Reading Help War of the worlds Book 2

BOOK TWO `
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` THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS `
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` CHAPTER ONE `
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` UNDER FOOT `
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` In the first book I have wandered so much from my own adventures to `
` tell of the experiences of my brother that all through the last two `
` chapters I and the curate have been lurking in the empty house at `
` Halliford whither we fled to escape the Black Smoke. There I will `
` resume. We stopped there all Sunday night and all the next day--the `
` day of the panic--in a little island of daylight, cut off by the Black `
` Smoke from the rest of the world. We could do nothing but wait in `
` aching inactivity during those two weary days. `
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` My mind was occupied by anxiety for my wife. I figured her at `
` Leatherhead, terrified, in danger, mourning me already as a dead man. `
` I paced the rooms and cried aloud when I thought of how I was cut off `
` from her, of all that might happen to her in my absence. My cousin I `
` knew was brave enough for any emergency, but he was not the sort of `
` man to realise danger quickly, to rise promptly. What was needed now `
` was not bravery, but circumspection. My only consolation was to `
` believe that the Martians were moving London-ward and away from her. `
` Such vague anxieties keep the mind sensitive and painful. I grew very `
` weary and irritable with the curate's perpetual ejaculations; I tired `
` of the sight of his selfish despair. After some ineffectual `
` remonstrance I kept away from him, staying in a room--evidently a `
` children's schoolroom--containing globes, forms, and copybooks. When `
` he followed me thither, I went to a box room at the top of the house `
` and, in order to be alone with my aching miseries, locked myself in. `
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` We were hopelessly hemmed in by the Black Smoke all that day and `
` the morning of the next. There were signs of people in the next house `
` on Sunday evening--a face at a window and moving lights, and later the `
` slamming of a door. But I do not know who these people were, nor what `
` became of them. We saw nothing of them next day. The Black Smoke `
` drifted slowly riverward all through Monday morning, creeping nearer `
` and nearer to us, driving at last along the roadway outside the house `
` that hid us. `
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` A Martian came across the fields about midday, laying the stuff `
` with a jet of superheated steam that hissed against the walls, smashed `
` all the windows it touched, and scalded the curate's hand as he fled `
` out of the front room. When at last we crept across the sodden rooms `
` and looked out again, the country northward was as though a black `
` snowstorm had passed over it. Looking towards the river, we were `
` astonished to see an unaccountable redness mingling with the black of `
` the scorched meadows. `
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` For a time we did not see how this change affected our position, `
` save that we were relieved of our fear of the Black Smoke. But later `
` I perceived that we were no longer hemmed in, that now we might get `
` away. So soon as I realised that the way of escape was open, my dream `
` of action returned. But the curate was lethargic, unreasonable. `
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` "We are safe here," he repeated; "safe here." `
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` I resolved to leave him--would that I had! Wiser now for the `
` artilleryman's teaching, I sought out food and drink. I had found oil `
` and rags for my burns, and I also took a hat and a flannel shirt that `
` I found in one of the bedrooms. When it was clear to him that I meant `
` to go alone--had reconciled myself to going alone--he suddenly roused `
` himself to come. And all being quiet throughout the afternoon, we `
` started about five o'clock, as I should judge, along the blackened `
` road to Sunbury. `
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` In Sunbury, and at intervals along the road, were dead bodies lying `
` in contorted attitudes, horses as well as men, overturned carts and `
` luggage, all covered thickly with black dust. That pall of cindery `
` powder made me think of what I had read of the destruction of Pompeii. `
` We got to Hampton Court without misadventure, our minds full of `
` strange and unfamiliar appearances, and at Hampton Court our eyes were `
` relieved to find a patch of green that had escaped the suffocating `
` drift. We went through Bushey Park, with its deer going to and fro `
` under the chestnuts, and some men and women hurrying in the distance `
` towards Hampton, and so we came to Twickenham. These were the first `
` people we saw. `
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` Away across the road the woods beyond Ham and Petersham were still `
` afire. Twickenham was uninjured by either Heat-Ray or Black Smoke, `
` and there were more people about here, though none could give us news. `
` For the most part they were like ourselves, taking advantage of a lull `
` to shift their quarters. I have an impression that many of the houses `
` here were still occupied by scared inhabitants, too frightened even `
` for flight. Here too the evidence of a hasty rout was abundant along `
` the road. I remember most vividly three smashed bicycles in a heap, `
` pounded into the road by the wheels of subsequent carts. We crossed `
` Richmond Bridge about half past eight. We hurried across the exposed `
` bridge, of course, but I noticed floating down the stream a number `
` of red masses, some many feet across. I did not know what these `
` were--there was no time for scrutiny--and I put a more horrible `
` interpretation on them than they deserved. Here again on the Surrey `
` side were black dust that had once been smoke, and dead bodies--a heap `
` near the approach to the station; but we had no glimpse of the `
` Martians until we were some way towards Barnes. `
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` We saw in the blackened distance a group of three people running `
` down a side street towards the river, but otherwise it seemed `
` deserted. Up the hill Richmond town was burning briskly; outside the `
` town of Richmond there was no trace of the Black Smoke. `
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` Then suddenly, as we approached Kew, came a number of people `
` running, and the upperworks of a Martian fighting-machine loomed in `
` sight over the housetops, not a hundred yards away from us. We stood `
` aghast at our danger, and had the Martian looked down we must `
` immediately have perished. We were so terrified that we dared not go `
` on, but turned aside and hid in a shed in a garden. There the curate `
` crouched, weeping silently, and refusing to stir again. `
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` But my fixed idea of reaching Leatherhead would not let me rest, `
` and in the twilight I ventured out again. I went through a shrubbery, `
` and along a passage beside a big house standing in its own grounds, `
` and so emerged upon the road towards Kew. The curate I left in the `
` shed, but he came hurrying after me. `
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` That second start was the most foolhardy thing I ever did. For it `
` was manifest the Martians were about us. No sooner had the curate `
` overtaken me than we saw either the fighting-machine we had seen `
` before or another, far away across the meadows in the direction of Kew `
` Lodge. Four or five little black figures hurried before it across the `
` green-grey of the field, and in a moment it was evident this Martian `
` pursued them. In three strides he was among them, and they ran `
` radiating from his feet in all directions. He used no Heat-Ray to `
` destroy them, but picked them up one by one. Apparently he tossed `
` them into the great metallic carrier which projected behind him, much `
` as a workman's basket hangs over his shoulder. `
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` It was the first time I realised that the Martians might have any `
` other purpose than destruction with defeated humanity. We stood for a `
` moment petrified, then turned and fled through a gate behind us into a `
` walled garden, fell into, rather than found, a fortunate ditch, and `
` lay there, scarce daring to whisper to each other until the stars were `
` out. `
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` I suppose it was nearly eleven o'clock before we gathered courage `
` to start again, no longer venturing into the road, but sneaking along `
` hedgerows and through plantations, and watching keenly through the `
` darkness, he on the right and I on the left, for the Martians, who `
` seemed to be all about us. In one place we blundered upon a scorched `
` and blackened area, now cooling and ashen, and a number of scattered `
` dead bodies of men, burned horribly about the heads and trunks but `
` with their legs and boots mostly intact; and of dead horses, fifty `
` feet, perhaps, behind a line of four ripped guns and smashed gun `
` carriages. `
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` Sheen, it seemed, had escaped destruction, but the place was silent `
` and deserted. Here we happened on no dead, though the night was too `
` dark for us to see into the side roads of the place. In Sheen my `
` companion suddenly complained of faintness and thirst, and we decided `
` to try one of the houses. `
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` The first house we entered, after a little difficulty with the `
` window, was a small semi-detached villa, and I found nothing eatable `
` left in the place but some mouldy cheese. There was, however, water `
` to drink; and I took a hatchet, which promised to be useful in our `
` next house-breaking. `
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` We then crossed to a place where the road turns towards Mortlake. `
` Here there stood a white house within a walled garden, and in the `
` pantry of this domicile we found a store of food--two loaves of bread `
` in a pan, an uncooked steak, and the half of a ham. I give this `
` catalogue so precisely because, as it happened, we were destined to `
` subsist upon this store for the next fortnight. Bottled beer stood `
` under a shelf, and there were two bags of haricot beans and some limp `
` lettuces. This pantry opened into a kind of wash-up kitchen, and in `
` this was firewood; there was also a cupboard, in which we found nearly `
` a dozen of burgundy, tinned soups and salmon, and two tins of `
` biscuits. `
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` We sat in the adjacent kitchen in the dark--for we dared not strike `
` a light--and ate bread and ham, and drank beer out of the same bottle. `
` The curate, who was still timorous and restless, was now, oddly `
` enough, for pushing on, and I was urging him to keep up his strength `
` by eating when the thing happened that was to imprison us. `
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` "It can't be midnight yet," I said, and then came a blinding glare `
` of vivid green light. Everything in the kitchen leaped out, clearly `
` visible in green and black, and vanished again. And then followed such `
` a concussion as I have never heard before or since. So close on the `
` heels of this as to seem instantaneous came a thud behind me, a clash `
` of glass, a crash and rattle of falling masonry all about us, and the `
` plaster of the ceiling came down upon us, smashing into a multitude of `
` fragments upon our heads. I was knocked headlong across the floor `
` against the oven handle and stunned. I was insensible for a long `
` time, the curate told me, and when I came to we were in darkness `
` again, and he, with a face wet, as I found afterwards, with blood from `
` a cut forehead, was dabbing water over me. `
` `
` For some time I could not recollect what had happened. Then things `
` came to me slowly. A bruise on my temple asserted itself. `
` `
` "Are you better?" asked the curate in a whisper. `
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` At last I answered him. I sat up. `
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` "Don't move," he said. "The floor is covered with smashed crockery `
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