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As the Martians fire their deadly heat rays, destroying towns and cities will anyone survive against the overwhelming odds? What were the Martians doing here? This could not have been a friendly visit, so what were their intentions? In H.G. Wells War of the Worlds the humans' instinct to survive overcomes threats to their existence. When faced with the unknown the human instinct for survival gives us only two options, fight or flight. When the unknown plumes of fire were first spotted shooting from Mars it attracted many scientists, and it was also the same year that Mars was close enough to Earth to allow scientists to observe it with telescopes from that era. It was not until the cylindrical object, for that is what the scientists now knew what it was, entered the Earth's atmosphere that most humans felt the fear of the unknown. When the first object had landed, many noises were heard emanating from within. As time went on the noises gradually faded to nothing and many people felt relief that whatever was living inside, was now dead. It was not until the lid started unscrewing that humans became frantic. "It's a-movin', a-screwin' and a screwin' out. I don't like it. I'm a-goin' 'ome, I am." (Wells 11) The lid fell off,