Page 3 of Fall

It was pretty dumb to think she could kill an animal with her bare hands andeat it.

She wasn’t even sure she could make a fire.

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

Less than an hour later, she finally cleared the forest and saw a hugegrassy plain stretched out before her.

It was almost dark now, and it would be crazy to explore any further whenshe was dead tired and couldn’t see anything. So she looked around on the edgeof the forest until she found a large rock that provided some shelter.

Then she curled up as comfortably as she could—it wasn’t very comfortable—andtried to rest.

It got cool at night, but not cold enough to require a blanket. And sofar, none of the wild animals had troubled her. But it was nearly impossible tosleep well when you were starving, exhausted, and on edge, so she dozed as muchas she could and waited until morning.

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

Something felt immediately weird, even before she opened her eyes. Shecouldn’t really figure out why, other than the fact that she hadn’t expected tofall asleep. She was disoriented, and every muscle in her body hurt. Plus,there was a painful vacancy in her stomach from the lack of food.

But all of that was to be expected. She’d been stranded on a primitiveplanet with no possessions except the clothes on her back.

What shedidn’texpect, and what immediately put her on alert, wasthe feeling that something—or someone—was hovering above her.

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

So, instead of opening her eyes all the way, she peeked out through herslitted eyelids.

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

Since it looked normal, with nothing dangerous or unusual visible, she openedher eyes all the way. It was still early morning but already bright.

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

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

Her first thought was a blond gorilla, although the climate andenvironment was all wrong for that kind of primate. The creature was loomingover her, big and hairy, and Lenna was so shocked that she momentarily froze instunned paralysis.

Her mouth completely dry, she could barely take a breath. The beast wastoo big for a gorilla, she realized now, and it didn’t really look like oneanyway.

Her next thought was Big Foot, like the ancient legends they used to tellon Earth. It was standing upright like a man, but its face was in shadow. Andthere seemed to her glazed eyes to be thick, dark hair all over its body.

Then it made a noise—a rough kind of grunt.

Lenna was slammed with a fear so intense that she was afraid she might besick.

It moved, stepping back slightly out of the shadow.

With the change in position, Lenna could see the features on its facemore clearly, and she realized it wasn’t an animal after all.

It was humanoid. Maybe even human.

Its body wasn’t covered in hair as she’d originally thought. Instead, itwas wearing some kind of tunic made of dirty animal skins.

At first, this recognition relieved Lenna. It wasn’t a wild animallooking for an easy meal. “Hi,” she croaked, forcing the words out through herparched throat.

She spoke the common tongue of Coalition space—the one language nearlyeveryone in the civilized world could speak. There was no reason to believethis Neanderthal would understand her, but she wanted to show it she couldspeak.

At the sound of her voice, the Neanderthal jerked back with anothergrunt. 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 it was carrying.

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