Chapter 3: Red

"Dropping down another two hundred meters again. Over." I heard Dr. Lan's voice through the speaker on my right.

Then, a SWISH filled the air, as the carbon-fiber rope next to my suit rapidly move up at a fast rate. I saw Dr. Lan's suit began to fall at high speeds.

I executed the same command, and with a flick of a switch, I felt the force of gravity pull me down, the G-forces surrounding my body started increasing.

But before it became anything serious, I switched the switch back up, and I began slowing down, before finally coming to a stop, directly two hundred meters from where I originally was.

This process repeated many, many times.

Right now, me, my father, and a group of fellow scientists were venturing down towards the center of the Earth. (Or at least until we reached the bottom of the hole we created.)

This was to be expected, it was the main objective after the firing of the laser, after all.

But originally, it was to study the textures, minerals, and status of the Mantle of the Earth. Now, we were there for a different reason.

A much more... dangerous reason.

The screen that me and my father saw earlier in the lab was a 'Live Organism Scanner', or 'LOS' for short.

The purpose of the LOS is to detect living things, such as animals, plants, or even the smallest of bacteria and cells, in a given area, no matter how big, or how small.

My dad decided to put a LOS over the hole, just for the kick of it. But what he found as he looked through the different recordings sent, was shocking.

If what we saw on the screen was true, the. that would mean that there were living organisms (not just small ones mind you) that could survive in the mantle of the Earth.

And if they could survive there, who knows what else could too.

If we could confirm that these organisms exist, then the discovery would be groundbreaking. A breakthrough of the millennia.

"Hey there." My father's voice suddenly penetrated my ears through the headset I wore, shocking me. "How you doing, buddy?"

"Dad!?" I gasped in surprise and anger.

I could hear a hearty laugh though the headset, "Sorry Xavier! Just wanted to know how you'd doing."

"I'm doing fine. Thanks for asking." I answered sarcastically. I paused to lower myself downwards a couple more hundred meters, before coming back to my father. "Alright, What is it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It isn't like you to interrupt people while both of us are on an important mission." I leaned to the side and peeked through my chair, spotting the light on my father's suit about six hundred meters away. "I know you have something on your mind."

"Hah..." He sighed sadly and playfully at the same time. "I guess you're right. Just being down here... it kinda feels like that one time we went into the haunted house together. Remember? It was the first time I took you to an amusement park."

"I didn't help that I was sixteen, Dad." I stated sarcastically.

He laughed again. "Yeah... it was kinda awkward. You were always an independent kid. Back then, you just wanted to hang out with your friends Jonas and Elis—" He immediately stopped, realizing what he just said. "Xavier, I—"

"Dad." My voice became cold as ice, "Please. Just stop."

"I... Alright. Sorry for being that up again..." My father apologized.

I flicked the switch on and off, lowering myself about a hundred meters

It was a terrible time to be having a flashback.

--

"Hey Xavier!" I felt a strong arm sling around my shoulders.

"Woah!" I was almost knocked down to my knees. I turned around and saw a tall, burly guy smirking at me. "Jonas! I told you not to do that! I nearly fell again!"

Jonas laughed as he swiped his choppy, brown hair away from his face. "Well, it isn't my fault you put all your energy into your brain instead of your body!"

I rolled my eyes and chuckled as well.

"Jonas! Xavier!" I heard a high-pitched voice call out in front. We turned our attention to the girl running towards us, waving her hand.

"Elise!" Jonas smiled toothily. "Welcome to the party!"

We laughed and chatted that day from dawn to dusk.

I made so many wonderful memories with you guys...

Why did everything have to come crashing down so soon?

--

"xavier. Xavier. Xavier!" My father's voice dug deep into my ears again.

"H-Huh?" I snapped out of my trance. "What?"

My father became quite serious. "I said, we're about to pass the LAB."

"Oh..." I quickly shook away as my drowsiness from my eyes.

The LAB, in this case, isn't a laboratory. It stands for the 'Lithosphere–Asthenosphere Boundary', which is the invisible line that separates the lithosphere, from the Asthenosphere. Or in simplified terms, the line that separates the crust from the mantle.

The hole we created had been calculated to be nearly a thousand kilometers deep, which is absolutely enormous, when compared to the biggest hole humanity had previously dug: The Kola Superdeep Borehole, only a measly twelve kilometers deep.

And because it was so deep, the suits we wore were specially made to withstand any and all forces we may encounter in the deep.

I may have explained how it protected us from heat and pressure, but that was only a few of the purposes we truly created it for.

Other than for protection, it was really meant for exploration.

It had a built in LED spotlight, that shines as brightly as four thousand lumens when adjusted to maximum levels. It has a suppressed water, ration, and personal storage compartments for desperate times.

It may be called a suit, but it could be mistaken a moving war machine built for a single person.

You didn't even have to stand in it. I was currently sitting in a fireproof chair, controlling the ropes that lowered me down deeper into the hole using a complicated set of levers and switches.

The suit even had a set of climbing appendages and a built in grappling hook.

It simply wasn't used here because of the slippery substance that covered the walls.

This substance was called the 'Red Compound Laser Substance', or 'RCLS'.

At first, RCLS is a liquid-like substance that is produced by the laser for an unknown reason. After firing, RCLS was found to completely cover the solid layer that the laser did not touch, or come into contact with. And it seems to always solidify almost immediately, regardless of temperature, light or any other environmental conditions. Though it does dissolve into the air over time.

The aftermath of a solid RCLS seems to be a thick jelly, but don't be fooled, solid RCLS has been found to be extremely durable, and almost impenetrable.

After hours of continuous testing, only a plasma knife managed to be able to cut through its thick surface.

And since solid RCLS was extremely slippery, to avoid any casualties, an extremely long and durable rope was manufactured, and used to slowly lower our team into the hole.

"How far away are we?" I asked.

"About twelve hundred meters away." My father replied.

I didn't really want to, but I had to ask that question, "...is there any movement detected?"

"There seems to be a small bit of movement, but definitely less than the first time we saw it."

There was still a bit of tension in our voices. Guess our awkwardness hasn't settled.

I lowered myself again. "Do you think that there can be living organisms inside the mantle?"

My father's voice sounded unsure, "It's hard to say. There are organisms who have the ability to survive extremely high temperatures, such as water-bears, but for an organism to be so big? Unlikely..."

Heat wasn't the only reason. How about food? How did this organism get its nutrients? It's water? How about oxygen?

It all sounded too suspicious. There shouldn't be any possible way for something to survive down here permanently.

Maybe the LOS was wrong? Did it pick something else up and mix it—

Suddenly, the speaker next to me sprung to life again.

"Uhh... Dr. Hinata?" The voice that came out was deep, and almost scratchy and rough, yet high-pitched at the same time. It sounded like a fork carving the surface of a plate.

That was definitely Dr. Nora, a geologist who had worked with us before, and was extremely talented, but I never really tried to get along with her.

But I could recognize her voice, it was a little unique in my opinion.

"Yes? Dr. Nora? Is there a problem?" I heard my father's voice through the headset and speaker at the same time.

"Yes, there is a very big problem here..."

I didn't exactly listen to them, mostly just focusing on lowering myself do—

BOOM!!

Suddenly, I crashed onto a hard surface, sending waves of shock and pain up my spine.

What the hell?!??

A heard more thumps around me, probably the other scientists crashing into the... Whatever we crashed into.

Since we were being lowered belly down, I would have smashed face first into the glass, had I not been wearing a soft, rubber seat belt.

But when I opened my eyes, I thought my face had somehow managed to smash into He glass anyway.

Because all I saw was red, pure red.

It took a moment to realize I was still strapped to my seat, just hanging over the durable glass.

And it took me another moment to realize that the redness I saw wasn't in the inside, but the outside.

And finally, I realized that the redness seemed to be a sort of liquid.

That liquid, was the same color as blood.