One hour later
River Harold, northern outskirts of London
The river Harold was a young river compared to others in the country, especially its larger neighbour the Thames to the south. Running for about seventy miles from the coast to a large lake to the northwest of London and being about ninety feet wide for most of its length, the widest point was about one hundred and twenty feet, it had been formed by labour workers in the middle of the eighteenth century to help trade ships get to villages and towns themselves rather than having to go into the Thames and be offloaded and then horse drawn to the villages and towns. However, as the twentieth century began to creep closer to Great Britain, faster transportation on rails and cars and a larger working force had made this river no longer usable by trade ships. For about thirty years, it was left as it was until about twenty years ago when a stone bridge was built over the river to connect the side of the river facing away the north to the side that led to London. It was a quicker route of travel and was also near the peaceful villages and towns, one small town being placed along the left side of the river, and a natural area outside the great city. Many families would come to have picnics and bring their pets here to play with and lovers to have walks. It was a place of happiness.
However, instead of being filled with happiness, it was now filled with fear and that fear was coming from the many refugees that had filled the bridge, having fled from the interior and coastal towns and villages to the north of London. The roads leading to the bridge from the surrounding forests and fields were packed with people hoping to escape to the city where they thought they would be safe, but the amount of people had formed a large crowd on the right side of the river, and it had only been swelled by the arrival of a large group of people fleeing from St Angel village. Along the London side of the river, a wall of sandbags had been prepared and several large artillery guns and mortar emplacements had been placed to defend the bridge in case any Martians came across the area. So far none had, but the British army here was not taking any chances.
In the crowd, three people tried to work their way towards the bridge that led over to the other side. It was Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy. Mr and Mrs Perkins were holding the suitcases whilst Lizzy was holding Mr Twitches. She had her coat on so the fairies and Cheese could sit in it without getting lost in the crowd.
It had been rough getting here. When they left St Angel earlier last night, or very early this morning when it was still dark, it had been fine but earlier on, they, along with everyone else in cars, had to abandon their cars because the roads were clogged with refugees and army horse carriages and also because the army knew that if cars tried to go across the bridge, it would clog it up and slow down the movement of civilians to the safety of London and make it a death trap if the Martians came across it. At the moment, the army was allowing people to pass over the bridge and so far it was going calmly but they had soldiers posted on the forest side of the bridge in case anything did happen. The crowd, however, had barely thinned. When one load of people had made it across to the London side, another refugee group would arrive to fill up the crowd. It was going to be a long process for the army, one that might take them the entire day, but at the moment everyone was okay. They were safe, but, again, for the moment.
Tinkerbell, who was sitting in Lizzy's left coat pocket with Terence, Iridessa and Silvermist, poked her head out just a little from underneath the flap and gazed around the huge crowd around her. Everyone was worried and was talking and in a hurry to get across the river. She watched as a young woman held her child of about nine tightly by the arm. A man walked by holding a suitcase. Nearby, she saw someone dressed in ragged clothes, which looked as though they had been torn, and covered in dirt, holding a basket filled with food.
"It's crazy out there," she said to the others, who had a look for themselves.
"Wow, you're not kidding!" Iridessa gasped, going wide-eyed.
"Those poor people," Terence said. "Can't believe I'm really seeing anything like this!"
"Same here," Tinkerbell said.
"I just hope this stops soon and these people and we can go home and back to our normal lives," Silvermist piped up, withdrawing from the flap and sitting down and bringing her knees up to her chest. "It's so horrible!"
"Hey, don't worry, Sil," Iridessa told her in a soft voice, hovering over to her and placing an arm round her to comfort her.
Tinkerbell sighed. She knew how Sil felt. She was feeling the same actually. This was a horrible thing to be witnessing, watching people having to leave their homes, but still not knowing if the way they were going was actually safe and if they would live through this. Although Tinkerbell was hoping that they and she and her friends would, she also knew that there was a strong chance they would not. These Martians were unstoppable and they were able to land anywhere and everywhere and cause panic and fear among the people near them.
"Are you okay, Tink?" Terence asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.
She looked at him sadly. "I wish I was," she replied, sitting down and resting her head against his shoulder, trying to hold back tears. "Why is this happening?" she said.
"I don't know, Tink," Terence replied and placing an arm around her to comfort her. "I don't know,"
Outside, Lizzy looked around at the crowd as she, Mr and Mrs Perkins approached the bridge. She was scared and felt helpless, like her fairy friends. She wished all of this would end, right now if it could, but wishing was not going to help her or even her friends even if they could. She had never believed this would happen, that she would be separated from her father like this or that she would be a refugee and having to flee from things that wanted to kill her. It was horrible to think about, let along believe it was actually happening.
"Stay close, Lizzy, dear," Mrs Perkins warned as the crowd suddenly became thicker with people.
Not too far ahead of them, a group of soldiers were keeping a few men that were trying to run and push their way across the bridge back. It was obvious they were drunk as they were shouting, which was barely noticeable over the noise of the crowd, and their words were slurred.
"Oi, c'mon! Let us through, ya berks!" one of the men shouted at the soldiers.
"Sir, stay back!" a soldier warned, pushing the man back with his rifle.
"Don't you push me or I'll drop yer!" the man growled, trying to push past the soldier again.
"Sir, I mean it! Keep back, or I will use force!" the soldier growled.
As Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy approached the bridge, they heard a nearby officer was ordering people calmly onto the bridge.
"Please move forward calmly onto the bridge," he was saying. "Please remain calm and walk across the bridge to the other side. That's it, everyone, please move calmly,"
I'm glad his words are actually reaching people Lizzy thought, unable to think of what would happen if this crowd was to suddenly break into a panic.
Nearby, about thirty metres away
Out of the trees came a convoy of military trucks and civilian cars that stopped near the edge of the river, lining up on the small grassland between the river and the forest just a few metres from the edge of the crowd. The officer in the first truck got out of the truck.
"Alright, c'mon, everyone out," he ordered.
One-by-one, the trucks and cars emptied. Martin and the soldier looked over at the crowd as they got out of their truck.
"Bloody 'ell!" the soldier said, aghast with the size of the crowd.
"I hope we all get across today," Martin said.
"Same here," the soldier replied.
Suddenly a noise erupted from down Martin's feet and he and the soldier looked to see a frog jump through the grass towards the river. Soon after, another frog followed, and then another and another and another.
"What the devil is going on?" Martin asked himself.
"There's more of 'em, look!" the soldier said, pointing up the grass behind and in front of them.
Martin looked and saw more frogs jumping through the grass in front of him up until just before the crowd and behind him as far as the eye could see. Some of the people that had arrived with him in the convoy also noticed this as well and were pointing down at them. What was going on? Why were they jumping towards the river?
Then, a flight of birds of all types flew overhead from the trees. Martin looked up and saw them. Unease began to fill them. Something was not right. All of the animals were coming out of the forest.
On the bridge
Finally, Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy had made it onto the bridge and had managed to force themselves into a space that went along the side of the bridge facing the convoy that had just arrived. Everyone was in a hurry to get to the other side and Lizzy was being pushed by people behind her and she struggled to stay with Mr and Mrs Perkins.
"Ofph!" she said as she was almost thrown to the bridge floor. "Oh, I don't like all this pushing," she said.
On the river bank
Martin looked over at the crowd once again, transfixed by the size of it. There were many people here and more kept coming. It was unlikely he or anyone else in the group was going to get across the bridge any time soon today. It might not be unti-
Then, his eyes rested on someone on the bridge. It was a little girl with a cream/grey-like coloured coat. She had brown hair and her face, though he could only see the side, was instantly recognizable. It… It was…
"Lizzy!" Martin breathed, excitement and hope filling him and before anyone could stop him, he ran towards the bridge. The soldier, who was surprised to see him run off all of a sudden, shouted after him but he did not hear him. Finally, he was going to be reunited with his daughter!
On the bridge
Whilst she was going, Fawn, who was in her right coat pocket with Clank, Bobble, Vidia and Rosetta, Cheese being kept in another larger pocket below theirs, looked out through the flap to see the top of the stone wall along the side of the bridge next to her and the view of the river and the houses. Wow! It was a great view. If only they were not on the run, it would have been a very peaceful moment.
Then, a chirping sound filled her ears and a second later, a small bird landed on the side of the bridge. It was a blue tit, a young one. It had a worried look on its face and was looking around for its parents, who it had lost as it had flown overhead.
Fawn immediately felt the urge to go out there and comfort the little bird, and that is exactly what she did.
"Fawn, come back!" Rosetta called.
The bird chirped around on the wall of the bridge nervously, frightened by the noise the Humans were making as they were attempting to get across the bridge quickly.
"Aww, don't worry, little guy," Fawn said calmly as she set down next to the bird, barely being noticed by the Humans walking directly behind her. "Are you okay? Have you lost your mom and dad?"
The bird chirped and pointed its wing up at the flight of birds. Fawn nodded and rubbed the birds head.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll help you find them as soon as my friends are across the river," she said. Fawn then looked up at the birds. "By the way, why are you all flying away?" she asked the bird.
The bird chirped back and pointed at the trees with its wing. Fawn gave the bird a confused look.
"What, what do you mean-" she said, but was cut off when a hand rested on her shoulder.
"Fawn!" a voice said and she turned to see Bobble standing there. "What are you doing?" he asked her.
"This bird just flew down and told me it's lost its parents," Fawn replied.
"Guys!" a voice hissed at them and they looked to see Vidia looking out of Lizzy's coat, Lizzy now steadily moving further away. "Get back in here! Hurry, or we'll lose you!"
Bobble said something in reply. Whilst he was doing this, the bird looked up at the trees and along to see if there were any other of its kind it could fly with, just to keep it company until it found its mother and father, or until they found her.
Suddenly, about three hundred feet down the river, the tops of the trees rustled wildly. Upon seeing this, panic gripped the bird, knowing what was coming, and chirped at Fawn.
"What is it, little guy?" she asked, looking at the bird, who pointed at the rustling trees with its wing. Fawn looked and at once a shocked and scared look came onto her face.
"Bobble?!" she whispered, gripping his hand tightly.
"What is it?" he asked, only to see as soon as he turned and his eyes grew wide, so much so that they looked like they would burst out of the goggles' sockets. He gasped quietly and Fawn, a panicked look now on her face, placed a hand over her mouth.
The reason they were shocked and scared beyond belief…
Out of the trees came a machine, a tall machine. Its neon green bright eyes glowed brightly despite the sunlight, fixed on the bridge, its tiny tentacles on the front of the main section of the machine waved around madly in mid-air and, though only just, Fawn, Bobble and bird could see the tiny cylinder sticking out of the side of the main section of the machine that was the heat ray, or the death ray. Even though they had never actually seen these creatures before, they had a feeling this was something that was helping them.
The legs of the enormous machine came out of the trees, one splashed down into the river, another drove deep into the ground. Its last leg uprooted a tree and brought it down with a loud BOOM! Upon hearing this, the entire crowd went silent as if the noise had been turned off and everyone looked down the river towards the machine.
VVVVRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!
The tripod began to move down the river towards the bridge.
Someone screamed and, like a wave sweeping onto the shore, all hell broke loose as everyone began running onto the bridge and those already on the bridge began to push and shove each other to get to the other side and into the town.
"C'mon!" Fawn shouted to Bobble over the noise of the screaming and shouting and they ran along the edge of the stone wall to try and find the others, the little bird following close behind.
At the back of the crowd, Martin and the soldier quickly found themselves in the midst of the pushing and shoving. Behind them, as the civilians that had been with them in the convoy joined the pushing and shoving crowd, the soldiers near the vehicles loaded their weapons. On the other side of the river, the soldiers in the gun emplacements began loading the enormous weapons, ready to fire on the tripod.
"Don't lose me, Martin!" the soldier shouted to him but before Martin could even reply, a group of people pushed past them and the soldier was pulled away into the crowd. Martin wanted to go after him, but his instinct told him to keep going across the bridge and find his daughter. Sighing in annoyance at himself, he pushed his way deeper into the crowd towards the bridge.
Further down the river, the soldiers at the vehicles fired on the tripod as it approached, but the bullets did nothing against the thick metal armour of the machine, though it did attract its attention. The tripod halted where it was, drawing a lot of looks from the bridge and aimed its ray down at the trucks. The soldiers went wide-eyed.
"RUN FOR IT!" the officer yelled.
Just as he finished yelling out his order, the lighthouse light came out of the end of the cylinder and a wave of fire shot out after it. The soldiers' screams filled the air as it collided with their skin and within milliseconds, they were incinerated into ash. One of the trucks caught fire and was knocked over on its side as the tripod advanced, causing the flames to leap onto the other trucks and cars.
"C'mon, it's getting closer!" a man shouted near Martin, who looked and went wide-eyed to see the enormous machine coming towards them. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, as it did with everyone else, and he began to run and push harder, only to find himself being pushed and shoved by other people.
At the other end of the bridge, Fawn and Bobble and the bird reached the end of the bridge. They looked around desperately for Lizzy, but with the amount of people running and the noise ear deafening to them, they could not find her.
"What do we do?!" Fawn cried.
We'll have to fly into the air and look down for them," Bobble shouted to her.
BANG! The noise threw them off the stone wall but, luckily, the bird grabbed Bobble, who grabbed Fawn and lifted them up into the air and flew away from the bridge. Where had that come from?
BANG! The noise came again, only this time it sounded closer. BANG! The three looked down the side of the river to see the guns firing one-by-one on the tripod. One of the shells struck the side of the tripod, tearing off a large piece of the side of the main section of the machine. It reared back, its right leg dangling slightly as the shell had struck the connection that attached it to the machine. Another shell struck the back of the head and blew out an enormous chunk of it. The machine leaned forward slightly, but quickly moved back as if the piloting Martians were racing to keep it upright.
"Quick, fire another one! We almost got it!" an officer exclaimed.
The soldiers nearby readily and willingly obeyed. They loaded another shell into the gun and with another great big BANG; the shell was fired at the tripod.
BOOM! The shell struck the main body section again. The right leg of the machine collapsed and fell off, landing with a great splash into the river below. The other half of the machine swayed as if it was struggling to stay upright.
"'Ey, look! They've got it!" a man on the town side on the river shouted, pointing at the machine. Most of the crowd stopped and looked at it. Nearby behind Fawn and Bobble, Lizzy stopped and watched with everyone else as the machine finally tumbled over into the river with another great splash.
A chorus of cheers filled the air. Martin looked over at the destroyed remains of the tripod and breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, for the moment. Now he had to go and find his daughter quickly.
"Excuse me! Sorry, excuse me!" he said as he began to push through the crowd onto the bridge.
On the other side of the bridge, Fawn and Bobble flew out of the bird's grip and flew up into the air, their eyes searching the crowd for Lizzy, who they finally found near the end wall of the bridge. They flew down to her and she was relieved to see them.
"Oh, I'm so glad you two are okay!" she said. "I thought we had lost you in the crowd,"
They shook their heads and Vidia flew out of the pocket up to them.
"What's wrong with you two!" she said. "Why did you do that, Fawn? You could've gotten yourself killed!"
"I couldn't leave the bird, Vidia!" Fawn hissed back.
"Well-"
"Hey, c'mon, stop!" Bobble said, resting his hands on their shoulders. "We can argue later. Right now, let's get just go before we get attacked again,"
Vidia sighed and flew back into the pocket, pulling the flap down hard behind her. Lizzy gave them a worried look but said nothing. Fawn and Bobble flew down to the pocket and climbed in. Lizzy looked around for Mr and Mrs Perkins, who she found just a few metres from her, both of them looking around desperately for her. She ran over to them.
"Oh, Lizzy!" Mrs Perkins said, relieved as she hugged her. "We thought we had lost you then," she said.
"Two of my fairy friends went missing," she replied. "I didn't want to leave them,"
"Well, we're glad you're okay," Mrs Perkins replied.
Fawn looked out from under the pocket flap at the crowd around them. "That was a close call," she said. "Where's that bird?" she asked herself, scanning the sky.
Suddenly…
CRASH! Everyone looked over towards the other side of the river, just behind the crowd, and saw three trees be uprooted and thrown through the air into the river. A huge mechanical leg came out of the forest followed by a body. The hope within the crowd was replaced with terror. It was another tripod.
Then, as if to worsen the situation, another few trees were pushed aside or uprooted and a second tripod came out of the forest near where the remains of the still burning trucks were. Close behind that one was a third.
"Oh my God!" a nearby man gasped.
VVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!
The tripod nearest the crowd aimed its heat ray down at them, the lighthouse light shining down onto them and the wave of fire followed. The screams of the saying filled the air as tens of people were instantly vaporized into dust.
Once again, the crowd broke into a panic and everyone began to flee in all directions. Lizzy looked around for Mr and Mrs Perkins but found herself separated from them.
"Mrs Perkins!" Lizzy was shouting in panic. "Mrs Perkins, where OFPH!"
Suddenly, she was knocked off her feet and sent to the ground. At this happened, her pocket flaps came undone and the fairies and Cheese fell out onto the ground, directly in the path of the fleeing people. Lizzy dropped Mr Twitches as well, who screeched loudly as his tail was stepped upon and ran off into the crowd.
"FLY!" Tinkerbell yelled in panic.
The group separated, weaving in and out of the forest of moving legs, desperately trying to avoid being crushed, but very quickly they lost each other. Tinkerbell tried to fly upwards into the air but found it hard because of the amount of people running about to get away from the shore. She was almost even knocked over by someone running past her but her wings and quick thinking saved her from falling to the ground and being crushed.
Nearby the soldiers were rushing to load the artillery weapons.
"C'mon, hurry up!" the officer was shouting at them.
"Alright, it's ready sir," one of the soldiers on a gun nearby called.
However, just as the officer was about to order the guns to fire, one of the two tripods that had come out of the trees further down the river side aimed its heat ray at the guns. The lighthouse light shined onto them and the flames came shooting out. One of the guns exploded, taking the group of soldiers next to it with it, and the heat ray moved both left and right along the side of the river, melting the guns and incinerating the soldiers that were unfortunate to get out of the way. The first tripod, which had moved into the river to the left of the bridge that had arrived aimed its heat ray towards the bridge, not the crowd, but the actual bridge itself. The third tripod did the same, aiming at the stone pillars that held the bridge up.
Martin, who was on the bridge, looked at the tripod to the right of the bridge and gasped. A few other people had noticed this as well, but before any of them could shout out the warning.
The rays fired. The flames hit the stone pillars and the bricks seemed to melt into dust within milliseconds. No sooner than a second passed before the bridge suddenly collapsed, sending tens of screaming people into the river and leaving about forty more trapped on the Martian side of the river. Some jumped into the river to try and swim across, but found themselves caught in the struggle as everyone tried to swing to safety. Those that did not jump into the river, presumably because they could not swim, were quickly incinerated by the heat ray.
In the water, Martin, who had been thrown under the surface of the river, swam to the top, his head bursting out into the air and inhaling a deep breath. He looked around him and saw chaos everywhere. People were screaming and trying to stay afloat whilst trying to swim away from the tripods, the two of which had destroyed the bridge were advancing towards the mass of people in the river.
Martin swam away towards the river, but found it difficult. The amount of people and the moving legs of the Martian tripods were making the waves kick up into him, which was not helped by the amount of people that were struggling to swim or even stay afloat.
"Mate!" a man shouted to Martin from behind and he turned to see a brown haired man struggling to swim over to him. "Please…help me!" he gasped.
Martin looked at the man and at the tripod. He wanted to get away from the tripod, but this man here could barely swim. He could not leave him or he would drown, but if he helped him he would probably be killed as well. What was he to do?
"LOOK OUT!" a woman somewhere in the river screamed.
Suddenly, the man, as he was about to disappear under the surface, was lifted out of the water. Wrapped around his middle was a metallic tentacle that was coming out of the mass of them on the front of the main section of the tripod. The man was lifted kicking and screaming like a new-born towards the tripod. Martin watched in horror as the other tentacles on the tripod began to lash out at the water like cats swiping at fish it might see in a lake or river and bring out a person to take them to, no doubt, a horrible end. Gasping in horror, Martin began to swim away from the tripod towards the river side.
Back on the London side of the river, the fairies were separated in the crowd and were trying find each other, though it was not easy, even for Clank, Terence, Iridessa and Rosetta who had flown up above the crowd and were looking down at it to try and find their friends.
Iridessa cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted out: "Tinkerbell!" but received no reply, which would have been hard to hear. "Bobble! Vidia!"
The others copied her to try and see if they could hear anyone. "Bobble!" Clank shouted.
"Fawn! Sil!" Rosetta shouted.
"Tinkerbell! Lizzy!" Terence shouted as loud as he could.
It was hopeless, they could not hear their friends if they were shouting back to them, which they doubted. Iridessa looked around desperately, trying to find Lizzy or Mr and Mrs Perkins. If they could not hear the others, they would have to find the Humans and hope Tinkerbell, Vidia, Sil and the others were with them.
It was then, Iridessa's eyes rested on a young girl on a street corner, looking around worriedly. She was shouting into the crowd as well, but it was hard to hear her. Iridessa's eyes lit up with hope.
"Guys, c'mon," she said and she flew down towards Lizzy as fast as she could, Clank, Terence and Rosetta following close behind.
Lizzy looked up when heard jingling and saw them coming.
"Oh, thank goodness, I'm glad you're okay!" she cried happily.
"Where's Tink and the others?" Iridessa asked her, though it was jingling to Lizzy but she got the idea of what Iridessa was asking her.
"I don't know where the others are," Lizzy told her. " I hope they're okay,"
OOOOOOOORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
They looked over towards the tripods and watched as the dome on the back second tripod opened up and about six small silver capsules about the height of Lizzy speared in the dome. Many people around them who had heard the tripod emit the noise looked and watched as one of the capsules shot up into the air like a rocket. For a moment, it seemed to disappear into the sunlight. Then, it fell back down, landing with a crash in the street near the remains of the artillery positions, not even a dent in it.
"What in God's name is that?" a soldier asked.
Then, before anyone could reply, the capsule burst open and a black fog began to form above it and started moving down the street. Most of the people around it backed away, but one soldier did not. It was a bid mistake.
As the fog came near him, he inadvertently inhaled some of it. Suddenly, he felt like his lungs were being crushed and the air being choked out of him. He collapsed to the ground and the people around him watched in horror as he writhed about on the ground, coughing and spluttering desperately for air.
"H…H…HELP!" he coughed/screamed as he grabbed his throat and tried to breath, but ended up inhaling more of the black fog.
On the pavement nearby, Tinkerbell watched what was going on with wide-eyes, both filled with disbelief and horror. That fog…it was something horrible! Something unimaginable!
"RUN! IT'S GAS!" a man screamed.
Everyone screamed and began pushing and shoving each other even more as they hoped to get away from the black cloud that was spilling out of the capsule across the streets and into the alleyways and even going through closed windows and under the doors of houses.
Tinkerbell wanted to fly away as well, but where could she hide? The gas was spreading in all directions and was even rising into the air, and even if she could out rise the gas, one of the tripods might see her and fire on her, though she did mentally doubt this but she was still not prepared to take the risk. She looked around desperately for somewhere to hide, but where? The gas was getting into everything. She was trapped!
She spotted a small hole in the side of the house behind her. It was big enough for a mouse to fit through. That was her way out! She would go through there and then find the others on the next street.
"TINKERBELL!" she heard a voice scream.
Tinkerbell shot round to see Fawn and Bobble fly out of the sea of legs towards her.
"I'm glad I found you," Fawn said to her. "Me and Bobble can't find anyone else!"
"We'll go through here," Tinkerbell replied, pointing at the hole. "And then try we'll and find a way onto the next street and find-"
She was cut off when they heard a squeaking coming from somewhere nearby. Fawn's eyes went wide.
"Cheese!" she exclaimed and looked around to see him running through the sea of legs towards them. He narrowly avoided behind stepped on by a man and jumped over the feet of a woman, who squealed and fell over.
Bobble looked over to the left and watched as the black fog began to move up the street towards them, engulfing two more people within it.
"Uh, guys!" he said, pointing down the street. Tinkerbell and Fawn looked and saw the coming threat.
"Cheese, c'mon!" Fawn urged him, panic in her voice.
The field mouse came to a halt as a group of people ran in front of him. He squeaked nervously, too scared to move. The three fairies looked back over at the black fog. It was only about sixty feet away, and closing fast. The panic within them began to turn to terror. They had get moving now or they were dead.
Cheese jumped through a quick gap that appeared in the forest of legs and ran over to the three. Quickly, they dived through the hole, one at a time, and fled further into the house, only just getting away from the gas cloud.
Meanwhile, whilst the terror on the river bank was escalating rapidly, Martin had tried to climb onto the river bank, but the movement of the Martian legs made it hard to as the water kept hitting home and pulling him back in and the heat ray had fired on a few soldiers who had carrying a mortar emplacement and a few shells, nearby. The shells had exploded and the force of the explosion threw Martin back into the river.
However, he had finally managed to pull himself out of the river. Exhausted but determined, he began to climb up the side of the river bank towards the road, hoping that someone would see him or that he would be able to run to a truck.
The sound of the heat ray being fired filled his ears and he turned his head to look down the river and saw one of the tripods fire on the few remaining people still struggling about in the river. The other two were beginning to fire on the buildings and people on the river bank, causing death and destruction with every burst of fire from their heat ray.
The tripod that had fired into the water must have hit something explosive from the first tripod that had been destroyed because a powerful explosion suddenly erupted and threw a wave of water down the river. The few people that had survived the heat ray were swept up into it. Rubble from the bridge was carried with it. Martin gasped and tried to climb up the side of the river bank, but he had barely any strength left. It was too much.
Then, the wave slammed into him, knocking him out instantly and carrying him down the river towards the North Sea.
In the streets of the town near the river bank, Lizzy and the others had finally found Mr and Mrs Perkins, who had Mr Twitches with them, in a nearby truck. Lizzy climbed in and collapsed onto one of the seats. Around her were other people who had only just escaped onto the truck. One of them, who was a middle aged man in his forties, was lying on the floor with an army doctor and two other man kneeling down beside him. The middle aged man was breathing raggedly as if he was struggling to.
"Is he gonna be alright?" one of the men asked.
"'E's lucky," the doctor replied. "Another second and he would'a been dead in that black fog,"
"C'mon, start the bloody truck already!" a soldier said as he ran past and climbed, or more likely jumped, into the front passenger seat.
The soldier driving the truck started the vehicle after several attempts. The engine hummed and he slammed his foot on the accelerator, causing the truck to shoot forward down the road. As it drove away from the chaotic river side, the fairies and Lizzy looked out and watched with sadness and defeat in their eyes as the tripods began to lay waste to the surrounding buildings, the screams of the people filling their ears.
"Wait!" Lizzy said all of a sudden. All of the fairies were gathered in front of her and she counted them. Her eyes widened. Looking around the others realised it as well.
"Where's Tinkerbell?" Lizzy asked.
"And Fawn?" Silvermist asked.
"And Bobble and what about Cheese?" Vidia asked.
"You don 't think…?" Rosetta asked, trailing off as they looked back down the street at the river, which was now barely visible under the black fog.
Further down the river, a man lay on the river bank, his clothes hair and skin soaking wet and his eyes closed. It was Martin. Miraculously, he had been carried down river by the wave and dumped on the river bank, but had he not survived nature?
On the road a man with brown hair, small glasses and looked to be in his thirties and was dressed in black robes and black shoes with a necklace of the cross around his neck, gingerly approached the man. Looking down the river to make sure the Martians were not coming up this way, which they were not, he knelt down beside Martin's body and placed a finger on his pulse.
"Thank the Lord," the man said and he walked up to Martin's shoulders and placed his hands underneath them and began to drag Martin away from the river towards a waiting car on the road.