The Blood of Venus

I Was Shoved Off A Hundred-Thousand-Mile Cliff

I took cautious steps towards the edge of the chasm. The massive crack was fourteen or fifteen feet wide up close.

"Be careful, dude. Can't risk all the experience you have for a simple look." Drake took out his cellphone, and called for a vaporizational delivery of his climbing gear. "My stuff is gonna be here in a moment, and then we can get down there and check for anything dangerous."

"Got it. Should I get the beam guns, or do you think we'll be okay?" I asked.

"There shouldn't be anything down there besides magma, even then it should be igneous rock. I'm pretty sure that we'll have a safe mission." Drake answered, looking around for any beams of light in the sky.

It came, the green light materializing from the sky and dropping off a backpack several feet away. It left as quickly as it came, not a trace of smoke nor dust behind.

"Great," Drake picked it up and took out two rock-climbing harnesses, two carabiners, and a ton of rope. He tossed me one of the harnesses as he began to put on one. "I wonder how deep that crack is."

It took me a good minute to figure out what strap went where, so as soon as I was done, I went over and hooked part of the rope and a carabiner to myself. "Down to the magma, from the smoke that came out of it earlier. Will we be using a tree this time?"

Drake grabbed the majority of the rope and walked to a sturdy looking tree. "You bet." He wrapped the rope around the trunk several times, and then knotted it. "Are you ready?" He came over to where I was standing, by the edge.

"As ready as I can be." I took the flashlight he was handing to me. 

"Good. You first." Drake gave me a hard shove off the edge.

I was so surprised and unprepared that my scream rang for the thousands of feet that I was falling. I tried to grip onto the rope, but burned my fingers from how fast I was. Wind was rushing by my ears so fast that they popped, which hurt. The cold of the air going by at such a powerful speed made me shiver. 

I was falling through darkness and coldness at the speed of a bullet.

All at once, the rope ended. I groaned in pain as I hit the harness with all my weight and speed, and then realized that my legs were dangling.

When would this crack end? I was pretty sure that I had gone for a mile or two.

A moment later, I heard the zip of Drake coming down too. His feet had touched the floor. "What the heck, man, you said you were ready. What was all that screaming about?" He had fallen about five feet away from me.

"I wasn't expecting someone to shove me off a ledge." I was a little irritated with him.

"Ha, of course. Just kidding, man. Next time, though, expect anything." Drake, although intelligent and powerful, couldn't help but show his light-hearted side. 

"Guess I'll have to if I'm working with you. Anyway, are we far from the ground?" I turned on my flashlight and pointed it at the floor.

The ground was about a five-foot drop. Though the ground was dark and cooled igneous rock, he at was still radiating from it.

"Nope- Whoa, I see something. I need to check this out." Drake unhooked himself and instantly went off, going over out of my flashlight range.

I also unhooked myself, and when I landed, my foot slipped on something. I landed on my bum and noticed that there was something red all over the floor.

"Wh...at?" I stared in confusion, looking at my hand. It was covered in a deep, dark red liquid. "Do you see this, dude?"

"I'm over here looking at some junk on the ground, what have you found?" Drake was a good bit away.