Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea - Chapter 103

Kevin looked at the axe, then at me and slowly explained,

“People followed Bell’s orders until the escape pods dropped below 30. But when the escape pods decreased to less than 20 and water started to fill up, people started fighting to get on the escape pods. The phone doesn’t work, and no matter how much I look among the people gathered, my friend isn’t there. On the way to the 6th floor friend’s lab, I suddenly fell and an axe was stuck in my leg.”

Kevin lightly brushed the bandage on his calf with his hand.

“It didn’t hurt until I moved. I just couldn’t walk. The guy who threw the axe at me was a New Zealander I saw occasionally in the break room or cafeteria, and even after thinking about it all this time, I don’t really know why he threw the axe at me. We hardly talked to each other normally. I guess he judged that if the number of people decreases, he could get on an escape pod.”

Kevin looked at the faces of the people inside the elevator one by one, then spoke with difficulty in a hoarse voice,

“Rather than the axe being stuck in my leg, it was more terrifying to see him coming at me. He was sprinting towards me at full speed as I fell.”

Then he inhaled and exhaled. Every time Kevin spoke, there was a metallic sound in his throat, and now that I think about it, it seemed like his voice was hoarse from crying so much.

“After fighting with the people approaching, I was alone on the 6th floor. I crawled to my friend’s lab and the door was open but no one was there.”

Kevin gripped the axe handle once, then trembled and released the strength in his hand again. Looking now, several of Kevin’s nails were broken, seemingly broken while crawling. I was too busy looking at the axe to even see the nails.

I rummaged through my bag, found medical paper tape, tore off a few pieces with my fingertips, and wrapped them over Kevin’s nails. It won’t help much, but it was a temporary measure. At least it would prevent the nails from breaking or tearing off further.

Looking at Kevin up close, fatigue was fully settled above his eye sockets. The sight of him taking shallow, panting breaths didn’t look particularly good either. Emma, who was huddled in the corner, looked similar. They were both terrified. Come to think of it, everyone here was sensitive due to the disaster situation and consumed by fear. It seemed like Kanu was the only one who wasn’t scared at all. Thinking of the two offices on the 3rd floor, I asked Kevin,

“There was a room on the 3rd floor where dead people were gathered, have you been there by any chance?”

Kevin stared at me blankly, then shook his head.

“No.”

I recalled the water that stayed below the ankle when I was in the elevator on the 1st floor, rising to the calf in an instant. The Marine Pollution Center would be submerged in water.

I thought of the corpses I saw on the 3rd floor. I tried hard to escape from imagining the numerous corpses laid in the room being submerged and floating in water. Damn it. People don’t die so horribly at the dentist’s office. …Good thought. Let’s think positively. I tried to say something nice to Kevin.

“Your friend might not be in that room. He might have gone to another research center, or got on an escape pod when you couldn’t see him while fighting.”

“I hope so.”

Kevin said weakly. And soon there was silence. The atmosphere was gloomy. Benjamin was quickly losing strength from James’s sarcasm. It was because no one agreed with him. Harsh words were flying around telling each other to just breathe while being stuck in a corner. They were even exchanging words that it’s okay not to breathe if possible.

The elevator was still shrouded in darkness, and it was felt that people were unwittingly soaked in fear due to the darkness lasting longer than before. To save Kevin, who was trying to sink into depression, even a little, and to sort out my thoughts, I asked him a question.

“If you could go back to the past by paying money like Kanu, would you go back?”

“…I don’t think I would go. It would be impossible to prepare that much money, but I have always lived by thinking deeply and making choices to the best of my ability each time. Even if I go back to the past, I don’t know if I can live a life like I do now. Of course, if I go back to yesterday, I wouldn’t stay here today.”

To some extent, I can relate. If I could only go back to tomorrow, I want to immediately leave the underwater base, hitchhike on a helicopter or boat passing by the Korean Peninsula, and leave this place.

“What about going back six hundred years or a few thousand years like that?”

“If I go that far back in the past, there’s no one I know. I don’t want to go.”

I see. Well. When I think of my family, even if something happened in the past, I also only wanted to wander within the time period I lived in. Kanu’s wish doesn’t seem to be common. I don’t know well about other people.

Jihyun, who seemed to have finished praying, was listening to the conversation between me and Kevin, who were closest. I asked Jihyun, who was lowering her folded hands,

“Are you done praying?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask what you prayed for?”

“To help us get out of here well. For the Lord to look down so I don’t beat up those people. Your little lamb is wandering in the deep sea. It would be nice if you could fix the elevator. Things like that.”

Jihyun said with a slight smile. After praying, she seemed to feel a little better than before. It’s a field I can’t understand at all, but if it gives someone else peace of mind.

“We were talking about going back to the past. If you could go back to the past by paying money, would you want to go back, Jihyun-ssi?”

“Does it matter when?”

Someone even said they wanted to go back 600 years. Well. No matter what you say, it won’t be surprising.

“Yes.”

“If I go back to the past, is my past self there?”

Oh? This is an unexpected question. It does seem certain that Kanu himself wouldn’t be there 600 years ago. …Right. If I went back to yesterday’s date, what would happen if I, who came from the future, met myself who was in the clinic yesterday?

“I don’t know. What if they are there?”

After thinking for a moment, Jihyun said,

“I want to go back to when I was twenty years old.”

“May I ask why?”

“I want to tell myself to move out quickly. I want to tell myself that I will finally be happy when I have a place to be alone, whether it’s a monthly rent or a lease. And I’ll tell myself a few stocks that will rise.”

Kim Ga-young and Yoo Geum-yi, who were quietly listening to our conversation with their chins resting, nodded and answered.

“Me too, stocks.”

“For me, lottery numbers.”

“Ah, that’s good too. But I don’t think either my past self or present self would be able to memorize the numbers.”

Smiling while listening to the two’s stories, I asked Jihyun,

“Don’t you want to go back a few hundred or a few thousand years?”

“Like spreading my clothes at the foot of Golgotha Hill for him to step on?”

“Pardon? I didn’t ask the question assuming what kind of answer you would give.”

Where is Golgotha Hill? Was it the place of Jesus’s execution? Why lay clothes for him? Jihyun spoke as if looking at the past, even though she was looking into the darkness.

“I want to help my young self a little more. Jesus and God will understand.”

There was a brief silence after Jihyun’s words. Not a few seconds later, Kim Ga-young suddenly said while brushing her chin with her fingertips,

“Now that I think about it, if I could go back to the distant past, I want to go kill Prince Yangnyeong.”

If my memory is correct, wasn’t that person King Sejong’s older brother?

“Why that person?”

“No, wait a minute. Now that I think about it, Injo is the worst. …No, Seonjo is also a mess. Should I make Jeongjo quit drinking and smoking? …Now that I think about it, even if I go back to that time, I don’t think I have the ability to assassinate the crown prince or the king, so it seems a bit much, right?”

Kim Ga-young began to fall into deep thought while reciting the names of Joseon Dynasty kings one by one. She seems much more knowledgeable about Korean history than me. I only roughly know the names of the kings, but their achievements are all mixed up in my head.

Was it Yeongjo who implemented the Tangpyeong policy? But what is Tangpyeong? …I memorized it but I can’t remember. Was it Yeonsan-gun and Gwanghae-gun? There was a reason those people couldn’t put ‘jo’ at the end. I tried to rummage through my memories of Korean history that were over 10 years old in my brain, but gave up. Kim Ga-young muttered blankly,

“If I alone… could greatly change history.”

Then suddenly Kim Ga-young frowned and said to me,

“Putting aside whether that cult can send me back to the past or not, I don’t want to go back hundreds or thousands of years by paying even a hundred won of my own money to change history or help with anything. There’s no big gain for me anyway. Let those old men who say strange things be happy. What do I care what happens to the Andong Kim clan!”

Then, as if Kim Ga-young thought of something, she started to express her frustration, saying “Ah!” while snorting. Yoo Geum-yi suddenly burst into laughter and laughed softly, then asked me who was next to her,

“Do you want to go to the distant past, Moo-hyun-ssi?”

When asked this question, there is only one place I would go back to.

“Yes.”

“Where do you want to go?”

I circled my eyes and waist with my fingertips and said,

“I want to go back to before the accident. I wish no one had gotten hurt.”

People who have been hospitalized for a long time after experiencing a major accident, or those whose family members were involved in a major accident, would probably sympathize with my opinion. How important it is to live healthy without getting hurt. And how much time, money, and effort it takes to regain one’s original life.

“I see. I want to go back to when I was about 10 years old, be labeled a genius, receive a lot of government support, and redo this research or buy a lot of flour from then on with the goal of a bakery.”

With those words, the elevator moved again. Unlike before, when the elevator started operating with a little less rattling, James and Benjamin, who were standing, both fell on their buttocks. People who were half standing or sitting were also all startled. I also hit my body against the elevator wall, and Yoo Geum-yi and Kim Ga-young, who were sitting close to me, collided with each other’s shoulders.

“Kak!”

“Huk!”

“Ugh!”

“Ahhhhh! We’re all dying! We’re all dying! We’re all falling to our deaths! Ahhhhh!”

While people were shocked by the slightly shaking elevator, the lights came on. And the elevator began to rise again. My body was stiff with tension, but I realized I was holding my breath and managed to inhale and exhale.

Carter, who was terrified, kept screaming until Logan kicked him for being noisy, then he shut his mouth. After a few seconds of silence, he asked the people around him,

“I heard there’s a good posture in case the elevator falls, does anyone know?”

Emma, with a pale expression, said sarcastically,

“Do you want to live that badly? If you fall, just die. Why bother trying to live?”

“You die.”