Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

All three of us started crawling, and I thought I was going crazy after just 30 seconds. During the shootout, the fear of getting shot made me insensitive to any pain no matter how much I crawled, but after crawling about 5 meters in the darkness, my whole body ached.

I know infants crawl around eight months, but how do they manage it? The strength required in the arms and legs is no joke. And the person crawling in front of me must be Baek Ae-young, but how is she moving so efficiently? Was she a lizard in a past life? My arms weakened, and I gasped for breath as I lay face down on the floor. I had no time to think about dust or anything else.

Suddenly, someone fired a gun. A scream! As soon as the scream was heard, gunshots started echoing from all directions. I crawled on the ground, crying. When the parachute cord tied to my wrist became taut, I crawled towards that direction. The gunshots continued unabated; initially, Baek Ae-young and Shin Haeryang fired, but even after they stopped, the shooting went on. It seemed like in the darkness, people were firing indiscriminately, not distinguishing friend from foe. Continuous screams, heavy breathing, and groans of pain filled the air. The sound of gunfire was so loud that my ears rang, and my head hurt.

Overwhelmed with fear, I crawled on the ground, wondering if I really needed to survive this ordeal. I looked at the parachute cord tied to my wrist and gathered my thoughts. Think about it later. I’ll think about it later. First, let’s escape from here and then think. Think about it when I get home. As my head drooped from exhaustion to the ground, a bullet whizzed just below my chin. Chills ran down my spine. If I hadn’t kept my head down, that bullet could have been fatal. Was it a stray bullet? Or did someone in the dark recognize us and shoot? As I rubbed my chin with my palm, something slippery smeared on it. I yelled reflexively.

“Someone is targeting and shooting at us!”

“Run!”

With the sound of gunfire and Shin Haeryang’s shout, I came to my senses, already sprinting forward like mad. Every time the parachute cord wrapped around my wrist tightened, I ran as hard as I could to catch up with Baek Ae-young, who must be ahead. Baek Ae-young must have been a cheetah in a past life. They said she was fast, but isn’t this faster than a horse? No matter how fast I ran, the parachute cord remained taut.

Then, I misstepped and slid on the floor, tumbling down with a loud crash. The pain was so intense I thought I might pass out. My right side and thigh felt like they were disappearing, yet at the same time, it felt like my muscles and bones were screaming in pain. Just then, Shin Haeryang grabbed my arm with tremendous force. I barely managed to stand up, fearing my arm would be pulled out if I didn’t.

All I wanted was to lie down and pass out. Shin Haeryang fired his gun into the darkness, and I, limping and crying, ran forward. The thought that I shouldn’t become a burden to Shin Haeryang anymore was the only thing driving me. Otherwise, I would have given up everything and collapsed on the floor.

I thought I had been wandering in that pitch darkness for about an hour, but I later learned that all these events happened in less than 10 minutes since the power outage. Shin Haeryang came running from behind, grabbed my arm, and we ran forward. He occasionally shot backward, and I couldn’t understand why he was shooting at something invisible.

Shin Haeryang pushed me into a room, felt around the wall to close and lock the door. Even in the power outage, the room was faintly lit. Looking around, I realized we were at the cable car station. We made it! I followed, unwinding the parachute cord from my arm, which was tied around a pillar at the cable car station. The same was true for the parachute cord tied to Shin Haeryang’s arm. I went to untie the cord tied next to the pillar, thinking I might need to give it to Shin Haeryang, but the parachute cord was covered in blood. Seeing that, a ringing noise sounded in my ears. Where was Baek Ae-young?

Shin Haeryang brought chairs from around the station and knocked a few over in front of the door. As I was looking around the station to find Baek Ae-young, I found her inside the control room, pressing buttons. Her fingertips were soaked in blood, smearing it on the buttons. Baek Ae-young had been covered in blood since earlier. Fearfully, I asked,

“Are you hurt, Ae-young?”

“Yes.”

“Where… Where are you hurt? Is it bad?”

“That’s not important. What about the team leader?”

“He’s stacking chairs in front of the door.”

“You seem injured too.”

Baek Ae-young pointed at my leg. I thought I had just bruised my leg when I fell, but when I felt it, it wasn’t my leg but my backpack that was soaked in blood. I opened one of the backpacks I was carrying. Inside was a blood-soaked cat. I couldn’t tell when it had been shot, but it twitched intermittently. The cat made a deep, rumbling breath. As I stood frozen, holding the backpack, unsure what to do, Baek Ae-young zipped it back up. She then shook her head and said,

“You shouldn’t get attached so easily.”

“Excuse me?”

“You shouldn’t give your heart to things that are still alive; they die too quickly. It’d only hurt you.”

Baek Ae-young, holding her side with one hand, pulled the trigger with the other, shooting two rounds into my backpack lying on the floor. I was in shock, staring blankly at the backpack with bullet holes. Baek Ae-young had cared for this unnamed cat the most. If it wasn’t in my backpack, she would have carried it up those four thousand steps herself.

Baek Ae-young pushed the backpack with the cat into a corner. As the backpack moved, it left a trail of blood. Now that I noticed, the floor was a mess with blood droplets everywhere. Baek Ae-young looked at the operating cable car and coughed softly.

My head hurts. It felt like someone was hammering a nail between my eyebrows. An immense pain shot through my forehead and temples. For a moment, I thought someone had shot me in the head. When Baek Ae-young grabbed my shoulder, I barely turned my head towards her. She must have shaken my shoulder when I didn’t respond. I thought the blood wasn’t mine, but it turned out to be coming from my nose. Blood was dripping from my nose. Baek Ae-young pointed at my face and asked.

“Why… Why is that?”

While either swallowing the blood from my nosebleed or letting it drip down, I barely managed to speak.

“It’s okay. I think it’s just stress.”

I wasn’t sure if it was truly stress, the onset of some illness, or an unnoticed bullet wound. My head had started to hurt terribly as soon as I looked at the cat in the backpack. I hadn’t taken good care of it after bringing it here. But I couldn’t just leave it to die in that water, could I? Until now, thanks to me, that cat had been fairly happy. Did I bring it all this way just to kill it? Holding my nose with one hand and lifting my head, I saw that all the cable car control panels were a mess. Clutching the bridge of my nose tightly, I asked,

“Can it still operate in that condition?”

“Yes. It’s been set to not stop. It receives power from both sides.”

“Ah.”

Shin Haeryang was approaching the cable car. Baek Ae-young and I, supporting each other, headed towards the cable car, moving almost like zombies. Especially me, as my nosebleed wouldn’t stop, half of it running onto my hand and arm, the other half being swallowed. Shin Haeryang opened the nearest door of the cable car, pushed Baek Ae-young in, and I followed, collapsing next to her on the floor. Only after falling did I realize someone was still shooting. Shin Haeryang was returning fire, but unable to help, I just covered Baek Ae-young with my body.

“Get up!”

Shin Haeryang was shouting. I barely lifted my head, and if he was right, he was telling us to get off immediately. If I had a wish, it would be to close my eyes and lie down here, not getting up. But judging who was lazier between the person shooting at the approaching cultists without proper cover and the person lying on the ground, I had no argument even if I had a hundred mouths. I shook Baek Ae-young, who was lying on the floor.

“We have to get up!”

“I don’t want to.”

“We have to, even if you don’t want to!”

I slung one of Baek Ae-young’s arms around the back of my neck and grabbed her waist to help her stand. It was the first time I realized how well Baek Ae-young could curse. An incredible barrage of curses flew towards the bullets whizzing by, the bullets embedded in our bodies, the fanatics, the underwater base, the despicable people we met there, and towards the Chinese, Japanese, Canadians, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Koreans. Even as I struggled to breathe without swallowing blood through my nose or mouth, I couldn’t help but chuckle at her swearing. “Seems like there weren’t many good people around,” I said, choking on blood.

As Baek Ae-young and I stumbled out of the cable car, Shin Haeryang urged us to get into another one right in front of us. The cable car was moving away much faster than we were able to move. I thought we wouldn’t be able to catch it, but Shin Haeryang, with both of us tucked under his arms, ran to catch the cable car. Just as I thought we still wouldn’t make it, Shin Haeryang threw me into the open door of the cable car with incredible speed. I couldn’t even let out a squeak as I flew inside. He then jumped in with Baek Ae-young before the door closed.

As soon as the cable car door closed, an announcement indicated it had been properly sealed. Why did it need to be sealed? Holding my bleeding nose, I looked up and saw oxygen and nitrogen levels displayed near the door. Were those indicators always there? Maybe because it’s a submarine cable car. I learned for the first time that bullets shot underwater travel in a straight line. As the cable car fully submerged, the figures of the fanatics in the distance disappeared.

I then realized that the first cable car we were on had been showered with bullets, and Shin Haeryang had gotten us off just before it went underwater. No wonder the doors closed immediately after we boarded. Shin Haeryang leaned against the door of the cable car, breathing heavily, while I lay crumpled inside, looking out the window. It was so dark outside that for a moment, I thought I had lost my sight.