Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

The gunfire continued. Since the shooting at the gem above my head had stopped, I reached out my hand from behind the gemstone to fire my gun, but then hesitated, fearing my hand might get shot. So, I only extended the barrel slightly and fired two shots randomly. Bang! Bang! Since no screams followed, it seemed I hadn’t hit anyone. Gasping for breath due to tension, I wiped the sweat dripping down to my chin and felt relieved. I don’t want to shoot people! It’s too scary! I just want to get out of here! Sorry. I really didn’t understand what it meant to shoot at someone.

I was lost in thoughts like whether I really wanted to survive this situation or if I could save the woman and man with first aid. As these thoughts wandered through my mind, the sound of gunfire gradually moved away from me, towards the exit of the exhibition hall.

Wondering if I should check, I extended my hand holding the gun out from behind the gemstone and waved it, but no more gunfire came my way. The person who had been shooting at me must have moved on. Listening to the fading sounds, I almost crawled out from behind the gemstone, which I then saw was labeled ‘Pink Tourmaline.’ Creeping out cautiously in case I needed to hide again, I saw only the silver-haired woman lying on the ground. The man who had been shot was gone.

There were bloodstains where the man had been, but no sign of him. Someone must have taken him away. Shaking, I clutched my gun and emerged from my hiding spot. Fearing a headshot, I crawled out cautiously towards the woman.

The woman lay face down, just as I had left her. I fought the urge to curse myself and the overwhelming desire to cry. There was a massive amount of blood. I slowly turned the woman over, her back to the ground, to check for a pulse. She was definitely dead.

I swept my palm over her eyes to close them, but the feel of her eyelashes and eyelids sent a shiver down my spine, a sensation I never wanted to experience again. As I turned to leave, a fear gripped me that she might suddenly open her eyes if I turned my back. But I didn’t have the courage to look back at her lying body either. Trembling, I moved very slowly towards the direction of the gunfire. There was still shooting, so they must be fighting, right? I have to help.

I moved from one gemstone to another, using them as shields, crawling because my legs were too weak to walk properly. I wasn’t sure how far I had gone until I realized I had moved closer to where the shooting was happening, only noticing when I saw the face of a cult member.

A man was moving in and out from behind a gem, shooting towards a green gemstone with another display pillar between them. I was positioned to his left rear.

In movies, when shooting at someone, they often lick their lips and say something like “adios”, but in a real gunfight, there was no time for such theatrics. I almost lay down to shoot the man in the back, realizing I had hit him when I saw bullet marks on his back. Terrified of him seeing me, I continued shooting towards his head as he turned around. A hole appeared in the man’s cheek, and he fell backward. I lay flat on the ground, waiting for a counterattack, but there was none.

I crawled and buried my head behind a gemstone display. I stayed still. The sound of gunfire gradually moved away towards the exit. Someone touched my shoulder, startling me as I turned with my gun ready, but it was Shin Haeryang who quickly said,

“Stop.”

“What about the others?”

Shin Haeryang didn’t respond but took the gun from the man I had shot and said quickly,

“Seo Jihyuk and Yoo Geum-yi are behind that red gem over there. Go get them.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll help others.”

As he moved and shot, it seemed more like he was signaling his presence than aiming to hit anyone. Seeing his reliable actions, I started crawling towards the red gem. As I moved, I realized my palms were scraped raw. Why hadn’t I felt pain until now? Pondering this, I continued crawling past iolite and zircon and only realized I had reached the red gem, identified as andesine, after almost making a full circle.

Crawling behind the gem, Seo Jihyuk aimed his gun at me, then lowered it. He was lying on his back, aiming at me, and Yoo Geum-yi was also there, sitting next to him, leaning on the gem display. Seeing Yoo Geum-yi with one eye closed reminded me of the woman who had died in the shootout. I stammered as I asked,

“Yoo Geum-yi? Why… why are you… sleeping?”

“She’s dead. She… uh… got hit by a stray bullet.”

Stray bullet? I was shocked and shook Yoo Geum-yi’s shoulder, looking lifeless like she was asleep, and only then did I notice that her upper body leaning on the gem was covered in blood. The gem’s deep red color had masked the blood at first glance. Her right forehead above the eyebrow was bleeding profusely. I was lost for words.

I don’t know how long I stared at Yoo Geum-yi’s face in a daze. Several times, Seo Jihyuk called me, trying to get my attention, then grabbed my arm to make me look at him. I realized I was shaking like a thin tree in the wind. Trembling, Seo Jihyuk said with a frown,

“Hey, snap out of it. I’m not in a position to take care of you right now.”

“But… Yoo Geum-yi… Yoo Geum-yi is dead.”

“Yoo Geum-yi is dead, and I’ll be dead soon too. It’s already a miracle I made it here with this leg. It’s because of kind-hearted people like Baek Ae-young, you, and Yoo Geum-yi, even our team leader, that I’ve made it this far. If cold-blooded assholes like Jeong Sang-hyeon or Gang Su-jeong were in this hastily formed team, they would’ve left me behind at the Four Thousand Steps. I would’ve been shot in the head back at the fourth underwater base. Park Moohyun! Enough talking about the dead and those about to die. Take this gun, shoot while pulling this trigger. Especially aim at those targeting Baek Ae-young’s head.”

“What about you, Seo Jihyuk-ssi?”

“Didn’t you hear me? Go.”

“I can’t! I can’t leave you behind! You told me to bring them!”

Ignoring my protest, Seo Jihyuk snatched my gun to check the bullets, then handed me his gun.

“…Team Leader Shin is too kind-hearted to leave anyone behind. If there’s a liability in the team, you need to leave them and move on. I’ve known him for seven years, and he never could do that. But you, Moohyun, you drill into people’s mouths, right? You’re strong-hearted, you can do this.”

What nonsense. What does drilling have to do with this? No connection at all. I shook my head vigorously, trembling all over from stress. I thought I had no tears left after crying so much on the way here, but they streamed down my cheeks.

“I-I-I can’t leave Seo Jihyuk-ssi behind. I’m a dentist! I’ve spent 10 years fixing mouths! But if I leave Seo Jihyuk-ssi here, he’ll die!”

“Who knows. With Shin team leader doing the work of three and Baek Ae-young being a sharpshooter, who can say when anyone’s time is up? We might die quickly on the way to the first underwater base. Yoo Geum-yi was hiding behind me, but who knew she would die from a stray bullet that ricocheted off a gem?”

He was right. Even if I take Seo Jihyuk now to find Shin Hae-ryang and Baek Ae-young, we could die sooner from a bullet flying from somewhere than by hiding here. But staying here doesn’t guarantee survival either. If the cult members storm the exhibition hall entrance, staying here would mean getting shot and killed.

“So dying here or on the way is the same. Let’s go together!”

Seo Jihyuk frowned at my words, scratched the back of his head, sighed, and then, shaking his head, said,

“Grab Yoo Geum-yi’s bag.”

I sighed inwardly, interpreting Seo Jihyuk’s gruff words as agreement with my opinion, and quickly approached Yoo Geum-yi. Leaning against the red gem, she had fallen to the ground when I shook her shoulder. I saw the bag strapped to Yoo Geum-yi’s back. I apologized to her and carefully tried to remove the bag’s straps from her arms. While I was taking the bag off her arm, Seo Jihyuk’s voice reached my ears.

“Sorry to show you this.”

At that sound, as I turned away from Yoo Geum-yi, Seo Jihyuk was showing me his side profile when suddenly there was a bang! I didn’t realize what he had done until later – he had shot himself in the head. I hadn’t even known there was one bullet left in my gun, as I had fired without keeping count. Perhaps Seo Jihyuk didn’t want to show me something like this, judging by his apology. Why apologize and then do something regrettable? He could have just gone with us. I could have helped him walk. Modern knee cartilage surgeries, even if not completely curative, enable people to run around, with no issues in daily life. We escaped from the fourth underwater base amid a gunfight, walked the Four Thousand Steps together, so why couldn’t we walk together just because the cult members were firing around us? Why? Why did he do that?

Why does a piece of metal, no bigger than a fingernail, have the power to kill? How can people just die like deflating bags of blood because of these bullets? Bullets can be surgically removed, even from the brain. There are all sorts of terrible accidents in the world, and doctors have to remove all sorts of things embedded in people’s brains, including objects larger than bullets. I’ve heard of cases where people survived even with a shattered skull, spending a few weeks in the hospital, their heads shaved, then miraculously recovering. Treatments can be so effective that there’s no sign of any injury! Couldn’t these people be saved if the bullets were removed? Am I unaware of something because I haven’t read this month’s latest medical journal? Once I get out of here, I must subscribe to medical magazines focusing on neurology. And I should ask my friend who specializes in neurosurgery. I need to find out how quickly someone can recover if a bullet in the brain is removed. Can bullets be extracted with suction? If so, I could do it in dentistry. My hands don’t shake, I can do it well.

Imma cry. Brb. 😭