bastard.”
“That obnoxious bastard. I ought to smash his face in so badly he’ll never be able to talk again. Hey, grab a fire extinguisher!”
The people who had been cursing the engineer who had fled soon began speaking over the radio to someone. There’s a small fire inside the submersible port of Undersea Base Two. We’ll take care of it within thirty minutes. It’s not a major problem. They kept saying things like that.
Lying on the floor, feeling like an ordinary person who knew nothing, I was incredibly anxious. The fire seemed to have grown huge, and it didn’t seem like something they could deal with within thirty minutes. More than that, it seemed like an extremely serious problem. If it had been me, I would have chased after the engineer who had just run away and fled alongside him.
Were they fearless? Weren’t these idiots only going to make the fire worse by fooling around? Shouldn’t someone stop them? Should I spring to my feet right now? Wasn’t it possible that not only the submersible port but everyone in Undersea Base Two would burn to death?
As I entertained every dangerous thought imaginable, it seemed that my body had begun trembling and moving slightly without my realizing it. Gim Jae-hui, who had remained motionless and silent like a corpse, spoke against the back of my neck.
“Stay still.”
I was so startled by his warm breath that I nearly sprang up and struck Gim Jae-hui. Fortunately, perhaps because my body was sluggish, all that happened outwardly was a slight flinch. I slowly exhaled, relaxed my body like an anesthetized animal, and tried to remain still, but the smell of burning rushed into my nose.
Had the air-purification system stopped? I endured the smell of smoke while thinking of all kinds of air pollutants—dioxins, furans, cadmium, lead, mercury, benzene, chloroform, formaldehyde, toluene, fine dust, and so on. Until a little while ago, I could feel the heat, but the smell hadn’t been this strong.
The fire alarm, the men shouting at one another, footsteps moving in every direction, the sound of dripping water, and all sorts of other noises reached me from far away. Then suddenly, bright, crisp sounds like pop! crack! clack! rang out repeatedly in quick succession. They sounded quite faint to my ears, but in reality they must have been deafening.
The men who had said they would put out the fire came running toward where we were lying, screaming like children dragged to the dentist, then hurriedly fled the submersible port. At that moment, someone shook my arm. I opened my eyes wide and saw Sin Haeryang helping Gim Jae-hui to his feet, drenched in blood.
“Are you hurt?”
“It isn’t my blood.”
Sin Haeryang seemed to have been lying face-down directly above the pool of blood. I looked toward the gas-filling room, which I had been so curious about while keeping my eyes closed like a corpse. An enormous inferno was devouring the gas-filling room, the battery-charging station a short distance away, the laboratory where the marine life collected during submersible expeditions was examined and stored, and even the lounge located farther off. Everywhere I looked, there was either searing red fire or black smoke.
What the hell had those bastards done? Once I got to my feet, the smell of burning was even stronger than it had been while I was lying on the floor, and the fire alarm was literally roaring.
Gim Jae-hui was staring blankly at the scene. Looking at the back of his head glowing red in the firelight, Gim Jae-hui seemed like a still life caught in the middle of a fire. Sin Haeryang opened the submersible-port door first and beckoned for us to come out. He roughly seized the arm of Gim Jae-hui, who stood there like a stone monument, and dragged him out of the submersible port.
Using the towel hanging around my neck, Sin Haeryang brushed or wiped the flecks of blood from my face and upper body. We struggled along the connecting corridor, then, following Sin Haeryang’s signal, slipped into the restroom right beside it.
Not long afterward, more than eight people rushed into the submersible port. Good. Now that they were inside, we could leave. However, perhaps they understood the seriousness of the fire more quickly than the four people who had come earlier, because they all came rushing back out of the submersible port into the corridor.
Two of the people fleeing the fire and smoke were approaching the men’s restroom. Sin Haeryang whispered faintly in my direction. Go inside a stall. Quickly. It seems urgent. Because the situation appeared so pressing, I couldn’t say anything and hurried into the first stall. Were we all going to hide in the stalls together? Thinking that, I didn’t close the door.
“Wow. That fire just now was huge, wasn’t it?”
“It was no joke. I’ve never seen a fire that big before.”
Gim Jae-hui hid behind the door and waited. The moment the two men entered the restroom, he closed the door. There was a click. Then Sin Haeryang seized the arm of the first person to enter and drove his knife into the other man’s collarbone as he collapsed toward him. Since I hadn’t closed the stall door, I witnessed the attack right in front of me.
Judging by the position, it seemed Sin Haeryang had stabbed the man’s subclavian artery. After severing the artery with the stab, he pulled the knife back out and shoved the man’s body to the side, the entire motion flowing together as naturally as water.
Gim Jae-hui closed the restroom door, then kicked the hollow behind the knee of the last man to enter. The man crumpled forward helplessly. Sin Haeryang seized him by the hair and held the knife to his throat.
“Make a sound and you die.”
Sin Haeryang said only that one thing to him. The man had just entered the restroom when the person in front of him was knocked to the floor by an assailant, and before he knew it a blade was pressed right in front of his face. Perhaps shocked, he froze with his mouth open.
I stepped out of the stall to check the man who had fallen over. He was already dead, pouring out an enormous amount of blood. …Looking at him with my own eyes, everything ahead of me was blurry and hard to see, and because of my double vision, every object appeared in triplicate. At least this was one advantage. Someone seemed to have died, but I couldn’t see it clearly. The restroom floor was becoming completely stained with blood.
Could Sin Haeryang really not see properly? How could he attack like that if he couldn’t see?
The man with the knife at his throat breathed heavily for a while, then began to sob within seconds. He wanted to ask them to spare him, but since he had been told he would die if he made a sound, he could only let his tears stream down his face. My head hurt.