Baeg Ae-young, who didn't want the taste of alcohol in her mouth, put a candy that her mother had given her into her mouth. It was peach-flavored. Rolling the sweet taste around with her tongue, she felt a little better. How many minutes had passed? Since I wasn't keeping track of time, I couldn't tell. Shin Hae-ryang had wrapped Baeg Ae-young's abdomen with a cloth and a tangled whale stuffed animal and the parachute cords, but now he was wrapping his own left arm. When Shin Hae-ryang lifted his head, he said:
"It's moving."
Hearing that, I lifted my head and looked toward the cable car door. The cable car was indeed moving. It had already reached -140m. Since it was moving silently, I hadn't noticed at all. I felt like laughing. My left arm was a bit cold because one sleeve of my shirt was missing, and it was a bit hard to breathe due to the nosebleed, but since we were going up, none of these things mattered.
Next to the height indicator of the cable car, there were also displays for nitrogen and oxygen levels, but I couldn't remember what the original values were. Why is the nitrogen level being displayed? If we were descending to the seabed, shouldn't only the oxygen level be shown? Or maybe the carbon dioxide level?
Nitrogen is used in dentistry as laughing gas, which is nitrous oxide. It doesn't have a pain-relieving effect, but it helps to relax, so it's used when treating children or adults who are extremely resistant to dental treatment. The concentration is important because it varies from patient to patient. Some people can be calmed with just a little, while others might remain unaffected even at high concentrations. As I watched the numbers next to the nitrogen level rise, I asked Shin Hae-ryang:
"Is there a reason the nitrogen level is being displayed?"
Shin Hae-ryang looked at me for a long time before answering:
"Carbon dioxide levels can be detected by people when they rise, but nitrogen levels cannot be detected when they rise. If there's too much nitrogen in the cable car, there's a possibility of death from high-concentration nitrogen poisoning. The same goes for oxygen. If the oxygen level is too high, it can cause poisoning symptoms."
"What's the probability that we'll die from nitrogen poisoning here?"
"I don't know."
The cable car was now at -130m. Even if it reached the first seabed base at -50m, it seemed we wouldn't be able to breathe properly until then. It was truly a perilous situation. I thought I understood why Shin Hae-ryang insisted on taking the escape pod when we first tried to escape from the fourth seabed base. The escape pod heads straight to the surface, the fastest way possible. Whether it's the third, second, or first seabed base, there's no need to struggle to get there. And if you take the escape pod, you don't have to meet anyone, whether they're armed, unarmed, my patients, or fanatics. There's no conflict or complexity in the escape.
If I weren't a complete novice, I would have taken the escape pod without hesitation from the fourth seabed base. But then, I might have ended up on a broken escape pod, sinking to the seabed while screaming and praying to every god to please let me go back up. ...It seems my current situation is similar.
As my headache started again, I held my forehead. The headache could be due to too much carbon dioxide, or it could be because I was about to have a nosebleed, or from sudden stress, or maybe a brain-related disease I didn't know about.
I looked at Baeg Ae-young lying on the floor, then closed my eyes and leaned against the cable car wall. There was nothing we could do. We couldn't control the cable car, and we didn't have anything to adjust the oxygen or nitrogen levels. All we could do was hope that the cable car would arrive safely at the first seabed base.
I realized I was leaning against the wall, looking at the sea. The sea, which I thought was only dark, appeared indigo when I looked at it for a long time. Shin Hae-ryang was also leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or just had his eyes closed. Baeg Ae-young also had her eyes closed, but looking at her now, her face seemed too young. No matter how old she was, she looked no older than her mid-20s. The same went for Shin Hae-ryang. He couldn't be older than his late 20s. It was a waste for such promising people to die pointlessly in this underwater world. Of course, that includes me.
Please. I want to feel the sunlight on my face. I want to walk under the bright sun. They say the artificial beach in Daejeon is so well-made, I want to step on the smooth sand with my bare feet, breathe freely, and run around without any restrictions.
I thought I had dozed off for a moment, but it was already at -70m. The only way to know we were ascending was by the decreasing numbers. There was no way to tell from the surroundings. I occasionally checked if Baeg Ae-young was still breathing, and while looking at the sea, I felt someone's gaze. When I looked at Shin Hae-ryang, he took off his gun and put on Baeg Ae-young's gun.
"Can you carry Ae-young and move?"
"I have to."
With a sigh, he stood up. When I got up from the cable car seat, my legs were trembling. I didn't know if it was from fatigue or shock. It was at -65m. I wondered if I could carry a person in my current state. But I couldn't complain in this situation. If I were a better shot than Shin Hae-ryang, maybe we would have done the opposite.
Shin Hae-ryang would carry Baeg Ae-young, and I would play the hero, firing the gun like a movie actor. Dodging the hail of bullets to clear a path for others, I would create a safe way for Shin Hae-ryang and Baeg Ae-young to escape, and we would all escape this underwater world in style. ...Then, I would have saved Seo Ji-hyuk and Yoo Geum too, right? Thinking about this, I slung the bag with the snake over my shoulder and, with Shin Hae-ryang's help, carefully carried Baeg Ae-young on my back. The weight of an unconscious person is really... I should have exercised more.
At -60m, Shin Hae-ryang and I prepared to get out. If I leave here, I'll never ride a cable car again in my life. I won't even walk up stairs. I won't take elevators either! Thinking about this, I wondered if I could still function in society and laughed softly. Shin Hae-ryang looked at me questioningly, but soon he stood with his gun aimed at the cable car door. At that moment, a rumbling sound was heard. I didn't know if this was normal for the sea or if the materials used to make the cable car were blocking external sounds, but during the ride, it was so quiet that we could only hear each other's breathing. Shin Hae-ryang and I lifted our heads simultaneously and looked at the ceiling.
"Huh?"
"?"
At the same time, my feet left the ground. I slipped forward and something hit my chest. After falling, I found myself on top of Shin Hae-ryang, still carrying Baeg Ae-young. Shin Hae-ryang, who used his body as a cushion for me and Baeg Ae-young, frowned as he looked at the cable car ceiling.
"That's..."
"What?"
There was no sound. The cable car was swaying to the right and then to the left. We were sliding around like beans in a box, crashing into chair legs and walls. Fortunately, we were lying down; if we had been standing, we would have been slammed against the cable car walls even harder. What's happening? What's going on? Shin Hae-ryang pulled me and Baeg Ae-young into his arms through the chair. His expression was serious.
"The cable on the second seabed base side has been cut."
"What?"
"We're about to fall."
"What? Fall?"
The cable car suddenly plummeted. I knew this because my body felt weightless. Baeg Ae-young's bag and bottles of alcohol were slamming into the ceiling. We didn't fall to the ceiling with them because Shin Hae-ryang had wrapped his legs around the fixed cable car seat and was holding me and Baeg Ae-young. I desperately grabbed Baeg Ae-young's legs, which were on my back.
The cable car, which seemed to be falling endlessly, suddenly stopped. It seemed like something had grabbed the cable car's cable. When the cable car stopped falling, all the objects that had been floating in the air and on the ceiling fell onto us. A bottle of whiskey hit my thigh and rolled on the floor. Tears welled up in my eyes. The funny thing was that the bottle, which contained 50-year-old liquor, didn't break. Instead, it felt like my thigh had shattered. In pain, I managed to ask Shin Hae-ryang:
"Why did the cable break? Was it made of rubber?"
"It seems that the collapse of the fourth seabed base has caused the other bases to collapse as well due to the impact."
"If one seabed base collapses, shouldn't the others be fine?!"
"They are structurally connected."
"What a mess!"
As soon as I cursed, we fell again. The cable car we were in slammed into another cable car that had already sunk below. I couldn't believe it. Feeling chills, I lifted my head and saw other cable cars falling above us in the darkness. Someone's hand pressed my head against the cable car floor. There was a loud thud and a deafening noise, and then I opened my eyes.
I was frustrated that I hadn't fainted in this situation. I saw Baeg Ae-young's and Shin Hae-ryang's heads next to mine. I shook Baeg Ae-young's shoulder and called out to Shin Hae-ryang:
"Mr. Shin Hae-ryang? Mr. Shin Hae-ryang? Ms. Baeg Ae-young? Ms. Baeg Ae-young? Wake up."
The interior of the cable car we were in was completely twisted, and the structures of the cable car below and the one that fell from above had destroyed the floor and ceiling of our cable car. Seawater was seeping in through the broken areas. I realized that a steel structure had pierced through Baeg Ae-young's left chest and neck, as I crawled out from under the two bodies. My ears were ringing. A long, high-pitched sound faded away. I confirmed Baeg Ae-young's death with trembling hands.
...She must have died instantly. She didn't feel any pain. I burst into tears, my hands covered in blood, and tried to pull Shin Hae-ryang out from under Baeg Ae-young, but I immediately let go when he groaned. Only then did I notice that Shin Hae-ryang's thighs and calves were covered in blood. It seemed that when the cable car glass shattered, it had cut his calves and waist. That's when I first saw the thickness of the cable car glass; it was thicker than my arm.