Read Fall (Hold #3) Claire Kent Online Free

Fall (Agree #3), p.1

Claire Kent

  Fall

Claire Kent

This volume is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the production of the writer'south imagination or are used fictitiously. Whatsoever resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or expressionless, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Claire Kent. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in whatsoever course or past any means.

Contents

One

2

Iii

Four

V

Half-dozen

7

Eight

Nine

Epilogue

Nigh the Author

One

A wolf chased Lenna into a tree. The irony would have been hilarious had she non been running for her life.

She'd lived well-nigh of her life on spacecraft, and the remainder had been spent on civilized planets where she could notice proficient nutrient, decent drink, and worthwhile entertainment. A couple of years ago, she'd gone on a lunar safari, merely only because the guy she'd been sleeping with at the time had insisted. Otherwise, the simply wild she liked in her life was flying under Coalition radar in her smuggling missions.

She'd certainly never expected to startle a sabretooth wolf and be forced to flee through the tangled undergrowth of an alien forest to get away from it.

She didn't actually know what kind of beast was chasing her. But it was shaped similar a wolf—with slightly longer ears and with enormous, curled fangs like the sabretooth cats from Earth'southward prehistory.

Whatever the beast was, she'd clumsily stumbled across its path a minute ago. Different the other large mammals she'd encountered in the forest, this i didn't let her slip abroad undisturbed.

With a menacing growl, the wolf had lunged at her, snapping. And so Lenna had washed what any reasonable person would have done in such a state of affairs.

She'd run away as fast as she could.

She was in decent shape from years of making quick escapes in her less-than-legal activities, but she didn't have a chance of outrunning the wolf. After fewer than twenty steps, it airtight in on her—so quickly she could feel it snarling and panting at the dorsum of her legs.

In agony, she grabbed a low co-operative with both of her hands and swung herself up into the tree similar a gymnast.

That had been the plan, anyway.

She was neither as strong nor as coordinated as a gymnast, just she did manage to get her upper body above the branch and haul her legs up, just as the wolf lunged for them. The effort felt like it would rip her biceps in two, and the forward momentum nearly forced her into a face-first autumn over the other side of the heavy branch.

She didn't have fourth dimension to orient herself. The wolf took another leap for her, communicable a slice of her pants in its oral cavity and grazing her shin with i of its fangs. Virtually choking in panic, Lenna lurched sideways toward the tree body every bit she groped for more stability. She reached for a college branch, scrabbling up in such a frantic climb that she scraped the skin of her hands and shredded the other leg of her pants.

She managed to pull herself college up the tree, just out of range of the wolf's jaws.

Information technology was ridiculous. Lenna—twenty-9-year-former pilot and smuggler—treed by an enraged sabretooth wolf.

Oh, how far she'd fallen.

Later on a planet dump, withal, anything could happen.

Lenna had been wandering through this miserable forest for more than than two days, ever since a criminal enforcement unit had dropped her alone on this planet in an disposal pod—in what was quickly becoming the Coalition'south most mutual form of criminal punishment. The death sentence was forbidden—by and large for PR reasons—so criminals were sentenced to a planet dump like her or a lifetime on a prison house planet.

Either one usually concluded up beingness a death sentence anyway. The Coalition could just pretend they hadn't actually pulled the trigger.

In some ways, she knew she was more fortunate than other victims of planet dumps. At to the lowest degree this planet was genuinely habitable to humans. The climate hither was temperate, and the vegetation—even in this damned, countless forest—wasn't every bit foreign equally she'd been expecting.

And so far the just violent predator she'd encountered was the wolf who was however snarling at her feet.

Simply that didn't hateful her punishment was an easy one.

But a few criminals had ever fabricated information technology back from planet dumps. Being dropped on an unknown planet in an unknown solar system with no provisions, weapons, or transportation—with just a disposal pod manufactured to be inexpensive, biodegradable, and impossible to hotwire for flight—didn't allow for many survivors.

Lenna nonetheless didn't know how long she could survive.

All she'd eaten since she'd gotten here were some root vegetables she'd scavenged. They were sort of like turnips, and they tasted like shit. She'd seen some docile animals that looked like small bears eating them so she'd figured they wouldn't impale her. She had some problem forcing them down raw, but at least they might keep her alive.

Her pod had landed not far from a fresh-h2o stream, and she'd been following it southward when she'd run into the wolf. She was hoping to notice new plants as she traveled and perhaps something tastier to eat.

At the moment, yet, eating was the least of her worries. The wolf had stopped lunging up at her, but information technology was still stalking around the base of the tree.

Feeling nervous and insecure, she pulled herself up to a college branch, stabilizing herself with her dorsum to the trunk and with both of her hands on nearby branches.

She then noticed a snake coiled up a couple of branches away—it was dark-brown, with subtle diamond-shaped shadings running downward its dorsum.

Lenna jerked instinctively equally she saw it. The snake was just sleeping, still, so she talked herself out of her concern.

Snakes were easy. On World, they didn't attack unless you threatened them, and they seemed to take the same personalities here. Merely that didn't mean Lenna wasn't paralyzed every bit she darted her eyes between the coiled reptile and the pacing wolf. She nearly felt like laughing, in bitter irony rather than humor.

What the hell was she doing here?

A racket below the tree distracted her, and she saw a small mammal—it looked like a large rodent of some kind—darting into the clearing at the base of the tree. When information technology saw the wolf, it turned quickly and sprinted away. Merely the wolf had seen it, and—manifestly preferring easier casualty—took off after the new arrival.

Lenna waited several minutes earlier she was brave enough to climb down once again.

The whole thing was surreal. She wasn't a survivalist. She'd been in dangerous situations before, but they'd always been threats from other people and not from wild animals.

And she'd always had a gun and a ship to get her out of problem.

Yet here she was, rooting around in an alien wilderness for food and barely escaping wild animals.

Lenna had e'er considered herself confident and contemptuous. She'd been orphaned at fifteen and living on her own ever since. She was more than than capable of making her way through a complex, sophisticated earth on her own. She'd used her wits and her skills to handle boorish men, hostile customers, and a totalitarian regime.

This wasn't the earth she knew, withal, and she was realistic enough to admit that she wasn't going to make it here for long.

Shaking herself off, she reoriented her sense of direction so retraced her steps. All she could exercise was detect the stream again and go on walking, since she couldn't risk losing her one source of water. Her anxiety were aching, and the cuts on her easily and shins were stinging, even later she'd washed them as best she could. Every muscle in her torso was hurting, peculiarly the biceps she'd pulled so brutally in her attempt to haul herself up i

nto the tree.

Lenna was every bit miserable as she'd ever been, but she forced herself to keep moving forward.

If she didn't, she would dice for sure.

Information technology was late on the third 24-hour interval—she didn't accept a time-keeper, simply she suspected that the days here were longer than twenty-four hours—when she noticed the vegetation was starting to alter.

Feeling a new hope, she summoned the remains of her energy and sped upwards her trudging. The foliage above her was finally starting to clear, and she saw some plants that looked similar they needed more sunlight than could exist found in the depths of the woods.

Maybe she was finally going to articulate the forest.

She was so intent on getting out of the trees that she almost missed something very promising only at her anxiety. She might not have noticed information technology at all had she not stubbed her toe on a tree root.

Swearing under her breath, she stopped and looked downwardly at her aching pes, noticing that her shoes were getting worn.

That was when she saw the dark-green leaves—green leaves that looked a lot similar leaves she knew from Earth. Panting, she crouched down and pushed aside the leaves to observe petty carmine berries. They looked a lot like raspberries, and the broad leaves would have hidden the berries completely had she not been intentionally looking for them.

She picked 1 and nibbled it advisedly.

It was sweetness and berry-ish. So she picked some more, stuffing them into her mouth ravenously.

If they were poisonous, she'd be in large trouble. Merely at this betoken she couldn't make herself care.

When she'd eaten all of the berries in sight, she got up again and kept walking, keeping her eyes near the ground.

Several minutes later, she plant some more than berries.

She picked all of those besides, only this fourth dimension she collected them in the loose pockets of her trousers.

She didn't know how widespread the berries would be, and it would exist a shame to eat them all at one time if there weren't going to exist anymore.

Keeping the berries safe, she kept walking as fast as she could. It was starting to get darker, and she didn't want to spend another terrified nighttime alone in this forest.

Maybe, if she could ever pause out of it, she could find civilization. And, if she found civilization, perchance she could find a way off this horrible planet. At this signal, it was her simply hope.

A bird fluttered to her right, making her choke out a startled sound. Just, when she saw information technology wasn't dangerous, she leaned downward and picked up a rock—trying to aim well enough to knock it unconscious.

The rock she'd thrown barely grazed the bird, and it flew away earlier she could try again.

She'd tried to impale a modest mammal yesterday with similar lack of success. She wasn't a hunter. The closest she'd come to killing animals was swatting at bugs.

It was pretty dumb to recall she could kill an brute with her bare hands and eat it.

She wasn't fifty-fifty certain she could make a fire.

With a sigh, she started munching on a few more of her berries—feeling amend, even with the modest sustenance they provided.

Less than an 60 minutes after, she finally cleared the woods and saw a huge grassy plain stretched out before her.

It was well-nigh dark now, and information technology would be crazy to explore whatsoever further when she was expressionless tired and couldn't come across anything. So she looked around on the edge of the woods until she constitute a large rock that provided some shelter.

Then she curled upwards as comfortably equally she could—information technology wasn't very comfortable—and tried to residual.

Information technology got cool at night, merely not cold enough to require a blanket. And so far, none of the wild animals had troubled her. But it was nearly impossible to sleep well when you were starving, exhausted, and on border, and so she dozed as much as she could and waited until morning.

After several hours, she must have fallen asleep after all. Considering, when she woke up, it was daylight.

Something felt immediately weird, fifty-fifty before she opened her eyes. She couldn't really effigy out why, other than the fact that she hadn't expected to fall asleep. She was disoriented, and every muscle in her trunk hurt. Plus, at that place was a painful vacancy in her stomach from the lack of food.

But all of that was to exist expected. She'd been stranded on a primitive planet with no possessions except the clothes on her back.

What she didn't wait, and what immediately put her on alert, was the feeling that something—or someone—was hovering above her.

The sensation made her peel prickle on her neck and her forearms.

And so, instead of opening her eyes all the way, she peeked out through her slitted eyelids.

She was on her side with her back to the big rock, and the outset affair she saw was a long expanse of grass.

Since it looked normal, with nothing dangerous or unusual visible, she opened her optics all the style. It was still early morning but already brilliant.

With a long inhale, she rolled over onto her dorsum.

That was when she saw it. Or him. It was hard to tell what it was.

Her kickoff thought was a blond gorilla, although the climate and environment was all wrong for that kind of primate. The creature was looming over her, big and hairy, and Lenna was then shocked that she momentarily froze in stunned paralysis.

Her oral cavity completely dry, she could barely have a breath. The fauna was too big for a gorilla, she realized at present, and it didn't really expect like ane anyway.

Her adjacent idea was Big Foot, like the aboriginal legends they used to tell on Earth. It was standing upright like a man, but its face was in shadow. And there seemed to her glazed optics to be thick, dark pilus all over its body.

Then it fabricated a racket—a rough kind of grunt.

Lenna was slammed with a fear so intense that she was agape she might be sick.

It moved, stepping back slightly out of the shadow.

With the change in position, Lenna could see the features on its face more clearly, and she realized it wasn't an fauna subsequently all.

It was humanoid. Possibly fifty-fifty homo.

Its body wasn't covered in hair equally she'd originally idea. Instead, information technology was wearing some kind of tunic made of dirty animate being skins.

At first, this recognition relieved Lenna. It wasn't a wild animal looking for an piece of cake meal. "Hi," she croaked, forcing the words out through her parched pharynx.

She spoke the common tongue of Coalition space—the 1 linguistic communication nearly anybody in the civilized world could speak. There was no reason to believe this Neanderthal would understand her, simply she wanted to show information technology she could speak.

At the sound of her vox, the Neanderthal jerked back with another grunt. Then its features transformed with an emotion that was unmistakably rage, even on such an animalistic face.

It raised the long spear she hadn't even noticed information technology was carrying.

Lenna was still lying on her back on the footing, completely helpless, completely disoriented.

She was a normal woman—a pilot and a mercenary but generally civilized. She should not be here, lost and starving on the edge of a archaic forest, about to be killed past an angry Neanderthal.

Her vision tunneled into precise focus, staring at the raised spear.

Then, every bit the Neanderthal made a audio like a roar, her instincts all of a sudden kicked in. Lenna pushed her body into a impuissant gyre, but as the spear descended toward her chest.

The spear connected with force, driving into the clay she'd just been lying on. Her claret pounding in her veins, Lenna tried to focus enough to scramble to her feet.

Earlier she could stand up up, even so, the creature pulled up its spear and thrust it at her again. She rolled once once more, agony guiding her movements more than strategy.

She avoided the sharp point—which looked to be made out of some sort of stone—but it snagged the side of her shirt, pinning her to the ground.

She pulled on her shirt as hard as she could, hearing the fabric rip equally she did so.

It was tearing, but non fast enough

The Neanderthal was snarling at present, and i

Lenna tried to fix for the blow, her heed whirling with both panic and survival instincts.

Only before she felt the blow, something streaked out of the air and slammed into the Neanderthal's back.

The creature froze momentarily with the same violent grimace on its hairy face. Then information technology fell forwards, landing just beside Lenna with a spear in its back, i that looked a lot like the i the Neanderthal had been using.

She whimpered as she tried to pull herself away, only she was still trapped by her damned shirt.

Something had killed the Neanderthal before it could kill her, and she didn't know whether to exist relieved or even more than terrified.

Whoever or whatsoever had thrown the spear was approaching. Lenna could hear information technology moving through the grass.

Then it too was looming over her.

This one looked more than human, although, similar the Neanderthal, it had such long pilus and thick bristles that his face was barely distinguishable. The dark optics looked more conscious, more than intelligent.

Of course, that could be Lenna'due south imagination or a play a trick on of the light, but it was reassuring withal.

Getting tired of lying at the feet of various cavemen, Lenna yanked as hard as she could on her shirt.

It ripped, leaving a gaping tear from the hem to her right armpit, merely at least she was free from the Neanderthal's spear.

She stumbled to her feet and stared at the hairy man. He, like the Neanderthal, was dressed in an animal pare tunic, although his was less coarse and looked better crafted. He was taller than the Neanderthal, but he was simply as dirty, sweaty, and primitive.

Plus, he didn't odour very good.

He turned to look at her, as if he'd only noticed she was at that place. Then what she could see of his forehead wrinkled and he took a step closer to her.

Lenna tensed, preparing to flee. But he didn't have a weapon in his hands, and when he reached out it wasn't in violence.

He held her by shoulder and peered at her, plainly as curious about her as she was about him.

parkermargance.blogspot.com

Source: https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/claire-kent/68893-fall_hold_3.html

Share this post