At about eight in the morning, I sat down and looked at the beautiful world around me. The silver river was shining, and the lovely people of the Upperworld were playing among the trees. However, seeing them suddenly gave me a sharp pain. I finally understood the terrible truth. They have completely forgotten how to think or protect themselves, I realized. These beautiful people lived easy, happy lives, just like cattle in a field. And, like cattle, they were only food.
Because life was perfectly safe for thousands of years, the Upperworld humans stopped using their brains. Meanwhile, the Morlocks lived under the ground with their machines. When they ran out of normal food, they started hunting the people above.
After the fear of the past few days, the warm sunlight felt very pleasant. I was exhausted, so I lay down on the soft grass and went to sleep.
I woke up just before sunset and walked down the hill towards the White Sphinx. I carried my heavy iron bar in one hand, and my other hand was in my pocket, holding my matches.
Then, I saw something surprising. The heavy bronze doors of the Sphinx were open! I looked inside and saw my Time Machine in the corner. I already had the control levers safely in my pocket. After all my worrying, it was suddenly easy. I threw my iron bar away.
I knew it was a trap, but I was not afraid. I walked through the doors and went up to the Time Machine. I was surprised to find out that the Morlocks had actually cleaned it.
Suddenly, exactly as I expected, the bronze doors shut with a loud clang. I was trapped in the dark. I laughed quietly to myself.
I could hear the Morlocks laughing too as they came towards me. I stayed calm. I reached into my pocket to look for a match. I just needed a little light to put the levers on the machine, and then I could escape.
But I had forgotten one terrible thing. I have made a huge mistake, I thought. My matches only worked if you rubbed them on their special box. And I did not have the box!
Immediately, my calm disappeared. The little monsters were close. One of them touched me. I swung my arms wildly and tried to climb into the seat of the machine. Cold hands grabbed me. I had to fight against their strong fingers to keep my levers. I hit out in the dark, and my head crashed hard into a Morlock's face.
In the end, I managed to fix the lever to the machine. I pulled it hard. The terrible hands slipped away from me. The darkness disappeared, and I found myself in the familiar grey light of time travel.