Baek Aeyoung shouted at the top of her lungs for everyone to get down. Some followed her words exactly, but about half wanted to use this shootout as an opportunity to escape from the auditorium. However, since ninety percent of the hostages were bound, there was almost nothing they could do besides squirm. Occasionally there were oddballs who rolled away like canned drinks while lying down, or who got up with acrobatic skill and hopped away while still tied up, but most had to remain lying down exactly as they had been before the shootout began, even after it had ended.
The group of hostages who couldn't budge an inch was less agitated. Even if they were shocked by terrorists collapsing and gushing blood after being shot, or screamed after being hit by stray bullets, they couldn't move.
The side with the unbound hostages was more of a mess. One out of the ten who had regained their freedom aimed the gun taken from Joseph at Baek Aeyoung. I had no idea whose knife had been used to cut the ropes and cable ties binding their wrists and ankles. The man who had snatched the gun seemed to have mistaken Baek Aeyoung for a Muhan Church cultist based on her clothing. The person who had first received a knife from Baek Aeyoung and freed themselves lunged at the man holding the gun.
Bang!
The gun fired into the air but missed Baek Aeyoung by a hair's breadth and went wide. Watching that scene from afar, I felt like every hair on my body was standing on end. The man holding the gun and the one who had lunged at him began fighting each other.
“You bastard! You're a terrorist too!”
“Drop the gun! Don't shoot anyone! She helped us!”
“Stop spouting nonsense! You're on their side! Get lost yourself! This is mine!”
“Stop shooting!”
Four of the unbound hostages wrestled with each other to take Joseph's gun. Some people, the moment they were free, trampled over the hostages lying on the floor and ran blindly toward the auditorium exit to save themselves; others struggled to untie fellow hostages using Baek Aeyoung's knife; and others still had been screaming nonstop since the shootout began, startled by the gunfire. A man squirmed in front of me and blocked my path, saying:
“Hey! Untie me here! Hurry!”
I shouted back at the man haphazardly.
“Please wait a moment!”
“Where are you going! Untie me!”
“Save me!”
“Someone's hurt! Please help!”
Many people shouted at me to untie their arms and legs. However, as planned in advance with Baek Aeyoung, I secured the weapons first. Contrary to my opinion that we should free as many hostages as possible to gain the upper hand in subduing the terrorists, Baek Aeyoung had insisted that we should keep everyone bound until we could control the situation. She had said that if around a hundred hostages were tied up, even though just about ten of them acting on their own would be enough to overwhelm the terrorists, it would be our side that got a headache trying to clean up that chaos later.
At the time, I hadn't truly understood what she meant, but experiencing this situation firsthand, Baek Aeyoung's claim was absolutely right. In a cramped place like an elevator, whether there were twelve people or five, opinions had never once unified—so how could two people control over a hundred? Furthermore, there were bound to be people hiding among the tied-up hostages who believed in the Muhan Church.
Due to the initial shootout, the Muhan Church cultists were dead at a slight distance from the hostages, shot by Baek Aeyoung. I stripped the guns from their blood-soaked bodies and collected the magazines and knives that served as their secondary weapons. Because I was gathering them with one hand, my mind was frantic with urgency, but my body was sluggish. Moreover, the knife I had picked up this time had a blade that curved in a rounded shape, unlike the other knives. Slinging the gun over my shoulder, I quickly ran toward another cultist.
The second cultist I approached was Rick. Fortunately, he was still alive. He was coughing up bloody foam and clutching his chest with both hands, yet he seemed to be looking at me with reproachful eyes. Clenching my teeth, I first snatched the blood-soaked gun from Rick. Then I slung that gun over my shoulder. I fumbled around with my right hand, searching his body, but no other weapon came out. Gripping the curved knife, I pointed to the hostage nearest to Rick, who had been drenched head-to-toe in blood. The man seemed to have misunderstood something, because when I approached him with the knife, he flinched and thrashed in terror.
“Save me! Save me! Don't kill me!”
“I'm going to untie your wrists. Please stay still!”
I cut the binding on his wrists with the knife and instructed him to press both hands down on Rick's chest. Although the man's wrists were free, he was too frightened to do anything and simply sat quietly, listening to Rick's chest gush blood and his pained groans. One of the hostages who had been watching my actions quietly shouted at me:
“Hey there! Untie me! I'll stop the bleeding! I can do it!”
There was no time to hesitate. I immediately ran over and sawed through the rope on his wrists with the curved knife using only my right hand. Since it would be a waste of time to untie the bindings on his legs, I practically dragged him over, and he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. Then he stuffed his fingers, wrapped in the handkerchief, into Rick's bleeding chest as if plugging a hole. Rick's eyes rolled back from the pain and he fainted; I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.
“Untie me too!”
“Me too! Me too!”
“I can help too! Untie me too!”
“There's an injured person here!”
Ignoring the surrounding clamor, I looked around and saw Baek Aeyoung running about busily in every direction, collecting the terrorists' weapons. She already had four guns slung on her back. Unlike the terrorist who had been shot through the lungs, a woman who had collapsed after being shot in the shoulder was groaning in pain and saying something to Baek Aeyoung—the gist of which was, couldn't she have aimed better so that only the guy behind her got hit. She was also pouring out curses and complaints that she was going to die from the pain. Baek Aeyoung muttered that the woman wanted too much, spouting things like she should have shot five centimeters lower and sent them both off, then snatched a scarf from around another hostage's neck. After untying one hostage, she instructed the person to press down hard on the fallen woman's shoulder with the scarf.
Baek Aeyoung approached those who were rolling on the floor and fighting. Before she could fairly put a bullet in each of their skulls, she confiscated the gun with a single command to hand it over. Having recovered five rifles, Baek Aeyoung checked the two rifles on my back and turned her head in another direction. That was when it happened. Among the bound hostages, a man with short hair raised his upper body. Time seemed to move twice as slowly. My heart felt like it was beating three times as fast, yet no sound reached my ears. The groans of pain, the pleas to be untied or saved—all of it vanished, and I saw only the man rising.
How did he get up? All the hostages in that area had their wrists and ankles tied behind their backs. Why were that man's wrists free? Before my mind could supply an answer, the man reached with his free hand for the pistol tucked into his waistband. Reflexively, I lowered the rifle from my back. And as Baek Aeyoung had taught me, I supported the underside of the gun with the back of my left hand to disperse the weight. I don't even remember how I fired the gun. I only have the memory of pulling the trigger before the man's muzzle could turn toward Baek Aeyoung.
The moment the recoil of the rifle shaking my shoulder made me realize I had fired, the man gripping the pistol was hit in the back and fell forward. I tried my hardest not to think about what organs were located in that spot. Everyone who had been standing or sitting awkwardly threw themselves to the floor. Only after hearing people's screams did time return to its normal speed. Hearing the gunshot, Baek Aeyoung turned this way. She seemed to guess what had happened, ran over, and confiscated the pistol first. Then Baek Aeyoung shouted at the hostages:
“Check if anyone's been shot or injured! If someone tries anything suspicious, tell me immediately! Terrorists are hiding among the hostages!”
There were hostages crying and screaming to be untied irrationally, but the majority, hearing Baek Aeyoung's command, calmly checked their surroundings for injured or wounded people. Even those trying to flee stopped in their tracks and looked at those around them. The instinct to survive overpowered the impulse to burst out of the auditorium, making them act as a group. As a result, they were able to confirm the number of people who had been shot and fainted during the initial shootout, or who were injured but had gone unnoticed.
I walked toward the man I had shot with the gun. The closer I got, the more my legs seemed to give way. Someone from afar had flipped the man over, and the moment I saw his face, I felt like I had seen him somewhere. Was he someone I knew? I didn't think he was someone who had visited Deep Blue during those five days. ...Where had I seen him?
The black gemstone bracelet the man was wearing caught my eye. The moment I saw its luster, I recalled the memory of him half-kneeling and fastening the bracelet on my arm. Ah. Back then, this man had offered me a gem, asking me to grant him a wish.
“Aeyoung! I know how to identify the Muhan Church cultists among the hostages!”
I went among the hostages, observing the people, and then supported a woman wearing a ring set with a large blue stone and pulled her out from the crowd of hostages. I had thought the cultists would resist if caught, but unexpectedly, they lay face down quietly in the designated spot. Those who had come personally to put jewels on me were easy to find. Perhaps because I had met them in such a desperate situation, they remained longer in my mind. I had been so desperate for even one of the cultists offering gems to help me, so their faces had stayed in my memory more than the gems themselves.
I was able to pick out five Muhan Church cultists and seven others whose affiliation with the Muhan Church was uncertain from among the hundred-plus hostages. All the people I judged to be ambiguous were wearing wedding rings, earrings, or necklaces. Because I couldn't simply untie them blindly and risk having them attack the hostages, I couldn't free them.
Baek Aeyoung instructed that everyone except the twelve I had selected be untied. Then she ordered those who were physically unharmed to help or support the injured, and separately picked out people who could use guns. She distributed the five rifles she had and the two I had, arming them. Baek Aeyoung looked at the twelve people still bound and struggling, letting out deep sighs.
“If only our team leader were here.”
I know, right. How does Sin Haeryang pick out when someone is lying to him so easily? Most of the bound people were shouting that they were being mistaken for terrorists and that it was humiliating, demanding to be untied immediately. They were saying they weren't terrorists, how could we tie them up like this, and that they would file a massive lawsuit later.