Three Steps to Safety

There were only three safe steps, but Han Igyeol couldn't see those three steps alone.

Past the exit threshold wasn't the outside. It was a collapsed corridor. Ten steps forward, then a section where the floor had folded in on itself. The folded width was about two people's length. On the far side was another door, and fifty two seconds remained.

"Surveyor. Your call." Saebyeok raised his shield in front of him. "No way back. Behind us is already closed off."

Igyeol looked at the folded section. The concrete had sunk downward, leaving three points of rebar. There were three load bearing points, but he couldn't see which three. What he saw was always like that. The places where something should exist but didn't, the empty spots, those were the only things clear to him.

He had decided long ago to use those eyes only to avoid danger. If he had kept that rule, Yura would still be behind the equipment locker.

He couldn't set his foot on an empty spot.

"Dohyeon."

"Three possible values." Dohyeon said. "First, all three rebars are intact. Second, only two are intact and one is snapped but still hanging in place. Third, calculated against our current weight, none of the three can hold. Assuming the worst case, it's the third."

"If it's the third, nobody crosses." Igyeol said.

"So we need more samples, and to get a sample someone has to step first, and if they step, the sample is a person." Dohyeon drew brackets in the air with his pen. "I don't like this math."

Yura sat with her back against the wall. Her left foot was already useless. Blood had spread once over the bandage and stopped.

Mirae raised his camera low at the corridor entrance. A red recording light blinked on, then off.

"Filename first. collapsed_corridor_three_rebar_fiftytwo_seconds." Mirae said. "Surveyor, can I record from here?"

"Record it."

"There are two more people who need to consent."

"Then ask the two of them."

Mirae looked at Saebyeok and Dohyeon in turn. Both gave permission with a gesture. He crouched down in front of Yura.

"Jin Yura, you'll be in the frame too. How much of you can I show?"

"Leave out my legs, please." Yura said. "Face is fine. Name, hold off for now."

"Legs out, name withheld." Mirae corrected the filename aloud. "collapsed_corridor_three_rebar_anonymous."

"I'll use it once." Igyeol said.

Saebyeok's gaze shifted over. He knew what that meant.

"Conditions." Saebyeok set his shield down. "Which senses get cut off, the duration, the end signal, and who can stop it. Say all four."

"I borrow two people's senses. Saebyeok's sight, Dohyeon's hearing. While I borrow them, you two lose that sense. Saebyeok won't be able to see, Dohyeon won't be able to hear."

"Duration." Saebyeok traced the rim of his shield with a finger. It was the motion of marking where to start counting.

"Twelve seconds, planned. The end signal is me lowering my hand. If either of you says stop before that, it cuts off on the spot. If it cuts off, the coordinate is gone. It can't be used again."

"What's the cost." Dohyeon asked.

Igyeol paused half a beat.

"One memory related to the person we rescued goes missing."

"Which memory." Dohyeon asked again.

"I can't choose." Igyeol answered.

Dohyeon turned off his screen. It was a silence with no decimal point.

"Then I have a question." Dohyeon said. "Does it happen every time? Does one disappear each time?"

"This is the second time." Igyeol said. Here, for the first time, he shifted his gaze.

"When was the first." Dohyeon asked.

"Last year." He said nothing more, and Dohyeon didn't press further.

"Then, one sample." Dohyeon set his bag down. "I consent. But while my hearing is off, I'll count my own pulse with my fingers. Since I can't hear the seconds, I'll count by heartbeat. Twelve seconds is about sixteen beats for me. If I raise my hand at sixteen, that's the signal to end it. My signal might come faster than yours, surveyor."

"If it's faster, we end it then." Igyeol said.

"Consent." Saebyeok set his shield on the ground and flipped up his helmet visor. His hand slipped once on the visor latch. He caught it again. "While I can't see, I'll rest my hand on Yura's shoulder. Yura, if I sway, push me."

"Push you?" Yura asked.

"Push me. Hard."

"Why me?"

"You're the closest, and you seem like the one who'd hold back the least."

Yura slid her hand under Saebyeok's wrist. Ready to push.

Igyeol stood between the two of them. He placed his left hand on Saebyeok's shoulder, his right on Dohyeon's wrist.

Saebyeok's sight came first. Someone else's angle settled over his own eyes. What Saebyeok had been looking at was the left side of the folded section. A work glove was wedged between the rebar, pressed from below. Something had pushed it upward from underneath.

"Can't see." Saebyeok said, resting his right hand on Yura's shoulder. "Yura, starting now."

"Got it."

"Can't hear now." Dohyeon's voice came from behind. "Counting by hand."

Dohyeon's hearing came in. Three points of friction sound. To be exact, two were loud and one was dead.

The two senses overlapped with his own empty coordinate. What had been absent turned into presence. Three points to set a foot on. One step in front of the left rebar, half a step from center to the right, one step in front of the far threshold. The third point was hidden by standing water, invisible to the eye.

"Six." Dohyeon counted his own pulse. A voice that couldn't hear itself came out half a tone higher.

"Three points." He said. "Front left, center right half step, front threshold. Everything between is empty."

Saebyeok answered with his eyes closed. "Repeating. Front left, center right half step, front threshold."

"Twelve." Dohyeon folded down two fingers. "No, thirteen."

Saebyeok's shoulder was pushed back half a hand's width. Yura had pushed.

"You swayed."

"Thank you." Saebyeok said, eyes still closed, correcting his stance.

A fourth point began to appear. Beyond the door. Seeing it would reveal the route on the next floor too. Igyeol wanted to see it.

"Fourteen."

The fourth point was on the third step of the staircase on the next floor. Seeing that far would reveal where this collapse had started. Knowing that could help him find the next person faster. The cost might not be one memory of Yura, but two.

He lowered his hand.

The senses left faster than they had entered. Saebyeok opened his eyes and blinked twice. Dohyeon shook his head once.

"Ended at fourteen." Dohyeon said. "Before sixteen. I'll note that down."

"Why did you end it at fourteen." Saebyeok asked.

"Because the fourth point was starting to appear."

"So?"

"So I cut it off." Igyeol said.

Saebyeok raised his shield. A gesture that meant he wouldn't ask further.

"That was a good call." Saebyeok said. "And you said twelve but used fourteen. That part wasn't good."

"I went two seconds over." Igyeol wrote fourteen in his notebook.

"Next time, say those two seconds first." Saebyeok said.

Dohyeon read out the weight order. He named only the heaviest and the slowest, and didn't decide who would stand where.

"I'm first." Saebyeok said. "I'm the heaviest."

"Dohyeon calculated the weight."

"Dohyeon calculates, I step." Saebyeok hung his shield on his back. "If the surveyor steps, the person who gave the coordinate disappears. That's the worst order."

"Second, Yura." Saebyeok said. "Match your stride. Since you can't use your left foot, take three steps on your right."

"I'll count from behind." Dohyeon added. "I couldn't hear before, so I counted by hand, but now I can hear. I'll count out loud."

"Isn't it dangerous if you make noise?" Yura asked.

"What's dangerous is falling quietly."

Mirae raised his camera, then lowered it. Framing all three points would make a good shot, but that would put Yura's legs in the frame. Instead of the camera, he marked the three points on the wall with chalk. A record needed to remain, but a face didn't.

Saebyeok stepped on the first point. The rebar rang. Ringing meant it was still holding. At the second point he turned his body half a step to the right. He stopped in front of the third point.

"Water's pooled here. Can't see it." Saebyeok said.

"Step there." Igyeol said. "It's under the water. I saw it."

"Did you see it, or calculate it." Saebyeok asked. It wasn't a matter of trust but of who bore responsibility.

"I saw it borrowed." Igyeol said. "Through Dohyeon's ears and Saebyeok's eyes."

Saebyeok stepped. Water splashed, his foot stopped. He was standing.

When Yura crossed, her right foot slipped at the second point. Saebyeok reached out an arm, and Yura didn't take it. Instead she grabbed the rim of the shield. She knew metal swayed less than a person.

"Well done." Saebyeok said.

"I chose what to grab." Yura said.

Igyeol crossed last. As he set his foot on the three points, he didn't look at the place where the fourth point had been. Beyond the door wasn't his to see yet.

The door opened, and the emergency lighting on the real world side turned all six faces white.

Yura received a blanket and sat down. She looked up at Igyeol.

"Thank you. Twice."

"Twice." Igyeol repeated.

"Once in the passage, once here."

Igyeol looked at Yura. Wet work clothes, the bandage wound around her left leg, fingers turning a bracelet. He could see all of it. But he couldn't see her eyes. The place where her eyes were, he could see, but there was no color there. Those were the eyes he had looked into just ten minutes ago.

"Surveyor?"

"Let me confirm the rescue sequence." He said. "The gap behind the equipment locker, the lever under the piping, direction corrections given by Yura. Twelve steps in the main passage. Three points in the collapsed corridor. Is that right?"

"That's right." Yura said.

"I remember all of it." He said. The sentence was correct, and it wasn't true.

Yura looked at him for a long time.

"What color are my eyes?" Yura asked.

Igyeol didn't answer.

"It's fine." He said.

Yura didn't ask again. Instead she spread her fingers under the blanket. One, two, three, four, five, six. This time, Igyeol couldn't count it.