The water rose so high that walking became a struggle, and it was hard to breathe. Kim Gayoung, the shortest of us, tightly closed her mouth and lifted her chin as high as she could. It seemed her strategy was to prevent water from entering her nose.
I walked, watching the two dark figures in front of me. When we were more than halfway through, one of them, presumably Lee Ji-hyun, suddenly let out a scream and disappeared in front of me with a flash of light.
"Ji-hyun!"
I saw the flashlight she dropped glowing in the water. A few seconds later, Kim Gayoung, who was ahead of me, silently sank into the water as well. What the hell? Why did both of them disappear into the water?
Panicked, I instinctively grabbed the wall and jumped as hard as I could from where I stood. Something hit my calf hard enough to make stars appear before my eyes. I opened my mouth in pain, and a mouthful of water rushed in, which I swallowed and then immediately stood up. At the very least, my calf was bruised or cracked. If I was unlucky, it might have been broken.
It hurt so much that I could barely stand, but I managed to hold on to the wall and walk. I wanted to know what was happening, so I felt around in the water with my hands. It was a bed.
What the hell. Almost all the furniture in the underwater base is fixed. With all the doors open and things floating around, it seems that the bed, which someone had brought in personally, wasn't fixed and was floating around. The bed, which had fallen sideways, must have hit everyone's calves as it drifted. Phew! Lee Ji-hyun's face emerged from the water. The light flickered wildly before illuminating my face.
"What about Gayoung-ssi?"
"She's in the water!"
Without hesitation, Lee Ji-hyun submerged her head. The flashlight also went underwater. I, too, moved forward, flailing my arms and legs like a goalkeeper. When I approached the source of the flashlight's light, I was sobbing uncontrollably. The absurd thing was that while I was crying my eyes out, I was thinking that the flashlight must be waterproof given the situation. Fortunately, the cord attached to the flashlight was wrapped around Lee Ji-hyun's wrist, making it easy to find her.
I approached, panting, and moved Kim Gayoung from my back to my shoulder, then draped Lee Ji-hyun's arm over my other shoulder. Holding both of their arms and draping them over my shoulders, it felt like a structure that could dislocate both of their arms or dislocate my shoulders if I wasn't careful. With my face above the water and the task of carrying both of them, I couldn't think of a way to move forward. Why isn't there a method for one person to carry two others? Is it because no one does it? What should we do in this situation?
I walked forward, crying and holding onto both of them, trying not to fall. Another chair passed by me. Fortunately, since we were almost completely submerged, the buoyancy made the weight of the two people less of a problem than I expected.
I managed to reach the stairs, choking on the water that had risen to my chin. In the darkness, something pulled Kim Gayoung, and I was startled and tried to pull away. A dark figure spoke.
"It's me! Yook Jin!"
I helped Lee Ji-hyun up the stairs, closing my eyes as the light hit me. The lights in the dormitory were all out, so it was pitch black, but I had already adapted, and the sudden light made me shed a few tears. I felt like a bat with poor eyesight suddenly exposed to light.
When we reached the corridor connecting to the dormitory, we could finally see each other. Lee Ji-hyun's suit was torn at the calf and shoulder, and blood was seeping through. I laid her down and went back to help Kim Gayoung, who was struggling with her wet jeans, and we all came out together.
Kim Gayoung's jeans were torn at the calf. When I glanced at her calf, I saw blood. I folded my jeans to check mine. There was a deep red and blue bruise on my calf, but nothing that prevented me from walking or a major tear. It seemed the bed that hit both of them and slowed down had also hit my calf.
Lee Ji-hyun was unconscious, so I first checked if she was breathing and if her heart was beating. I tilted her head back to clear her airway, and a few seconds later, she gasped and woke up. I confirmed she was conscious and then started tearing the suit on her calf, which was difficult due to the material. Lee Ji-hyun grimaced and spat out seawater, then said:
"My shoulder hurts like hell. At the end, a chair leg hit me, and suddenly I couldn't see anything. ... I saw the Lord's face."
"The thing that hit all of our calves was a large bed."
Suddenly, Lee Ji-hyun, still sitting, waved her hand and shouted:
"Close the door! The door! Quickly close that hell's mouth!"
In the chaos, we had left the door to the dormitory open. I quickly went to close and lock it. Before I closed it, I saw the water following us, three steps behind.
I tried to calm Lee Ji-hyun, who was flailing her hand, and used all my strength to tear the suit on her calf. Her leg wasn't as bad as I had feared. I was scared it might be broken, but it didn't look that severe. I pressed my thumb on the injured area and asked. Lee Ji-hyun's expression contorted with pain each time I moved my fingers.
"Does it hurt when I press here?"
"It hurts everywhere you press."
Lee Ji-hyun frowned and clenched her fists as she answered. It's understandable that it hurts. I flinched, worried her trembling fists might be aimed at me, and asked:
"Can you stand?"
"I don't know."
"Try. I'll help you. See if you can stand."
While Yook Jin was struggling with Kim Gayoung's wet jeans, I helped Lee Ji-hyun stand. As soon as she was on her feet, she started spewing religious curses, swearing at the bed and the people involved in the construction of the underwater base. She also cursed the foreign engineering team, the demons who fired missiles at the Fourth Underwater Base, and the people who bought chairs and beds without fixing them to the floor, wishing they would all be roasted in hell for at least 30 minutes at a temperature of over 180 degrees.
I was surprised by her sudden outburst but ignored it and quickly examined her calf. Damn. What we need here is a seasoned orthopedic surgeon, not a dentist.
"Which moron used a chair without fixing it to the floor? That guy should have eight screws in his head. He needs to experience floating around in an airplane without fixed seats to come to his senses!"
Lee Ji-hyun managed to stand, transforming the pain in her calf and shoulder into curses. Kim Gayoung, coughing up water, gave a thumbs up to Lee Ji-hyun's curses.
It's a rare sight in a dental clinic. You can't curse when your mouth is open. It's hard to hear properly, and besides, the dental drill, called a handpiece, makes a whirring sound, and few people have the guts to curse the dentist while they're holding it. More people curse at the receptionist to avoid the dentist.
Can you walk if your bone is broken? You can. You can walk while holding back the pain and crying inside. But if you can't walk, we'll be severely limited in our movement. And when will we find splints here?
If I could, I would tell these two to go to the hospital and get X-rays. Both of their legs were swollen, making it impossible to compare which one was normal. I sat Lee Ji-hyun down again and approached to check her shoulder. She stopped touching her shoulder and said:
"It feels like my shoulder is dislocated."
It looks that way just by looking. The skin was torn, and blood was seeping out, and there was a deep blue bruise, but when I touched it, nothing seemed to be protruding abnormally, like bone fragments.
"There's one method where I can try to pop your shoulder back in myself. I don't really recommend it. The second method is to immobilize your arm and shoulder with clothes or fabric and then go to the hospital to have it set."
"Do you think we can get to the hospital within two hours, considering our situation and the revelation Moohyun received in his dream?"