As I was walking towards the voices, I began to sense that there was a large object in the road up ahead. At first I thought it was a tree, though it was hard to tell in the dark. I was just thinking it was good I ran out of gas when I did, or I would have plowed right into it.

My heart just about ended up in my throat when I realized it wasn't a tree, but one of those damned Martian walkers. It was lying on its side and appeared to be disabled. There were no noises coming from it at all. My first thought was that somehow the people surrounding it had brought the thing down.

Turns out that wasn't the case at all. In fact, they had been fleeing from it, and its death ray had picked off about 40 people from the original group when the machine suddenly froze up. After a few minutes it just toppled over. After a while the survivors cautiously approached it, and that was about the time I heard them.

We've found what appears to be a hatch of sorts. Now we're debating whether to try to open damn thing. The rest of these idiots can do what they want, but I'm going to hide in the treeline.