Horsell Common and the Heat Ray
Despite his professional demeanor and scientific curiosity, the first word out of Donatello's mouth at the sight of the Martian was, "Ugh!" Clearly, this was not what he'd had in mind when picturing beings from another planet, expecting perhaps something more anthropomorphic like ourselves. He recoiled a few paces, and I was glad that he did, for the few daring young men who clambered over the edge to approach the first of the Martians came face to face with what looked to be an inverted funnel, which extended out of the cylinder on a jointed pole. With a brief whirr and crackle of electrical static, the air around the device rippled, as if expelling a vast amount of heat, and a white flash hit the bodies of those whom had ventured into the pit, turning each orange with fire in a second! The ash and soot of what they had been drifted on the wind toward us. Trees and bushes in the surrounding area caught ablaze in an instant, and screams rang out as people found their escape blocked by flame.
My jaw dropped open with a gasp, my lungs preparing me to scream if I needed to. Donatello likewise let out a yelp of shock, and the two of use dropped to our plastrons, shielded by the rim of the crater, while others around us cut and ran, some picked off, seemingly at random, by the heat ray, a bolt of electricity leaping from one to the next. Only after careful observation of the funnel and watching it point completely away from us, did we dare to stand and sprint for the trees and brush at the edge of the common.
"Are we safe here?" I asked, fighting the adrenalin in my system that encouraged me to flee further than our cover allowed.
Donatello panted, casting a furtive glance around the grand pine that secluded him from the heat ray's aim. "I think so, yes." Emboldened by the sense of relative security, he hazarded a longer look. "There's more of them, now… smaller ones. Drones, perhaps. And they're carrying out… it looks like sheets of metal! They don't seem intent on leaving the landing site, though… My guess is they're using that parabolic plasma conductor of theirs to stave us all off while they put together something they can shelter in, perhaps even move about in. Wouldn't that be something!"
"It would be," I nodded. "Something terrible!" I gulped, tucking a bit closer into the cover of my own shrub. "I'm glad they're staying down there for the time being… If they leave that pit, Maybury Hill will be within range of the heat ray!"
"Your home," Donatello recalled. "Were I you, Leo, I would schedule an extended vacation out of town as soon as possible!"
Even as I nodded and made to say something to make light of the situation, our eyes latched on to another green object in the sky, trailing the same green mist that had propelled the first cylinder to our planet.
Donatello put a hand up to shield his eyes. "That one looks to hit London dead-on."
"London!"
A look of recognition crossed his face. "You have loved ones there, don't you?"
"Yes." Indeed, my father and half-sister lived there. I had never thought that this horror should be able to reach them as well. "Come… I must telegraph them at once. You can stay at my place."
He shook his head. "No, I've got to stay. They'll need my expertise. Look!"
Word must have reached the local authorities, more likely from those who had seen the Martians emerging and had gone back to town to spread the word than those who fled from the heat ray, though surely by now, warning from the survivors was also spreading, for a troop of soldiers came, setting up a cordon along the edge of the pit.
I gripped his wrist in a firm handshake, worried that this could be the last time I ever saw him. "Stay safe," I implored him. "Don't take any unnecessary chances. For God's sake, stay well way from that funnel!"
"I will… You too," he returned, shaking my hand in the same manner, and I set off for home while he joined the men and began explaining the danger, in too many complicated words, to their captain.