Shin Haeryang continued to list the precautions. That we had to stay seated. That we were only to stand when told to. That we were not to get separated from the buddy beside us. That if we couldn’t breathe or if there were any problems, we had to say so immediately. That we must never hold our breath and had to keep breathing. There were so many things to be careful about that it seemed endless.
The seawater began to rise to our chests. On Apep’s inner wall, the letters “-50m” glowed crimson.
Riko was right beside Shin Haeryang, and Kim Jae-hui was beside me. Hearing people’s voices through the microphone made them sound as if they were speaking from farther away. Shin Haeryang gathered all the guns we had seized so far into a corner, tied them down inside the vessel, then completely shut and locked the door connected to the undersea base. We were now utterly trapped inside the belly of a snake called Apep.
“I’m the Savior’s buddy.”
“What exactly is a buddy?”
“It means a partner you can trust with your life when diving.”
“I’ll be in your care. I’ll do my best.”
“Don’t worry, Savior. I’m right here beside you. Even if something happens and you die, I won’t let you die alone in loneliness.”
“What kind of ominous thing is that to say? We should be doing everything we can to survive together.”
Kim Jae-hui had spouted nonsense several times, but so far, she had helped me with an active attitude so I could dive properly. I hadn’t expected her to put a hole in my regulator or air tank, but since she was a believer of the Infinite Church, I’d thought she would try to stop me from escaping. It was unexpected.
With the water rising higher and higher, only Shin Haeryang moved around, checking Kim Jae-hui’s, my, and Riko’s equipment again. I sat still in my seat. Wearing thirty kilograms of equipment while cold seawater struck me from every side made it feel as if my stamina was being shaved away and my mind was slipping even when I did nothing. What kind of people enjoyed this as a sport? I was never going scuba diving again.
I was looking around at the people nearby in a daze when Kim Jae-hui stretched out both hands and covered my mask with her palms. I couldn’t see a thing, but then Diver 4’s vital signs appeared over the mask, startling me. Pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, body temperature. Was this mine? A few seconds later, Diver 3’s vital signs appeared. Kim Jae-hui took her palms off the mask again and said,
“If you’re curious about anything, ask anytime.”
“Diver 4’s vital signs just appeared on my mask.”
“They’re mine. Buddies can check each other’s. Team Leader Shin probably has all four of our conditions up on his screen. Team Leader Shin is Diver 1, Riko is Diver 2, the Savior is Diver 3, and I’m the last one, 4.”
“So Riko and I are in the middle numbers? I thought I’d be the last number since I’m a beginner.”
“Beginners have to move in the middle of the group of divers. It’s better for the experienced divers to go at the very front or the very back, adjusting the speed and checking everyone’s condition. I’ll always be within three meters of you, Savior, so don’t feel anxious.”
I let out a sigh of relief and asked,
“It’s uncomfortable breathing through this mask that covers my whole face. Is that normal?”
“It’s normal.”
“I already feel so exhausted I might pass out.”
“That’s normal.”
“We can make it safely to the surface, right?”
“Well.”
Only to that last question did she not answer, “That’s normal.” Was it really all right that Kim Jae-hui was my buddy? I observed the buddies on the other team. But Riko’s situation was even worse.
“Maybe it’s because I’m drunk, or maybe it’s because of the mental shock, but I don’t feel anything.”
“Do you feel sick or anything?”
Riko answered Shin Haeryang’s question a few seconds later.
“I want to vomit up my soul.”
“If you really feel like you’re going to throw up, tell me right away.”
Was it okay to dive with these people? Around the time I was so tired I was losing the will to speak, Shin Haeryang turned around, checked the devices connected around Kim Jae-hui’s waist and mine, said they would come loose if pulled, then looked forward again. The diving equipment was made so it wouldn’t easily come off the wearer’s body, but it was strange that if you meant to, almost all of it could be removed with one hand.
The water rose past my chest and up to my head, where I was wearing the mask. Breathing while completely submerged sent a thrill down my spine and gave me a strange sense of excitement. If I had been submerged this deep without any equipment, I would already be dead. Yet in a place surrounded entirely by water, I was breathing just fine through a full-face mask. I felt like I had become a fish. ……Of course, only by wearing about thirty kilograms of equipment could I even imitate one.
I didn’t know how they had heated the seawater, but as time passed, the water grew warmer. Just the fact that my body was warm dulled the fear of drowning a little. It felt as if I were safely submerged in lukewarm water at a bathhouse. Until a moment ago, it had been so cold that my whole body had tensed and hardened like stone, but as it warmed up, the tension and anxiety gradually disappeared. I took a deep breath, exhaled, and said,
“The water’s gotten warm.”
My voice must have sounded a little better than before. Kim Jae-hui laughed briefly and said,
“The sea surface here is much warmer than in Korea. In Korea, it’s around 15 to 20 degrees.”
“Is 15 degrees very cold?”
“Think of it as entering a cold bath.”
Shin Haeryang answered in Kim Jae-hui’s place. I couldn’t even bring myself to enter the cold bath when I went to a bathhouse. To move Apep, Shin Haeryang pressed a long button connected to his wrist by a strap. Then the vessel, which had been sitting in a passage like the long body of a snake, began to move upward in reverse.
A roller coaster at least had parts where it went down, but this Apep system only had the uphill part of a roller coaster. We were riding a vessel and crawling up through something like a snake’s intestines. My body tilted backward on its own, and as time went by, I felt intense dizziness. I focused on breathing, trying not to stop. When I came to my senses, “-40m” was written on the wall.
“Keep breathing. Don’t stop.”
Listening to Kim Jae-hui’s radio transmission, I slowly inhaled and slowly exhaled without holding my breath. Everything around me was submerged in water, and I still couldn’t believe I was able to breathe.
Shin Haeryang kept asking everyone whether they were all right, whether their chests felt tight, and so on. At some point, the equipment no longer felt heavy at all. The thirty kilograms hadn’t gone anywhere, so it must still have been pressing down on my body. But because of buoyancy, it didn’t feel particularly heavy. The water merely entered my wetsuit from time to time, tickled my body, and flowed out again. Aside from the urge to take off the mask because it felt stifling, I was fine. My butt had floated slightly off the chair, but the seat belt was holding me in place.
“You said we’re taking this Apep to a depth of 10 meters, right?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“What do we do if a shark appears when we get out of this machine?”
They had said the good thing about Apep was that it allowed us to avoid water temperature and currents, but being able to avoid marine life and go where we wanted seemed like a huge advantage too. Would Kim Jae-hui tell me, like Seo Jihyeok, to punch the shark? Or would she tell me, like Gang Sujeong, to use a shark repellent? Kim Jae-hui pointed at the people in front of us with her gloved hand and replied,
“We can throw Riko or the team leader to it and take shelter inside Apep. We’ll run away once it’s eaten one of them and gotten full.”
I was so dumbfounded that all I could do was let out a hollow laugh. Was she seriously offering that as a solution? Riko, who had heard Kim Jae-hui’s voice over the radio, turned her head slightly back and said,
“I can hear everything. If you spout nonsense, I’m going to throw up in your direction.”
“What would you do if a shark appeared, Riko?”
“I don’t taste good, so I’m going to ask it to take the terrorists instead.”
“What about you, Haeryang?”
“……I’ll wait quietly. Sharks may be apex predators in the sea, but there’s almost no chance they’ll attack us first. Sharks are smart. They’ll be wary of us and move away.”
Right. Why would a shark go out of its way to attack me? It would probably eat a squid or a ray that suited its tastes.
When Shin Haeryang pressed the button again, we rose to -30m. The feeling that we were swimming upstream through the belly of a giant snake became intensely vivid, and because the water was warm, it felt even more that way. Shin Haeryang checked the divers’ conditions once more. Touching the receiver pressing against my ear and the cap, I said,
“My ears feel a little blocked.”
“Swallow. Even if you don’t have saliva, make the motion of swallowing.”
Following Kim Jae-hui’s advice, I tried to swallow, and my ears moved automatically with a crackling sound. I didn’t think people with bad ears or noses should scuba dive. Someone with a cold would be in serious trouble if they went diving. Shin Haeryang asked several questions, encouraging conversation among the team members. Then he looked at me and warned,
“Since you mentioned sharks, it reminded me. Do not take off your wetsuit, gloves, or mask carelessly, and do not touch marine life swimming outside with your bare skin.”
“Has there been someone who did that?”
Were there really people who went out of their way to do things they were told not to? Over the radio, I heard what sounded like Shin Haeryang sighing.
“There was someone who was stung by a jellyfish and passed out.”
“I heard several people get carried into the emergency room every year. Box jellyfish appear here in spring, don’t they?”
After Riko’s transmission, Kim Jae-hui asked Shin Haeryang,
“Didn’t Aeyeong pass out before?”
“Aeyeong didn’t pass out. Someone who passed out wouldn’t be able to curse out a jellyfish that much in the emergency room. ……One of the employees who dived with us apparently wanted to touch a jellyfish. He said he thought that if he touched a jellyfish for real, it would feel squishy, so he touched it with his hand. According to Aeyeong, who saw it from beside him, that jellyfish extended its tentacles with perfect accuracy toward the person who touched it and stabbed poison into him. Aeyeong grabbed the unconscious man’s arm and was pulling back when she was stung by a jellyfish behind her.”
From the sound of it, the sea was far too dangerous. I would just live while occasionally dipping my feet at the beach. I wouldn’t come this deep into the ocean again.
“How much does it hurt if you get stung by a jellyfish?”
The terrified beginner diver asked the question. Surely it didn’t hurt more than a shark? Hearing my question, Shin Haeryang thought for a moment before answering.
“It would depend on the species. According to Aeyeong, it felt like being stabbed 3,000 times at once with wool-felting needles…… I don’t particularly want to know. Fortunately, Jihyeok and Jihyeon quickly got the two of them out of the area with jellyfish and took them to a hospital.”
With those words, Shin Haeryang pressed the button. The vessel slowly moved again, and in an instant, we rose to -20m.