The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine

The Artilleryman And The Fighting Machine - Jeff Wayne/Jerry Wayne Longmire

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