this was originally meant to be part of the previous chapter but i felt it belonged in it's own. poor Sheldon, he hates change and is starting to have the realisation that things are never going to be the same again... not sure what Amy is going to think to Penny and Sheldon's "closeness" though! ;-))
Chapter Ten: The Comic Book Store
There in the darkness, as we continued our drive down Woodbury Road, the passing of the monstrous tripods which appeared to be scouting the area seemed to have affected Leonard's car as we stalled, and no amount of effort from Leonard could make the car re-start. I thought back to the conversation that I had overheard between the two soldiers at Horsell Common, and suggested to my companions that somehow the invaders were able to render our machinery a failure, and that this must stretch to transportation also. A few moments after we had been brought to our unexplained halt, a man blundered into us and was sent reeling back as he bounced off the bonnet of the car. The man gave a cry of terror, got up from the road and rushed off before any of us had a chance to talk to him. Noticing that the man was Stuart from the comic book store, we jumped out of the car and went on after him. He had ran full pelt into his store; we went up close to the doorway. Just in front of the door, I stumbled upon something soft and, by the flash of lightning, saw between my feet a heap of clothing and a pair of boots. Before I could distinguish clearly how the man lay, the flicker of light had passed. I stood over him waiting for the next flash: when it came, I saw that it was a sturdy man, cheaply but not shabbily dressed. He lay crumbled up close to the door, as though he had been thrown violently against it.
Overcoming the repugnance natural to one who had never before touched a dead body, Leonard turned him over to feel for a pulse. He was quite dead: Leonard pointed out that his neck had been broken. The lightning flashed for a third time and his face leaped upon me. Leonard sprang to his feet: it was Professor Gablehauser, the head of the physics department at Caltech, and mine and Leonard's boss.
We stepped over him gingerly and pushed our way into the store. The looters hadn't touched the comic book store. We let ourselves in, then closed and locked the door and bolted it shut. I ran to the corner near the toy robots and sat down on the floor; my imagination was full of those monsters and of the dead body of Professor Gablehauser lying outside the store. I crouched in the corner with my back to the wall, shivering violently. Penny came over, crouched down with me and threw her arms around me; I could see she was also crying, but I'm unsure as to whether those tears were more through fear of seeing me in such a mental state. Leonard stated that he was going to look for Stuart and make sure that he was ok, leaving Penny and I alone.