Strictly speaking, Yugeum and I were nothing more than people Shin Haeryang had only recently met. It was as if I could hear Carlos’s voice at my ear. “So he’s taking care of his own first, huh.”
······After we saved Kim Gayoung, I thought of us as a team. The people who couldn’t board the escape craft at Baekho-dong in the Fourth Undersea Base saved others without expecting anything in return, carried a sleeping child on their backs, hid people from bullets during a shooting, shared the food they’d brought, helped others escape first, supported the injured without asking for any reason—an improvised team formed for the sake of escape, but one in which everyone was trying, little by little, not to lose their humanity. Was I the only one who thought that?
I remembered what Baek Aeyoung had said at the café. “I don’t want to worry Team Leader Shin. He’s a tenderhearted person.” Even now, I still couldn’t tell whether Shin Haeryang was tenderhearted or not. But Yugeum and I definitely were. ······If Baek Aeyoung’s words were true, then Shin Haeryang must be the same. And maybe Baek Aeyoung was too. Seo Jihyeok as well.
My heart wasn’t strong enough to avoid being shocked just by seeing someone I’d been with commit violence against another person. Maybe it was because I’d never actually seen anyone go through life beating people up. I wasn’t someone accustomed to violence.
I didn’t want to see someone I’d thought was a decent person commit violence against anyone. Not only Baek Aeyoung, but Shin Haeryang and Seo Jihyeok too. Likewise, I didn’t want to see any of them suffer violence from someone else either. Had I gotten attached to them in just a few hours together? I even let scenes of people fighting barehanded in action movies pass by without really watching, and I don’t look at scenes with blood spraying everywhere.
Resentment welled up toward Tyler too. Seriously, why would you act up in front of Baek Aeyoung when she had a gun? That woman had thrown a man over 180 centimeters tall to the floor with her bare hands. And on top of that, she’s in a terrible mood because her friend was murdered. Why did you join a cult in the first place and pick up a gun to kill people, you idiot?
“Baek Aeyoung. Stop hitting him. Let’s talk this out.”
As I spoke, I sniffled. I’m losing it. Seriously. When I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, there wasn’t a single shred of charisma in my voice. My voice came out cracked and much too quiet, but whether she heard me or not, Baek Aeyoung immediately stopped beating the man with her gun, her forearms, and her knees. Then, still breathing hard, she stepped aside.
I handed the gun to Yugeum. Because my hands were trembling now. Then I used the men’s restroom towel I’d had draped around my neck to wipe Tyler’s face roughly. His face was swelling badly, and he was already unconscious. He was bleeding from several places, so I didn’t know where I was supposed to apply pressure first. If it were inside his mouth, that would be easy, but this was—what. Should I stop the bleeding from his nose first? His cheek first? His forehead was split open too.
I heard Baek Aeyoung washing her hands at the sink. As I pressed the towel against his face, Shin Haeryang cut off a bit of the parachute cord wound all around his left forearm. Then he held out his hand to me. By now, I knew what this gesture meant too. It wasn’t a handshake. I dubiously handed him the towel in my hand. He tore the blood-soaked towel in two with both hands (so towels tore this easily), then returned half to me. He rolled up the other half of the towel, put it into Tyler’s mouth, and used the parachute cord to pull tightly around the area of his mouth before tying it taut behind the back of his neck. Watching Shin Haeryang check whether the knot was secure, I thought, So······a gag, then?
“Will he be able to breathe like that?”
“He can breathe through his nose.”
Shin Haeryang’s tone sounded like it wouldn’t matter even if he couldn’t breathe. I was pressing the towel into the sunken area of his cheek, where the bleeding looked worst, trying to staunch it. Shin Haeryang tied the bound part of Tyler’s wrists to the hinge area where the restroom door opened. Watching him, I asked Shin Haeryang,
“Aren’t we taking him with us?”
“It’s hard enough for us to move by ourselves. Since he said he liked the women’s restroom, we’ll leave him here.”
Ah. So what he’d said earlier was a bluff. Well, who would keep a gun trained on Tyler and watch him the whole time? If Shin Haeryang and I supported Seo Jihyeok and took him with us, the only armed people whose hands were completely free were Baek Aeyoung and Yugeum. There was no way we could entrust Tyler to Yugeum when this was her first time holding a gun, so we’d have to leave him to Baek Aeyoung. But taking Baek Aeyoung—the one who had scouted and returned as silently as a cat, who had guided us all this time without being noticed by anyone—and assigning her to look after a hostage was far too risky.
Baek Aeyoung was now washing her forearms and knees. Watching the bloody water disappear, my head throbbed and I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d never had any reason to see this much blood.
While I was struggling with Tyler’s face, Seo Jihyeok was briefly teaching Yugeum how to shoot as well, and Baek Aeyoung and Shin Haeryang were looking at the map. As I stared blankly at the map displayed in 3D, even I, a complete outsider, could tell at once what the problem was.
First of all, Infinite Church believers were stationed around the three elevators, including the central elevator, as well as by the escape craft and the submersible. The Second Undersea Base was large, but the problem was that it had been designed so that one had to pass through the central plaza in the middle of the base to go anywhere, and as if the enemy knew that too, a considerable number of them had been stationed in the central plaza. No matter where we went, it would be impossible to avoid fighting people. The place that seemed to have the fewest people was where the submersible was, but even there, we would still have to go through the central plaza to get out.
With the central plaza at the center, the deep-sea aquarium where we were, the four restaurants beside it, two convenience stores, two exhibition halls, four cafés, the jellyfish exhibition hall, the information center, the souvenir shop, the mining-related facilities and submersible that only authorized personnel could enter, the escape craft facility and central elevator beside the central plaza, and three other elevators had all been built as if surrounding it in a circle. If this place were opened to the public next year, they had probably planned the route so ordinary visitors would see the deep-sea aquarium, buy something to eat at a restaurant, look at the exhibitions, drink some coffee at a café, see the jellyfish, and buy souvenirs—something like that.
“What’s in the mining facility?”
“In the past, they checked the interim accounting for things like natural gas and oil drawn up from the seabed there, but now all of that’s been moved to the Fourth Undersea Base. Right now, there are exterior cleaning robots, interior cleaning robots, power generation facilities, life-support devices, and······right! The Medic! If the Medic hasn’t gone to the hospital on the first floor for an update, it might be there! They were supposed to put one in the Second Undersea Base too.”
“They might have moved its location. By rights, there should have been one at the convenience store in the Third Undersea Base too.”
At Shin Haeryang’s words, Seo Jihyeok’s expression grew troubled. I had next to no memories of the Second Undersea Base. Just wandering around the Fourth and Third Undersea Bases had been more than enough for me. I now pressed the towel against the split in Tyler’s forehead where blood was leaking out. When the face was injured, it bled more than one expected, so my hand was soaked with blood. Resisting the urge to wipe the sweat running down my forehead with my hand, I asked the others,
“I heard there’s an undersea cable car under construction at the Second Undersea Base. Where does that connect to?”
“The First Undersea Base!”
Yugeum answered, then, holding the muzzle downward, asked Shin Haeryang,
“I heard they were building it before. Has it been completed?”
“······It was originally supposed to be completed by the end of April, but I’m not sure.”
Shin Haeryang sounded displeased. His tone revealed distrust toward the contractor and construction company.
“Places that meet deadlines exactly are rare.”
Is that so? Why? If it’s supposed to be completed by the end of April, shouldn’t it be finished before May? Baek Aeyoung let down her long hair, tied it back again, then frowned and said,
“I heard from someone in electrical systems that they did a test run.”
“Do they know they can use the cable car to escape from the Second Undersea Base to the First Undersea Base too?”
The section of the map Tyler had marked didn’t show the cable car at all. Maybe they only marked it on the map once construction was fully complete. But if someone who worked at the Second Undersea Base had become a follower of the cult, wouldn’t they know they could escape using the cable car? Were they not guarding it because the cable car only connected to the First Undersea Base? Well, it would be almost impossible for them to think we’d snuck into the Second Undersea Base through the stairs like we had. Normally, people would use the elevator.
Looking at it that way, if the cable car was operating properly, wouldn’t it be the best way to escape to the First Undersea Base? Shin Haeryang seemed to be considering the various routes he could take with this group—to the three elevators, the central elevator, the escape craft, or the submersible. Judging by his awful expression, he couldn’t seem to come up with a particularly good method. Baek Aeyoung, who had been looking down at Tyler lying on the floor, said,
“If the armed bastards right now are all clumsy kids like that Tyler, Team Leader.”
Before Baek Aeyoung could even get the words out, Shin Haeryang shook his head. What had she been about to say? They’d be easy pickings? I could go out and kill them all? Baek Aeyoung pouted and said,
“At the end of the deep-sea aquarium, the First Exhibition Hall comes out. If you pass through there, you get to the cable car.”
I spoke as if sighing. My mouth was bone-dry.
“I hope there’s no one in the exhibition hall.”
At Shin Haeryang’s words telling us to move, everyone began leaving the restroom. Shin Haeryang and I, supporting Seo Jihyeok, who had been leaning against the wall on one foot while watching outside, were the last to come out. Baek Aeyoung fell to the very back and went into the restroom, saying she would erase some traces and follow us. Only Seo Jihyeok, Shin Haeryang, Yugeum, and I were still moving through the unopened deep-sea aquarium.
I’d barely ever been to aquariums, but this wasn’t how I’d wanted to come. In the water-filled tanks beside me, fish passed back and forth. Fish were swimming on both the right and the left, making it feel as though we were walking through the middle of the sea. But soon, empty tanks appeared here and there.
After we had been walking through the aquarium for a while, Seo Jihyeok, who had been saying things like that one was good for sashimi and that one would taste good grilled, sharply spoke less. He had clenched his teeth, as if pain was surging in. Only then did I barely understand why Shin Haeryang had let Seo Jihyeok say anything at all. In this hastily thrown-together team, if Seo Jihyeok didn’t speak, there was no one who would. His condition seemed to be getting worse and worse.
Shin Haeryang only answered questions briefly, and Yugeum was scowling as if lost in thought. I knew nothing about undersea bases, and I was an outsider when it came to the ocean too. Baek Aeyoung, who returned a few minutes later, once again took the lead of the group, but aside from the sound of our footsteps, it was quiet.