At Lee Jihyeon’s answer, Kanu shook his head from side to side and spoke in a whisper.
“People who believe in Christianity turn every other country’s religion into demons. Dagon is a water god who was worshiped in Mesopotamia.”
That was the first I’d heard of it. Then again, how would I know about some other country’s water god? If I tried to think of one, the only thing that came to mind was Poseidon, who showed up often in Greek and Roman mythology. If someone asked me right now to name a god of air or fire from another country, I wouldn’t be able to think of anything at all. Emma said in a terrified voice,
“You people don’t know what lives on the ocean floor.”
Yugeum answered Emma with a sour look.
“I know perfectly well what lives there. I live there, and so do the people here. Jellyfish live there too.”
“……Not things like that!”
“Are you afraid of things with lots of legs? ……It’s a wonder you manage to stay here.”
Yugeum let out a small sigh, as if she was very used to people like Emma. Hating marine life but still managing to live in an undersea base. Well, there were people who joined cults just because they paid well, so what couldn’t people do? Yugeum spoke to Emma as if grumbling.
“I still don’t really understand why Westerners freak out so much over cephalopods like octopuses and squid. Mammals have hemoglobin, so their blood is red, but those creatures have hemocyanin, so their blood is blue. They have that beloved blue blood of yours, and they’re as intelligent as dogs or cats, so why do you hate them so much?”
“One day, they’ll awaken in the darkness of the deep sea and invade the world!”
When Emma answered Yugeum in horror, Yugeum froze for a moment, dumbfounded. Then she let out a sigh heavy enough to make the elevator sink.
Well. If octopuses or squid invaded, I’d happily put a pot of water on the stove and prepare the chojang. As if she had no intention of spending her precious time on a conspiracy theorist’s nonsense about marine life attacking humanity someday, Yugeum began putting a great deal of distance between herself and Emma. I cautiously asked Kanu, who seemed well-versed in religion,
“Are there gods related to sharks too?”
I asked thinking there wouldn’t be any, but Kanu’s eyes lit up as he answered.
“There are. Kamohoaliʻi, Nanaue. Waumauma, Dakuwaqa.”
Kanu started listing several more names after that, but I didn’t know a single one. From the brief explanations he gave, it seemed there were quite a few places in warm Pacific island nations like Hawaii that worshiped shark gods.
Korea’s waters had gotten warm enough that sharks were appearing fairly often too, but now that I thought about it, I didn’t know anything about sharks. As I listened with an expression that said I was hearing everything Kanu mentioned for the first time in my life, he asked me,
“What country are you from?”
“I’m Korean.”
“In your country, the Dragon King is probably similar to Dagon.”
……The Dragon King. Only a few seconds after hearing it did I feel the meaning actually reach my brain. I’d only ever heard of him in old folktales, like when he needed a rabbit’s liver or when he saved Sim Cheong after she threw herself into Indangsu.
Carter, who had been hopping up and down toward the elevator ceiling, looked at the phone screen he had lifted so high it seemed his arm might fall off. Then he spoke to us, who were calmly talking about legends and gods, with a look of utter frustration.
“I don’t care if it’s the Dragon King or a demon, whoever gets us out of here is the best! What are we going to do about the elevator? Are we just finished? Do we have to stay here forever with the power out?”
No one answered. Instead, everyone’s gaze turned toward the engineer. Lee Jihyeon, sitting collapsed on the elevator floor, looked toward Carter and said,
“The backup power should kick in soon. ……Probably.”
“Probably? What do you mean, probably? You’re the engineer, so shouldn’t you know properly? Do your damn job!”
It seemed Lee Jihyeon’s precarious patience had completely run out.
“I did my job properly! If you know so damn much, why are you stuck here with me, who apparently knows jack shit?! If you don’t want to wait for the backup power, open the elevator doors and jump.”
“What?”
Before anyone could stop him, Carter threw the phone in his hand at Lee Jihyeon’s face where she sat. Kevin, who was beside Lee Jihyeon, moved like lightning.
Bang!
When I shone my light toward the sound, Carter’s shattered phone had struck the elevator window facing the sea with a loud noise and was rolling across the floor.
No one but Kevin and Carter had moved, so it seemed Kevin had swung the head of his axe and knocked away the phone flying through the air. At something that had happened in less than three seconds, I froze with the flashlight in my hand. Kevin strode forward.
“You want your hand cut off?”
As Kevin growled in a hoarse voice and approached Carter with the axe, Carter took a few steps back and said as if making excuses,
“I wasn’t trying to hit her, I just……”
“Just what?”
“I was only trying to scare her a little. I didn’t even throw it at you, so why are you overreacting……”
The closer Kevin got to Carter, the quieter Carter’s voice became, until by the end it was barely audible. Lee Jihyeon was looking at Carter with disgust.
Startled, I ran over with the flashlight and checked Lee Jihyeon’s face. From behind my back, Kim Gayoung asked Lee Jihyeon,
“Are you okay? Is your face hurt?”
“……I don’t know.”
As Lee Jihyeon answered, she frowned because of the flashlight beam. After thoroughly checking her head and face, I answered the two of them.
“She’s not hurt.”
Fortunately, there were no wounds on her face or head. Neither the phone nor the axe that had been swung at close range had hit her.
Yugeum, whose face had gone deathly pale, and Kim Gayoung, who heard my diagnosis, both let out long sighs. When my flashlight moved away from Lee Jihyeon’s face, Lee Jihyeon leaned against the wall and looked weakly at the others as before.
At some point, Kevin had cornered Carter in one corner of the elevator and was grilling him. Beside them, Sam and James were jeering at him. Logan watched the whole scene with his arms crossed. Emma sat unmoving, watching it all.
Suddenly, Carter was being dragged by Kevin’s hand and forced in front of Lee Jihyeon. As Kevin swung the axe savagely beside the elevator wall, Carter, standing before Lee Jihyeon with a disgruntled expression, began saying something in a low voice.
Enough. But Lee Jihyeon cut Carter off in the middle of his words. She looked as if she didn’t even want to exchange a conversation with him, but after staring at him for a moment, she looked at the people in the elevator and said,
“Back then, I should have just taken the elevator up alone. ……I keep thinking, who did I think I was, trying to help people, showing off like that, only to end up here like this? Because of that one action of yours, I regret even saving the others so, so much. And I don’t want to hear a single word from you.”
“……I’m apologizing.”
“What value does your apology have?”
Lee Jihyeon asked back, looking at Carter’s dissatisfied face.
It seemed like it wasn’t her face that had been hurt badly, but her heart. Teeth were easy to fix. No, correction. Teeth were easier to fix than hearts.
……True. When the elevator had stopped between the first and fourth floors, Lee Jihyeon must have had the chance to leave all of us behind and get out. If she had tried escaping in the elevator alone, even if she ended up trapped in it by herself, she probably wouldn’t have had to see this mess. Guilt rushed in like a tide going out.
When Kevin let go of Carter’s clothes, which he had been dragging him by, Carter looked at Kevin and Lee Jihyeon, then walked toward the elevator wall farthest from the two of them. On the way, he checked the state of his broken phone and then tossed it back onto the floor.
Kevin looked at Carter’s back, then ran his hand once over the bandage wrapped around his calf. Since my arm and the flashlight were pointed toward the ceiling, everything below shoulder height must have been dark. Seeing him act as if he was checking whether the wound on his calf had opened while he moved, I shone the flashlight on Kevin’s leg.
His calf was exactly as I had treated it. No blood was leaking out, and the knot hadn’t come undone. When I gave a slight nod to indicate it was fine, Kevin stared at me, then nodded toward me a couple of times. I’d understood that as meaning the same thing, right?
Kevin glanced at Lee Jihyeon, then sat down about a meter away from her. Then, toward her profile, he said very quietly. My translator barely managed to catch and interpret that tiny sound.
“……Thank you for bringing me along. Even though my leg’s in this state and I couldn’t help with anything.”
When Kevin and Emma had come down to the second floor to use the elevator, Lee Jihyeon hadn’t criticized or blamed them. She had simply allowed the two of them to board her ark, which she had worked three times harder than anyone else to make, without asking for anything in return.
No. Including Lee Jihyeon herself, she had succeeded in saving twelve people. There were two animals too. ……Amazing. I was barely managing to take care of just myself. At Kevin’s words, Lee Jihyeon gave no answer and only looked at the flashlight beam shining on the ceiling.
As we waited quietly, the elevator suddenly lit up. At the same time, it began moving upward again. A slight dizziness came over me. It seemed five minutes had passed since the power outage. When the elevator began rising again, people laughed or cheered. I turned off the flashlight.
Oh my Jesus! I knew You hadn’t abandoned me! Amen! A-men! Sam’s loud voice rang out over Logan’s long whistle. Sam, who had his hands clasped together, spoke toward the elevator ceiling.
“As soon as I get out of here, I’ll go to church faithfully! I’ll pray faithfully! I’ll read the Bible faithfully!”
“You’re really good at lying faithfully.”
Sam, whose prayer had been interrupted, began bickering with James, who had picked a fight from beside him. Kim Gayoung clasped her hands together and said softly,
“Namu Amitabul, Gwanseeum Bosal.”
Yugeum, beside her, pressed her palms together and said with a reverent smile,
“Plankton.”
……What a mess. Even so, the elevator was going up. The faces of Benjamin, who had been glaring around in dissatisfaction, and Carter, who was sitting in the corner, also brightened. I tapped the pad screen, which had stopped at around five minutes, to start counting the numbers again.
When another seven minutes had passed, the elevator lost power again and stopped. Since it was the second time, no one screamed. Only irritated curses burst out here and there.