The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine

The hammering from the pit
And the pounding of guns grew louder
My fear rose
At the sound of someone creeping into the house
Then I saw it was a young artilleryman
Weary streaked with blood and dirt
Anyone here
Come in Here   drink this
Thank you
What's happened
They wiped us out Hundreds dead
Maybe thousands
The heat ray
The Martians
They were inside the hoods of machines they'd made
Massive metal things on legs Giant machines that walked
They attacked us They wiped us out
Machines
Fighting machines
Setting fires in everything inside
Just hunks of metal
But they knew exactly what they were doing
Mmm There was another cylinder came last night
Yes yes It looked bound for London
London Carrie I hadn't dreamed
There could be danger to Carrie
And her father so many miles away
I  I must go to London at once
And me Got to report to headquarters
If there's anything left of it
At Byfleet we came upon an inn but it was deserted
Is everybody dead
Not everybody Look Six cannons with gunners standing by
It's bows and arrows against the lightning
They haven't seen the heat ray yet
We hurried along the road to Weybridge
Suddenly there was a heavy explosion
The ground heaved windows shattered
And gusts of smoke erupted into the air
Look There they are What did I tell you
Quickly one after the other
Four of the fighting machines appeared Monstrous
Tripods higher than the tallest steeple
Striding over pine trees and smashing them
Walking engines of glistening metal
Each carried a huge funnel
And I realised with horror
That I'd seen this awful thing before
A fifth machine appeared on the far bank
And next
It raised itself to full height flourished
The funnel high in the air
And the ghostly terrible heat ray struck the town
As it struck all five fighting machines
Exulted emitting deafening howls
That roared like thunder
Ulla Ulla
The six guns we had seen now
Fired simultaneously decapitating a fighting machine
The Martian inside the hood was slain splashed to the
Four winds and the body nothing now
But an intricate device of metal went whirling to destruction
As the other monsters advanced people
Ran away blindly the artillery man among them
But I jumped into the water
Until forced up to breathe
Now the guns spoke again
But this time the heat ray sent them to oblivion
Ulla
With a white flash the heat ray
Swept across the river
Scalded halfblinded and agonized
I staggered through leaping hissing water
Towards the shore I fell helplessly in full
View of the Martians expecting nothing
But death The foot of a fighting machine
Came down close to my head
Then lifted again as the four Martians
Carried away the debris of their fallen comrade
And I realized that by a miracle I had escaped