In that moment, the man stopped punching. It was too dark to see properly why the punching had stopped. Had his left arm lost strength from beating someone so much? The smell of blood was thick. I couldn’t tell whose blood it was. Gasping in the darkness while holding the man’s right arm and hand, I saw a light and turned my head to see Gim Gayeong limping over with her pad turned on.
“So it was Arthur Goodman.”
Only when Gim Gayeong came close could I see why Arthur had stopped throwing punches at me. Yu Geumi was pressing down on Arthur’s left arm with her entire body weight. To hit me, he would probably need the strength to lift about 50–60 kg or more with one arm. At the edge of the light, I Jihyeon was groaning and pushing away a steel chair with her arm.
“I’m Gim Gayeong, I work in the lab two doors down from yours. The Asian bitch you cursed out. I knew full well you were a racist, but I didn’t think we’d meet like this in a situation like this.”
It was all Korean. I couldn’t tell if my translator had broken or come loose when I fell. All kinds of English curses poured from Arthur’s mouth. They were all slurs against women—every kind of insult that would naturally get you canceled from society if you uttered even a single syllable came spewing out.
Gim Gayeong approached at a slow pace, but Arthur was struggling to break free, so I pressed down on him with every ounce of strength I had. I Jihyeon came toward Arthur’s right arm, which I was holding. Then she used all ten of her fingers to pry open one little finger of Arthur’s right hand, which was gripping the gun. And with all ten fingers, she began to bend that forcibly straightened finger in the opposite direction of the joint. Aaaaack! After bending the little finger completely backward, she straightened the fourth finger, the ring finger, and began to repeat the same thing.
Finally having closed the distance to zero, Gim Gayeong pulled a bottle from the bag she was carrying. ······It was a bottle of hydrochloric acid. Had she grabbed it when the power went out? Yu Geumi, who realized what it was even in the dim light of the pad, gasped sharply. Before I could stop her, Gim Gayeong opened the bottle and, without hesitation, poured it directly onto Arthur’s head.
“Kuaaaaaaaaack!”
The smell of burning protein hit immediately. Yu Geumi groaned and turned her head away, and I swallowed a scream and closed my eyes. I was pressing down on his struggling body with all my strength, but from the bottle came a gurgling sound as the hydrochloric acid poured out like water and cascaded down. Even with my eyes closed, the smell and sound came straight to me. The body pinning me down thrashed with all its might, desperate to break free.
“You are a certified asshole. (You fucking son of a bitch.)”
Paying no heed to her opponent’s screams, Gim Gayeong began speaking in a level voice.
“You think you’re the only human here? Hard and difficult situations can happen. Everyone struggles in situations like this. Everyone wants to live, and everyone wants to be selfish. But even when things are hard, you shouldn’t turn into a monster so easily. Kids twenty years younger than you are going around saving people—aren’t you ashamed at your age?”
Soon the screaming subsided. Because of the blood flowing down, I couldn’t see well out of my right eye, so I opened my left eye slightly to see that Gim Gayeong was pouring the acid not just onto his head but all over his face. Dear God. I didn’t have the stomach to watch, so I closed my eyes.
“O.B. (Organic Compound Disassembler) wasn’t researched and developed for so long just to kill people. Because of you. Because of you. Too many people are dying. Too many good people are getting hurt because of you.”
Now convulsions began to wrack the opponent’s body. By the time she twisted the third finger, I Jihyeon finally pulled that organic compound gun from Arthur’s hand. Then she slipped it into Gim Gayeong’s open bag and even zipped it shut.
“Don’t turn into a monster in crisis situation.
(Don’t live as a monster so easily. No matter how hard it is.)”
I draped Yu Geumi’s arm over my shoulder and wrapped Gim Gayeong’s arm around my waist. Because my right cheek was swollen, I couldn’t see well in front of me, and I kicked the heel of I Jihyeon, who was walking ahead, nearly sending us both tumbling. We had survived, but none of us were in normal condition. We had to support each other, leaning on one another’s bodies as we walked slowly.
There was no need to run, or more precisely, we had lost the ability to run, so we walked slowly and passed through the barricade. Soon we passed the Deep-Sea Biological Center and entered the Marine Pollution Center. As we crossed the long corridor of the connecting passage, I saw large letters reading “Marine Pollution Center” and a Vermilion Bird statue that I couldn’t tell was a chicken or a crane. Below the statue, a brief phrase was visible.
[A Clean and Abundant Ocean]
That was all. Because of the blood, I could only see half of what was in front of me right now, so I wondered if that was really all, but even as I passed close by the statue and looked, that was all. ······So the Marine Pollution Center wants something simple yet the most difficult after all.
Unlike the power-out Deep-Sea Biological Center, when we entered the lit Marine Pollution Center, several people emerged from a corner. As those who had been far away slowly approached us, I Jihyeon, who was walking ahead, pulled out a scalpel and pointed it forward. Then she swung it broadly. It was clear she intended to attack anyone who came near.
The people didn’t come close, but Yu Geumi, who had been leaning on my shoulder as she walked, lost strength in her legs and collapsed to the floor. I tried to lift the arm of Yu Geumi, who was practically rolling on the ground, back onto my shoulder and stand, but I had no strength either. One of the people walked toward I Jihyeon with both hands raised. He was a tall man, and pointing at Yu Geumi, he spoke to I Jihyeon.
“I’ll just help her up. I’ll only help her move.”
“How can I trust you? I don’t trust anyone!”
I Jihyeon was on edge to an extreme degree because of what had just happened. She must be under immense stress. I understood. I too felt like I would panic if someone tried to grab us right now. It was only because we were under the lights that we were calm enough not to panic; if someone else had appeared in the darkness earlier, I don’t know what would have happened.
Yu Geumi, holding her waist, grimaced and barely raised one knee, lifting her upper body. Gim Gayeong, pale as a sheet, practically embraced Yu Geumi to get her up off the floor, but both were precarious, as if they would fall at any moment.
The man looked at our state and hastily rolled up the sleeve covering his entire left forearm, and I Jihyeon was so startled that she jumped back. There was a long tattoo written in English. It was white ink on dark skin, and it was all in English; moreover, with my vision impaired in one eye, I couldn’t see exactly what it said. But I Jihyeon seemed to be reading along. I was more worried that while I Jihyeon was distracted reading it, we might get hit or attacked by them.
“Jesus said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
What the hell? Did I hear that right? Was my hearing going too? My entire right side ached. I Jihyeon’s face slowly froze as she finished reading the forearm tattoo. The man, who had been holding both hands up, answered simply.
“Matthew 22. Hey, sis. I’m just gonna help.”
······Trading Bible verses? In this situation? As someone who abhors religion, it was utterly incomprehensible. How was I to know if that dead bastard Arthur Goodman was a Christian? If things were unfolding like a dream, perhaps the pseudo-religion occupying this undersea base was also derived from some well-known religion. But I Jihyeon, looking at us crawling along and the white tattoos on the man’s forearm, hesitated with the scalpel in her hand and spoke.
“James. Help Yu Geumi up. The short person over there.”
Did they know each other? The man named James approached and knelt before Yu Geumi, offering his back. Yu Geumi hesitated, shaking her weary face to the side. Then, realizing his back was turned to her, she spoke in a voice about to give out.
“I’m heavy.”
“I’ll know once I carry you.”
Yu Geumi looked at I Jihyeon, Gim Gayeong beside her, and me; then, completely lacking strength, she slumped onto his back as if collapsing. James stood up carrying Yu Geumi without any trouble. Then he spoke as if stunned.
“She’s like a feather.”
Then he walked straight off and laid Yu Geumi down on a long bench next to a vending machine. When one of the men watching approached I Jihyeon, she growled and thrust her scalpel toward him. The man, pointing at James, spoke to I Jihyeon.
“Whoa! Calm down! I’m friends with him. Sam Young. Sam! You know? You’ve seen me, right? We’ve seen each other’s faces plenty.”
“······Please help Gayeong-unni. Her hand was burned by hydrochloric acid. She needs to wash it with water.”
The man called Sam hesitated as he approached, but when he saw Gim Gayeong’s hand, he exclaimed something like “Holy shit! Motherfuck!” and forced Gim Gayeong onto his back. Then he ran down the corridor. It looked like he was heading toward the restroom.
“Jihyeon-ssi. Please help Gayeong-ssi. Make sure we don’t get separated. I’ll stay next to Geumi-ssi.”
I Jihyeon looked me over from head to toe and frowned, but she ran off in the direction Sam had sprinted. I was surrounded by a group of about five or six men. Strangely, I wasn’t scared; whether it was because only terrible and horrifying things had happened until now, or because my brain had decided that I was already in so much pain I couldn’t possibly hurt anymore, I couldn’t tell. Normally, being surrounded by several unknown men would have been terrifying.
The men who approached slowly opened both palms, then placed their hands on my shoulders and spoke to me. Hey, bro. Why are you hurt so bad? Hey. You okay? Your forehead’s split and bleeding a lot. Can you press a towel on it? Your cheek is all busted. Who beat you up like this? Did you get some hits in on him?
“I’m fine. ······Please lay me down next to Geumi-ssi too.”
Someone grabbed my right shoulder, and someone grabbed my left shoulder. Then I was moved toward the drink vending machine, practically dragged along. Looking through the vision of only one eye, the structure of the Marine Pollution Center seemed similar to that of the Deep-Sea Biological Center.
The problem was that although this was the third floor, the lower part of the U-shaped building was completely flooded. The water had risen to about the second floor. I seemed to have lost consciousness for about ten seconds, and when I woke, I had been laid on a long bench in the corridor, slightly away from the long bench where Yu Geumi was lying. Someone was pressing a towel against the area around my right eye, but I mistook it for him pressing my nose and sprang up in a panic before realizing it wasn’t and slumped back down limply.
“You startled me.”
The man who introduced himself as Kanu giggled as he pressed the towel firmly against the wound.