CHAPTER SEVEN

My troubles were now far greater than before. Before, I had thought I only had to learn the ways of the simple Eloi in order to find my time machine and return to our time. However, after discovering the Morlocks, I no longer had the same confidence in my chances for success. These people below the ground seemed horrible to me. Now I could understand the Elois' fear of the dark. However, I still was not clear about the relationship between the two peoples. There was a lot of talk among the Eloi about the coming moon, which would bring increasing darkness over the land at night time. It seemed that they knew something terrible was going to happen.

It was clear to me now that my idea about the Eloi being the stronger of the two races had been completely wrong. It is possible that at one time in the past, the Eloi had ruled over the Morlocks, but somehow things had changed. The people above ground had become weak over time and lost their skills and intelligence; while those underground, being used to work and having to maintain their machines, had kept some of their strength. But why would the Morlocks continue to make things like food, housing and clothing for the Eloi? I supposed that the Morlocks did this only out of habit and nothing more.

Suddenly I remembered seeing that meat in the machine room. Again, I had to think about this strange difference between the two peoples. How could the Morlocks be meat eaters, while the Eloi were vegetarian? I assumed that this was a result of the Elois' laziness. They had lost their ability to hunt and, possibly, even to cook.

One thing the Eloi did have, however, was fear. It seemed that in their talk about the coming darkness of the next few days they felt helpless. Their fear made them incapable of planning a way to protect themselves. Although I was also afraid, I refused to let my fear control me, and immediately started to think of a way to hide from the Morlocks, as well as a way to fight them, if necessary.

Looking around, I found little safety in any of the buildings or nearby trees. Then I remembered that huge, green building I had seen a few days before. I thought that it might be about eight miles or so from our village. So, taking Weena by the hand, I started off early in the morning toward what I hoped would be a good hiding place.

The day was a beautiful one, and Weena seemed to be in a good mood, for the whole time we walked she was gathering flowers and putting them into my pockets for fun.

"Oh, that reminds me!" The scientist suddenly stopped his story. He began to search around inside his coat pockets, pulling out several strange, white flowers and handing them to us in the sitting room. "Here are some of the flowers Weena gave me," he said, and then continued his tale.

I was wrong, however, in thinking that the walk would be eight miles. It turned out to be twice as far. To make matters worse, I found that my shoes were starting to fall apart from all the walking I had been doing during the week, and now parts of my feet were unprotected. This slowed us down quite a bit, so that by the time we arrived at the building, the sun was already beginning to set. Now, I am sure all of you are familiar with how quiet and calm things get just before the sun goes completely down. Well, that night, I cannot tell you how frightening this time of day seemed to me. It felt as though it were a sign of some kind, a signal for something terrible to begin. I imagined that I could feel the Morlocks moving about me underground, preparing for their attack upon these helpless Eloi. I started to fear that my entering their underground world had somehow begun a war between the two peoples.

As we continued on our journey, the darkness deepened around us, and Weena became increasingly tired and fearful. I held her close to me and tried talking a little in an attempt to comfort her. Then we came to a small river, which we easily crossed, for it was not very deep. On the other side was a dark forest. It seemed to go on for miles, so I thought it a bad idea to enter. I could no longer see the green building that was our destination, and was already starting to lose my sense of direction. Within the thick forest we would surely become lost. It was also hard to say what dangers, other than the Morlocks, awaited us in that dark stretch of trees. Also, my feet were in terrible pain now. It seemed that both Weena and I needed a rest.

So we decided to stay in the middle of a large field, where the dim light of the moon enabled us to at least see shadows. Weena immediately lay down and fell asleep. I placed my jacket over her to keep her warm. Looking up at the sky, I noticed how the brightly shining stars formed a different pattern than the ones in our time. And there was a new, large, red star hanging over the earth in what I guessed was the East. I kept thinking how the earth must look the same to those stars over these hundreds of thousands of years, and yet, how much it has actually changed. All of the great knowledge and culture of the past was now gone from the earth, replaced by these two peoples: one, beautifully simple and ignorant, and the other, terribly disgusting and cruel. Again, I tried to imagine the relationship between the Eloi and the Morlocks. Then, suddenly, I understood where that meat had come from. I looked down at my little Weena, sleeping peacefully, and tried not to think any more about those ugly, white monsters.

That whole night, I saw nothing of the Morlocks. As the sun began to rise up into the sky, I noticed that my foot was red and swollen. My shoes were now in such bad condition that I threw them into the river, determined to go barefoot until I could return to the village and get some sandals. I woke up Weena and together we walked into the woods. We met some other people in the woods and sat down to breakfast with them, laughing and eating all the while. I started to feel foolish for having been so afraid of the night time.

But then I remembered the meat I had seen below. I knew now that what I had seen was the leg of an Eloi-human meat. I understood now that the Morlocks had at some time in the past run out of food. They probably started to eat anything they could find. I am sure that they first hunted small animals, like rats. But eventually, these animals probably disappeared, leaving them no other choice but to hunt humans. In the early parts of world history, there is some evidence of humans sometimes eating other humans. Of course, as people became increasingly civilized, they gained greater intelligence, and the idea of eating other humans became more terrible. However, the Morlocks had lost most of their civilization. They now had only the sense that eating other Morlocks would be wrong; and in this way they stopped seeing the Eloi as human beings. To them, the Eloi had become nothing more than what cows are to humans in our own time.

I must admit that part of me felt that the Eloi might have deserved this. Humans, even in our time, have always made terrible use of their power by forcing animals and other humans to work for them. Now, it seemed, nature was having its revenge upon humans. However, I could not help pitying the poor Eloi, for they seemed so innocent; and, of course, I had grown very close to my little Weena. I could not see her as deserving any type of cruel punishment; nor did I, being human myself, feel that I deserved to die a horrible death at the hands of the Morlocks.

So I decided to continue with my plan to find a safe place, which I still hoped the green building might provide, and find some way to defend against the creatures below. When I thought about it, fire seemed like one of the best ways to keep the Morlocks away. I also needed to come up with a way to get to my time machine, for I had made up my mind to take Weena back with me to our time. I could not stand the idea of her staying in such a terrible place as this, waiting to be taken below and eaten by those horrible monsters.

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