Chapter 9: Market Day

"Stay behind the counter," Woo-seok told her. "All of you, up on it. Off the floor."

The thing came out of the last tank and down into the alley.

It was gray coils and fins and a hundred gaping mouths.

Seawater from the broken tanks ran ankle-deep across the concrete.

The thing slid through it toward the counter, toward the sound of the children crying.

The people climbed up onto the stall counters, one after another, pulling each other.

Woo-seok looked for the pumps.

Every live-fish tank in a market ran on an electric pump, and every pump ran on a cable.

The cable for this row ran along the wall at knee height, taped and fat.

He'd once spent a whole night shift pulling a fishmonger off a cable like that.

He hacked it loose from the wall with his axe and stood holding the live end above the water.

"Is everyone up?" he shouted.

The man with the broken arm was still on the floor.

The girl in the apron jumped down, hauled him up by his good arm, and climbed back.

The thing was at the counter, rearing over the children.

Then a short spear came past Woo-seok's shoulder and touched one of its coils.

The whole animal stopped dead for one breath.

Ha-yeon stood in the mouth of the alley with her spear out and the crew behind her.

"Now," she said.

He dropped the cable into the water.

The lights along the alley flickered and went out.

The thing in the water jerked and kept jerking, every coil at once, and the smell of cooked fish filled the alley.

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