CHAPTER EIGHT

The green building was in very bad condition. All of its windows were broken and the decoration on the outside walls had fallen off long ago. There was strange writing above the entrance. I asked Weena to try and read it, but then it occurred to me that these people had no written language. The interior of the building was very impressive. The first part formed a large hall, all around which were tall windows. The rays of light shining through them reflected beautifully from the thousands of years of dust that hung in the air. Ancient scenes, showing animals from long ago roaming about the fields and forests, were painted on the walls. It could be seen that the wall facing the windows had also been painted at one time, but now was reduced to a just few treetops and what looked to be a person's head, the color faded from years of exposure to damaging sunlight. I saw what appeared to be animal bones lying about in different areas of the floor, and along the lower part of the walls were little windows, behind which could be seen ancient-looking objects, such as jewelry, clothing, and pottery. Looking back at the bones, they reminded me of some that I had recently seen at a museum in England. "A museum," I said to myself. "That is it!" We were in a museum!

You cannot imagine how excited I was. The possibilities this place had to offer seemed endless! I could learn so much about how this world had come to be as it now was. I could see at what point in history human beings were at their greatest and most powerful, and at what time they began to lose this greatness and move back toward being simple animals again. I guessed that there was probably an enormous library somewhere that housed all kinds of interesting books for me to choose from. However, these were things that would have to wait to be explored another time, for the current situation required more useful information and materials.

So, taking Weena's hand in mine, we moved on to search about the place for whatever might prove helpful. The next room was full of rare rocks and minerals from deep inside the earth. I have very little knowledge of or interest in this science. I did not look at anything too carefully until I found sulfur, which is referred to as "S" in scientific chemistry tables. I wondered if there might be a way for me to make a gun or some kind of bomb. But, there were many other things I would need in order to do that, so I decided that it was impossible.

The next room, however, proved to be extremely interesting for me. It was a huge hall full of machines! Unfortunately, there was no way for me to guess what they might have once been used for. Yet, I was no less interested in them, and I would have probably stood staring at them for hours, if Weena had not come running over to me and cried out. Taking hold of my head with both hands, she turned my eyes toward the other end of the room. There, the floor seemed to sink deep into the ground, making a very large opening. As we walked closer, I could hear the sound of those machines I had heard down in the Morlocks' hole getting louder. The size of their underground city revealed itself to me in that moment. My God, how many of them were there? If I were truly to try and help the Eloi, I would have to teach them how to fight. There was no way for me to fight the Morlocks all on my own. This made my heart sink, for I knew that the Eloi would make useless soldiers. They had no strength, no skill, and no intelligence. If we were to challenge the creatures below in battle, I feared it would be nothing more than suicide. My plan suddenly came back to me with even greater importance than before, and I immediately began to look around for possible weapons.

Running over to one of the machines, I took hold of one of its levers and started to pull it down toward me with all of my strength. Happily, the lever broke off in my hands, so that now I had a long metal bar to beat any approaching Morlocks with. I had the urge to run down into that darkness and kill as many as I could, but I knew that my time would be better spent looking for more weapons with which to protect myself and Weena.

Moving on, we came upon a room of books. Actually, I should say, a room of what used to be books, for now all that remained of them were scattered pieces of paper, with little to no writing on them whatsoever. At the sight of this, I could not help feeling that everything we are doing in our time, all the work we are putting toward understanding and improving our world, was nothing but a pure waste of time and effort. Again, Weena squeezed my arm and reawakened me to the present concern.

I looked about the room for something useful, but saw nothing. Then, in one corner there seemed to be an area still untouched by time and in pretty good condition. I searched it high and low, feeling more and more the lateness of the afternoon. Below the windows was a set of drawers full of metal boxes. I opened them all and you will never guess what I found: a box of matches! They looked almost as good as new, too. I tried lighting one, but accidentally broke the stick. Then testing a second one, I was successful. I became so excited that I started to dance like a fool in the middle of the room. I could not believe my luck.

Moments later, I found something else equally as useful: oil, which could help me to light fires. It came in several cans. I quickly gathered all of them up and put them deep into my pockets, along with the matches. Later on I found knives and guns, but I felt that my metal bar was stronger than the knives, and I have never been very good with guns, so I chose not to weigh myself down with such things.

We spent the entire day inside the old museum, going from room to room. By nightfall, we found ourselves in a little courtyard with grass in the center. We sat down there to rest for a while. I was much more hopeful now that I had something with which to fight the Morlocks. I decided that, because it was too late to return to the village, it would be best to sleep in an open area and surround ourselves with a ring fire. Tomorrow, we would walk back to the village, and with my newly obtained metal bar, try to open the base of the bird-man statue, where I hoped my time machine would be waiting.

(end of section)