Eden Read Online Free PDF Page A

had not yet risen.
    Jenny blinked, disoriented. She felt so tired. The howling of the wolves, if that ’s what they were, hadn’t died down until dawn began spreading its golden fingers through the trees.
    She wriggled a foot, and pins and needles swept her leg. She felt very cold, even her bones felt chilled. Clutching an upper branch for support, she shifted her position, and something warm and furry brushed against her fingers. She jerked her hand away, and something above sharply moved.
    Looking up, she saw a creature with a bulbous tummy and four thin legs wrapped around the tree branch. Bright green eyes in a small, furry face chatted angrily in a language similar to chimpanzees. Then the animal drew back its lips and showed her a display of pointed teeth. Its blade-thin tail slashed the air, raining broken twigs on her.
    She slid down the tree as the creature screeched angrily above, and moved in the direction of the spaceship, forgetting the monkey animal - survival was the only thing important to her now.
    The door was still open, and she was certain the alien was no longer onboard, or even on the planet. What she was after was warmth and security, and his cabin offered both.
    Without the torch, which she had lost somewhere, it was eerily dim. She stumbled along, her steps, one in front of the other, were automatic. She was too exhausted to think.
    The cabin door was closed, but she pushed at the door, and as before, it fell open to her touch. It was warm in here. Stuffy. She felt her way to the bed and climbed on, wrapping the thick foil-type covering over her. Her eyes focused on bare metallic grey walls.
    Somewhere, in the heart of the old spaceship, something began to knock. Tiny crustacean feet scuttled along the corridor outside, and Jenny cringed within the blanket. She gritted her teeth, and sat staring at the closed door daring it to open.
    She noticed a rounded bottle on a synthetic, possibly plastic, table. The container was colored so she couldn’t see the contents. She flipped up the lid and sniffed. It smelled strongly but not unpleasantly, and she took an experimental sip.
    An alien whisky.
    She sipped again and enjoyed the warmth as it spread through her body. Shuffling backwards on the bed, she drew up her knees against her chest, clutching the bottle to her chest.
    The alien limped towards the river. His kill, dragging behind, bounced over the uneven ground. He knelt at the bank; smashed ice with his fist then lowered his head for a drink.
    Blood from the hunt, on his hands and face, colored the water, but this didn’t bother him, and he drank thirstily, finally wiping his mouth with the back of his soiled hand.
    He splashed water over his face and neck, relishing the icy cold on his sweating skin. He hunted when the natives began their night calling, and it had been hot and thirsty work. The creatures were at their most vicious then, and it was a challenge that they hunted together. Sometimes it was a disappointment that he wasn’t the hunted.
    The alien stood, stumbled on a weakened ankle, and cursed violently. His ankle had been broken and had knitted together during the first few months of being here, which had passed in a haze of pain and confusion. He had re-broken it himself and set it straight before putting it in a splint. And it had been fine, except he had fallen in a crevice during his chase after the humans yesterday, and now it ached again.
    The visit of the humans had not only surprised him, but also bewildered him. His race, Itor, had been studying the blue planet and watched how its life forms evolved over the years. The humans had never known they were under surveillance, and never would, unless the Itor wardens declared otherwise. But their visit had come as a surprise because it was obvious the Itor probes hadn’t been correct - they still believed the human were uncivilized and unintelligent scavengers.
    He snorted. Nothing could be more uncivilized than his race, and he