I stayed that night in an inn (a small hotel with a bar). The inn was at the top of Putney Hill. I slept in a real bed for the first time in many days. I broke into the house to get inside. Later, I found that the front door was not locked. I looked in every room for food. I felt very sad because I could not find anything.
Finally, I went into a servant's bedroom. I found some old bread and two tins of pineapple. Other people already searched the house and took the food. Later, I found some biscuits in the bar. The biscuits stayed in my pockets for later. I did not turn on any lamps. I was afraid that a Martian might see me.
I did not sleep much that night. I walked from window to window. I looked for the Martian monsters in the dark. My mind felt very clear because I finally ate some food. I thought about three important things. I thought about the death of the curate (a man who works in a church). I thought about where the Martians were. I also thought about my wife.
I did not feel bad about the death of the curate. I saw his death as an accident. I had to hit him because of the danger. I felt that I had no choice. In the silent night, I felt close to God. I thought about the long talk I had with the curate. He did not help me when we were in the hole. He only looked at the smoke and the ruins.
I could not see the future. If I knew the future, I would leave him earlier. I write this story exactly as it happened. There were no witnesses to the death. I tell the truth, and the reader can decide if I was wrong. Then I thought about the Martians and my wife. I did not know if she was alive.
Suddenly, the night became scary. I sat up in bed and stared at the dark. I prayed to God for my wife. I hoped a Heat-Ray (a beam of fire) killed her quickly and without pain. I had not prayed for a long time. But that night, I prayed with all my heart. When the morning came, I felt very small. I left the house like a rat.
The Martians were now our masters. They could hunt us and kill us for no reason. Perhaps the Martians also prayed to their own God. This war taught me to feel pity (a feeling of sadness for others). I felt sorry for all living things that suffer under a master. The morning was bright and the sky was pink.
I saw the road to Wimbledon. There were many things in the road. People left these things when they ran away from London. I saw a small cart with a broken wheel. I saw a hat in the mud. I saw broken glass with blood on it. I moved slowly because I was tired. I did not have a clear plan.
I wanted to go to Leatherhead to find my wife. I knew she probably left that place. But maybe I could learn where the people went. I felt very alone. I walked through some trees and bushes. I reached the edge of Wimbledon Common.
The common was a large, open area with yellow flowers. I did not see any red weed (a red plant from Mars) there. The sun rose and filled the land with light. I saw many little frogs in a wet place. They wanted to live. I suddenly felt that someone was watching me. I turned around quickly.
I saw someone crouching in the bushes. I walked toward the person. A man stood up. He had a cutlass (a short, thick sword). He stood very still and looked at me. The man wore dirty clothes. He looked like he crawled through a dirty pipe. I saw mud and dry clay on his clothes.
His black hair was over his eyes. His face was dark and thin. He had a red cut on his face. I did not know who he was at first. "Stop!" the man cried. I stopped ten meters away from him. "Where do you come from?" he asked in a rough voice.
I told the man I came from Mortlake. I told him I was under the ruins of a house for many days. I said I escaped from the Martian pit. "There is no food here," the man said. He said this was his area. He asked where I was going. I said I did not know what happened in the world.
The man looked at me. Then his face changed. I told him I wanted to go to Leatherhead to find my wife. The man pointed his finger at me. "It is you!" he said. "The man from Woking!" I remembered him then. He was the artilleryman (a soldier who uses big guns).
The artilleryman came into my garden after the first cylinder landed. "Good luck!" the artilleryman said. He said we were lucky to be alive. He shook my hand. He told me he crawled through a drain to escape. He looked at me and saw that my hair was now grey.
He told me to crawl under the bushes with him to talk. I asked if he saw any Martians. He said they went across London. He thought they had a big camp there. At night, the sky had many Martian lights. He said he saw two Martians two days ago.
The artilleryman believed the Martians built a flying-machine (a machine that can fly). I was very shocked. I sat down and said that humans were finished. If the Martians can fly, they will go around the world. The artilleryman agreed. He said the war was over and humans lost.
I still had a little hope before he spoke. But now I saw the truth. We were beaten. The artilleryman said the Martians only lost one soldier. They destroyed the most powerful groups on Earth. He said more Martians were probably falling from the stars every night.
He said this was not a war. It was like a man against ants. I remembered the night at the observatory (a building with a telescope). I told him they fired ten shots from Mars. He said the Martians would fix their big gun soon. He said humans were just ants.
"We are just ants," the artilleryman said. "But we are ants that the Martians can eat." We sat and looked at each other. I asked what the Martians would do with us. The artilleryman said he thought about this a lot. He saw people acting crazy and running away.
He did not go south with the crowds. He stayed near the Martians. He said the Martians would destroy everything first. They would destroy ships, machines, and cities. Then they would start catching humans. He said they would put humans in cages and keep us for food.
The artilleryman said the Martians had not truly started yet. They were busy making things for the rest of their people. He said civilization was over. I asked him why we should continue to live. He said there would be no more music or restaurants.
The artilleryman wanted to live to keep the human race alive. He did not want the Martians to catch him. He did not want to be a fat animal in a cage. He wanted to stay independent. I was surprised by his strength. I shook his hand.
He said only strong people could survive. He said office workers were too weak. He called them rabbits. He said they would be happy in Martian cages because of the safety and food. But some humans would be different. Some humans might even help the Martians hunt us.
I said that was impossible. But the artilleryman said some men would do it. I asked about his plans. He said humans must live underground. He wanted to live in the drains (large pipes under the street for waste water). He said the drains in London were very big.
The artilleryman wanted to find strong men and women. They would live in cellars and tunnels. They would watch the Martians. They would save all the books about science. He said men like me were important. We could read the books and keep our knowledge.
One day, he wanted to steal a Martian machine. He wanted to learn how to use the Heat-Ray. Then humans could take the world back. I believed him at first. His words were very strong. We went to a house on Putney Hill.
The artilleryman lived in the coal cellar. He was digging a hole to the drains. He worked for a week, but the hole was very short. I realized his plan was very difficult. I could dig a hole like that in one day. But I worked with him anyway.
We moved the dirt into the kitchen. We ate some soup and drank wine. Working made me feel better. But then I began to have doubts. Why were we digging a long tunnel? We could just enter the drains from the street. The artilleryman stopped digging.
He said we should look from the roof. We went to the roof and looked out. We did not see any Martians. We saw the river and the red weed. The trees were dead and brown. The artilleryman told me a story about people in London.
He said some people turned on the lights in a street last week. They were drinking and dancing. Then a Martian machine arrived and watched them. It caught a hundred people who were too drunk to run. I asked more questions about his plan.
The artilleryman talked about catching a Martian machine again. But I saw that he did not want to work hard. He wanted to talk more than he wanted to dig. We went back to the cellar and did not dig anymore. We ate a big meal.
He found some cigars (rolls of dried tobacco for smoking). We smoked and drank champagne. He wanted to have a holiday and play cards. We played a game called euchre (a type of card game). We divided London between us in the game.
It was a very strange thing to do while the world was ending. But I enjoyed the game. Then we played other games. When it was dark, we lit a lamp. The artilleryman drank more champagne. He was not a hero anymore. He was just a man who liked to talk.
I went to the roof to look at the lights. Most of London was black. I saw a purple light from the red weed. I looked at the planet Mars in the sky. I felt very bad. I thought about my wife and the silly card games.
I was angry at myself. I decided to leave the artilleryman. He was just a dreamer who liked to drink. I wanted to go into London. I wanted to find other people and see the Martians. The moon rose, and I prepared to leave.