Footsteps shuffling like a zombie's come from outside.
Not one set.
Where we are now is the last toilet stall in the women's restroom.
All of us are in here, me, Ryu Do-ha, and Jang Seo-yun.
No, not all of us.
Because the woman is out there, slumped on the floor.
Ryu Do-ha did argue that we had to take her too, but her state was already hard to call human like ours, and Jang Seo-yun's logic that even in zombie settings zombies don't get attacked by zombies was fairly convincing.
"When they've come as close as possible, we get out of here with that power of yours."
I nodded at Ryu Do-ha's words.
At which something brushes my hand.
Jang Seo-yun.
Her fingers were tickling my clenched fist as if asking me to open it.
When I have no choice but to open it, she takes my hand.
Even in a situation like this she looks up at me with expectation in her eyes.
Haa.......
I had no capacity to spare for anything else right now, so I ignored that look.
SPLASH. SPLASH. SPLASH.
The footsteps of several people walking down the passage where blood has pooled shallowly.
They passed the passage and came into the restroom.
I held out my hand toward Ryu Do-ha.
At which she grips it.
Her hand is soaked with sweat.
She's wearing a calm face, but she must be tense too.
I hadn't intended to do this halfway, but in that moment I resolved to do it better.
SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH.
The restroom fills with the sound of their footsteps.
When I lower my eyes slightly, the bloodwater pooled on the restroom floor is trembling faintly.
After quietly steadying my breathing, I fixed my eyes on the stall door.
CRASH—!
The door two stalls over is flung open roughly.
CRASH—!
And then the next one.
Next is the last stall, where we are.
"Heh heh heh heh......."
Through the thin door comes a sound like laughter being held back.
They know.
That we're hiding in the last stall.
They flung the other doors open roughly on purpose, knowing it.
Hoping we would tremble in terror.
SPLASH.
Their footsteps stop in front of the door.
They're standing right outside.
I put more strength into our joined hands.
CRASH.
The door shook roughly, but the latch barely holds.
But that's only a matter of time.
CRASH—!
They ram the door harder.
The latch shakes as if it will break.
I looked at Ryu Do-ha.
Even in this situation she's waiting calmly for the moment, and the sight gives me strength.
It's about time to get ready.
I drew a deep breath.
And the moment I held it.
CRASH—!
The latch finally shattered and the door opened.
At the same time my vision ripples.
I can see the emotion of bewilderment surface on their crease-twisted, rage-twisted faces.
We ran straight out.
Our bodies pass right through theirs.
And the instant we come out of the restroom, the enormous excursion boat comes into view.
Apparently startled by the boat, Ryu Do-ha hurriedly covers her mouth.
Water droplets leaking out between her fingers.
Watching the droplets rise upward, I turned my eyes toward Jang Seo-yun.
Her face was startled too, like Ryu Do-ha's, but her reaction was rather different.
She's looking at the excursion boat with a face where surprise and joy are mixed.
'Why is she happy?'
I pushed the question down for the moment.
This is no time for it.
I hurried to check our surroundings.
Fortunately the Cops must all have gone to the restroom; there are none outside.
But they'll realize we aren't there and come out soon.
I'd waited until they came as close as possible before using 'Submergence' precisely to buy as much time as I could, so there's no time to waste; we have to find somewhere to hide.
But.......
'Where should we go?'
A swimming pool has few places to hide to begin with, and because the bloodwater has risen to ankle height, the lifeguard lounge, which sits on comparatively low ground, is half submerged in it.
Just as I was looking around, Jang Seo-yun tugged my hand.
She points at the excursion boat.
The boat's entrance, lowered toward us at just that moment.
A small-to-midsize two-deck excursion boat.
There'd be more places to hide there than in the pool.
But is going there the right call?
My breath is starting to run short.
When I find myself looking at Ryu Do-ha, she nods.
'Right, there's no time to hesitate like this either.'
I hurried toward the boat's entrance.
After boarding and confirming there was nobody around, I let out the breath I'd been holding.
Where we are now is the deck, not far from the entrance.
It would have been better to get further inside, but I ran out of breath.
The moment we come out of 'Submergence,' Ryu Do-ha lowers her stance.
"Down."
When I lowered my stance at her word, past the deck railing I could see the Cops rushing out of the restroom.
Ryu Do-ha takes the lead along the deck.
Following her brings us to the entrance of the passenger cabin.
The lights inside the cabin are off.
Ryu Do-ha told us to wait a moment and went inside.
I was watching her from behind, keeping as low as I could.
She checks her surroundings, then straightens up as if startled.
And she stands there, staring at one spot.
'Has she found something?'
Just as I moved to follow her into the cabin, Ryu Do-ha suddenly raised a hand to stop me.
She slowly swept the cabin again, then came out.
"What's in there?"
"Whatever you see in there, do not scream."
At the seriousness in her voice I found myself nodding.
Then her gaze goes to Jang Seo-yun.
Jang Seo-yun nods.
Ryu Do-ha steps back.
The moment I passed her and went through the cabin door, I understood why she had given that warning.
I hurriedly covered my mouth.
A scream almost came pouring out.
"They're passengers."
Jang Seo-yun's murmur from behind my neck.
'Passengers.......'
Can you call that a passenger?
The unlit lower cabin was full of seats for passengers.
In every seat set out in the darkness, as she said, a passenger is sitting.
Dried and withered, like mummies.
"They're still alive."
Jang Seo-yun stood beside me.
'What?'
"Listen closely."
When I hold my breath, I finally begin to hear them.
Faint breaths that wouldn't be strange to stop at any moment.
From a passenger pouring a black, sticky liquid like petroleum out of empty eye sockets, to a passenger slowly swaying a neck gone thin enough to snap under the slightest pressure.
They have forms you couldn't believe were alive.
But they are still alive.
"Don't stare so hard."
Ryu Do-ha stuck her face between me and Jang Seo-yun.
"Couldn't those things jump us or something?"
"Jump us?"
At my question Ryu Do-ha shook her head.
"Those people aren't monsters."
'Those people?'
"They're human beings, like us."
"......."
That's human?
Her face looks sorrowful somehow.
"How do you know?"
When Jang Seo-yun cut in, she slowly raised a hand.
What her hand points to is a small-framed passenger.
To be exact, the blackened, rotted something the passenger was holding.
"I used to love that character."
A character?
Looking closely, I remember.
Roughly ten years ago from now, a knockoff made in imitation of 'Poke*on,' famous at the time, though I don't remember its title.
The blackened, rotted thing was a doll modeled on the protagonist's partner from that knockoff manga.
It was a manga that flared up and vanished too fast for dolls to still be produced.
Which means.......
At the hideous conjecture that surfaced in that moment, I found myself shutting my mouth.
"I told you earlier there'd been a similar case, didn't I?"
The ninety-three people who went missing on the Han River.
"That case happened roughly ten years ago."
If, as she says, these are the people who went missing then.......
'They've been here in that state for ten years?'
In a state where they can neither live nor die?
"Damn it......."
Ryu Do-ha spits the words out as if grinding them and turns her head away sharply.
"They're coming."
At her words I looked behind me, and through a window with old tinting film on it I could see Cops approaching the excursion boat.
"How about going to the second deck?"
"Not the second deck."
"This place is wide open; there's nowhere to hide."
"There's a wheelhouse on the second deck."
"So?"
"The captain of this boat will be in the wheelhouse."
The captain?
BWOOOOOOOOOOO—
A ship's horn suddenly sounds.
And with it the cabin lights come on.
Which exposes the passengers' hideous condition all the more plainly.
Ryu Do-ha pulled me and Jang Seo-yun by the hand.
"We have to get off this boat. Hurry and use that power, Submergence......."
Ryu Do-ha's words cut off.
When I look at her, something is wound around her mouth.
A belt.
A seat belt, extended out of a passenger seat.
Ryu Do-ha wasn't the only one with a seat belt wound around her mouth.
Jang Seo-yun, standing to my left.
A belt is wound around her mouth too.
Before I could trigger 'Submergence,' the belts pull the two of them away.
With an overwhelming force that can't be resisted.
Both of them are bound head to foot by belts and forced down into cabin seats.
WHEEZE. WHEEZE. WHEEZE. WHEEZE. WHEEZE. WHEEZE. WHEEZE.
The passengers around us begin making a faint rasping sound.
A sound that seems frightened, and also seems to be mocking us.
Through those wheezing, ragged breaths.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
Someone's footsteps behind me.
When I turn around, a man is coming down the stairs.
He must have felt my gaze; he stops.
His head turning slowly.
Soon a man with androgynous features is looking at me.
Wearing a spotless suit entirely unsuited to this old excursion boat, he raises both corners of his mouth at me.
An exaggerated smile, like a play on a stage.
"I thought my neck would fall off from waiting."
The instant the man speaks, the passengers' breathing grows harsher.
"Who are you?"
Ignoring my question, he extends a long leg to the next step.
Keeping his eyes fixed on me.
'Dangerous.'
The reaction of the passengers around me seems to be telling me.
That this man is dangerous.
The moment I moved to use 'Submergence.'
"If you use that power, I'll kill those two immediately."
The man warns with a thin smile.
Ryu Do-ha, putting strength into both eyes and shaking her head desperately, as if telling me not to give in to his threat.
'What do I do?'
While I hesitated, the man came all the way down the stairs.
He bows to me politely.
"I sincerely welcome you aboard the 'Harpoon.' I am this vessel's captain......."
"Hold on."
When I cut him off, the man keeps his bow and slowly raises only his head.
"Could I...... get off, even now......?"
Nothing ventured.
I asked on the off chance whether I could get off, but.......
The smile on his face as he looks at me gradually thins.
"Did she tell you nothing at all?"
"She?"
Perhaps he grasped from my manner that I know nothing; the man straightens up and looks at me.
"She really told you nothing?"
"......."
"Honestly, her work is never clean."
He comes toward me.
When I step back, his step stops.
"Why are you afraid of me?"
Why am I afraid?
Are you really asking because you don't know?
You said you'd kill those two if I used my ability, didn't you?
And look around you!
They all look like they're about to stop breathing because of you!
.......
There was plenty I wanted to say, but.
"Because I don't know who you are."
I said one short, clear thing.
At which the man claps his hands with a CLAP!
"I was too hasty! Then shall we talk a while, you and I? We're going to be together a long time anyway."
"......."
Together a long time?
My eyes go to the passengers sitting in the seats without my meaning them to.
'I absolutely don't want that.'
Even so, there was no room for choice.
I could have simply used 'Submergence' here and run.
But I can't abandon those two and run alone.
Besides, he might unexpectedly turn out to be someone you can reason with.
.......
I truly hope so.