War of the Worlds (Jabbawockeez)

5. Joining the crowd

The sun rose over the mountains and trees, slowly engulfing everything in its bright light. Rynan woke up first with a yawn and sat up and rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to adjust to the light that poured in through the small windows of the basement. He slowly got up and stretched as he looked around then he suddenly remembered what was happening and knew that they needed to leave as soon as possible. Rynan went around and woke up the others by shaking them awake. "Guys get up come on! We have to get outta here!" He said as the others woke up from their sleep and got up and stretched. "Alright guys come on, we have to find out where everyone is being evacuated to." Phil said, adjusting his hat then went upstairs with the rest of the boys following him.

As they walked outside, they saw many other people walking in the opposite direction of the city, towards the hills. "Well guys, let's join the crowd." Joe said as they all began to walk with a small crowd of people to the hills away from the now empty city. Phil walked while looking ahead of him, Phi walked with his hands in his pockets, Joe walked with his hands resting behind the back of his head, Rynan walked with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and Kevin walked with his arms crossed.

The boys talked with one another for a little while before walking with other people in silence. A lot of people were sticking together and others were walking faster than the rest. As time went on, they drew closer and closer to a much larger crowd of people in a nearby city. Signs were in the air, people were shouting, some were fighting and most were shoving. "Okay, it's gonna tough to get through this crowd. We have to stay together." Phil said to the others. The boys nodded in understanding and grabbed onto each others shoulders tightly, clasping onto their jackets so they won't get separated. The crowd moved slowly, some people were terrified to move further, thinking a tripod was nearby. Phil led the others through the crowd the best he could while the others were tightly holding onto one another.

Finally, they made it to the harbor, where there was a boat there to take people across the lake to the other side of the lake. Only half the crowd was allowed to board the boat and the soldiers of the military held back the anxious, terrified yet angry crowd. Phi turned around when he heard faint noises in the distance and saw smoke flowing from behind the trees.

Suddenly a tripod rose up on the top of the hill, and got everyone's attention by letting out a very loud bellow noise. Then everyone began to panic and try to run or escape from the tripod. The boys were being shoved around as the crowd moved. "We have nowhere to go! We have to jump!" Phi called, gesturing over to the water, which other people had jumped in and started swimming away from the dock, and the boat had already taken off. The rest of the boys looked at one another and saw as the tripod drew closer to their location then saw two other tripods approaching. "Phi's right! We have to jump!" Rynan said, looking at the others. Phil then agreed to Phi's statement and looked at the others. "Alright. Stay close to the shoreline!" He called and jumped in the water and began swimming. Then Phi and the others did the same, catching up to him, staying near the shoreline like they were told.

While swimming for safety, the boys saw that some tripods were taking people out of the water, and shooting other people with their laser beams. The five of them stayed near the shore, so the tripods didn't notice them since they were all focused on the large crowd near the dock.

Soon, the boys made it to shore on the side of the lake, running up on land as fast as they could, shaking and in need of shelter. A nearby tripod walked by them, and the boys hid behind a few trees to make sure they were not seen. Once the tripod was out of sight range, the five of them ran deep into the forest that was nearby, hoping that they would be somewhere safe within a few miles. After a while of running, they soon found more people walking to somewhere safe within the area. As the boys joined the new crowd of people, they could hear loud booming in the distance, and there was some fires far behind them as they kept walking down the path the other people were going. Most of the people were from the harbor, or possibly from a nearby town that they had evacuated from.

The five of them were still shaken, yet determined to get somewhere safe. "Man, this is crazy!" Joe said as the others nodded as they walked. "We agree, but we can make it through this together. Just have faith." Phil said as they all put one arm around each other's shoulders.

They reached the hillside, and they all witnessed the marines, fighting off the tripods but to no avail. The tripods had invisible protective shields to protect them from any weapons. Many people ran away to be as far from the fight as possible without being caught. Rynan looks around and found a route that mostly no one was running in. "Come on guys! This way! Hurry!" He yelled, over the noise so the others could hear him. Phil and the others nodded, following close behind him as they ran away as fast as they could without being separated. Along the way, Joe spotted a man holding up pistol, calling over to them from a basement. Joe looked at the others and called out to them. "Guys look! That guy is offering a place to hide!" He called, the boys stopped running to look at Joe then looked over at the man holding up his pistol.

"Over here! Hurry!" The man yelled, watching the five boys make up their mind. "It's better than running in random places!" Kevin said and the others looked at one another. "Good point. Let's go!" Rynan said as the boys ran over to the man that was standing in the entrance of his basement.

The man saw the boys run over and he moved out of the way to let them in, then when they were all in the basement, the man went up and closed the basement doors and locked it, then looking over at the five boys who were sitting on the floor panting, and slightly shaking. While on the outside of the basement, the loud booming and shouting can be heard outside of the basement as the chaos of the fight continued.