Chapter 39

Chapter 039: What Must Be Done (8)

At Hee-soo's question, a construction worker answered with a puzzled expression.

"What? What other two?"

"There's only one person here."

Hee-soo had a bad feeling.

There are two more people nobody knows about.

He needed to check their locations.

He quickly took out his phone.

There was one marker over the injured worker in front of him.

Two more markers were some distance away.

But he could not tell exactly which direction they were in.

Hee-soo quickly walked around with his phone, trying to locate the other two.

However, he could not leave to search for them yet.

The condition of the man in front of him was too serious.

Blood was still seeping up through the dirt.

Jae-sik arrived behind him carrying an emergency bag.

The moment he saw the victim's condition, he recoiled.

"Whoa. What do we do with this?"

Hee-soo answered calmly.

"First, I'll stop the bleeding."

"Bring plenty of disinfectant."

"While I'm stopping the bleeding, check exactly what happened to the wound."

"Be as careful as possible to prevent contamination."

Captain Gu nodded seriously.

"Got it."

The victim already appeared to be entering shock.

Hee-soo immediately placed pressure over the femoral artery and began tightly wrapping the leg with a bandage.

While Hee-soo controlled the bleeding, the other rescue members carefully dug around the buried legs.

The right leg was not the only problem.

The left leg was also already fractured.

"This leg doesn't look good either."

Hee-soo glanced over.

He tilted his head.

"Haah. It's serious."

"Fortunately, it isn't an open fracture."

"We'll splint it immediately."

By the time Hee-soo finished controlling the bleeding from the right thigh, the deputy captain had already secured the other leg with a splint.

They carefully slid a stretcher under the patient and lifted him from the accident area.

"We'll move the patient to the rescue bus first."

As they were about to move him, a loud siren approached.

An ambulance arrived.

It was not from 119.

It belonged to KEPCO Hospital.

"We received notice about an emergency patient."

"He'll be coming to KEPCO Hospital anyway, so we came directly."

"We also brought a trauma surgeon."

It was almost too perfectly timed.

But Hee-soo did not need long to understand why.

When he looked toward Chief Jang, Chief Jang raised his thumb.

"Let's send the patient in the ambulance."

"It's probably more sanitary than the rescue bus."

"That would be better."

The deputy captain and Jae-sik patted Hee-soo's shoulder.

"Wow! Perfect teamwork. Perfect... What?"

"Where are you going?"

Hee-soo was moving his phone around like someone searching for underground water.

He stopped at one place and muttered,

"It's here."

"The markers are here."

But there was nothing around them.

There was only a steel plate covering the ground.

Jae-sik asked Hee-soo, who looked almost possessed,

"What are you doing?"

"We need to return."

"Two people!"

"There are two more victims!"

"We need to find them."

"Hurry."

"We already checked."

"The workers here said everyone except that man is accounted for."

"They might not be workers from this site."

"I think they're underneath this."

The deputy captain and Jae-sik looked at Hee-soo as if he were crazy.

"What are you talking about?"

Hee-soo looked around.

Then he suddenly ran somewhere.

It was an area connected to the construction site.

There had been a partial collapse there too.

However, the area was restricted and covered by temporary barriers.

Hee-soo instinctively realized it might be a route into the underground work site.

He picked up an axe and strode toward the restricted area.

Jae-sik called after him in shock.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"If you break that, even your lawyers might not be able to fix it!"

"Stop talking and follow me!"

"Hurry!"

"Deputy Captain, you too!"

The two stood there blankly after Hee-soo shouted at them.

The person who answered Hee-soo's call was Captain Gu.

Captain Gu had been finishing things around the scene.

When he noticed the commotion, he also grabbed an axe and headed toward Hee-soo.

"Hey! You bastards! Are you absolutely sure nobody is in there?"

At Captain Gu's shout, the two could only stare.

"Follow him!"

"Mr. One Hundred Percent says someone is in there!"

"Why aren't you moving?!"

Jae-sik, the deputy captain, and the other team members who had been cleaning up equipment all headed toward Hee-soo.

A man who appeared to be the site supervisor was startled by the rescue team's sudden movements and approached Captain Gu.

"Wait. What's going on?"

Captain Gu answered sharply.

"We believe there may be victims inside."

"That area is restricted."

"There are toxic substances inside too."

Hee-soo had been moving toward the restricted zone, but he flinched when he heard the words toxic substances.

Ah.

I should've put on the protective suit.

Captain Gu moved faster.

He ordered Jae-sik,

"Bring Hee-soo's protective suit and mine."

"Hurry."

"Everyone else, return to the rescue bus, put on protective equipment, and come back!"

"Yes!"

After giving the order, Captain Gu asked the man who looked like the site supervisor,

"Are you the site supervisor?"

"What toxic substances are inside?"

"I'm the site manager."

"There are organic chemical solvents used for painting and corrosion prevention, along with waste materials."

Hee-soo felt slightly relieved.

At least they don't sound like chemicals that cause immediate severe poisoning.

After making that judgment, Hee-soo told the site manager,

"Open that area first."

"Otherwise, we'll break our way inside."

"We don't have time."

When the site manager hesitated, Hee-soo raised the axe.

Only then did the manager stop him.

"All right! All right!"

"I'll open it."

He pressed an electronic key mounted on one side.

"Security here is strict, so ordinary people can't enter."

The interior was a disaster.

Hee-soo asked,

"Do you also have strong acids or strong bases in here?"

"Of course."

"We basically use hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, things like that."

"We need them to process concrete and metal."

Hee-soo tightly closed his eyes.

"Open it quickly."

The moment the manager opened the door, the inside looked like hell.

Captain Gu frowned.

"Ugh."

"If someone is underneath that, they'd already be dead."

"Not yet."

There was a huge sinkhole.

The site manager froze at the sight.

On top of that, the smell of mixed organic solvents, strong acids, and strong bases burned the nose.

Can I even save them?

Hee-soo checked his phone again.

The two markers are still clearly visible.

He checked their positions while searching for an entrance.

Hee-soo asked the site manager,

"From here to that side, does the ground slope upward?"

The manager shook his head.

"It slopes downward in that direction."

There was a very high chance the toxic substances flowing into the sinkhole would move toward the victims.

The inside had collapsed, so they could not understand the full situation.

Various drums were mixed together, bubbling while toxic vapor rose.

It was difficult to approach.

A large steel plate seemed to be acting as a barrier over the bubbling, hellish liquid.

"We have to get underneath."

Captain Gu heard Hee-soo and entered the area.

He flinched at the dangerous smell, but quickly ignored it and looked around.

"Where exactly are the victims?"

"They appear to be trapped beneath the area where the injured worker was found."

"This entire section slopes downward, so I think we need to rescue them quickly."

Captain Gu looked below and asked in disbelief,

"Can I really trust that?"

"When have I ever lied?"

Where the steel plate touched the chemicals, violent reactions were occurring.

Fortunately, acid, alkaline substances, and oil had spilled together, causing some neutralization and creating a partial barrier.

But they clearly did not have much time.

Captain Gu took a deep breath.

"What do you want to do?"

"We need to go down there."

Hee-soo had already looked around.

There was no obvious way inside.

They had no idea what the internal structure looked like either.

They could not simply enter recklessly.

While the two hesitated, the deputy captain brought the site manager over.

"Manager, how do we get underneath?"

Hee-soo asked again,

"Can you lift that steel plate right now?"

The manager shook his head.

"Impossible."

"If we bring a crane, it'll take at least an hour."

Hee-soo's mind started working again.

Meanwhile, the deputy captain asked,

"Was everyone underground evacuated?"

"Yes."

"As soon as the accident happened, everyone came outside and we completed a headcount."

Captain Gu suddenly thought of something.

"You're sure there aren't any unregistered foreign workers?"

The site manager was startled and quickly waved his hands.

"Of course not."

"We have foreign workers, but every one of them is properly registered."

"There are no undocumented or unqualified workers."

"We confirmed everyone immediately after the accident."

While they exchanged questions, Hee-soo desperately searched for a way underground.

We can't lift the steel plate.

We don't have proper equipment.

Drilling through and excavating is impossible too.

Is that the only way?

While he was thinking, Jae-sik arrived carrying the protective suits for Captain Gu and Hee-soo.

The two quickly put them on and connected oxygen tanks.

Captain Gu ordered the others,

"Everyone put on protective suits and gather here."

"Yes!"

Hee-soo told Captain Gu,

"First, prepare to excavate that location."

"That will take too long."

"Even if everything goes smoothly, bringing the equipment and excavating will take around eight hours."

The site manager agreed.

"Eight hours would actually be fast."

"The ground has weakened because of the collapse."

Hee-soo answered coldly.

"We still need to recover the bodies if it comes to that."

He looked at the site manager.

"How do we go underground and reach that location?"

"You can enter through the main access point and circle around, but under the current conditions, that area may collapse too."

Captain Gu stepped in front of Hee-soo.

"Going underground is reckless."

A bad thought flashed through Hee-soo's mind.

Whenever this guy stops me, something bad always seems to happen.

At that moment, the angel, who had appeared without Hee-soo noticing, spoke to him.

"He's not necessarily right."

"The problem is that your resolve is weak."

Hee-soo's eyes widened at the sudden voice.

"Huh?"

Captain Gu looked at Hee-soo.

"What?"

Jae-sik, who had followed them, noticed the angel.

"Oh."

"A stray cat?"

"Why is a cat here?"

Everyone's attention turned toward the angel.

At the same time, the tension in the area strangely eased.

"What a pretty cat."

The angel walked toward the closest person, the site manager, and rubbed its head against his leg.

Hee-soo stared in disbelief.

What are you doing?

That's exactly how a normal cat behaves.