Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

I’ll be able to escape safely. I just need to go to the hospital and get treated. Don’t worry too much. I should be spewing hopeful words like these to make sure the patient doesn’t get anxious, but the lies felt stuck in my throat. Lee Jihyun looked at me and said,

“I want you to set the bone now.”

“What I’m doing isn’t a professional procedure so there could be nerve damage, vascular damage, habitual dislocations, muscle or bone damage…”

I didn’t formally study how to do this but I picked some things up from a friend who was an orthopedic surgery resident. And I saw someone reset a dislocated shoulder before in the past. If I do some quackery here I might get sued when I leave. But if Jihyun and I both make it out and she sues me, I must be doing pretty alright.

Jihyun drew a cross on her body and left shoulder before interrupting me decisively in a whisper.  

“Right now.”

I turned my head and saw Yoo Geum-yi finally taking off Kim Ga-young’s jeans, so I nodded. I held Jihyun’s shoulder and arm and hesitated before finding the right words.

“Open your mouth very wide and shout ‘Ave Maria’ three times.”

Jihyun looked at me for a few seconds before answering.

“Ave Maria. Ave Ma— Arrggghh!”

There was a crunching noise as the bones snapped into place. Fortunately her mouth was open so she didn’t bite her tongue or clench her teeth. Pain is a personal thing that no one can shoulder for you, whether it’s of the body or mind. It’s truly the most awful private property a person can possess. Since we don’t have our lovely friend Painkiller right now, I’ll have to leave Jihyun to endure her agony while I go check on Kim Ga-young sitting next to her.  

Kim Ga-young was missing flesh about the size of two thumbnails on her calf. It seemed the bedframe had gouged it out when she crashed into it, leaving an abrasion and contusion. Fortunately there didn’t seem to be any exposed bone, fractures, or protruding fragments on the surface. It just looked like torn skin and muscle oozing blood.  

I opened my bag and pulled out a towel that had been under the sleeping cat’s body. The cat, body flipped over, looked at me reproachfully as if in protest but I ignored its gaze and quickly closed the bag again. Sorry. A bit busy now. And when I pressed the towel to Ga-young’s leg, I made sure to use the side that hadn’t touched the cat. The gauze soaked up the blood rapidly. Ga-young let out a small breath. Yoo Geum-yi looked around and said,

“The laundry room is just a little walk from here. And there’s a shower room next to it too. Let’s go there. You both have injuries, and your clothes are soaked.”  

As soon as I heard those words, I became aware of how my clothes were sagging wetly against me. I was shivering without realizing it. Like I did with Jihyun earlier, I told Ga-young to try standing. Supporting herself on me, Ga-young gritted her teeth and stood on both feet. She didn’t even groan. While Jihyun would have cursed up a storm, Ga-young had kept her mouth clamped shut since leaving the dorm.  

Normally in situations like this, even if the injury isn’t a fracture you still treat it like one. But lacking any resources here, what treatment can I provide? On top of that, I’m a dentist. I’m only about 70% useful without my handpiece.  

Alright… No point wasting time looking for splints here. There probably isn’t anything around this hallway anyway.  I nodded at Yoo Geum-yi’s suggestion.  

“I’ll leave Ga-young- ssi to you. I’ll support Jihyun- ssi .”

Jihyun was taller than me and heavier. I shoved my bag and Yoo Geum-yi’s bag up my one arm, then grabbed Jihyun’s pad in my hand. With my other arm I supported Jihyun. At first I thought about carrying her but my legs were too shaky to try.

Our team reached the laundry room first, ahead of the Ga-young-Geum-yi pair. I tensely opened the door but no one was inside. There were several washing machines, with washed or half-washed clothes strewn messily all over the floor. Some of the machines were still running. 

I sat Jihyun down on a chair next to the long table used for folding clothes or ironing. Ugh. Jihyun let out a groan as she lowered herself onto the seat. Just as I was about to leave the laundry room again, the other two came in. I was supporting Ga-young from Geum-yi’s opposite side. Jihyun was using a towel to wipe her face. Looking at the pile of clothes, I said to the three,

“Change into some of these clothes roughly and rest about 10 minutes. I’ll be outside.”

I gathered up some big t-shirts and pants that looked like men’s clothes and took them out of the laundry room with me. As the door closed behind me I was left alone in the hallway.  

A sudden thought that I was by myself in this empty corridor made my back run cold, but still, it was several thousand times better than being in that dark water. As I messily stripped off my wet clothes, I used a t-shirt with a white cat printed on it to pat my damp skin dry and checked my calf.  

Probably because the other two’s legs took damage first, I was in the best condition of the three. But even just lightly rubbing my calf brought involuntary groans from the bruises there. I imagined swallowing anti-inflammatory meds, painkillers, and muscle relaxants as I pulled on some sweatpants with an elastic waistband. The other pants were all too big to wear.  

And whoever owned these shirts had bizarre taste. My options were either a blue earthworm, red rooster, or a black tee with the words “Polar Star”. The Polar Star one looked the most normal so I put that on. I roughly toweled my wet hair with the other tees before the effort of standing grew too tiring. I slumped down to sit crouched against the wall of the hallway.  

What should I do now? Last time when we went back to the central building, a gunfight broke out between there and the east building. Can we enter the central building now? How much time did we spend on the rescue at the west building dorms? …At least they can still walk even if they can’t run, that’s fortunate. What if someone attacks us while we’re resting here? Can’t fall asleep… Ah, someone might’ve written so I should check my tablet too. Using a t-shirt as a pillow over my head, I fell asleep leaning against the wall.  

I only realized I had sprawled out sleeping on the dim hallway floor when Yoo Geum-yi shook my arm. I wiped the drool from my palm after getting up, and aches permeated my entire body. I struggled to resist the temptation to immediately collapse my limp body back onto the ground and let my mind drift into unconsciousness. All sorts of clothes covered me. I pushed off someone’s jeans draping my body and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. Still dazed, I asked the Yoo Geum-yi beside me in surprise,

“How long was I out? Did I sleep for a long time?! Did Geum-yi- ssi cover me with the clothes?”

“It’s alright, Moohyun- ssi . Everyone slept about 25 minutes. I covered you all up so your body temperatures wouldn’t drop too much while you were sleeping.”  

More than sleeping, I felt like I had nearly fainted just now when I thought back on it. The others were probably similar. It was right for us to rest but still… Yoo Geum-yi seemed to have stayed awake standing guard.

“Oh, I see. Thank you. But I’m worried we slept for too long.”

“If we didn’t rest this much, we’d be too exhausted to even move. Don’t worry too much. We just need to move energetically for 15 more minutes.”

Well, we can’t turn back time so… She’s very positive. Yoo Geum-yi went into the laundry room and brought the others out. As I covered my mouth to yawn and turned on my tablet, the group emerged, now changed into dry clothes. Everyone was making an effort to shake off their drowsiness. Kim Ga-young, eyes swollen, nodded her head repeatedly between yawns and held out her right hand to me. Her throat sounded slightly hoarse.  

“I’m Kim Ga-young, a researcher from the west building.”

“I’m Park Moohyun from the north building. I just did what had to be done.”

I grasped and lightly shook Ga-young’s hand before letting it go. Lee Jihyun stretched before crying “Ow, ow!” and grimacing as she lowered her left arm. Then looking at my tablet, she asked,

“Any good news?”

“….None, unfortunately.”

Jihyun rubbed her left arm with her right one before speaking. 

“Let’s head to the west building evacuation pod first, like we originally planned. We got delayed here but if we can escape through the pod, we take it. If not, we move somewhere else.”

We have to reach the west building evacuation pod port to get out of here anyway. Please. Please! Please let the pod be intact! Just this once, don’t let the dream come true!  

“Alright. If we can’t escape from the pod port, we’ll decide then where to go next.”

As soon as I said that, Kim Ga-young walking ahead sighed quietly. 

“I was so stiff from the pain earlier I couldn’t move at all, but now after some rest I can walk again even though it still hurts.”  

That would be muscle rigidity from the shock. Near-death experiences can induce shock too. It reminds me of the R.I.C.E treatment for contusions I learned a while ago. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation . We at least got some brief Rest . No need to apply the other steps here, I just want to go straight to a hospital. Were we supposed to do this treatment within 24 hours…?

In everyday life there’s rarely a need to apply this stuff. In Korea if the injury is bad you just go to a hospital ER, and if it’s not serious you visit an orthopedic clinic that opens at 8 AM to get fixed right up. It’s like magic how the doctors there can return your body to normal. Rubbing the ridge of her eyebrow with her thumb, Yoo Geum-yi hesitated before asking Kim Ga-young walking ahead,

“Did you see anyone from the marine life center?”

“No I didn’t. I only heard voices from the seafloor pollution center people. How about you all from the research center?”  

“It was destroyed. I heard missiles blew it up, do you know anything?”

“First time hearing that. I was asleep and got woken up by people screaming as they all came rushing out of the dorms. I was stuck in there the whole time. No water flooded in and no one was shrieking anymore, just running footsteps I could hear. It was so, so scary you know? And wanna know what was weirdly funny about that situation? Even then some person went around searching each dorm room one by one.” 

“…..To look for people?”

Kim Ga-young gave a bitter smile at Yoo Geum-yi’s question before saying quietly,  

“Seemed like they were ransacking. My neighbor researcher had a safe and I kept hearing it go beep beep with the password entered wrong. When we’re about to die, some people don’t value their lives huh?”

Ga-young then sighed again. Massaging her shoulder with the opposite hand, she made an effort to relax the stiffened muscles while speaking,

“So I started screaming for help. And the guy was like what’s the password, how would I know it? When I told him to open my door and I’d tell him, he just swore at me and left.”