It is mid day, rain is starting to pour and thunder begins to rumble. At least you hope it's thunder. While traveling through a forest you come across a cave. The cave is deep but you go in to get out of the rain. Shortly after getting settled, you begin to hear noises far off in the distance.
You hear a military presence somewhere firing at what must be a machine. Then you hear a horn. There is no denying it now. You hunker down into the cave, and wait, hoping that it will all go away. Shortly after, you hear the screams of hundreds of people and a siren.
A nearby town is being attacked and your heart sinks. The barrage of the military continues for a few moments. You hope the military isn't obliterated. Suddenly you hear running, and then footsteps in the wet, muddy forest near the mouth of the cave. Immediately you feel at ease, you think "They must have destroyed it".
You are about to get up and run to them, thinking of nothing else but to get back home. You stop dead in your tracks as soon as you hear the eerie, nightmarish sound of the machine walking. "They didn't destroy it, they were regrouping, retreating or leading it away". You Immediately hide behind a rock formation in the cave and hug the cave floor. This is it, you are trapped and at the mercy of whatever happens next.
The sound of the machine stops and all that you hear are the radios of the military and a tank getting in position, accompanied by the heavy rain and thunder. You get startled when you hear the machine blair the horn louder than the thunder. The war is right out side. You hear someone yell "FIRE!".
You have no choice but to hear the death and destruction outside the cave. The sounds of their own ammo, bouncing of the machines' shields and back to where they stand. The sound of the ray, buzzing followed by explosions while priority alerts on their radios go off. Meanwhile the machine blows its horn again, as if to taunt or strike fear into them, to humiliate them.
One final explosion and all falls silent. Nothing but the twisted metal and scrap remain as you hear bits and pieces of equipment and vehicles fall, glass shatter and the crackle of flames. Drowned out by the now moving machine which has finished exterminating what hope you had. You stay in the cave, frozen with fear and shock. The tripod is moving away now, using its ray in the distance to finish off those who ran.
As the machine moves further away, rain falls heavier than before. You are still afraid to move. Even further away now you hear the horn again. You feel at ease knowing that it is far from you, but at what cost? You don't know which direction, and what you will see when you leave the cave.
All you know now, is that the sounds of war, death, the dreaded horn and eerie sounds from the machine will now be embedded into your mind forever. The images and thoughts of the machines and what they bring when you hear them, the fear and anxiety with forever remain. That is however, if you survive.
3 янв 2022
