Falling to the Viking Read Free Page B

in the quiet, grateful.
    She took a few minutes to think about this trip. This far, it had not been what she had expected. Aunt Halla was a complete surprise and somewhat of a disappointment. Kathryn was tired and her mind was a jumble of sites and scenes as if everything was thrown at her in blinks. She knew there was quite a lot to learn, but she had to plan on some way to slow down the old woman and find out more about the actual family.
    Well, shit, Kathryn. You came from her blood. If she was a pain the ass, you could be one, too. Time to be just as tough as Aunt Halla. Go back home and refuse to budge and make her talk about family. Yes, it was nice she had paid for the trip, but it was time she shared.
    Time to face the demon. Kathryn went to the elevator and pushed the button to let the men know she wanted to come down. It seemed to take a long time for the elevator to return to the top, but perhaps someone was using it below. Finally, the doors opened and she entered, still feeling her internal strength as she watched the doors close.
    There was a jerk, but the elevator didn’t move. She felt another jerk and the elevator let go— really let go, falling rapidly. It was dropping so fast, she felt herself actually rise up off the floor of the elevator. Her last thoughts were that she was going to die without ever learning anything else about her parents.
     
    Kathryn opened her eyes. Okay, she wasn’t dead. Maybe she would learn something about her parents after all. Where was she? She slowly moved her head. What was it she had learned when she was fourteen and in that stupid first aid class that doesn’t seem very stupid right now? Don’t move until you find out what is hurt.
    Kathyrn found herself was deep in a forest, evident by from the heavy trees overhead. She did seem to have a headache. That was to be expected, but there didn’t seem to be any problem with her neck. She slowly moved her legs, but there were no sharp pains. Using her arms to sit up gave her two good answers. Her back didn’t seem to give her any problems along with her arms. Okay, the most important parts of her body were okay.
    She got up, which brought to her attention her real problem, her clothes. She started to take an inventory. Her skirt had no zipper. Although her jacket seemed to be okay, her blouse was only in pieces—no buttons, no threads to hold it together. She took the jacket off and pulled the blouse pieces off, but this was when she was aware she had no bra. She also found out she had lost sight of her nylon thong. This was really weird.
    Kathryn sat back down to wait for a moment. She was grateful for the knee-high leather boots. She took a moment to braid her hair into one long plait. She took one of the pieces of her blouse to tie into her hair. She also took time to tear another piece from the rough blouse material to help tie her skirt back in place. The leather belt was gone. Had it been leather, or plastic? Wait, what difference did that make? Well, she would ask whoever found her.
    Now she looked around. If the elevator had exploded upward after she passed out, she might have been tossed somewhere away from the museum. If the museum exploded, there would be rescuers around the site. Either way, the best thing to do would be to head back to the channel and the people she left behind. Let’s see, two years in Girl Scouts said it shouldn’t take long to decide which way the sun was moving to let so she could decide where the salt water was.
    She took enough time to check out her boots. That allowed her to see the shadows move, so she knew where east and west was were located. She started to work her way through the deep forest in a southerly direction. Kathryn decided that finding the channel would bring her in contact with more people than any other direction, since the city and farming community stretched along its shores and cliffs.
    She walked for a couple of hours, then, really started to get worried. First of