Vimeo Post

Sin­ce then he had been skul­king along towards May­bu­ry, in the hope of get­ting out of dan­ger Lon­don­ward. Peo­p­le were hiding in tren­ches and cel­lars, and many of the sur­vi­vors had made off towards Woking vil­la­ge and Send. He had been con­su­med with thirst until he found one of the water mains near the rail­way arch smas­hed, and the water bubbling out like a spring upon the road.

That was the sto­ry I got from him, bit by bit. He grew cal­mer tel­ling me and try­ing to make me see the things he had seen. He had eaten no food sin­ce mid­day, he told me ear­ly in his nar­ra­ti­ve, and I found some mut­ton and bread in the pan­try and brought it into the room. We lit no lamp for fear of attrac­ting the Mar­ti­ans, and ever and again our hands would touch upon bread or meat. As he tal­ked, things about us came dark­ly out of the dark­ness, and the tramp­led bus­hes and bro­ken rose trees out­side the win­dow grew distinct. It would seem that a num­ber of men or ani­mals had rus­hed across the lawn. I began to see his face, bla­cke­ned and hag­gard, as no doubt mine was also.

When we had finis­hed eating we went soft­ly ups­tairs to my stu­dy, and I loo­ked again out of the open win­dow. In one night the val­ley had beco­me a val­ley of ashes. The fires had dwind­led now. Whe­re fla­mes had been the­re were now strea­mers of smo­ke; but the count­less ruins of shat­te­red and gut­ted hou­ses and blas­ted and bla­cke­ned trees that the night had hid­den stood out now gaunt and ter­ri­ble in the piti­less light of dawn. Yet here and the­re some object had had the luck to escape–a white rail­way signal here, the end of a green­house the­re, white and fresh amid the wrecka­ge. Never befo­re in the histo­ry of war­fa­re had des­truc­tion been so indis­cri­mi­na­te and so uni­ver­sal. And shi­ning with the gro­wing light of the east, three of the metal­lic giants stood about the pit, their cowls rota­ting as though they were sur­vey­ing the deso­la­ti­on they had made.

It see­med to me that the pit had been enlar­ged, and ever and again puffs of vivid green vapour strea­med up and out of it towards the brigh­tening dawn–streamed up, whir­led, bro­ke, and vanished.