Shin Haeryang, who had been looking at the undersea base’s blueprints on his tablet, said,
“There are escape craft at the Third Undersea Base as well, but judging by how things are going now, it would be better to take an elevator. Most of the personnel stationed at the Third Undersea Base have probably escaped by escape craft. There are three elevators connected to the Second Undersea Base, so let’s find one that’s intact and go up as far as we can. The elevator closest to the Blue Dragon elevator we took is Archelon, located to the left after exiting the elevator.”
Archelon? What an unusual name. Is there anywhere in this undersea base they haven’t named?
“I guess every elevator has its own name.”
“...There was a huge turtle painted inside the elevator, so I suppose it must be the name of a turtle. We’ll aim for that one first, and if we can’t board it, we’ll head to the second, then the first elevator. There are escape craft nearby, so there—”
“The phone!”
Yu Geum shouted right beside my face. Both Shin Haeryang and I jumped.
“The phones don’t work.”
At my words, Yu Geum shook her head and spoke quickly.
“No, no. The landline in the bakery! There’s a phone connected to the outside! I saw the operations team on the first floor call and ask if all the bread had sold out! They said they tried to install landlines throughout the undersea base before, but laying cables two thousand meters underwater ran into budget problems and the contractor went bankrupt, so only that one phone line in the bakery was left. That place wasn’t originally supposed to be a bakery! The administrative office team in charge of managing the entire undersea base was supposed to move in there, but the scale got bigger than expected, so they took over one of the wards on the island and are using that instead!”
“Who did you hear that from?”
Huff, huff, huff, huff. Yu Geum caught her breath and said,
“Mr. Olivier Martin from the bakery. You know, the short man from France who makes good croissants! (Shin Haeryang looked baffled here.) The man who can’t make macarons or fruit cakes, but makes really good fermented bread!”
Seo Jihyeok seemed to understand what Yu Geum meant and asked from where he lay,
“Ah, that man with the mustache, the gray hairs, and the wine obsession?”
“That’s him!”
“Ah, I got to try some French wine through him. He was raising hell with the operations team, asking why they wouldn’t let him sell wine in the undersea base.”
Listening to Yu Geum and Seo Jihyeok’s conversation, Shin Haeryang suddenly looked tired and rubbed the corner of his eye with his fingertips before nodding.
“Let’s prioritize escape over requesting rescue. If the people who escaped by escape craft got out properly, a rescue request should have been sent automatically. And to get to the bakery, we’d have to pass near the central elevator. I’d rather avoid going that way as much as possible.”
“The American team leader we saw earlier and Kim Gayoung said they were taking the central elevator too.”
“I’d like us to avoid contact with other people as much as possible, and for Daehan to move up to Level 0 as well.”
At Shin Haeryang’s words, I found myself looking toward where Ha Iyun was, then nodded. Shin Haeryang knelt and grabbed Seo Jihyeok by the arm and shoulder. I immediately took Seo Jihyeok’s other arm and helped lift him. Seo Jihyeok pushed strength into his right leg and stood. Standing on his right leg, he grabbed the handrail inside the elevator and held back a groan as he balanced on one foot.
Yu Geum took one of my bags and went into the corner. She covered the cat, who was in a posture that made it impossible to tell whether it was sitting or lying down, with the bag and trapped it again. I slung the snake bag over my shoulder. Maybe because it had drunk water, the bag was much lighter than before. Baek Aeyeong had gotten to her feet at some point and, as if nothing had happened, looked at us and said,
“We arrive in five seconds. Five! Four! Three! Two! One!”
With a ding, the doors opened. Shin Haeryang, who had been standing beside the door, did something toward the outside, and then Baek Aeyeong went out. When we heard them tell us to come out, Yu Geum and I supported Seo Jihyeok. Not long after we left the elevator, I asked Seo Jihyeok to lean against the wall and stand there for just a moment, then went straight back into the elevator. Because the doors had been open for so long, they hadn’t closed. Seeing me go back inside, Yu Geum was horrified. Did you leave something behind?!
“Ha Iyun.”
I was about to grab Ha Iyun by the shoulders, but if the towel slipped off, I felt like I would see the face straight on, so I grabbed both ankles and dragged the body out. Seo Jihyeok looked like he had a great deal to say about what I was doing, but he leaned against the wall on one foot and said nothing.
Yu Geum ran over, slung the cat bag onto her back, and grabbed Ha Iyun’s two arms, which had fallen open as if in a cheer. She flinched at the coldness, then gripped Ha Iyun’s wrists tightly and helped me drag the body out of the elevator. We laid it out straight right beside the elevator and set the disordered arms properly. When we returned to Seo Jihyeok, Shin Haeryang and Baek Aeyeong, who had gone ahead, were already coming back. To the two of them looking at me, I said,
“I felt like if I left Ha Iyun here, they wouldn’t show up in my dreams.”
What if we left the body in the elevator and then the elevator dropped straight down? Seeing what I had done, the two of them said nothing. There was no rebuke about what I thought I was doing when time was short. They simply nodded, and Shin Haeryang said he had checked as far as the convenience store and found no one, then supported Seo Jihyeok. I also took Seo Jihyeok’s other arm and supported him. After walking about two meters, Shin Haeryang said to me,
“I think it would be faster if I carried him on my back.”
“It seems like you’ve already been carrying Mr. Seo Jihyeok for a long time. Wouldn’t it be better if I carried him?”
“Well... I’m grateful neither of you is saying you’ll abandon me, but if the luggage may offer an opinion, I don’t want Team Leader Shin to carry me. The dentist’s back looks more comfortable.”
“You’re getting picky.”
When Shin Haeryang sneered lightly, Seo Jihyeok chuckled. For some reason, his laughter made me feel relieved. It was much better than listening to a medley of curses. Seo Jihyeok grimaced and said,
“My stomach’s empty, though. I’d have no other wish if I could just cook up one packet of ramyeon.”
Looping Seo Jihyeok’s arm over my shoulder, I answered,
“Ah, me too. I’ve been thinking that ever since I went into the seawater and came back out. ...There’s cup ramyeon in my room that Sujeong gave me!”
Ugh... Supporting Seo Jihyeok, who was talking about that spicy, hot broth, was awkward because the injured part was his knee. His knee had been practically wrapped up in layers of clothing, and it was so soaked with blood that the original color was no longer visible. When the three of us reached the convenience store, Baek Aeyeong and Yu Geum were already rummaging through it.
Baek Aeyeong and Yu Geum tore up several blankets with scissors and their hands to make long strips. Shin Haeryang used scissors to cut away the unnecessary parts of the clothing wrapped around Seo Jihyeok’s knee. Looking at the pieces he cut off, it seemed like a woman’s cardigan had been wound around it. Buttons clattered down.
When I asked if we shouldn’t remove all the clothing from the knee, Shin Haeryang shook his head. He said that could make the bleeding worse. Looking closely, there were several places where the clothing fibers were stuck to skin that was bright red. When I brought over several sanitary pads I had torn open, Shin Haeryang carefully pressed them to the knee, then began wrapping a towel and the long, torn strips of blanket around it.
The only medicine in the convenience store consisted of a few kinds of painkillers, combination cold medicine, cooling patches, disinfectant, and finger bandages. There were no bandages or gauze at all. What were you supposed to do if you got hurt here? ...Ah, you’d just go straight to the hospital. The hospital was on the first floor here, and treatment was free. The fact that the convenience store had even these supplies was something to be thankful for.
I couldn’t see anything to use as a splint, so I looked around and ended up shaking the dust off two umbrellas that had accumulated a whole handful of it, perhaps because they didn’t sell well, and decided to use them as splints. Do people here not use umbrellas when it rains? I quickly brushed off the dust with both hands and shook them out. Each time Baek Aeyeong placed the umbrellas against his leg and tied the area around his thigh several times with strips of blanket that had become rag-like, groans burst from Seo Jihyeok’s mouth.
“Stop exaggerating.”
“You try getting shot.”
“Going around getting hit by stray bullets. Good grief. How embarrassing. If it looked like your opponent was going to shoot you in the knee, you should’ve known to lift your leg up!”
At those words, Seo Jihyeok covered his mouth and trembled. Apparently, laughing hurt. I just burst out laughing, and Yu Geum, who was holding water and several convenience store buns, giggled too. Shin Haeryang, who had been searching through the drinks section, looked at us once, perhaps because of the sudden laughter, then took out several ion drinks. After struggling for a while not to laugh, Seo Jihyeok complained bitterly.
“Laughing makes my whole body hurt.”
Yu Geum opened the packaged buns displayed in the convenience store one by one and handed them to people. Shin Haeryang took the bun she was about to hand to Seo Jihyeok and shook his head.
“Jihyeok is fasting now, except for water.”
Even if the world were ending, I didn’t think Seo Jihyeok would make a face like that. I backed Shin Haeryang up.
“You need surgery. It can’t be helped.”
When I gathered up cooling patches and painkillers by the handful, Yu Geum asked why I was taking the cooling patches.
“Do you have a fever?”
“No. I’m taking them because of Mr. Seo Jihyeok.”
“Why?”
“Because it looks like he was shot in the kneecap.”
“You get a fever when a bone breaks?”
“Yes.”
Apparently, the marine creatures Yu Geum studied didn’t get fevers when their bones broke. Or maybe she had just never broken a bone before. Shin Haeryang urged us to move immediately. With a splint on his leg, supporting Seo Jihyeok was much easier than before. Shin Haeryang and I moved while practically carrying Seo Jihyeok between us.
Following Baek Aeyeong’s instructions at the front, we passed by the Third Undersea Base’s sandwich shop and café. It was a good arrangement. If it were me, it was the sort of route where I’d buy a sandwich and then buy a drink from the café next door. One of the elevators in the Third Undersea Base came into view. Baek Aeyeong gave a hand signal. It was the signal to stop. I definitely knew the signals for get down and stop now.
When we stopped near the café, Baek Aeyeong pulled a flathead screwdriver from the gap between the ankle of her suit and her shoe. She must have taken it from the convenience store. Ha ha ha. Good heavens. When had she picked that up? Baek Aeyeong checked around the elevator and came back.
“The elevator is stopped at the Second Undersea Base. Should I call it? Or should we go somewhere else?”
If we pressed the button and called the elevator, we would have to wait more than three minutes for it to arrive. When I said that since we had an injured person, it might be better to take this elevator and move, Shin Haeryang listened to my opinion, glanced at Seo Jihyeok’s leg, thought for a moment, then looked at me and Yu Geum and, after three seconds, suggested we take this one. That’s too honest, isn’t it? ...It seemed that, in Shin Haeryang’s mind, rather than Seo Jihyeok, who couldn’t move on his own because of his injured knee, the presence of Yu Geum and me was what made movement more difficult.