Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

Seo Jihyuk looked at Sumire, then turned to me and asked:

“Is there any particular reason we need to take her along? If not, I’d like to untie her.”

As Seo Jihyuk asked me, the eyes of both people sitting on the floor fixed on me. Seo Jihyuk’s words clearly meant we should abandon the two of them. The look in the other two people’s eyes meant they wanted the ropes binding their hands untied.

These two shouldn’t be traveling together. If it weren’t for the disaster situation, they probably wouldn’t have had any reason to be involved with each other. Due to the circumstances, they had to go together for a few minutes, but if we kept them together any longer, who knows what would happen.

“Untie them.”

Am I being selfish wanting to keep these two together? As soon as I spoke, Seo Jihyuk pulled out a pair of scissors from his pocket. He cut the parachute cords binding their wrists.

As soon as their wrists were freed, the two who had been fused together separated instantly. John Doe, shaking Sumire off his back as if dusting himself off, moved away from Sumire, screaming loudly like a wild horse that had been forcibly restrained.

“I’ll never carry that woman again! Just kill me instead! Kill me!”

Sumire rubbed her wrists, which were not only bright red from the parachute cord but also abraded, and glared at John. Then she boldly asked me and Seo Jihyuk:

“Oh. That was funny just now. Thinking someone would carry you.”

“How am I supposed to go anywhere with my legs like this?”

Seo Jihyuk answered Sumire’s question without blinking:

“They say in convection currents, cold air settles on the floor. It’s perfect timing for crawling since it’s cold. And the quarters are close by.”

Ignoring Seo Jihyuk’s answer, Sumire said:

“Team Leader Shin Hae-ryang made me like this, so tell him to take me back.”

“Knowing our team leader’s personality, he’d probably tell you to crawl just the same.”

“If he hadn’t attacked me in the first place, none of this would have happened.”

Seo Jihyuk stared at Sumire silently for a moment, then sighed.

“You really don’t know anything, do you? If any of us three had been carrying a gun at that time, you’d have had a hole in your head right away. You’re only alive because we were just holding these dumbbells and weights.”

Seo Jihyuk said, showing the dumbbells and weights he was holding. Sumire flinched when she saw the dumbbell in Seo Jihyuk’s hand, then frowned.

“Then leave me here. I’ll get to my room on my own.”

“…What exactly is in your room?”

When Seo Jihyuk asked out of curiosity, Sumire answered with what sounded like a sigh:

“Just a normal room.”

“Crazy person. She’s a crazy person.”

John muttered while pointing at Sumire, but Sumire didn’t pay any attention to John’s behavior. She just gave John a look of contempt. Now there’s only one person left without a destination. I asked John:

“What are you going to do, Mr. John Doe?”

“I’m not going with you guys!”

“Where are you planning to go?”

“Anywhere is better than being with you people!”

John looked at Seo Jihyuk and wrinkled his face. Then he looked at Sumire and scowled fiercely, looked at me with an expression like he was about to vomit, then suddenly stood up and ran. Baek Ae-young, who had been walking in the middle of the group, saw John running from behind and momentarily raised her gun, then lowered it. Then she shouted at us who were left at the very back:

“What are you doing?”

Seo Jihyuk answered Baek Ae-young’s question simply:

“We’re coming!”

“Idiots!”

“That, that! Really.”

Seo Jihyuk muttered, looking at Baek Ae-young in the distance. Sumire tried to stand up by leaning against the wall but fell down twice. It seemed impossible for her to stand properly due to the pain in both legs. Occasional curses in Japanese came out, but I couldn’t understand them. Seo Jihyuk said to me:

“Let’s go.”

After walking about three steps following Seo Jihyuk, I looked back and saw Sumire now crawling forward in the opposite direction using her forearms. I’ve tried crawling on the floor before, and it’s not an easy way to move. I had forgotten how much strength it takes in the arms to crawl like that.

When Seo Jihyuk didn’t hear my footsteps, he turned around. He looked at Sumire and said in an emotionless voice:

“Anyway, no matter how much you sympathize with people like that, they’ll just keep taking advantage of you. If she can crawl, she’s fine.”

I think the standard of “fine” in this underwater base and my standard of “fine” are quite different. I’ll probably have nightmares about this. Seeing a person unable to use their legs and crawling is more shocking than I expected.

“…I’ll just take her to her quarters and come back. The quarters are right in front of the escape pod port, right?”

“I don’t know. You never know how things might go wrong in this world. Doctor, think about it one more time.”

“I’ll only be 5 minutes late.”

Seo Jihyuk looked at me for a moment, then spoke towards Baek Ae-young’s retreating back:

“Why are you choosing the difficult path? If we find a decent submersible, we might just leave on our own.”

“I suppose so. If you find a submersible, escape right away.”

Seo Jihyuk nodded at my words and then went towards Baek Ae-young. I approached Sumire, thinking I’d dedicate just 5 minutes of my life to this person.

When I touched Sumire’s shoulder from behind, calling her name, she was startled. She probably didn’t expect me to come back.

“What’s your room number?”

“52.”

“I just need to take you to your room, right?”

“…Yes.”

I crouched down in front of Sumire and offered my back, and Sumire approached, almost crawling, and wrapped her arms around my neck. Her body was extremely cold. It felt like a long-legged spider wrapping around my neck, but I tried hard to ignore that feeling. When I stood up carrying Sumire, I was hit with a weight that felt like carrying two Henrys.

Okay. I can do this. If I’ve decided to do it, I should do it right away. Fortunately, Sumire’s room number is in the middle. I tried to inject some positivity into myself with thoughts like, “At least it’s not the very end or the very front number, so it’s not too bad to take her there and come back.” I can return. It’s just using 5 minutes.

Fortunately, Sumire didn’t say anything after getting on my back. No complaints about being tired, in pain, or cold. Considering her conflict with John, she was eerily quiet. Does she dislike that person? Or is she in too much pain to speak? Is she exhausted from all the commotion?

Whatever the reason, she didn’t say anything while I carried her, so I tried not to speak to Sumire either. I didn’t know what to say anyway. All questions seemed stupid. Does your leg hurt? Of course it would. Are you very cold? She must be. Why did you have a gun? She probably didn’t carry it because she wanted to.

Sumire remained still, not moving at all. It was very different from when I carried Henry. The kid liked to play around, so he would wiggle, giggle, or move, but Sumire was completely still like a brick or a log. So I too tried to become a human taxi, quietly transporting her safely to her destination.

Not long after passing the escape pod port, stairs and a door leading to the East District quarters appeared. Before water filled West District, this door was always open, so I didn’t even realize it was a door. The structure of the quarters was identical to West District.

Unlike South District and West District which were flooded, East District was fine. There wasn’t a drop of water on the floor. Are South District and West District poorly constructed? Or is East District built exceptionally sturdy? Entering the intact quarters, I felt somewhat moved and relieved at the same time. If water had been actively flooding the quarters, I would have started to wonder if I should really take Sumire to her room.

The corridor was a mess with posters and writings stuck here and there. A poster saying “Guys over 6 feet tall will obviously play basketball, right?” was stuck at a height over 180cm. Posters with rugby ball pictures and contact information, or saying that bicycles, jogging, American football watching, badminton rackets are waiting for your interest were also stuck in corners.

Next to that, a poster about free scuba diving lessons had a red X drawn over it and all kinds of curses scribbled on it. Inquiries about helicopter costs for flying to a Hawaiian dentist, fluorescent posters of some unknown foreign band were stuck on the walls and ceiling here and there. Writings about selling effective headache medicine, group horror movie watching, looking for a girlfriend, along with curses and lewd talk were drawn on the walls. Someone had even spray-painted curses in red on someone else’s door. West District was relatively clean, but this place is messier than I thought.

As I lost focus for about 3 seconds looking at the East District corridor, Sumire pointed to a room with her finger. When we walked to room 52, Sumire put her finger next to the door. The door opened, but I only saw the room a few seconds later because I was distracted by the chaotic corridor. The room was somewhat like a young woman’s room, but half of it was like a hospital. As soon as Sumire entered the room, she went to a place that looked like a modified desk right next to the bed. There, a furball about the size of a forearm was wrapped in a blanket. What is that?

It took me a while to realize it was a dog. The fur had grown so much and hadn’t been trimmed at all, so I thought it was some kind of carpet or scarf with peculiar fur. Crawling with her injured legs, Sumire looked at the catheter connected to the bladder and checked that the bag was about 3/4 full of urine. Then she replaced the catheter bag. Unable to believe what I was seeing, I asked directly:

“Is it a puppy?”

“Yes.”

And then there was no more explanation. Sumire pushed in a very thin meal with a syringe without a needle. Seeing my gaze, Sumire said:

“It’s 30 years old.”

“You mean Sumire?”

“I’m 23 years old.”

Hearing her serious voice, I barely grasped the content of the conversation. I guess the dog is 30 years old. She injected a fluid subcutaneously, but since I know nothing about animals, I didn’t know if it was okay to inject fluid subcutaneously. Is that alright? However, Sumire very skillfully checked the dog’s condition during the time she had been away. Does it have kidney problems, so she’s keeping it like this?

“Aren’t you going to escape?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“They say the temperature will drop and the air supply will decrease.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“You could die.”

“I don’t care how people live or die.”

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