CHAPTER TEN

The Return to Maybury

We arrived in Leatherhead at around nine o'clock. The gunfire had stopped long ago; a strange silence lay over the evening darkness. My wife had not said a single word during our escape from Woking. I tried to comfort her by reminding her of the Martians' limited ability to move, but she only stared off into the night before us.

We sat down to dinner with our cousins and told them about what we had seen. The time then came for me to keep my promise to the pub owner. My wife tried to get me to stay there with her, but I told her I had to return. Her face went white with fear for my life. As for my own feeling, I was foolishly excited by it. I liked the idea of returning to the battle and even secretly hoped that the Army had not yet successfully killed the Martians, so that I might get a chance to experience a little of the battle.

The night seemed darker than usual. Luckily, I knew the road pretty well or I might have wrecked the wagon. As I came closer to town, I saw that the sky above it glowed a dark and mysterious red. A storm was blowing in and mixing with the red clouds.

The town, itself, seemed lifeless. I could not tell if the dark houses were empty or filled with peacefully sleeping people. I passed a small group of people, who were looking off toward the direction of the fields. They said nothing to me. I drove on, and soon could see my neighborhood up on Maybury Hill, outlined in a red glow. Then, a bright green light flashed far to my right. I looked up into the sky and saw a green trail coming from the storm clouds. Returning my gaze from the heavens, I saw that green smoke was rising up from out of a nearby forest. I then realized that it was a third Martian ship!

A crack of lightning then shot from the sky. The storm had begun. This frightened my horse and sent it running. I had never experienced such a violent thunderstorm. The lightning came very frequently and the air seemed charged with strange electricity. As I dashed through the streets of Woking, I caught sight of something coming down the hill opposite my street. In the darkness, it looked like the roof of one of the houses had fallen off, but then a flash of lightning revealed that it was something quite different.

This thing was taller than a house and it had three long, mechanical legs. From its huge round head, hung those snake-like arms I had seen come from out of the pit, before. It was moving quite rapidly. Then, directly in front of me, I saw another one making its way through the forest, turning over trees as though they were nothing more than tall grass. It was coming straight for me.

At the sight of this, I lost control of myself. I pulled hard on the rein to get my horse to turn around. My horse stopped too suddenly and I soon found myself flying through the air. Fortunately, I landed in a large puddle of mud. When I turned to try and find my horse, I saw that it lay dead with the wagon on top of it. I then stopped moving, for I could hear the sound of metal approaching, and moments later, that huge monster I had seen coming through the trees walked over me.

And then it was gone, half of a mile down the road, where it met up with its partner, near the place where a third Martian ship had landed. For a while, I sat in the mud puddle, without moving, watching those metal things moving in the distance. At times, when the lightning calmed, I would lose sight of them altogether, but then another flash would light up the sky and they would be clear again, making their way through the forest.

At that time, I was in very bad condition. I was terribly weak, wet, and confused. For some reason, I wanted to get to my house up on Maybury Hill. Looking back on that moment, the better thing would have been to find my way back to my wife, but, again, my mind was not very clear. I did my best to get up and run for my house. The streets were very muddy from the heavy rain. I fell several times and, at one point, hurt my knee on a rock. Then, while turning a corner I suddenly ran into another man. He screamed and ran off in a different direction before I could say anything to him.

Making my way up the hill toward my home, I fell over something heavy and soft. Getting back on my feet and turning round, I found that it was a body. It was lying on its stomach, with its head bent far forward, too far forward, in fact. I picked up my courage and turned the body over on its back. It was too dark and rainy to see anything clearly, but then another lightning flash pierced the clouds, revealing the identity of the fallen man. It was the pub owner, whose only means of escape I had run off with.

Continuing up the hill, I noticed that most of the houses remained unharmed. However, the college near my home, as well as the church, was burning brightly in the night.

When I finally reached my home, I heard the sound of people yelling and running. I quickly unlocked my door and ran inside. I did not feel safe being around large groups of people now. I simply sat down on the floor, with my back to the wall, shaking with cold and fear.

(end of section)