One step, two steps.

One breath, two breaths.

It would be a lie if Jeongyeon said she wasn’t scared, her heart was bumping like crazy that she thought she would alarm those psychopaths.

Passing by the engine room, her reflection was clear on the metal door. I look like a kid who’s gonna have her first speech in front of her kindergarten classmates and teachers. Shaking the thought off, her left hand held tighter on the gun, every sense of her highly alerted.

Suddenly, a knock sound appeared from the corner at the end of the aisle. Swat at forefront swiftly moved, Chief Son indicated the agents to follow, everybody lined up beside the wall without any noise. Before Jeongyeon could see anything, “Stop right there! Show me your hand!”

Pointing the gun at the aim, there was a man’s figure, she could vaguely see it. He stood upright, facing them with his back, hands up in the air. Judging by the body type, he should be K with no doubt. He turned around as the captain shouting, his features gradually emerged since he didn’t have mask on.

That was a normal middle-aged man. That was a look just like everyone. That was a pedestrian who could be seen anytime, anywhere on the street. That was a face with no significant features, no scary scars, no wounds, no emotions, yet capable to create nightmares for all.

For one moment, Jeongyeon saw a smile formed on the corner of his mouth. She frowned, thinking she might be wrong, a shout pierced abruptly into her earphone.

“Get out of there now!! NOW!!”

Before the whole team could react, he pressed the trigger in his hand. “BOOM BOOM”, everyone either fell or being tossed out because of the violent shaking.

“Explosion in southeast, repeat, explosion…”

The communication broke off, the cruise started to tilt. Flame instantly channeling in every corner, the air became thin and burning and hard to breath. K had already disappeared in their sight, some of them got up as soon as they found balance, but some were severely injured and lost conscious. An officer slipped over Jeongyeon’s side, she tried to grab him but it was too late. He trundled all the way down until his back bumped onto the wall, then countless remains that caused by the explosion crashed onto him in a flash. Jeongyeon shivered when hearing the bone fracture, she stumbled to the chief and helped him up.

“Sir, the other side, did they…”

“Crack”

A raspy sound cut her words off and made them look down in sync. A rift on the wooden floor expanded and creeped up to the portholes, sea water poured in straightway, the cabin split or broke apart would only be a matter of time.

Fire and water, they are not always incompatible. They can appear simultaneously and be fatal together.

“We have to get out of here, let’s move!”

About 10 people got in at the beginning, only 4 were able to stand up and run for their life. The rest were lying all over the floor, rapidly engulfed by smoke and deluge.

“We can’t take them with us.” Chief Son pulled Jeongyeon on the elbow, “This place is drowning, we’re running out of time.”

They climbed up the gangway, the cabin was flooded the moment the last agent reached to the deck. Jeongyeon watched as her colleagues’ bodies submerged in water, few were alive before flooding, they were only unconscious, but they all ended up dead.

“H-Help…”

On the other side, down in the bridge, they saw Mark struggling to break free. Without a second thought, Jinyoung jumped in and squatted next to him, Minwoo and Jeongyeon followed behind. “Put your arm on my shoulder…Ok, one, two, three, pull!”

“AHH!”

Mark yelped in agony, his body didn’t move for an inch, his legs were still being stuck in collapsed penstock. Looked inside the deformed metal, Hanbin and Jiwon stuck deeper and could only see a part of their faces. They had to pull Mark out first to save them.

“C’mon, let’s try again, one…”

“BOOM”

Another explosion hit, Jeongyeon felt the sting of being blasted on the left cheek and her body suddenly floated in mid air. She landed heavily on the rudder and slid down as the cruise tilted worse.

“Jinyoung, answer me…”

“Oh god, please!”

The cries sounded like whispers and so far away in her buzzing ears. She felt dizzy and sick but managed to prop up her upper body, praying mentally that everyone else was okay. All she could see from her right eye was fuzzy images, as for her left eye, it was whole black.

No, no…

She wiped her left eye with panic and hissed in pain. Realizing what had happened and outstretched her palm with trembling, it was all red and full of glass shards.

I hurt my eye. I can’t see with it anymore……

“Jeongyeon!”

Someone crawled to her while breathed heavily, she recognized it was Minwoo. “You can walk, right? I’ll get you out…”

“Watch out!!”

More and more debris were falling, the flame had been extended to the bridge, ambient temperature rose abruptly and they could all feel the heat gnawing their skin.

Minwoo helped Jeongyeon up, luckily Jinyoung was not far from them and conscious, Chief Son al