The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells - Book One - adapted for audio
Chapter 15 - What had happened in Surrey - Worksheet
Back in Surrey, the Martians had resumed their offensive. Three came out about eight o'clock. Advancing slowly and cautiously, they made their way through Byfleet and Pyrford against the setting sun.
These Martians did not advance in a body, but in a line, each perhaps a mile and a half from his nearest fellow. They communicated with one another by means of siren-like howls.
We heard this howling and the firing of the guns at Upper Halliford. The artillery, hidden by a pine wood, fired at the advancing Martian.
The shells flashed all round him. He staggered a few paces and went down. Everybody yelled together, and reloaded the guns. The overthrown Martian howled.
Immediately a second and third glittering giant, appeared over the trees to the south. They fired their Heat-Rays to a the battery of guns. The ammunition blew up, the pine trees all about the guns flashed into fire. Only one or two of the men who were already running over the crest of the hill escaped.
After this the Martians halted, and remained absolutely stationary for the next half hour. They helped the fallen Martian repair himself. About nine he was back above the trees again.
A few minutes later these three were joined by four other Martians, each carrying a thick black tube. The seven distributed themselves at equal distances along a curved line between St. George's Hill, Weybridge, and the village of Send.
***
Four of these fighting machines crossed the river. Two of them, black against the western sky, came into sight of myself and the curate as we hurried wearily and painfully along the road that runs northward out of Halliford.
At this sight the curate cried faintly in his throat. He began running; but I knew it was no good running from a Martian. I turned aside and crawled through dewy nettles and brambles into the broad ditch by the side of the road. He looked back, saw what I was doing, and turned to join me.
The two Martians halted. The nearer one to us stood facing Sunbury. The other moved away towards Staines.
The occasional howling of the Martians ceased. They took up their positions in the huge crescent around their cylinders in absolute silence.
Our guns were waiting. We crouched and peered through the hedge. After what seemed to us an interminable time came a sound like a distant gun. Another nearer, and then another.
The Martian beside us raised his tube into the air and discharged it. The one towards Staines did the same. There was no flash or smoke.
Quick Check: True (T) False (F) or Not Stated (NS)?
- The Martians stayed close together.
- The guns damage one of the ‘giants’.
- The Martians carried thick tubes.
- The two men ran away.
- The Martians fired heat-ray from their tubes.
Clambering up into the hedge to I looked towards Sunbury. As I did so a big missile hurtled overhead towards Hounslow.
I expected at least to see smoke or fire. But all I saw was the deep blue sky above, with one solitary star, and the white mist spreading wide and low beneath. There had been no crash, no answering explosion. The silence was restored.
“What has happened?” said the curate, standing up beside me.
“Heaven knows!”
A bat flickered by and vanished. Distant shouting began and ceased. I looked again at the Martian. He was now moving eastward along the riverbank, with a swift, rolling motion,
Every moment I expected the fire from some hidden battery to spring upon him; but the evening calm was unbroken. The figure of the Martian grew smaller as he receded. Soon the mist and the gathering night had swallowed him up.
We clambered higher. Towards Sunbury and over Walton were strange black hill-like forms of dense black smoke. Everything had suddenly become very still.
Far away to the southeast, we heard the Martians hooting to one another. Then the air quivered again with the distant thud of their guns. But the earthly artillery made no reply.
***
At the time we did not understand that each of the Martians discharged an enormous volume of heavy, inky vapour. The smoke then poured upward and spread itself slowly over the surrounding country.
That vapour was death to all that breathes. The Martians set about spreading it across London, as methodically as men might smoke out a wasp nest.
***
By midnight the black smoke extended as far as the eye could reach. Two Martians slowly waded through it. They turned their hissing steam jets this way and that.
Sunday night was the end of the organised opposition to their movements. After that no body of men would stand against them, so hopeless was the enterprise. Even the crews of the torpedo-boats and destroyers that came up the Thames refused to confront them.
Before dawn the black vapour was pouring through the streets of Richmond.
Quick Check: True (T) False (F) or Not Stated (NS)?
- There is another explosion
- Neither the curate nor the narrator understands what is happening.
- The Martians spread ants across the city.
- The army stops fighting
- The black smoke spreads towards London.
Glossary
Sounds
howl/howling - unsettling sound associated with wolves and strong winds
siren - loud, piercing associated with police cars, ambulances etc
hissing -- onomatopoeia sound made by a snake
hooting - sound made by owls
Movement
crawled - to move without walking, like an infant
hurried - moved quickly
hurtled - very fast, with great force
rolling - as a ball moves along the ground
staggered - struggling to keep upright e.g, when drunk
waded - walk trough water
pouring/spreading - moving quickly in great numbers/with great volume