Jim, Pam, and Jon were still panic stricken when they took their seats in a booth at the diner; all huddled into one bench. Jim had on arm around a still shivering (more out of fright than of being cold) Pam and the other was rubbing his forehead. Jon’s arms were around his chest as he looked at the table in distress. The power was flickering on and off and a loud explosion sound caused the three of them to jump. They looked out of the window and saw that their van had run into a power line. Sparks were flying everywhere. Pam scooted closer to Jim and placed an arm around Jon so she could pull him closer. She looked up at Jim and saw a few tears trickle down his face.

“Jim…” she softly said. He kissed the top of her head before speaking. “I don’t know where to go from here. Now we don’t have a van. That was how we were going to get to Scranton… We can’t just walk there; it’s way too far. The tripods are getting closer and we are getting more and more in danger by the second.” Tears now escaped from Pam’s eyes as well.

“I think we should just try walking. Staying here isn’t going to do anything but put us more at a risk of being killed.”

*****

The rain was still falling as they walked in a crowd of around three hundred people. Jim had his arm around Pam as he tried to warm her up. She held him tightly in response. They were distraught and the conversations going on around them surely didn’t help that. They were mostly debates on who got it worse; Europe or America. Others didn’t care because they thought that in the end everyone would die no matter what. They finally made it to a ferry dock where the power was still on. There was a booth asking for blood donations and music similar to the kind in elevators was being played. Signs were posted everywhere of missing children and adults. She held on tighter to Jim when the thought of losing him crossed her mind. Her stomach was uneasy and her feet were killing her. All she wanted was to be home in Scranton and to be sharing a blanket with Jim as they sat in front of a movie or a warm fire. Crowds of desperate people pushed and shoved to get onto the ferry. Soldiers conducted people as to which way they should go.

“Jim!” a voice called. They all turned around and saw a woman around their age with a small daughter clutching her hand.

“Nicole?” he asked.

“Yeah!” she says and he pulls her into a hug. Jim began introducing Nicole to everyone but Pam was distracted by the way a group of seagulls were flying rather quickly away from the boat. She kept watching, thinking that it must mean something, and then she noticed that the trees were beginning to flatten in the distance. It began to get brighter.

“You guys, I think something’s going on,” she spoke up as she tugged on Jim’s hand. He turned to see what she was talking about and everyone else did the same. They then saw a tripod emerge from the distance. It made the piercing moaning noise it always made and put down each foot with a thud. The noise got the crowd’s attention and they all grew silent for a moment. Then, they began overrunning the soldiers and fighting their way onto the ferry. The captain noticed the commotion and began to prepare the ship for departure. He yelled that they were out of room for anyone else and that no more people were allowed on. By this time, three more tripods had emerged. They switched on their blinding lights and scanned the crowd of people. Jim stood right in front of a soldier and desperately fought to get him and the rest of his party on. They kept telling him that there was no more room.

“Grab onto my jacket!” he commanded to Nicole. She did so but then unexpectedly tripped. “Come on!” he yelled and pushed through so that he was on the boat. The switch was hit for the ramp to fold up. More people started urging onto the boat which caused Nicole to lose her grip on Jim’s jacket.

“Jim!” she called out. They ran faster as Nicole and her daughter fell farther behind. Jon tried to grab her but a soldier stopped Nicole short. She pleaded for him to let her through but he refused.

“Let us through, God dammit!” she screamed.

“There’s more room on the boat! There’s still room!” Jim yelled repeatedly. Nicole screamed once again and the boat pulled away from the dock. Pam gripped on to Jim and buried her head into his chest as she began to cry once again. He stared back at Nicole in despair. At that point, a large number of people climbed onto the ramp but many fell off and into the water. Jon sprang away from Jim and Pam and started to climb up the ramp.

“Jon, what are you doing?” Jim yelled.

“I have to help these people!” he called back as he pulled as many people as he could over the ramp and onto the ferry.

“Take my hand and hold on! Come on!” Jon ordered.

Suddenly, a whirlpool formed in the water by the ferry. The ship slowly began to turn to the hole formed by the whirlpool and started to be sucked in. The passengers rushed over to the railing to see what was happening but stared in horror as a tripod emerged from the water. Jon sprinted back to Pam and Jim as the tripods claws started to push the ferry to one side. It finally tipped over and everyone fell into the water. Cars that were on the ferry with them came crashing into the water as well and plummeted right towards them. One car pinned them against the front of it. The people that were sitting in that car were frantically screaming as the car filled up with water.

Finally, Jim was able to un-pin himself. He helped pull the others free. They were all holding onto each other as they swam up to the surface. By this time, the lack of oxygen was beginning to make their lungs feel as if they were on fire. They all swam over to an area of land that was fairly distant from the frightening scene. They fought for their breath and coughed because they had swallowed so much salt water. Jim helped pull Pam up the beach; she was so weak that it took too much effort to simply walk. By now, alert sirens could be heard from the city. They finally settled on the top of a hill that was surrounded by forest. Jim pulled an exhaused Pam into his lap and they all lied down. They watched in shock as the tripods reached down with their claws, picked up a person, and shot their laser-like thing at them. After they felt a little more energized, they slowly stood up and started walking through the woods, fully aware that the tripods were drawing closer. Clothes from the dead bodies began to fall from the sky like snow. They all picked up a coat to put over their wet bodies, trying to take their mind off of the fact that their clothes could’ve be falling from the sky as well.