The hammering from the pit and the pounding of guns grew louder
My fear rose at the sound of someone creeping into the house
Then I saw it was a young artilleryman, weary
Streaked with blood and dirt
Anyone here?
Come in. Here, drink this
Thank you
What's happened?
They wiped us out. Hundreds dead, maybe thousands
The Heat Ray?
The Martians! They were inside the hoods of machines they'd Made
Massive metal things on legs! Giant machines that walked
They attacked us! They wiped us out!
Machines?
Fighting machines! Picking up men and bashing 'em against trees
Just hunks of metal, but they knew exactly what they were doing.
Mmm. There was another cylinder came last night.
Yes. It looked bound for London.
London! Carrie! I hadn't dreamed there could be danger
To Carrie and her father, so many miles away
I must go to London at once
And me. Got to report to headquarters if there's anything left of it
At Byfleet we came upon an inn, but it was deserted
Is everybody dead?
Not everybody. Look! Six cannons with gunners standing by
Bows and arrows against the lightning
They haven't seen the Heat Ray yet
We hurried along the road to Weybridge
Suddenly, there was a heavy explosion
The ground heaved, windows shattered
And gusts of smoke erupted in the air
Look! There they are! What did I tell you?
Quickly, one after the other,
Four of the fighting machines appeared
Monstrous tripods, higher than the tallest steeple
Striding over pine trees and smashing them
Walking engines of glistening metal each carried a huge funnel
And I realized with horror that I'd seen this awful thing before
A fifth machine appeared on the far bank.
It raised itself to full height, flourished the funnel high in the air
And the ghostly terrible Heat Ray struck the town.
As it struck, all five fighting machines exulted
Emitting deafening howls which roared like thunder.
Ulla! Ulla!
The six guns we had seen now fired simultaneously
Decapitating a fighting machine.
The Martian inside the hood was slain
Splashed to the four winds
And the body, nothing now but an
Intricate device of metal, went whirling to destruction.
As the other monsters advanced
People ran away blindly, the artilleryman among them
But I jumped into the water and hid until forced up to breathe
Now the guns spoke again,
But this time the heat ray sent them to oblivion.
Ulla!
With a white flash, the Heat Ray swept across the river
Scalded, half-blinded and agonized, I staggered through leaping
Hissing water towards the shore, I fell helplessly
In full view of the Martians, expecting nothing but death.
The foot of a Martian came down close to my head, then lifted again
As the four Martians carried away the debris of their
Fallen comrade And I realized that by a miracle I had escaped
Ulla! Ulla! Ulla!