Ch 3: In the Storm
It began to rain the next day, but the lightning and thunder did nothing to block out the alien sounds. The hammering from the pit and the sound of guns grew louder I panicked a little to the sound of someone creeping into the house. I sighed as a young man, an artilleryman by the looks of him appeared, weary, streaked in blood and dirt. "Is anyone there!" he shouted, his voice hoarse. I opened the door and allowed him in. He sat on a couch in a slump. I returned from the kitchen with a water bottle. "Drink this," I said. He gulped the water greedily and his voice was clear. "What happened?" I asked him. He looked shaken, then he stuttered, "They wiped us out, hundreds, no thousands dead!" "The heat ray?" I asked. "The Martians," he went on. "They were in the woods with these machines they made! Massive metal things on legs! Giant machines that walked! They attacked us, wiped us out!" He choked a sob.
Machines? I wondered. "Machines?" I asked out loud. He nodded. "Fighting machines! Picking up soldiers and throwing them around!" He stopped for a minute to finish his drink. "There was another cylinder last night," I said. "Aye, I saw one of them heading for London." My eyes widened. No! "Carrie!" I hadn't dreamed that they'd be a danger to Carrie and her family so far away. "We must go to London at once." I exclaimed. The artilleryman nodded. "And me...I have to report to headquarters...if there's anything left of it." There was an abandoned horse-drawn carriage, and with no alternative used it as our means of transportation.
At Byfleet, we came across an inn, only to find that was deserted. "Is everybody dead?" the artilleryman asked. "Not everybody...look six cannons with men standing by." I said. "Bows and arrows against the lightening," he said. "They haven't seen the heat ray yet." We traveled down the road to the Weybridge but there was an explosion. The ground heaved, Windows shattered, gusts of smoke erupted in the air. The shaking earth sent us flying; the horse died upon impact. "LOOK, THERE THEY ARE," the artilleryman yelled pointing at something. He tripped, nearly hitting a downed tree. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?" After another earthquake, the artilleryman shouted, "Follow me! They'll never find us! Quick! Quick!" I followed the fleeing soldier and I saw a silhouette that loomed over us both. I turned and my eyes widened.
Quickly, one after the other, four of the Fighting Machines appeared. The things that I saw! How can I describe them? Monstrous tripods higher than the tallest steeple, striding over the pine trees and smashing them. Walking engines of glittering metal, articulated ropes of steel writhing from them and a clattering tumult of their passage mingling with the riot of thunder. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monsters swept by us.
Each machine carried a huge funnel and I realized with horror that I had seen this awful thing before. A fifth machine appeared over the bank. It raised itself to full height, flourished the funnel in the air and the ghostly, terrible heat ray struck the town. As it struck, all five Fighting Machines exulted, emitting defining howls which roared like thunder, forcing everyone to cover their ears. ALOO! ALOO!
ALOO! The artilleryman and I ran through the debris that began to fall on top of us; paused for brief moments to watch the battle. To our amazement, the cannons were actually damaging them! ALOO! A crowd of survivors on a hill witnessed the destruction before joining the artilleryman and I in our escape. ALOO! The six guns that were seen before now fired simultaneously, decapitating a Fighting Machine. The Martian inside it was slain, slashed to the four winds, and the body, nothing now but an intricate device of metal, fell to destruction. As the other Machines advanced, everyone scattered about, the artilleryman among them, but I jumped into the river and ducked down until forced to the surface for air. The guns spoke again but this time the heat ray sent them to oblivion. The Martians howled again. ALOO!
The heat ray swept across the river. Scolded, half blinded and agonized, I staggered from the hissing water towards the shore. Suddenly, I fell in full sight of the Martians. I closed my eyes and waited for the obviously slow and painful death. The foot landed close to me, frozen in fear. The foot lifted as the Martians carried away the remains of there fallen comrade. I realized, by miracle...I had escaped.
(I used the original content from the book to describe the tripods. Try to think of them as a mixture of the fighting machines from the 1953 movie, Jeff Wayne's musical and Steven Spielberg's movie made in 2005. I own none of the content in this story except the text i added.)