Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

Chapter 13

As soon as the cat left the room, a person appeared, seemingly startled by the alarm. It was Vladimir, who seemed to be drunk as he staggered out of room 65.

The man looked at the water rising up to his calves and pressed something on his wrist pad. All the doors opened at once, and the blaring alarm turned into a continuous buzzing sound. It was ear-piercing.

Vladimir’s the head of the Russian engineering team, isn’t he?

A blonde woman came out of the room he had just left, tying her hair.

“What’s going on? This is insane.”

Upon seeing the water up to her calves, the woman spat out a Russian curse. Vladimir yelled at her.

“Nikita! Go to the escape pod now!”

As soon as Vladimir finished speaking, the woman named Nikita grabbed the wrist of Yoo Geum-yi, who was next to me, and started running. Yoo Geum-yi followed suit immediately. Since the floor was flooded, they couldn’t run very fast. As they slowly moved away, I waved my hand and told them to go ahead. Then, I checked room 66 while Vladimir looked into room 67.

“Vladimir, aren’t you leaving?”

“Our guys are all drunk and asleep. They can’t even get up if we kick them.”

In room 67, a man reeking of alcohol was asleep despite the noisy alarm. Vladimir rushed in and slapped the man’s cheek with his huge palm. From outside the room, I thought the man might have lost a tooth. As his head spun around twice, the man woke up.

“Nikolai! You stupid bast*rd, wake up!”

Behind me, I heard Russian cursing and found someone lying in bed in room 68. Before entering, I saw the name “Sophia” next to the door. She was asleep without a shirt on. I shouted her name from the door. Of course, she didn’t wake up despite the blaring alarm. I picked up a blanket from the floor, threw it on her, and yanked the pillow from under her head.

“Sophia!”

As she half-opened her eyes and got up, I rushed to room 69. There, a man who seemed to be two meters tall was sleeping naked, without even a blanket, surrounded by vodka bottles. I read the nameplate next to the door with my eyes. Victor Basil… Yef or Lef?

I pressed the back of a pen lying on the desk next to the bed to retract the pen tip, then forcefully scratched the pen’s head part from top to bottom on the sole of his bare foot. He twitched and moved before raising his head. His face was flushed from drunkenness.

“Get up! Hurry!”

Vladimir checked up to room 72, but there was no one there. As I was about to run to room 73, he grabbed my shoulder from behind. I almost fell over from his strength.

“Doc! We need to go to the escape pod.”

The seawater had risen up to our thighs. It was then that I realized my whole body was shivering. The water was freezing. Was seawater always this cold? It was warm when I was playing in the water at the beach. I looked at room 74 and pointed with my fingers in both directions.

“I haven’t checked all the rooms yet!”

“Then check the rest and die if you want!”

Vladimir left those words behind and started running, not towards the stairs next to Room 80, but towards the central stairs by Room 40. The rest of the Russians followed him toward the central stairs. Was this the best option? We hadn’t even looked in Rooms 1 to 37. We still had six rooms to check up to Room 80.

Each room was about 2.5 meters apart. The water was up to our thighs, so we would have to walk at least 21 meters and then come back. Something wriggled on my back. Startled for a moment, I realized it was the cat I had put in my bag.

• ····If I hadn’t seen it, I couldn’t have saved it. If I had decided to do it, I needed to do it quickly. I ran in the opposite direction of the others. I’m not late. I’m not late! As I splashed through the water, I checked the open Rooms 74 and 75. There was no one. In Room 76, I found a long snake. What kind of crazy person keeps this?

With no time to think, I caught the snake with my bare hands and shoved it between the candy and chocolate bars in the bag I had been using. I zipped it up and moved on. Rooms 78 and 79 seemed empty. I trudged and splashed my way to Room 80. By now, even walking was difficult. Please, let there be no one. Please, let it be empty.

In Room 80, a boy was seen asleep. Unbelievable. How could he sleep through the blaring alarm? Even in this situation, my brain felt like it was about to stop, I carefully put the pill bottle on the table into the bag with the cat and slung the bag with the snake in front of me. Then, I hoisted the boy onto my back.

As I made my way to Room 76, no other thoughts entered my mind except for the need to walk quickly. I followed the path others had taken, leaning against the wall. The water that had been up to our thighs quickly reached our waists.

Walking through the water was incredibly difficult. It felt like I was walking while kicking the water. The cat wriggled occasionally near my stomach, and the sleeping boy didn’t move at all, even with his feet completely submerged in seawater. I splashed through Rooms 74 and 73, repeatedly telling myself that I was almost there, and that I couldn’t let fear take over. If I succumbed to fear, it would be the end. I can get out of here. Stay calm.

….I mustn’t fall. If I fall, it’s over. Walk quickly, but don’t fall. I supported the boy’s hips with my arm as he slid off my back and held the bag with the snake in my mouth. The blaring alarm was so loud that my ears felt like they would go deaf.

As I left room 80, I finally realized where the water was coming from. It seemed to be flowing down from the stairs right next to room 80. Did the Russian team leader know that and purposely head towards the central staircase? Was the central staircase by room 40 safe? They must have gone that way because it was safe, right?

Damn it. What if the central staircase isn’t safe? I’ve already traveled more than half the way intending to use it. And why the hell are the lunatics at this underwater base raising forbidden pets? And what’s with the kid?

Unauthorized personnel were not allowed in the underwater base. Minors, in particular, were absolutely prohibited from entering the 4th underwater base. The 7-year-old-looking boy on my back didn’t seem like he was necessary personnel for this underwater base. Why on earth is there a kid here?

Swearing up a storm, I finally arrived at the central staircase next to room 40, only to find that the water had risen past my waist. I was out of breath from wading through the water.

Gasping for air, I climbed the stairs, slipping twice, but each time I clung to the stair railing with one hand. Supporting the child’s buttocks with one arm, biting onto a bag, and using one hand to hold onto the stairs as I climbed drove me insane. As I climbed the stairs and emerged from the water, something was blocking the staircase.

I could see that the staircase itself was blocked by a door, preventing further ascent. They must have blocked it like this to keep the water from flooding the living quarters and other bases through the escape ports. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, everything went pitch black in front of me. I banged on the door with all my strength as I continued to climb the stairs, screaming.

“Open the door! There are people here! People, I tell you!”

The water had already caught up to the top of the stairs. Even standing on the top step, the water that reached my instep now rose to my ankles. The thought of dying surged in.

“Hey, you bast*rds! Are you locking the door and running away to save yourselves? There are people here! Open the door! Open it quickly!”

I burst into tears.

“Open the door! Are you trying to save yourselves by running away like this?! How can people act like that?! Open the door! You bast*rds! There’s someone here! Save me!”

I screamed so much that my vision began to blur. I thought I was in the middle of shrieking when I heard a noise from outside the door and a hand reached in at the same time.

A massive hand reached in from outside, grabbed my body as if to lift me up, and then threw me into a corner. I only realized that the man who had thrown me aside like a ragdoll was the over 6-foot-tall Viktor when I slammed into the floor. He closed the door again before the water following the stairs could rise any further. Viktor locked the door and destroyed the panel next to it. My face drained of color, I asked him:

“Didn’t you board the escape pod?”

“No.”

With that, he lifted the child lying next to me with one hand and hoisted them onto his back. Then, he started walking toward the escape pod chamber.

Only then did I realize that this man had come back from the escape ship port towards the residential quarters for my sake. The child who looked around 6 or 7 years old had been taken off my back by Viktor who seemed to be carrying the boy as if the kid was a mere steel bar. It was only then that I noticed the weight of my soaked clothes pressing down on me.

Was it because the adrenaline rush was just about to wear off? Even taking a single step was a struggle. I hurriedly wiped my messy, tear-streaked face with my sleeve. Suppressing the urge to throw away all my things soaked in seawater, I walked towards the escape pod chamber.

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