《THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Completed)》Chapter 8- FRIDAY NIGHT
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The most extraordinary thing to my mind, of all the strange and wonderful things that happened upon that Friday, was the dovetailing of the commonplace habits of our social order with the first beginnings of the series of events that was to topple that social order headlong. If on Friday night you had taken a pair of compasses and drawn a circle with a radius of five miles round the Woking sand pits, I doubt if you would have had one human being outside it, unless it were some relation of Stent or of the three or four cyclists or London people lying dead on the common, whose emotions or habits were at all affected by the new-comers. Many people had heard of the cylinder, of course, and talked about it in their leisure, but it certainly did not make the sensation that an ultimatum to Germany would have done.
In London that night poor Henderson's telegram describing the gradual unscrewing of the shot was judged to be a canard, and his evening paper, after wiring for authentication from him and receiving no reply--the man was killed--decided not to print a special edition.
Even within the five-mile circle the great majority of people were inert. I have already described the behaviour of the men and women to whom I spoke. All over the district people were dining and supping; working men were gardening after the labours of the day, children were being put to bed, young people were wandering through the lanes love-making, students sat over their books.
Maybe there was a murmur in the village streets, a novel and dominant topic in the public-houses, and here and there a messenger, or even an eye-witness of the later occurrences, caused a whirl of excitement, a shouting, and a running to and fro; but for the most part the daily routine of working, eating, drinking, sleeping, went on as it had done for countless years--as though no planet Mars existed in the sky. Even at Woking station and Horsell and Chobham that was the case.
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In Woking junction, until a late hour, trains were stopping and going on, others were shunting on the sidings, passengers were alighting and waiting, and everything was proceeding in the most ordinary way. A boy from the town, trenching on Smith's monopoly, was selling papers with the afternoon's news. The ringing impact of trucks, the sharp whistle of the engines from the junction, mingled with their shouts of "Men from Mars!" Excited men came into the station about nine o'clock with incredible tidings, and caused no more disturbance than drunkards might have done. People rattling Londonwards peered into the darkness outside the carriage windows, and saw only a rare, flickering, vanishing spark dance up from the direction of Horsell, a red glow and a thin veil of smoke driving across the stars, and thought that nothing more serious than a heath fire was happening. It was only round the edge of the common that any disturbance was perceptible. There were half a dozen villas burning on the Woking border. There were lights in all the houses on the common side of the three villages, and the people there kept awake till dawn.
A curious crowd lingered restlessly, people coming and going but the crowd remaining, both on the Chobham and Horsell bridges. One or two adventurous souls, it was afterwards found, went into the darkness and crawled quite near the Martians; but they never returned, for now and again a light-ray, like the beam of a warship's searchlight swept the common, and the Heat-Ray was ready to follow. Save for such, that big area of common was silent and desolate, and the charred bodies lay about on it all night under the stars, and all the next day. A noise of hammering from the pit was heard by many people.
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So you have the state of things on Friday night. In the centre, sticking into the skin of our old planet Earth like a poisoned dart, was this cylinder. But the poison was scarcely working yet. Around it was a patch of silent common, smouldering in places, and with a few dark, dimly seen objects lying in contorted attitudes here and there. Here and there was a burning bush or tree. Beyond was a fringe of excitement, and farther than that fringe the inflammation had not crept as yet. In the rest of the world the stream of life still flowed as it had flowed for immemorial years. The fever of war that would presently clog vein and artery, deaden nerve and destroy brain, had still to develop.
All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making ready, and ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled up to the starlit sky.
About eleven a company of soldiers came through Horsell, and deployed along the edge of the common to form a cordon. Later a second company marched through Chobham to deploy on the north side of the common. Several officers from the Inkerman barracks had been on the common earlier in the day, and one, Major Eden, was reported to be missing. The colonel of the regiment came to the Chobham bridge and was busy questioning the crowd at midnight. The military authorities were certainly alive to the seriousness of the business. About eleven, the next morning's papers were able to say, a squadron of hussars, two Maxims, and about four hundred men of the Cardigan regiment started from Aldershot.
A few seconds after midnight the crowd in the Chertsey road, Woking, saw a star fall from heaven into the pine woods to the northwest. It had a greenish colour, and caused a silent brightness like summer lightning. This was the second cylinder.
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A blade and a corpse on the ground. When humans first stepped foot on Neptune in the year 2200, they unlocked a vast and boundless universe ruled by different families, filled with magnificent battle techniques and ten arbiters who controlled it all!
8 3819Shy Walking Shadows; Book 1 of the Blood Moon Series
Kierra isn't your typical 'thin, fit, beautiful, and gentle' heroine. She's a big girl with a bitchy, brash attitude, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. She isn't perfect and has no wish to be. Faline is small, the softer side of the sibling coin, but no less tenacious. A carefree spirit who on many an occasion has to corral her sister before things get out of hand, she has a sharp mind colored in whimsy. A woman with a taste for life and becomes drunk with its possibilities. A fated meeting with a mysterious yet handsome friend becomes Faline's personal hell when Vampire fangs are bared. A chance encounter leaves Kierra fighting for her life when she's taken down by an insane Werewolf and left for dead. The search for a lost sister has never been more perilous. A strange new supernatural world awaits them both as they meet fascinating new allies, make terrible enemies, and uncover hidden and buried secrets. A Blood Moon is just over the horizon, and shy walking shadows won't stay shrouded forever.
8 177Apollyon, The God of Chaos.
The old tales passed down generation by generation speak of a time where Heroes from earth went on to fight the Demon Lord in the Mirror Land but one person is always forgotten. A mystery person who gave the habitants of Earth the weapons capable of destroying cities with the slash of a sword and who gave the Demon's the capability of using destructive magic. With this, the mystery person caused a long cycle of war which is exactly what he wanted. It gave him power, it put everything into a constant state of Chaos and this Chaos is what kept him going. It gave him strength. This person was Apollyon, The God of Chaos. This will be a story of twists and turns as Apollyon tries to return to his former glory. All rights to the picture used go to Razerblade07, a user on Deviant Art. You can find the original picture at https://razerblade07.deviantart.com/art/Ram-Skull-138068340
8 82Progressive Detective the Q
Turmoil brews in Japan when a mysterious man attacks seemingly random parts in Osaka. A lone individual named Hyde Tetsuya has no past and a lackluster future for his final highschool year. After having strange dreams and an encounter with the mysterious man, he joins a local detective agency to find the truths of the mystery as well as the secrets behind the two children who hold a strong power. They must be protected from the mysterious man who has his sights set on the children and the tools that contain magic. The world expands from here with grand ambitions that must be caught. Heroism lies dead in the corner and what binds humanity all together ends NOW. There's a case that needs to be solved but at what cost? Their lives.
8 123Zane the Mad :Part of the Legendary Interviews
Manna runs through the Multiverse like water through the mud. When it gets to a new world it is never the same often many lives are lost, some adapt quickly and grow into gods with the new power. Some of those gods have been working hard to help new worlds with the changes that are coming. They watch the worlds and find ways to use those worlds culture as a guide, but even gods make mistakes. This is the interview with one of the fist of world 997188 to be exposed to the mana and system made to help him. (Please note that this serves as an error report due to the anomalous nature of this subject.)
8 202Ontogeny
The kingdoms of Carrow and Helberion are rejoicing. After a century of strife and conflict that has brought both countries to the brink of ruin, a diplomatic solution has finally been found. An opportunity for genuine peace that will allow the scars of war to heal at last. However, there are those who would profit from continued chaos and destruction in the region, and just as the celebrations are at their very height they strike a blow that threatens to ignite a new war between the two countries.In desperation, King Leothan of Helberion turns to his great friend, the Brigadier, who has saved him and his Kingdom many times in the past. The only hope is to find a legendary wise man, a man who may not even exist, and who is rumoured to live at the very edge of the known world, a land of wonder and mystery. Only he may have the solution to the crisis. Only he can save the world from a nightmare beyond anything it has ever known before. As Helberion is riven by rivalries and intrigues, therefore, the Brigadier and his men set out on their long mission during which they make astonishing and unexpected discoveries about their world. They discover a terrible threat that has been lurking for centuries, a menace that threatens not only Helberion but the entire human world, and the Brigadier learns that everything he thought he knew about his world and the history of his people is wrong... This is the first volume of three. Be sure not to miss volume two, The Electric Messiah, and volume three, The Radiant War, to be published later.
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