《THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Completed)》Chapter 4- THE CYLINDER OPENS
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When I returned to the common the sun was setting. Scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of Woking, and one or two persons were returning. The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky--a couple of hundred people, perhaps. There were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. Strange imaginings passed through my mind. As I drew nearer I heard Stent's voice:
"Keep back! Keep back!"
A boy came running towards me.
"It's a-movin'," he said to me as he passed; "a-screwin' and a-screwin' out. I don't like it. I'm a-goin' 'ome, I am."
I went on to the crowd. There were really, I should think, two or three hundred people elbowing and jostling one another, the one or two ladies there being by no means the least active.
"He's fallen in the pit!" cried some one.
"Keep back!" said several.
The crowd swayed a little, and I elbowed my way through. Every one seemed greatly excited. I heard a peculiar humming sound from the pit.
"I say!" said Ogilvy; "help keep these idiots back. We don't know what's in the confounded thing, you know!"
I saw a young man, a shop assistant in Woking I believe he was, standing on the cylinder and trying to scramble out of the hole again. The crowd had pushed him in.
The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within. Nearly two feet of shining screw projected. Somebody blundered against me, and I narrowly missed being pitched onto the top of the screw. I turned, and as I did so the screw must have come out, for the lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion. I stuck my elbow into the person behind me, and turned my head towards the Thing again. For a moment that circular cavity seemed perfectly black. I had the sunset in my eyes.
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I think everyone expected to see a man emerge--possibly something a little unlike us terrestrial men, but in all essentials a man. I know I did. But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks--like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me--and then another.
A sudden chill came over me. There was a loud shriek from a woman behind. I half turned, keeping my eyes fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles were now projecting, and began pushing my way back from the edge of the pit. I saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me. I heard inarticulate exclamations on all sides. There was a general movement backwards. I saw the shopman struggling still on the edge of the pit. I found myself alone, and saw the people on the other side of the pit running off, Stent among them. I looked again at the cylinder, and ungovernable terror gripped me. I stood petrified and staring.
A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather.
Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air.
Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth--above all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes--were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty. Even at this first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.
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Suddenly the monster vanished. It had toppled over the brim of the cylinder and fallen into the pit, with a thud like the fall of a great mass of leather. I heard it give a peculiar thick cry, and forthwith another of these creatures appeared darkly in the deep shadow of the aperture.
I turned and, running madly, made for the first group of trees, perhaps a hundred yards away; but I ran slantingly and stumbling, for I could not avert my face from these things.
There, among some young pine trees and furze bushes, I stopped, panting, and waited further developments. The common round the sand pits was dotted with people, standing like myself in a half-fascinated terror, staring at these creatures, or rather at the heaped gravel at the edge of the pit in which they lay. And then, with a renewed horror, I saw a round, black object bobbing up and down on the edge of the pit. It was the head of the shopman who had fallen in, but showing as a little black object against the hot western sun. Now he got his shoulder and knee up, and again he seemed to slip back until only his head was visible. Suddenly he vanished, and I could have fancied a faint shriek had reached me. I had a momentary impulse to go back and help him that my fears overruled.
Everything was then quite invisible, hidden by the deep pit and the heap of sand that the fall of the cylinder had made. Anyone coming along the road from Chobham or Woking would have been amazed at the sight--a dwindling multitude of perhaps a hundred people or more standing in a great irregular circle, in ditches, behind bushes, behind gates and hedges, saying little to one another and that in short, excited shouts, and staring, staring hard at a few heaps of sand. The barrow of ginger beer stood, a queer derelict, black against the burning sky, and in the sand pits was a row of deserted vehicles with their horses feeding out of nosebags or pawing the ground.
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Aytelia
A magical world embracing chaos as powerful entities and worlds fight for survival or power, observed by the "universals", a sentient species no one can fathom or reason with. Their knowledge, comparable to the vast amounts of years they have existed for and their power feared by even some Gods, capable of destroying and creating entire universes, Aytelia being their proudest creation. Amongst all these the name of one of them is profound even amongst them, both feared and respected - Righteousness. As a lone girl wakes up in a large strange fountain, filled with other individuals in the same position such as herself, she lifts her drowsy head to find her surreal surroundings. The civilians walking around said fountain are all weird creatures that could only come out of a fantasy - orcs, elves, dwarfs, dragonewts, all wearing all different kinds of medieval armor, weaponry and artifacts. What will happen to her in this world? Will she be able to find a place in it and will the mysteries behind her current circumstances be revealed? Why is she so different than those around her? Warning: Character is extremelly OP and the lore behind it doesn't get covered till chapter 14. Updates once a week. First time posting my writing on the internet so feedback would be appreciated.
8 197Ode to Fallen Angels
Jericho, the land of humanity, squirms in pain. Magic has been forbidden for so long in this so called "Age of Silence", that all Arcane knowledge has been presumed lost and irrecoverable, and the echoes of God's Will grow fainter with every passing year. The sight of Demihuman caravans is less frequent every day, as the likes of orcs and elves have learned to no longer beg for help from those who despise them. Clearly, they can expect more from the voracious wild lands than from humankind. Many have succumbed to despair, some driven mad by their fruitless efforts to bring back a Golden Age that they only ever read about in books. And in the middle of it all, in an old chapel lost in the Eastern lands, young Gabrielle lives in complete ignorance. She is another orphan living under the mercy of the Church of the Saints; one bearing the mark of evil in her red hair, the telltale sign of a Witch. In an Age of the Silent, the Prejudiced, and the Hateful, she clings to a single hope: that one day, be it in life or maybe after it all ends, she may find herself forgiven of her sin. The sin of being born.
8 190MY Sweet Interlude
Aliya didn't realize she was in love with her best friend until he announced that he is getting married. With a broken heart, she attends his wedding where she decides to throw caution to the wind and play with fire with the man her friends (especially her best friend) warned her to stay away from. A man who is all play but stays away from commitments. How long can she keep on playing with fire without getting burned? "I don't know why you'd think that I don't want to speak with you. What you need to know about me is that I am not a charmer like Taehyung or Jimin. I don't sweet talk, I don't hold hands, I don't text unless it's something important and most especially, I don't date. I am not the prince from a fairy tale book who'd rescue you from your trouble and sweep you off your feet princess." **************************************************************************************************** Warning:Adult content, not recommended for below 18 yrs. old readers.***The story is purely fictional and does not reflect any of the BTS members' actual character. I don't know any of the BTS members although I wish that I do. It's not meant to offend anybody.****Credits to the owners of the photos used. I just thought they were awesome which is why I used them. Thank you.
8 206❤Love in Underfell❤
Это история про простую, а может и нет, 16 летнюю Габби Уотарсон. Девушка ходит в самую обычную школу.. Гуляет с самыми обычными друзьями.. Учит самые обычные уроки... Но в один день всё пошло как-то по марихуанскому) Приятного чтения! Ваша KOTICH666
8 128Stress Relief (Grizz x Nom Nom)
As soon as Nom Nom returns from vacation he is bombarded with his fans left waiting. With the risks of his stress getting out of hand he no choice but to stay with Grizz off the grid in the forrest. While there he comes to realize things not only about himself but about others who he might come to care about.
8 59Bts oneshots
sweet and smut one shots of bts. Boy×boyRecommendations are allowed.
8 210