There were a few injured people on the beach and some who had swum from the escape pods, but none approached the pier filled with fire and smoke. We boarded in such a rush that it was as if we had clambered on before the boat even properly reached the pier, and our departure likewise happened before the passengers could get their bottoms on the floor. The boat’s engine wailed with a bizarre sound.
Seo Jihyeok remained vigilant of his surroundings without a moment’s rest, even while talking with Sin Haeryang. He seemed to think that someone might open fire on the boat at any moment. The same was true for Baek Ayeong and Sin Haeryang. Until the boat had gotten far enough from the pier located at the end of the beach, the three kept watch on both the shore and the sea. The effective range of the guns must have been considerable, for they remained tense for quite a long time.
Having been told to keep my body crouched as much as possible, I did as ordered, and motion sickness approached as if it had been waiting. I understood why the others were vomiting. The seawater surged and the boat surged along with it, and the poor passengers cradled atop it shook along as well.
I was beginning to wonder whether boats always ran like this under normal operation, or if this one was unusually good at tossing its passengers around. Gang Sujeong, her face pale white, was driving the boat as Baek Ayeong’s puppet. Impressive. If I were told to drive in this situation, I don’t think I could possibly do it.
I felt like I would vomit the moment I opened my mouth. Perhaps that was why the passengers weren’t talking at all. In this situation, Seo Jihyeok was the only one saying anything. “Don’t you get seasick?”
“Is there anyone who fell into the water or didn’t board?”
No one opened their mouths to answer. Seo Jihyeok looked at us with a satisfied expression and spoke.
“Looks like everyone’s aboard. Hold on tight on your own. If you fall into the sea, we’ll leave you behind.”
Riko, who had been listening to Henry vomit, couldn’t stand it any longer and grabbed the edge of the boat, thrusting her head out toward the sea. The people who had been holding it in well also caught the sound and smell of vomiting and, in turn, stuck their heads outside the boat to vomit. Yu Geumi’s face was white as a sheet. It seemed her soul had already drifted far away from the boat. The same seemed true for the person named I Seeun, who had been driving the boat until just now.
As time passed, Gim Gayeong, Jeong Sanghyeon, and Gim Jaehui began turning similarly blue. Gim Jaehui had stuck her upper body outside the boat, and as the boat lurched, she nearly fell out. Tumanako, me, and Sin Haeryang—the three of us nearby—grabbed Gim Jaehui by the hair, arms, and legs respectively, barely keeping her from falling into the sea. Gim Jaehui spoke with an expression that said she was about to vomit.
“I’m dying.”
I patted the back of Gim Jaehui, who had urgently thrust her head outside the boat. I spoke while enduring the up-and-down shaking before my eyes.
“Close your eyes. It’ll be a little more comfortable at least.”
After vomiting about three times, Henry had no strength left and slumped limply. I Jihyeon, positioned closest to him, wiped Henry’s chin and closed his eyes. Those who had vomited more than once stared out at the open sea in a near-catatonic state. Or else they closed their eyes.
Most hadn’t eaten, so they were spitting stomach acid or dry-heaving. The ones in relatively decent condition were Tumanako, I Jihyeon, Seo Jihyeok, Baek Ayeong, Sin Haeryang, and Gang Sujeong, more or less. Looking at Gang Sujeong’s expression, she seemed to be holding on by sheer force of will.
I was starting to worry about the cat in my backpack. If people looked like this, what about the animal? I asked Yu Geumi, who was sitting some distance away.
“Geumi. Do cats get seasick?”
Yu Geumi didn’t retort, asking what nonsense that was. Without realizing it, she started to nod, but that small action made her suffer from severe motion sickness, and she shouted toward me,
“Yes! Cats get seasick! Even fish get seasick!”
“What an absurd thing to exist in this world!”
Humans might be turning their backs on the sea and leaving, but fish lived inside the sea—were they saying even they got seasick? How truly unfair. They don’t even have ears! ...No, come to think of it, fish have ears too, so I suppose they do get seasick.
Even if the cat got seasick inside the backpack, there was nothing I could do. If I took it out now, it might get excited and thrash around and fall into the sea. ...If you vomit, I’ll clean you up. Hold it in.
The boat moved away from the vicinity of the beach and headed toward where the escape pods were gathered. I was worried, but there was nothing I could do except offer moral support. Sin Haeryang, who had hastily put on a life jacket, had been throwing overboard many of the items installed on the boat since boarding. Judging by his actions, he looked ready to throw overboard any passenger in bad shape, too.
The moment I thought that, I felt my stomach ache with tension. Memories of riding the elevator and of boarding the submarine surfaced simultaneously. How many passengers was this boat rated for? How much load could this boat withstand? Anxiety crept up my spine.
The boat was passing over the sea where escape pods floated. Under Baek Ayeong’s directions, the boat moved increasingly steadily. I couldn’t tell whether Gang Sujeong was driving the boat with genius skill or whether this person named I Seeun had been driving it very poorly. Here and there, people in single-person escape pods could be seen waving their hands and calling for the boat to pick them up. People were also seen waving their arms to signal not to approach.
The boat driven by Gang Sujeong didn’t crash into the escape pods, but it didn’t stop either. The wind blew fiercely. I had thought seawater wouldn’t come onto the boat at all, but each time they cut through the waves, handfuls of seawater entered the boat. Despite not having been exposed to the sea wind for long, people were already growing exhausted.
It was then. A scuba diver suddenly surfaced a few meters ahead of the boat. Startled, rather than Gang Sujeong, Baek Ayeong turned the steering wheel with her whole body, barely passing the scuba diver without hitting them. Instead, according to Newton’s laws of motion, everyone’s bodies were thrown to one corner of the boat. Screams echoed. I hugged the backpack containing the cat tight so it wouldn’t be crushed between people. Unlike the people sprawled and crouched in the boat, Seo Jihyeok, who had been sitting at the very edge, failed to react to the sudden situation and fell straight into the seawater. Splash!
“Jihyeok!”
It felt like my heart stopped. Before my brain could even process what I had seen, Sin Haeryang shouted.
“A person fell overboard! Turn the boat!”
At Sin Haeryang’s voice, Baek Ayeong turned the boat as if she had already expected it. She seemed to think that some unlucky people had fallen into the sea because of what just happened. Gang Sujeong, gripping the steering wheel, asked the people,
“Who fell?”
“One person! Seo Jihyeok!”
To think a person could vanish from the boat in an instant. If Sin Haeryang or I hadn’t seen it, wouldn’t we have left without knowing someone had fallen? At Sin Haeryang’s shout, Baek Ayeong cried out in an annoyed voice,
“Ah! We were about to leave him behind!”
Seo Jihyeok saw the boat slowing down and turning back toward him. Then he swam in a direction convenient for boarding the boat. And with Sin Haeryang and Gang Sujeong’s support, he climbed back aboard. Amidst the people colliding like bowling pins and groaning that they were dying, Riko—who had been sprawled like a corpse—sprang up and screamed,
“Maeji!”
Sin Haeryang and Gang Sujeong were in the process of pulling up the diver who had nearly been hit by the boat with sheer strength. The diver submerged in seawater was yanked up as if by the force of the two people’s arms and boarded the boat. The gear weighed a ton, yet they lifted it so easily.
I hadn’t known who it was because the person’s face was hidden by the diving helmet, but Riko seemed to recognize the helmeted person at once. Maeji, who removed the diving helmet, looked around at the people on the boat, then at Riko, and her eyes widened.
“Where on earth did you go all day! Do you know how worried I was when you and Lincoln both disappeared? The terrorists asked where you went—I was terrified!”
“How. How are you alive? No. How? Are you hurt? No. I don’t know. Come here.”
Riko stared at Maeji quietly before tears burst forth. Then she hugged Maeji and cried. I, too, was tearing up watching that, when small talk was heard from the side. Baek Ayeong was speaking to Seo Jihyeok.
“You fell into the sea because you couldn’t hold on with arm strength?”
“I made up for it by coming up from underwater with leg strength. Do you carry bricks in your bag? What are you carrying?”
“We turned the boat around to pick that up. Keep it strapped to your back. It’s your lifeline.”
“What’s inside?”
“Gold.”
“.....Jihyeon. Take this bag for a bit. If you hold onto this, you’ll definitely be safe.”
I Jihyeon accepted the bag Seo Jihyeok handed over and asked with a dubious expression,
“What’s inside?”
“Ayeong said she’ll save you first if you have it.”
“Ayeong. Is this your bag?”
“Yes. Something very important is inside.”
“Okay. Got it.”
I Jihyeon hugged both Henry and the bag with both arms. Then she sat in the boat with the look of someone who would never return it even if Poseidon threatened her. Sin Haeryang reassigned seats to the people; he said if too many people sat crowded on one side, the boat would flip easily. He seemed to be arranging seats based on people’s weights.
Looking at it now, the boat was truly small. Moreover, that small boat was packed full of people. As Sin Haeryang passed by, I quietly asked,
“How many people can this boat hold?”
Sin Haeryang looked around and answered me in a very low voice,
“.....It was originally a twelve-passenger boat.”
There were fifteen people on the boat now; would it be okay? I suddenly remembered what Emma had said before we parted. It must have been hard enough for just you guys to go. It seemed Emma had already guessed the current situation.
I didn’t ask if it was really okay to board like this. Sin Haeryang didn’t say anything more either. Even if it wasn’t okay, we couldn’t tell anyone to get off here. We had to go like this. I wondered if Shuran and Summer, who had gone out on the submarine, were alright, but no matter how far we went, only the escape pods were visible, not the submarine. If the submarine wasn’t visible, did that mean it was okay? I wanted to ask someone but held back, afraid the answer would be no.
After that, Sin Haeryang made a satellite phone call once they had gotten sufficiently far from Daehan Island. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but he seemed to be speaking quite seriously.
As the boat headed for the open sea, the size of Daehan Island gradually decreased. At first it was the size of a palm, then it shrank to the size of a fingernail. And then it disappeared entirely. All that could be seen from the boat was the endless sea. Seawater kept coming into the boat, and the sea wind tangled everyone’s hair completely. We had safely escaped Daehan Island.