Chapter 66: Formatting

Chapter 66: Formatting

Carlos whispered to us,

“If there aren’t enough escape pods, we’ll have to fight over them no matter where we go. But the Korean team doesn’t have that crazy bastard Team Leader Shin anymore. Instead, Vladimir and Viktor are over there with the Russian team. When Russia wins and gets on the escape pod with one seat left, I’m taking it, yep.”

I asked with a bewildered face,

“Do you think there will be fist fights?”

Spitting, Carlos said,

“What, you think they’ll politely say “After you” and give up seats for each other? Are you too naive about these Korean bastards here? You’d be better off sticking with the Russian guys. Listen to me when I give advice.”

Looking pained, Yoo Geum-yi said,

“Mr. Park and I... we’re Korean.”

“Oh really?”

Looking slightly flustered, Carlos quickly put on a friendly face and winked, saying “You know I didn’t mean you right?” before running to catch up with the Russian men ahead.

Yoo Geum-yi narrowed her eyes and shook her head before looking at Kang Soojung’s back and saying to me,

“What will happen to the child when we go to the South District? Soojung is carrying him for now but no one will want to take him when we split off in the Central district.”

“Then I’ll have to carry him, right? Can’t just leave him here.”

“Alright. We can take turns carrying him on the way back.”

“Thank you.”

Looking at Yoo Geum-yi’s thin arms, I figured even if I died from exhaustion carrying the over 20kg child up to the escape, that would still be better than making her do it. But seeing her determined face, it felt rude to protest. Instead, I decided to come clean about my secret to her, since she was being so helpful. Yoo Geum-yi probably wouldn’t judge or berate me for it.

“I have a secret I’m keeping that I hope you can quietly help me with.”

Looking at me, Yoo Geum-yi replied.

“I’ll keep anything that’s within my ability.”

“I have a cat and a snake hidden in my bag.”

“Wasn’t it always like this?”

“No. No it wasn’t. Those lights don’t go out...”

Still stunned, Yoo Geum-yi began pressing her face against the round window. She would’ve gone right through the glass at this rate. I grabbed her shoulder from behind and pulled since she was gaping vacantly into the darkness. Hearing her endlessly babble about my lab records, my research, my advisor, it felt like her soul had left her body. At another window, Carlos said,

“There’s really nothing? Wasn’t that building one of the biggest structures in this underwater base along with the drilling facility? It didn’t just get swept away like jellyfish by ocean currents?”

Sparks flew in Yoo Geum-yi’s eyes.

“It was a 7-story research building with 3 wings and a 6-story research building with 1 wing! How could something that big get swept away! It housed over 400 resident researchers! If that disappeared, the people inside–!”

Yoo Geum-yi looked back outside and muttered “It’s gone...” before shuffling forward unsteadily as if she could barely remain upright. Lee Jihyun and Jeong Sanghyeon briefly peered out the window before moving on while Kang Soojung shook her head as she passed by Yoo Geum-yi and the lightless darkness outside. I took out a handful of candy from my bag and offered it to Yoo Geum-yi who seemed out of her right mind.

“Eating something sweet helps settle your heart.”

Yoo Geum-yi began loudly crunching on the hard candy with her teeth. That’s not good for your teeth. But Yoo Geum-yi didn’t seem capable of hearing that right now. It must be difficult to accept the sudden disappearance without a trace of a building housing people she knew. I checked my pad again. New posts were piling up over Kang Soojung’s. The user name making these posts now was HELP.

Title: Trapped in South District Room 77

Content: Water is flooding in and the door won’t open. Please help. 5 of us gathered in this room but it won’t budge even with our strength. The water is up to our calves now. If you can’t come help, please leave instructions on how to open the door below this post so we can try. There are no engineers here, only researchers. We need assistance.

Similar pleas for help were flooding the message board. This was definitely Kim Gayoung. Trapped in South District again, huh. Pleased to read her post, another post on the boards caught my eye and I clicked it as if entranced.

Title: Save me too while saving the kid who posted below!

Content: I’m trapped in the Jangsumjeong submarine Merigilmoore 2-ho I was repairing in the East District. Dammit, is no one there at the sub port now? Or are you bastards just ignoring my calls for help?

Startled by this new information, I realized others trapped somewhere could’ve also made rescue requests by posting. Did I carefully read every post in my dream? I couldn’t recall clearly. Who do we need to save first? Shouldn’t it be the South District people with water flooding in? I showed Kang Soojung the post and said,

“It says researchers are trapped in South District lodging. And someone’s also trapped in a submarine in the East District.”

Kang Soojung swiftly read the contents on the pad and answered “I see.” When she showed the pad to Lee Jihyun, Lee Jihyun slowly read through each line. Jeong Sanghyeon came over next to Lee Jihyun, trying to read along from the pad before giving up due to their height difference and turning on his own pad. Once Lee Jihyun was done slowly going over every line and returned the pad to me, I showed Yoo Geum-yi the posted plea for help. I firmly told Kang Soojung,

“We need to go rescue them.”

Hmm... Kang Soojung grimaced, looking off into the distance before simply answering.

“We’re headed to the East District so we’ll come across this person trapped in the submarine along the way. Mr. Park, you should go with Ms. Yoo Geum-yi to rescue the people stuck in the South District.”