I was now standing on the third floor looking as I always did. The wet towel that had been covering my head was settling down beside the floundering Benjamin instead of me. I checked on Gim Gayeong, who had slumped to the floor first.
“I saw you fall on your way over. Are you hurt from the fall?”
“······It’s starting to hurt now.”
Gim Gayeong, who had been panting heavily, let out a low groan. Having slipped on the water and rolled across the floor while running over, she vigorously rubbed her hips and waist with her hands. Sounds of “ow, ow” slipped from her mouth.
Yu Geumi, sitting on the floor, raised her head with a spaced-out expression and looked at the ceiling. Through her slightly parted lips, it seemed as though even her soul was leaking out. With cracked lips, Yu Geumi muttered toward me very slowly.
“Today is so hard. I’ve never once thought I lacked stamina in my life.”
Pulling up a 75kg adult man by sheer strength alone is no easy feat. On top of that, they had experienced too many things all at once until now. The thought crossed my mind that if the two of them had just let go of me while I held the cat securely, I could have landed on the water without much trouble; but I couldn’t say that in front of these two people who had suffered for it. Because I felt that uttering things like “You didn’t have to do that” would seem like I was belittling the other person’s effort and toil.
Thanks to these two, I didn’t have to submerge myself in water again, and the cat was able to stay dry. The former is whatever. But isn’t the latter quite valuable? I can just dry off, but animals probably hate getting wet to the extreme. And in the first place, the three of us ended up suffering like this not because of any fault of our own. I looked at Gim Gayeong and Yu Geumi and spoke slowly.
“Thank you both. It must have been hard pulling me up when I’m so heavy. ······I never thought that bastard would throw the cat.”
Things I couldn’t have imagined normally were happening one after another. And in a situation like this, I hadn’t even considered that someone would want my backpack. I had never lived in a world so frantic to steal a bag off someone’s back. Wasn’t it normal everyday life to throw your bag onto a café chair and go to the bathroom without it being stolen? Was it that Korea had good public order, or was this place exceptionally bad?
The two of them were half-collapsed against the railing. In the distance, Logan and Kanu were smoking again as if all of this were someone else’s business, James was hurling jeers toward the second floor, and Sam was shouting that he was really a fucking asshole.
Looking down, I saw Benjamin swimming hard and entering the second floor through the second-floor railing. Until just now, the second floor had been completely filled with water, but now the water was draining to about calf-level.
Benjamin locked eyes with me as I looked down at the second floor from the third. He raised his middle finger at me like a nine-year-old, folding down all the rest of his fingers. Good grief. ······Hey. Are you really going to act like that at your age? Henry, who had been left all alone without warning in this leaking underwater base and was terrified, didn’t even act like that. I considered flipping him off in return, but stopped because it was too childish and unproductive. I’m not a kid.
Yu Geumi turned her head toward the railing, saw that spectacle, and let out a deep sigh as she spoke.
“Why does he live like that?”
“He probably wants to take out his stress on the weak. A guy like that would have lived like that normally too.”
Gim Gayeong, who had been rubbing her waist and hips, frowned at Yu Geumi’s words and answered. An adult man takes out his stress on creatures weaker than himself on a daily basis? Just where exactly did a life like that go wrong? ······Even after imagining it twice, it was nearly impossible for me to understand with my own head. I’d rather he shoveled sweets into his mouth and went to the dentist.
I draped one arm of the slumping Gim Gayeong, who couldn’t stand properly, over my shoulder. That alone looked extremely precarious for her to get up. I said excuse me for a moment and grasped Gim Gayeong by the hips. After lifting her once with my strength to make her stand on both feet, Gim Gayeong could barely walk with her arm over my shoulder.
Yu Geumi, who had only been muttering “I’m fine,” slowly grabbed the railing and stood up by herself, took a deep breath, and came walking slowly. Yi Jihyeon, who was slumped in a chair far away, was the same—they all looked like they had no stamina. They needed to sleep or eat something. Or just rest without doing anything.
But there was no time to rest. Once the water drained to a certain level, we had to go down to the first-floor elevator, timed with the draining. There was no telling when or how much the water would rush back in.
Would the elevator be able to operate normally? What about the Muhangyo bastards up there? It was a moment before I noticed Carter approaching me from my left side. When I stopped walking, he mumbled to me.
“I didn’t know that bastard would throw your cat. I didn’t even know there was a cat in there.”
You bastard. Was that an apology? I held back the urge to punch him. The biggest reason was that if I let go, Gim Gayeong, who I was supporting, seemed like she would crash to the floor. I stared at Carter and asked.
“What did you think was in the backpack?”
“Dollars. Or ······drugs.”
Were any of the prohibited items in the underwater base actually enforced? I had roughly guessed from this guy’s dental condition. I didn’t know what kind of drug it was. Seeing the severe tooth decay, it was probably an acidic type of drug. The side effects of the drug probably caused indigestion, and due to loss of appetite, he’d only seek out sweet things like soda or chocolate, which accelerated the tooth decay.
······Wait a minute. What part of me looks like a drug supplier? Every time Carter opened his mouth, it felt like he was adding fuel to my anger. Did this guy come to apologize, or to pick a fight? I made a hasty assumption and asked Carter.
“Are you sorry to me?”
“······.”
I didn’t know if I was interpreting the situation favorably or being uselessly optimistic. Seeing him come here specifically to unload his guilt like this, I felt that if Carter had known the cat was in the backpack, he probably wouldn’t have gone out of his way to steal it.
Was this thought too optimistic a delusion? But what did I gain from thinking negatively in this situation? A baseless depression? Doubt about humanity’s instinctive selfishness? A desire for revenge, thinking I’d pay them back the same way someday? As for Benjamin······I don’t know. Let’s just focus on Carter before me for now.
We were merely people who had gathered by chance in the disaster of a leaking underwater base. From the moment the water started leaking until now, I had judged that harboring hostility toward one another would be of no help whatsoever, both then and now. It was an environment where it was questionable whether we could survive even if we helped each other with all our might.
People in the 20th century could live well as long as they themselves were safe, as long as their families and acquaintances were fine. However, the 21st century had changed completely. Situations where one could not survive just because you alone were happy and safe had been continuously created. Indiscriminate overfishing, habitat destruction, water pollution, air pollution, soil pollution, climate change, various widespread epidemics—our generation knows all too well how the results of the 20th centuries’ attempts to eat and live well by themselves have come back. That abandoning selfishness and protecting others eventually comes back to protecting ourselves as well.
If possible, I wished that people would look after and help one another through good deeds.
Like Yu Geumi, Yi Jihyeon, and I rescuing Gim Gayeong, who was trapped in the quarters; like Yi Jihyeon, Gim Gayeong, and I helping Yu Geumi, who tried to release the marine life; like Gim Gayeong helping the three of us in a crisis; like us actively supporting and trying to make what Yi Jihyeon wanted come true; like these people saving me.
In our current situation, money or violence could offer no salvation whatsoever. If I were a wealthy person, could I have gotten out of here quickly? Then what about the person who died by my gun in a dream, covered head to toe in jewels? If those accustomed to violence could get out of here, Sin Haeryang or Baek Aeyeong would have escaped the dream first. Or that man called Goodman.
Capital and force. The reason I, who have neither of the two, am still alive in this chaotic underwater base is because of the attention and selfless help of the people around me. I pointed at Gim Gayeong beside me and Yu Geumi walking behind me, and said to Carter.
“If you’re sorry to me, treat Gim Gayeong here or Yu Geumi over there well. They fell over while coming to help me.”
I wanted a cycle of goodwill. And if you’re going to ask the cat for forgiveness, not from me, do it while buying it something to eat.
Carter hesitated as he looked at Gim Gayeong and Yu Geumi, then passed us by and went down to the lower floor. Gim Gayeong, who had been walking in silence for a few seconds, spoke.
“Somehow, when I talk with Geumi, I feel like my obliterated humanity is being restored a bit, and you seem to be that kind of person too, Muhyeon.”
“What do you mean by that? ······Why do you say your humanity is gone?”
“Life just dries it up. It’s completely desertified. I’m replenishing it by watching good people.”
“Don’t worry. They say flowers can bloom even in deserts these days.”
The 21st century is a strange world where desertification and rising sea levels happen simultaneously. In some places, people die and environments are destroyed due to lack of water; in others, habitats are being destroyed because water overflows.
I saw James approaching Yi Jihyeon, who was slumped in a chair, and the two talking. After exchanging a few more words, James carried Yi Jihyeon on his back. The carried Yi Jihyeon pointed at the pads with her hand, and Sam, who was nearby, gathered the pads in a hurry and shouted at us.
“Anything you need to grab?”
What should I grab? Nothing comes to mind right now. I don’t know. Is there anything on the third floor that I need to take? I looked around, and the closed center director’s office and the offices beside it came into view. I felt nothing but a desire to disappear downstairs right now. I asked Gim Gayeong and Yu Geumi, who was coming up behind me.
“Is there anything we need to bring?”
“Well. Courage?”
Yu Geumi, who had walked up close, laughed at Gim Gayeong’s words and then shouted loudly to Sam, “Nothing!” Sam also started down the nearby stairs with James.
When we went down the stairs and arrived at the second floor, most of the water had drained from the entire second floor. Trash was strewn about haphazardly, and furniture had been pushed here and there. The water level was now at the point where it lapped at the ankles of those standing on the second floor.