Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

Chapter 109

As the barrel of the gun, which had been pointing toward the floor, was raised upward in an instant, the startled people all threw their bodies to the ground. Ji-hyun and I froze in place. We couldn’t move.

Someone pushed Ji-hyun and me, and we fell to the floor. The woman, smiling, aimed at the people lying face down and pulled the trigger. Perhaps because it was set to single shot, two dull sounds of “bang! bang!” rang out, but the sturdy glass encasing the elevator didn’t shatter.

The people who had lain down covering their heads all screamed upon hearing the gunshots. Fear surged through my head like a wave.

Even though the glass didn’t break, the brown-haired woman laughed at us, showing her teeth as if it was amusing. Since I had fallen backward, I noticed while looking at the inside of her mouth that all her teeth seemed to be implants. Her tongue also looked like it had been surgically altered, but it happened so quickly that I couldn’t see it properly.

In an instant, she changed the gun’s setting to automatic and fired at us again. Bang bang bang bang bang! Screams rang out from here and there. The bullets embedded in the glass, creating spider web-like cracks. Thump thump thump thump thump thump! My heartbeat pounded in my ears as if it would burst, just like the gunshots. It didn’t break. The glass didn’t break!

The woman tapped the elevator’s glass wall a few times with the gun and tilted her head slightly to the side as if regretful. Then, as if the earpiece was noisy, she took it out from her ear and put it back in after a few seconds.

Even during that time, she didn’t move the gun barrel aimed at the people lying face down on the floor with their heads covered. The woman, who had been looking at the people lying or fallen on the floor in their respective postures, made eye contact with me, who had fallen backward. The woman smiled at me and waved one hand to the side two or three times. Judging by her lip movements, it seemed she was saying, “See you again.” And then the woman turned her back on us and started climbing the hill.

Even though that armed person was exposing her back to us defenseless, there was nothing we could do. We just lay on the floor, watching her receding back get farther and farther away. Even when she was quite far, people kept their heads down, and I blankly stared at her back and the glass with several radial cracks spreading out.

Kevin, who had thrown himself over Ji-hyun with his body, asked,

“She’s gone.”

I answered like that while watching the figure, now about the size of a finger, climbing the hill. If she crossed that hill to the end and walked near the cliff by the beach, the central elevator would appear.

Someone pushed me as I was lying there blankly, my soul having left my body.

“Move!”

Only when Benjamin roughly shoved me to the side did I realize that I was lying on top of Benjamin and Emma. People scrambled to their feet from the floor. Then they looked at the window with the bullets embedded.

“It’s sturdier than I thought.”

“Right? This wasn’t just ordinary glass.”

“What’s with her? Why does she have a rifle?”

“Does anyone know her? How did she bring a gun to the underwater base?”

“What’s going on up there? How do we get up?”

“Are you okay? What’s happening?”

Kim Ga-young and Yoo Geum-yi were shouting at us from inside the elevator compartment. Only after seeing their faces did I exhale.

I realized just now that I had been holding my breath. I was so tense that my upper and lower abdomen were aching. I slid down the wall and slumped to the floor.

My mind thought I should go down and lift or catch the two of them, but it seemed all my muscles had loosened from relief. Once I plopped down on the floor, I had no strength to move. When James went down again to lift the two up, the people above hurriedly pulled them up. Once Yoo Geum-yi also came up to the ceiling, people were already discussing escape plans.

“We have to get out of here and go to the beach, even if it means being ready to get shot! There will be boats.”

“Boats? Don’t you see the smoke coming from the helipad on top of that hill? Unless they’re having a barbecue with helicopters or the helipad, I’ll give you all my assets if we go out. They probably destroyed all the helicopters while leaving the boats in a fairly normal and intact state!”

“My yacht! I’ll kill whoever touched my yacht!”

“Who would take your cheap yacht? It would sink before going even 10m.”

“Jesus. Please, I’ll diligently make offerings at the church in front of my house this weekend. You know I’ve lived an honest life.”

“What kind of person is she to shoot like that? Does she even know this is an underwater base while doing that? Is this terrorism or what?”

“The phone still doesn’t work even after coming this far.”

Ji-hyun rubbed her tired-looking eyelids and said,

“Let’s first decide whether to leave or stay here. Let’s do a simple vote. Raise your hand if you want to leave the elevator.”

“Wait a minute. Can we open the elevator door and close it again?”

When Kanu asked, Ji-hyun thought for a moment and nodded.

“Well, it seems possible. To open the elevator door now, we need to force it open with strength. Closing it also requires using force. It probably won’t close as tightly as it is now, though.”

Surprisingly, except for Carter and Logan, no one raised their hand to say they would leave the elevator. Carter said with a grimace,

“I feel like I’ll go crazy from the stuffiness if I stay in this elevator any longer! Whether it’s a boat or a helicopter, I’m going to swim if I have to in order to leave this island. I want to breathe fresh air right now!”

Logan looked at the bullets embedded in the glass window, stretched his wrists and fingers, and said,

“She’s just one woman anyway. If everyone here attacks together, even if a few of us fall, we can subdue her, can’t we?”

“Think rationally. She’s a woman ‘with a gun.’ She’s armed with a modified M27. She could kill the people here five times over! And what if there’s more than one person when we go out?”

Emma looked at Logan’s opinion with disdain. James glanced at the people around him and said,

“Let’s wait until someone from the outside judges that something’s wrong with the underwater base and comes to rescue us. What ability do we have to save ourselves?”

“I’m going to leave here. I really can’t endure it with you guys.”

Sam responded to Carter’s words,

“Then you leave!”

“I will!”

Sitting a short distance from the center of the elevator, Kanu was looking at the hill visible through the front window while half-lying on the floor. I asked Kanu weakly, sprawled on the floor,

“Is it someone you know?”

“That guy earlier? No. I’m seeing her for the first time. She seems quite crazy.”

“What are you looking at?”

“I’m thinking maybe my Mi-172 is among the things being burned and smoked over there.”

“What’s that?”

Is it an abbreviation? The translator didn’t say anything. Kanu replied as if it was no big deal,

“An old and aging helicopter.”

“Can individuals buy helicopters too?”

“If you have money, there’s nothing you can’t buy. If you’re bored, come visit the US sometime. I’ll show you the end of capitalism.”

It’s surprising that individuals can buy helicopters. I don’t even have a bicycle. Come to think of it, some people here seem to have bought yachts or boats.

“What’s Pounamu? The gemstone that woman had earlier.”

When I asked about the dark green gemstones dangling from the gun, Kanu seemed to perk up a bit as if it was a field he was knowledgeable about,

“It’s a symbol of good luck and is considered a link between the past, present, and future. It’s green and is usually found a lot on New Zealand’s South Island. I bought a few and gave them as gifts when I went there before. These days, cheap Chinese jades are being sold online as Pounamu, but they’re all fake. Those are usually consumed by gifting them to someone, but seeing that woman shoot the gun, it doesn’t seem like she bought or received them as a gift.”

Did she snatch them with the gun? Kanu traced the gemstone embedded in the lighter with his index fingertip. Come to think of it, the Infinity Church members seem to be wearing gemstones. Did Tyler have them too? Wearing dark clothes, black hats, and shark patches isn’t all there is to it?

Next to me, Kevin was apologizing to Yoo Geum-yi and Kim Ga-young. Did they get very startled? I’m sorry. He was going on about how he thought entering the elevator compartment would be the safest since the other person was holding a gun.

I was listening to people’s conversations in a daze when I heard a familiar sound and turned my head. But nothing was reflected in the front window. What is it?

Bang!

A noise that seemed to make my ears go deaf reverberated. An impact that felt like riding a roller coaster at an amusement park instantly engulfed my body. Because my body suddenly shook here and there, I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them. Dizziness hit me to the point of making me nauseous. The moment I held onto the wall and barely endured the shaking, the people in front of me disappeared in an instant, and a car took their place.

I was looking at the surreal sight of a crushed car occupying the space where the people and elevator walls had vanished. The truck that had charged in also had its driver’s seat and passenger seat completely shattered, but no one was inside. One side of the elevator wall was also almost wrecked and collapsing, and people were pinned under the truck like mannequins or broken apart nearby.

It felt really strange to have a severed human leg placed on top of my body. Only after some time passed did the vacuum-like silence in my ears and the ensuing ringing noise of “eeeeeeee!” finally begin to subside.

Blood was flowing down from my forehead, and with the blood running down my eyes and chin, I couldn’t see properly out of one eye. Moreover, I couldn’t move my body. Even when I tried to move a single finger, my whole body was stiff like a totem pole and wouldn’t move at all. Groans and screams echoed from here and there.

Just turning my head required tremendous strength and effort. When I turned my head, groans involuntarily escaped from the pain in my neck. If I turn my head one more time, I’ll faint. Really. It hurts so much I’ll faint.

The people presumed to be Logan and Carter seemed to be pinned under the truck. And I couldn’t see Kim Ga-young or Lee Ji-hyun. When dust and powder entered my nose, coughs burst out, and there wasn’t a single part of my body that didn’t hurt.

People’s groans, screams, and crying continued. I faintly heard pleas for help or to save them, but I couldn’t move anything except my head and eyeballs. I barely breathed and heard footsteps.

The woman entered the elevator through the wrecked truck, and she shot Kevin, who was lying on the floor, twice in the head.