Free Fall

Greetings to everyone, the following story was inspired by the digital art of @xpilar, I invite you to visit his blog. The picture that motivated this story is the following.

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Source

Free Fall

Augustus was standing at the edge of the waterfall, under it, a precipice a little more than two kilometers high in which the waterfall was lost in a dense fog. It was the first time he would try it from such a high point, the atmosphere of the planet was so thin that at this altitude no parachute or other means that depended on the friction of the air would work to stop the descent.

He adjusted his viewfinder and could see in it the projection of the expected fall route and the location of the river at the bottom of the precipice. He took a long inhalation of his oxygen tank, drew back about five meters from the edge, inhaled again and ran towards the edge so that in the jump he could take as much distance as possible from the rock wall.

There was no way to slow down the speed of his fall, no matter how much he extended his arms and legs, to unfold the membrane between them, the resistance of the air was very little, he only had to see how the layer of fog was rapidly approaching him.

He entered the cloud and lost all sight, for a few fractions of a second, he could only see the white of the layer of fine drops of water which remained precariously suspended in the thinness of the air, then the terrifying vision of the river at the bottom of the precipice approaching at full speed impacted him, his visor warned him that only two hundred meters separated him from the ground, now the light air began to slow him down a little, but it would not be enough to reduce his speed which continued to increase.

Then, a hundred meters away, he brought his legs and arms closer to his body to make a ball in the middle of his fall, at that moment he pressed the pushers that carried his gloves on the knuckles of his index fingers, the burst of hundreds of nozzles expelling nitrogen inside his suit sounded thunderously, while they filled the chambers that formed all his surface.

Quickly his suit became an amorphous ball that besides slowing his descent, cushioned the impact on the agitated surface of the water and finally gave him buoyancy to be able to remain face up, lying on the water, pushing himself with his arms to reach the shore.

Text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, August 2019

Other stories from the Time and Space series

• Cerberus
• Underwater Companions
• Ultraviolet Visions
• Obstacle Race
• Stranger
• Trackers
• At the Mercy of the Elements
• Typhon's Great Regatta
• Immersion
• Elias
• Free Fall

I can only thank @xpilar for allowing me to use his digital art in my publication and for motivating my creation. Thank you very much @xpilar

Thank you all for visiting my publication, I hope your comments and I appreciate your support, until next time

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