With my lungs and mouth full of air, my body automatically struggled to keep floating up. Should I have grabbed something heavy before coming in? After thinking for a moment, I comforted myself—since I was already in the water, I should just move according to my own judgment. And I thrust my head down and moved my legs.
Using the strength of my legs and the curve of my body, I continued vertically downward. I brushed aside or threw behind me everything in my path. I grabbed the second-floor railings, walls, structures attached to the walls, metal handles, and so on as I went down, but I had no idea how much time was passing.
Passing the second floor quickly and descending to the first, I could see the first-floor railing. I swept both hands forward and thrashed my legs like crazy as I went down. Along with the thought that I had used my legs too much, my lungs began to ache bitterly. I continued kicking as I watched a few air bubbles bubbling out of my mouth.
Why am I trying so hard to survive? Earth is a planet of water—does it make sense that humans submerged in it can’t survive more than ten minutes? Isn’t it a grand comedy from a cosmic perspective that those who call themselves masters of Earth, having already destroyed the oceans, would struggle this much just to keep existing? All sorts of stray thoughts entered my mind. ...So this is what happens when you stick your head underwater—your sensitivity explodes. I usually turn into a sage trying to find the meaning of existence just from taking a shower, yet the moment I try to dry my hair, I know I become more annoyed and stupid than anyone else. I won’t think like this once I get out. Focus only on the goal for now.
Since I had descended vertically from the third-floor supply room, I was able to find the first-floor supply room’s location more easily than expected. It was the result of looking at the map and running simulations in my head several times before coming down. I moved while clinging to the long metal handles installed on the first-floor building wall, pressing myself flat against it.
According to the underwater base guidebook, the reason these metal handles remain on the walls throughout the base is that this place had been completely submerged in water in the past. They had been made for the convenience of site workers and divers during construction, but later they were also used for the convenience of disabled people who used this place, and now they were being used for me. They were quite more useful than I thought. ...Kevin Wilson had died bashing his head against this metal handle, though.
The valve was located lower than I had thought. I fumbled with my hand to check if it was the right valve, confirmed its shape, and tried turning it the other way. ...It was stiffer than I expected. It seemed it hadn’t been used for a long time. I lowered my legs, which were floating upward in the water, and gripped the valve with both feet. Then, using my forearms and arms to press my body completely against the valve, I twisted it sideways. The stiff handle had barely turned half a rotation by the time I managed a full turn, and then it refused to turn any further no matter how much force I applied.
Where was the drain? I turned my head this way and that, and in the distance, I saw countless tiny holes, smaller than fingernails, densely packed on the floor. Feeling slightly creeped out, I also felt like I was looking at a place where a tooth had just fallen out, leaving only the gum. Hmm. What a strange feeling. Spitting out a bit of water, I let go of the valve I had been gripping. Then I pushed off the floor and rose upward.
After rising a certain amount, I now had to ascend using only the strength of my calves and thighs. Despite trying not to lose the breath held in my mouth, I had unknowingly let out a little air while forcing the valve to turn. My lungs, chest, neck, and head all hurt.
My legs began to churn the water at a tremendous speed to survive. Yet it felt like I was barely moving a few centimeters. How could I not feel like I was going up when I was moving my legs this hard! Being careful not to lose the remaining air in my mouth, I thrashed my calves and thighs without rest.
Just as I was passing the first floor and reaching the second floor, I saw Benjamin approaching right beside me. Suddenly feeling glad, I waved my hand, but he looked at me, ignored me, and quickly ascended. Upon reaching the second-floor railing, I used it as a springboard to push off with my feet and rise toward the water’s surface. Soon the surface came into view, and I swam frantically upward.
The moment I reached the surface, I opened my mouth and swallowed air indiscriminately. I mistimed opening my mouth and swallowing my breath, so I ended up gulping down a mouthful of water. Salty and bitter. I hacked it up and climbed out into the third-floor hallway as if crawling; the third floor was already slightly submerged. My long-sleeved shirt, which I had taken off and left on the floor, was soaked and floating. I picked up the shirt, wrung out the water, and wiped my body with a towel; intending to put it on, I hung the shirt’s sleeves around my neck. Then I sat down heavily in the hallway. Water dripped steadily from my face.
Being able to swallow air freely was wonderful. I could feel my whole body rejoicing at the oxygen filling it. My calves and thighs ached with a burning pull. It was as if my legs, unaccustomed to exercise, were cursing their owner with all their might. I couldn’t move a muscle. My body wouldn’t budge. I took several deep breaths, inflating and deflating my chest, then sat blankly on the floor submerged in about 5–6 cm of water and counted the people. Only after counting twice did I realize there were nine people, including me.
Yugeumi and Gim Gayeong, wet from the water, smiled and waved at me. I gave them a thumbs-up in return. Wondering if anyone was missing, I looked around and saw I Jihyeon floating to the surface last, utterly exhausted, with an enormous splash. Logan and Sam nearby grabbed I Jihyeon and pulled him out of the water. I Jihyeon lay prone in the hallway, coughing, seemingly without the strength to move a finger. Yugeumi patted I Jihyeon on the back.
I had been thinking I should go get a towel for I Jihyeon, but then I remembered as I looked at the sloshing water and my wet feet. ...The cat! The cat in the backpack I left on the floor! The snake! Panicked, I ran at high speed toward the small office I had been in earlier, slipped on the water, flailed both arms in the air, and after that began walking carefully down the hallway. My younger sibling had given it to me as a gift, saying it was a waterproof backpack! It won’t get wet, right? Can both of them swim? Do cats swim well? What about snakes? They’ll be fine! They’ll be fine, right? They have to be fine! ...What do I do!
The moment I burst into the office where I had left my bag, what I saw was a scene where everything left on the floor was floating in about 10 cm of water. Like a madman, I searched the room here and there for my bag, which would be floating in the water. ...It was nowhere to be found. Fearing that the waterproof backpack had floated out of the office door, I searched the hallway near the office back and forth. Then, suddenly, a low thud! rang out. Wondering what it was, I saw that the sound was coming from the center director’s office across the hallway. Could a cat make that kind of noise? ...How should I know!
I quickly opened and pushed back the closed door of the center director’s office located across the hallway, and I was rendered speechless by the sight before my eyes. The corpses that had been laid out in that room were all floating in the water, bumping and pushing against each other, and now they were colliding with the door I had opened. Further inside, several corpses were floating and piling up against the wall.
As I stared blankly for several seconds, an urge to scream and a wave of terror surged forth at the scene I had witnessed. Having frozen solid at the sight of the corpses, I closed the center director’s office door with a shiver. ...I didn’t see anything. I didn’t see anything. It’s going to haunt my nightmares. Ah. Damn it.
Only after slowly backing away from the door could I finally breathe. Taking a deep breath, I began to wander the hallway again. Gim Gayeong, seeing me pale as a sheet and running here and there, asked,
“Muhyeon! What are you doing?”
“My backpack!”
“Follow me.”
Gim Gayeong went into the small office and took out my backpack from the highest drawer of a filing cabinet fixed to the floor with bolts, handing it to me. No wonder all sorts of documents were floating on the floor. I, who had been on the verge of tears, hugged the offered backpack preciously and asked,
“I left it on the floor.”
“I didn’t know how fast the water would rise, so I moved it here. The pad too, and your shoes and socks are all here.”
“Thank you for keeping it safe.”
Tears welled up not from the corners of my eyes but strangely from deep in my chest. Suppressing the feeling of overwhelming relief, I opened the bag and first checked whether the cat and snake were safe. The cat, having been asleep in the dark, was squinting its eyes open with a strange expression as light entered, and the snake was coiled as usual. Both of them seemed displeased by my frantic checking. Hah. Oh my God. Dear lord. ...I’m sorry. I’m really a complete failure at raising animals. I’m sorry. I’ll take better care of you next time. I should have been more careful.
Gim Gayeong was taking out pads and distributing them to people. I felt all the strength drain from my body. Avoiding the cat’s body, I took out the last dry towel from the bag. The cat, now deprived of all towels, was lying its body on the whale plushie placed on the floor.
I draped the wet towel I had used earlier over my head. Then I wrung out the long-sleeved shirt hanging around my neck twice more, shook it out, and put it on. Then I shouldered my backpack. With that familiar weight on my back, I felt relieved anew.
Letting out a deep sigh, I came out into the hallway blankly. People were each talking about how coolly they had opened the drainage valves and swum out of the water. I heard voices comparing themselves to dolphins, sharks, whales, and rays.
I heard Sam saying something like “You must be a giant shrimp and a king crab” to Kanu and Jason, and Kanu giggling something like “You’re a sea monkey” to the other person. I shook my head and cleared the water from my ears.
Soaked to the bone, I Jihyeon grabbed a chair that had been rolling around the hallway and sat on it like a throne, taking the pad Gim Gayeong handed him. He looked just like a swimmer who had just finished the Olympics and won a gold medal. Drinking water offered by Yugeumi, he was heading into the engineer system with the pad.
When I handed a dry towel to I Jihyeon, he roughly wiped his face, stained with deep fatigue, and his trembling fingers, then passed the towel to Yugeumi, who was wet. I Jihyeon spoke to the people as he ran the automatic drainage system in the engineer system.
“It’s dangerous to enter the water now. Once the drainage system activates, the water will drain through the open drains. Because the water pressure at the drains is strong and the flow velocity is fast, you must not enter the water.”