Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

“Moohyun.”

I’m not sure how long I sat between Yoo Geum-yiand Seo Jihyuk. Someone shook my shoulder, and only then did I lift my head. It was so dark in front of me that I had to shake my head to see the person, and there stood Baek Ae-young in front of me. Baek Ae-young was covered in blood from head to toe. I tried to say something, but no words came out.

“Uh… uh… uhhhh.”

“Get up. We need to go.”

At first, I couldn’t get up right away. After falling once and crawling on the floor, I finally stood up on two feet, relying on the strength of Baek Ae-young’s hands and arms, while swallowing tears and snot. The rifle Seo Jihyuk had given me was incredibly heavy. (I only knew it was a rifle after Baek Ae-young told me) I couldn’t tell if it was so heavy because I was struggling to walk properly, or if rifles are just that heavy. My body felt utterly drained. I wanted to just collapse on the floor and sleep for about 10 hours.

If I hadn’t tied the rifle with a rope around my body, I would never have been able to carry it now. All I had used until now was a handgun that I held with both hands, but if it had been this rifle, I probably couldn’t have even shot it due to its weight.

Baek Ae-young, walking ahead, was densely covered in blood, front and back. Moreover, the rifle she was carrying was different from the one she had before. While the previous rifle had a black strap, the one she was now carrying had a blue strap. The rifle was colored a blue shade, similar to the hue of the aquamarine gem we had passed earlier. It was possible to color the exterior of a rifle like that. Since Baek Ae-young wouldn’t have had the luxury to paint the gun herself, she must have taken it from someone else. Holding a rifle that looked exactly like mine, Baek Ae-young walked through the exhibition, moving between the displayed gems like a leopard in the Savannah jungle. Her steps showed no concern for the weight or difficulty of carrying the rifle.

As Baek Ae-young walked, droplets of blood fell around her. If this blood was hers, it would have been impossible for her to still be alive. That thought made me wonder if I was really alive. Staggering like a newborn calf, I tried hard not to lose sight of the person ahead and asked Baek Ae-young.

“Are you hurt?”

Baek Ae-young shook her head firmly and wiped off the splatters on her forehead and cheeks with the back of her hand, responding,

“This isn’t my blood.”

I would have believed Baek Ae-young if she had said all this blood was from an injury and that both of us were already dead. I just nodded dumbly, listening to the ringing in my ears. My vision was blurry, so I repeatedly rubbed my eyes with my dirty hands.

“What about Shin Haeryang?”

“The gunshots you hear right now are from the team leader. He’s waiting for us.”

Us. The person Shin Haeryang was waiting for would be four people.

It took me a few seconds to realize we had reached right next to the exit of the exhibition hall. Shin Haeryang was the one shooting out of the exit door. As we approached, Shin Haeryang turned his head to see Baek Ae-young and me approaching from behind.

I could feel Shin Haeryang’s eyes scanning Baek Ae-young, then me running behind her, and then searching behind me. Two seconds later, he turned his head back to the front where the gunshots were coming from. …He figured it out. He must have realized the situation just by seeing Baek Ae-young and me arriving together.

Baek Ae-young and I hid behind Shin Haeryang. Baek Ae-young checked my gun and then said I just needed to aim and shoot. Ah. Seo Jihyuk had said the same. As Shin Haeryang fully entered the door, the door made a sound of being hit by bullets instead of him. Maybe because it’s an underwater base, but the door wasn’t a normal wooden one. It was a heavy iron door, about as thick as a thumb. I wonder if this door is also waterproof. As soon as Shin Haeryang was in a situation to talk, I thought he would blame me. He might swear at me for being useless and even shoot at me. I didn’t bring back both people. However, the words that came out of Shin Haeryang’s mouth were not of that sort.

“The submarine is unusable. They said it’s all been destroyed.”

“Team Leader. I heard that all the elevators have been stopped at the second underwater base.”

I thought he would ask where Yoo Geum-yiand Seo Jihyuk were, but Shin Haeryang didn’t ask about them at all. He didn’t ask how they died or why they died. He only talked about the current situation. So, all the elevators are stopped on this floor of the second underwater base? I wondered where all this information came from and realized a few seconds later that it must have been obtained from the enemy. But, was there time to talk to the enemy amid all that shooting? I asked Shin Haeryang blankly,

“So, there’s no way to get to the first underwater base?”

“As mentioned before, the cable car is the most likely option. They said all these gems were moved through the cable car.”

“Oh. Team Leader, you don’t seem to like the idea of the cable car.”

“I don’t like cable cars. Moohyun. Are you injured?”

Shin Haeryang was changing his magazine without looking at me. Baek Ae-young was checking her spare magazine and a knife tied to her left thigh (where did she get that from?). Since we hadn’t acquired such things, they must have been taken from others. I shook my head blankly, not mentioning my bruises from climbing the stairs, scraped palms, forearms, and knees from crawling, numb index finger from pulling the trigger, and the shock that left my brain feeling like a broken blender.

“I’m not injured.”

“If there are about 22 cultists stationed on this floor, then there would be at most 4 to 5 people now in the central plaza.”

“Why?”

“Because the hostages lying in the central plaza have all stood up against the cultists.”

Upon hearing that, I immediately imagined the scene of about ten people who had been lying down in the exhibition hall, hearing the gunfire and simultaneously getting up to attack the armed cultists with bare hands. So, the intermittent screams and cries I heard weren’t just in my head, but actual sounds from outside the exhibition hall. What about Ms. Kim Ga-young, Henry, and Jennifer? My head spun. I felt dizzy and closed my eyes for a moment, rubbing my forehead. Holding my head that felt like it was about to burst, I asked,

“Are there any hostages still alive?”

“I don’t know.”

It didn’t take long to realize that was a lie. Probably, the central plaza was strewn with bodies. Then it hit me. Shin Haeryang hates wasting time. He was the one who had hurried us up the stairwell after Baek Ae-young, making us climb the four thousand steps, and it was strange for him to calmly answer my questions and ask about my condition in the middle of a shootout. Is there really time for such a leisurely conversation while shooting and hiding?

“Why… Why aren’t we going to where the cable car is? Why are we staying here?”

“We’re waiting.”

“For what?”

At my question, Baek Ae-young smiled for the first time since we arrived at the second underwater base. Looking into her eyes felt like dipping my head in ice water.

“They think Team Leader Shin is dead and will come here to check.”

How do they know Shin Haeryang might be dead? Because he’s not shooting? Ah. Shin Haeryang must have stopped shooting to pretend he’s dying from their bullets. But what if they throw something like a bomb where we’re hiding? Baek Ae-young shook her head at my question. A grenade in an underwater base? It would be more likely to survive a grenade explosion in an airplane, she said. Hearing that made me feel odd.

Survival? Do these cultists really think about survival while doing such things here? If they were thinking about living long and prospering, wouldn’t hijacking like this be nonsensical? I couldn’t understand why these lunatics were committing such acts. They talk about living an eternal life, yet here they are, dying from bullets as small as a baby’s fingernail. If I’m going to die, I want to know the reason. I don’t want to die without knowing why.

‘We live with the immortal shark! We survive any danger and hardship!’

‘I don’t understand it well, but for the Ritual of Infinite Days, many people need to be in the building, and a certain number of people must die. They used to use fish, but for the Infinite Days, it has to be humans.’

‘But the idea of an infinite life is strange. To live forever? How long do you have to live to be considered eternal? Even life has a set duration in front of time. Even the Earth has a lifespan.’

Why did they destroy the submarine at the second underwater base? Then the cultists stationed here would also have trouble escaping. Do the cultists stationed here plan to reactivate the stopped elevators and go up to the first underwater base? Or, like they transported the gems, do they all plan to take the cable car to the surface? And what about the cultists stationed at the third underwater base? We might have moved through the hidden staircase, but how will they move to the surface?

It would be better to station all the cultists at least at the first underwater base. Why are there cultists at both the second and third underwater bases? If I were a cult leader, I would station my followers around the first underwater base and Daehan Island, kill everyone who comes up the elevator, and shoot at any submarine or escape pod that reaches the surface. Why make it difficult even for their own cultists to escape?

‘Assume everyone will be killed.’

Suddenly, my vision went black. For a moment, I thought I had either gone blind due to stress or had been shot. It was only when someone grabbed my wrist that I realized there was a power outage.

In the complete darkness of the power outage, I couldn’t see anything. Then, suddenly, someone gently grabbed my wrist in the dark, startling me. I almost jumped on the spot and swung my arm, but the person lightly tripped my leg, pushed my off-balance shoulder backward, and laid me down on the floor. I only realized I was lying down when I felt the floor against my back, and I heard Baek Ae-young’s low voice next to me.

“Don’t be scared. You almost hit my face.”

“I’m sorry. I got too scared.”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind me on my right. It was Shin Haeryang’s voice, so close that it startled me.

“We will crawl on the ground. Even if there are gunshots or if the person next to you stops, keep crawling.”

“Yes.”

Shin Haeryang kept making a rustling sound, then wrapped something around my wrist. Then I heard him tying it somewhere else. Only by touching it did I realize it was a parachute cord. Shin Haeryang had unwound the parachute cord he had wrapped around his forearm and connected us. Ah, right. This was to avoid losing each other while crawling in the dark. It was a wise method.