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Speaker 1: Mm hmm.

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Speaker 2: Coddom for blast off X minus five four three two

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x minus one. Fire from the far horizons of the

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unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.

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These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll

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live in a million, could be years, on a thousand,

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maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street

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and Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction, presents.

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Speaker 3: He minus minus minus.

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Speaker 4: The Martian Death March.

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Speaker 5: I've always been interested in lost causes, the revolt of

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the Scottish Jacobites against England, the last stand of the

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Cherokee and Sioux Indians, and the death March of the

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Martian Highlanders in nineteen ninety seven. There has been a

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lot written about that march. The UN Commission report covers

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four volumes, but the whole story isn't down on paper yet.

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I know it because I was on that march from

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the beginning to the end. There's one part of the

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story that no one ever mentions. The Martian Death March

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of ninety seven was led by an earthman. Maybe you've

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been over the root of the marsh. There wasn't any

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highway there thirty years ago. In ninety seven, there was desert, hot,

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burning desert. I lived at the edge of a Kalmac

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canal then with my father. He was a prospector searching

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the surrounding desert with sonar probe and Geiger counter, scratching

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just enough or from under the Martian sands to pay

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for our grub steak.

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Speaker 4: The next year.

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Speaker 5: I remember he was in the Adamson digger in the

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north quadrant when I came running out that day.

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Speaker 6: God, Dad, Dad, there's somebody coming, Dad, across the desert.

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Speaker 7: You sure I saw them.

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Speaker 6: There are a couple of miles out.

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Speaker 8: Or how many cars they're on foot, on foot across

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the desert.

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Speaker 6: Honest, Dad, I saw them.

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Speaker 7: Are you sure it wasn't a light reflection off the canal.

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Speaker 6: No, it was dark against the sand.

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Speaker 8: You don't like that. You run back and get the

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rifles out. I've got to pull a digger into the shed.

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Speaker 6: Is they're gonna be fighting, Dad.

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Speaker 7: I don't know.

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Speaker 8: I got a whole year's or piled out back in

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the bins, and I ain't gonna lose it.

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Speaker 7: No claim, jumpers.

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Speaker 8: You go back the shack and break out those rifles

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and see their lord you hear and jump.

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Speaker 5: Dad had three surplus army rifles and a couple of

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homemade grenades made out of or cans stuffed with adamson

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A explosives. We crouched inside the shack waiting. The shadow

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of the water tower in the doorway grew longer as

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the quick Martian dust settled down over the desert.

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Speaker 7: And there they come. Al, there's two of them.

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Speaker 6: What's that on the first one's back?

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Speaker 4: Why?

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Speaker 7: I haven't seen one of those in twenty years?

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Speaker 6: What is it?

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Speaker 8: A one man desert tank? They used to carry water

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that way before Adamson put out the air still units.

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Speaker 6: There's something funny about that second one. Look he's all

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spinley and it's funny.

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Speaker 7: He's funny, all right. Hell, that's a Martian.

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Speaker 6: I never saw one off the reservation.

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Speaker 7: Before, hasn't been, not in ten years. I don't like this.

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Speaker 6: Here they come into the dooryard.

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Speaker 7: You remember what I told you. Wind up the sights

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and just squeeze the trigger.

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Speaker 1: Hello, Hello now dove, Hello, Wait a minute, what do

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you want water?

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Speaker 6: I need water?

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Speaker 8: WHI My name is John Johannah. What are you doing

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with that spider?

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Speaker 4: His name is cantal Car.

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Speaker 7: I don't care what his name is. What's a human

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doing with a Martian?

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Speaker 4: I found him in the dry bed of CalMac Canal.

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Neil he did?

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Speaker 1: He probably ran off from the reservation. When our brothers

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are cage, they seek freedom.

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Speaker 4: Brothers.

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Speaker 1: Those spiders all living creatures out our brothers on mars as.

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Speaker 8: Honay, wait a minute, bird Ulstrom at false whe told

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me there was a screwball heads preacher over there hollering

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about letting the spiders loose off the reservations. Let no

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man call his own, no man, no tribe, no nation.

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I guess that's you, all right, Britt told me they

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called you're crazy, John. I don't suppose any harmony. Fill

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your tank up at the air still, and you can

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even have supper with us. We would be happy to

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we What do you mean we can tell car and

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my sulit that spider. Oh no, I ain't having a

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Martian sitting down and eat with me. You come on, no,

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thank you, sir.

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Speaker 1: No where my brother is not welcome, I cannot go.

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Speaker 8: Well, suit yourself. I'll get the key to the water tarer.

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Come out here and put away the guns. We won't

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have any trouble from these two.

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Speaker 5: The old man filled his tank at the air still tower,

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and the Martian went through the ashpile for half earned

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fueled brick. When we went to the house for supper,

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I could see them dis silhouetted against the fire, the

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old man with his wild hair and beard, and the

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thin spidery arms and legs of the Martian.

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Speaker 6: Dad, what are all the Martians on the reservation?

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Speaker 7: Yeah?

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Speaker 8: Oh, but a couple of wild ones in the mountains

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up north. The patrol catches a couple every year. Why

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they murder people?

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Speaker 5: No?

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Speaker 6: I mean why are they on the reservation.

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Speaker 7: Because it's the safest place to keep them and past

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us off.

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Speaker 6: How many are there?

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Speaker 7: Oh, I don't know, a few thousand. They keep dying off.

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Speaker 8: Why they catch earth diseases? Chicken pox almost wiped out

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the whole gang of them two years ago.

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Speaker 6: Chicken pox. I had that. It didn't wipe me out.

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Speaker 7: You ain't a Martian.

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Speaker 6: I was born on Mars.

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Speaker 7: Well, I mean, you ain't one of those spiders. Now

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eat your food, it'll get cold.

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Speaker 6: Okay, dad?

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Speaker 4: Oh what now?

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Speaker 6: Were the Martians always on the reservation.

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Speaker 8: Well, since the Outpost three massacre they have been that.

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But before you were born, they lived wild in the

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mountains up north.

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Speaker 6: Were they fierce?

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Speaker 8: Fierce enough? Only place for them spiders behind wire?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, it sure is.

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Speaker 5: Out in the dooryard, the campfire flickered at the base

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of the water tower. The first of the Martian moons

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had set. The other wouldn't rise for several hours. I

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could hear the sand peepers out of the desert as

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I stood there. The old man and the Martians were

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sitting on the ground, huddled close to the fire. It

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gets cold fast on the desert when the sun goes down.

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Speaker 4: Is that you, boy? You can come up to the

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fire if you like. My dad wouldn't like it, all right.

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Speaker 6: But I'm not afraid of no spider.

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Speaker 4: No, there is nothing to be afraid of.

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Speaker 6: How come his arms are all skinny?

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Speaker 4: Ask him?

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Speaker 6: Does he talk?

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Speaker 4: Yes? His name is Cantalca.

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Speaker 6: It is huh.

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Speaker 9: Hello, hello, boy.

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Speaker 6: He talks funny.

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Speaker 9: It is not my language.

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Speaker 6: Why isn't he on the reservation. You can get in

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trouble helping spiders to escape.

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Speaker 1: No man has the right to imprison the innocent. They

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that are enslaved will be freed. They that are in

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sickness and misery will be comforted.

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Speaker 4: They that are exiled in a strange place will be restored.

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Speaker 6: My dad says, the spiders are treacherous, cowardly, murdering savages.

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That's what he says.

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Speaker 9: Boy.

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Speaker 10: There was a time on this world when there were

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no earthmen, when the ships and the machinery of Earth

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were unknown. Then the people of the highlands lived in peace.

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But today they are a handful, starving, dying behind the wire.

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Speaker 6: But the reservation isn't so bad.

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Speaker 9: Our home is in the mountains of the north, not

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the desert.

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Speaker 1: I heard a voice cry it out to me in

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the desert. Go to your brothers.

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Speaker 6: Did they really call you crazy? John?

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Speaker 4: I have been called manything.

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Speaker 6: You really think we ought to let those old spiders

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off the reservation?

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Speaker 10: Why we die here in the desert. We die in

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the sun, and of the sicknesses you have brought from Earth.

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Speaker 6: That's cause Martians are just weak. I'll bet I could

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knock you down myself.

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Speaker 9: You could.

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Speaker 10: We are a different people. We have not the strength

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of muscle of earthmen. But we will not stay here

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to die.

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Speaker 6: You won't get off the reservation. The patrol takes care

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of all that. They won't let any stinking old spiders out.

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Speaker 1: Ah, even in the minds of children splanted the poison

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of evil?

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Speaker 4: How long.

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Speaker 7: That night?

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Speaker 5: Through the window I could see the flicker of the

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old man's campfire. He was walking up and down now, shopping,

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singing hymns verse after verse, his white beard catching the

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light as he passed behind the fire. The Martians sat

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slumped over his thin, spindly arms folded across the huge

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barrel chest that had developed over the sentries. As the

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air of Mars thinned and escaped into space in the morning,

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I looked out and they were gone. Looking back now,

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we wonder how they did it. The high voltage wire

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around the reservation carried a fatal charge. The patrolman in

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the tower had fifty caliber machine guns. The desert around

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the camp was mined heavily, yet at dawn on August seventh,

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nineteen ninety seven, they broke out. I was down at

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the dried up canal bed hunting sandpeepers when my father

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came running after me.

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Speaker 6: Hell oh, here I am.

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Speaker 7: Come on back to the house.

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Speaker 6: What's the matter?

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Speaker 7: Dare and shut up and run?

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Speaker 6: What is it?

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Speaker 8: The spiders busted boots, burdles from radioed inn They come

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in here they're headed this way, the murdering devils.

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Speaker 6: They kill anybody.

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Speaker 7: Six patrolmen. When I busted through the wire.

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Speaker 6: What are you gonna do? Dad?

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Speaker 7: Why are a peg of adamson A across the gate?

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You get in there and get the guns out.

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Speaker 5: I got the rifles and shoved the full clip in

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each one. Then I slipped the primer fuse on the

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homemade grenades and lugged them out to the porch. Dad

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was running lead wires back to a detonator from a

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half keg of adamson A he'd set across the gate.

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Speaker 7: There, and that said, now, give me one of those rifles.

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Speaker 6: Will they be here soon?

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Speaker 7: You can see the dust over the rise litering spiders.

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Speaker 6: What'll they do?

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Speaker 7: I don't know. Now make sure you get a good side, Al,

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don't waste any bullets.

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Speaker 6: There they are, Dad, There they come.

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Speaker 7: Wait a minute, hold up now, I want to get

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a good shot. Let him get closer, Dad.

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Speaker 6: That's crazy John up in front there. He's taller than

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the spiders. You can see his beard.

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Speaker 8: You're right, and that run a gave rat. He probably

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helped him break out of the reservation. Listen now, if

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anything happens to me, you ride out back to the shed.

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You can hide out in the empty orbins till they

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go away.

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Speaker 6: And you got that, all right, Dad. The spider's shouting something, Dad.

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Speaker 8: Probably a trick. Get down, a little leavel you're in

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the way.

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Speaker 7: I got him, clear now, right in my head. Up

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a little now, got him? Got him?

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Speaker 6: Hell, Dad, look out, they've got good down.

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Speaker 8: Get down, Get out out, Get out to the shed.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, your here, go on.

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Speaker 7: Spiders are going to rush. Don't get gory.

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Speaker 6: No, no, I can't.

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Speaker 1: Up and get out of here.

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Speaker 4: You're here, get out.

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Speaker 5: I ran back through the heart to the shed. Behind me,

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I could hear the Martians sweeping up to the dooryard.

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Then suddenly the ground shook and I could feel the

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dull concussion waves hit my ears as the adamson A exploded.

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I could hear the high, whispered screams of the Martians

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and the rattle of fragments on the metal roof of

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the shed. I dived into the empty orbit and slammed

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the hatch, almost chucked. I sat there waiting. Then suddenly

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a shadow fell across the edge of light and the

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00:13:51,399 --> 00:13:52,720
hat slid open on top of me.

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Speaker 6: You leave me alone, I'll kill you, boy.

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Speaker 4: I've been looking for you.

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Speaker 6: Where's my dad? What did you do to my dad?

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Speaker 4: He's dead?

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Speaker 6: You kill him? You and those spiders, I'll kill you.

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I'll kill all those thinking, murdering spiders.

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Speaker 4: They are our brother's boy.

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Speaker 1: Your father shot without warning, and the fire was returned

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against my orders.

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Speaker 6: You mean you weren't gonna attack us.

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Speaker 1: Our brothers came in peace. They are going home to

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their mountains. We came to get water for the journey.

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Speaker 6: You mean you just wanted water? Yeah, Dad deadn.

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Speaker 9: The Earth Patrol will be following us soon.

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Speaker 4: We must go and the boy. We have to leave

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him here with water and supplies.

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Speaker 9: The Earth Patrol would question him. We need the time

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he goes with us.

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Speaker 5: They tore the Adamson air still from the top and

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mounted it on poles. They piled our supplies in the

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yard and loaded them on their backs, and then they started.

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I marched with the old man of the head and

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the columns stretched out behind us on the desert. I

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00:15:13,879 --> 00:15:16,559
turned to look back at our house, but the sun

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was behind it, blinding red. The old man pulled me

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around as he marched, his eyes fixed on the horizon,

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where far to the north rose the cool mountains that

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were the ancient home of the Highlanders. Fourteen of the

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martians died the first day. They dropped to the side

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of the colum where they could go no farther, and died,

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but the march went on. On the fifth day, we

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swung wide to avoid a mining settlement, but not wide enough.

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The miners were in ambush behind a pile of rocks.

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Speaker 4: O boy, reservation horse.

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Speaker 1: I shall lead them home to the promised rest, home

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to the mountains.

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Speaker 3: March forward, march.

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Speaker 4: How wold, and the march went on.

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Speaker 5: We wound across the desert in wild zigzags, following the

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paths the old man had traveled through the years. Only

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once a patrol plane hovered on the horizon and then

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shot away. The days went on, the weeks, and the

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martians died. They died of exhaustion, They died of the

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diseases we had given, and they died of thirst. The

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00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:40,399
Adamson still could produce twenty seven units of water an hour,

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no more, and on that they died of thirst.

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Speaker 4: Here, boy, here's your water.

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Speaker 6: But that's more than the others. God take it, it's yours.

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You're giving me.

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Speaker 4: Your water it will be provided to me.

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Speaker 1: He that brings justice to his brothers will drink deep

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of the water of righteousness.

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Speaker 4: Eat it, drink, drink your water. Boy.

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Speaker 5: Across the desert, from the CalMac Canal to Fever dep

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past the towering mass of the Higgins bad Lands, across

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the dry sea bottoms, they marched on the fifty fourth

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day of the march. We halted at evening. The air

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was thinner, colder, now the rations had long since been exhausted.

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I lay down to sleep, wrapped in the old man's coat.

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Early in the morning, before sunrise, I awoke. Suddenly the

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ground mist that had covered the desert the night before

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was lifting.

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Speaker 7: Slowly.

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Speaker 5: I saw the old man standing by the burned out fire,

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the vapor swirling around his legs in the cold light.

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Speaker 4: Of the false dawn, edging his wild beard. Go back

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to sleep, Boy, I can't. The end is near.

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Speaker 1: I have led them through the wilderness, drive shod across

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the seas, and before us lie the mountains.

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Speaker 6: You mean we're almost there.

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Speaker 1: When the mist is taken from the eyes of man,

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the place of refuge can be seen.

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Speaker 6: You mean the mountains. It's over where there.

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00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:27,839
Speaker 1: I have led them to their home, and I must

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go back to the desert.

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Speaker 4: You mean alone now now, even.

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00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:36,400
Speaker 1: Now I hear a voice in the wind, carry the

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00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:37,720
message to the men of Earth.

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00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:41,119
Speaker 4: Bring to this new world, the message of the old.

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00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:45,480
Speaker 1: All beings created in the universe are my brothers.

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Speaker 4: And he that hums my brother hums me. Goodbye, goodbye boy,

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00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,240
you will be safe now.

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00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:11,279
Speaker 6: Goodbye, joh, goodbye.

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00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,400
Speaker 5: The Martians found him five hundred yards from the camp dead.

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00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,359
Now the mist rose and before us towered the highlands, the.

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00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:22,480
Speaker 4: Tall green mountains in the cool sky.

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00:19:23,559 --> 00:19:27,599
Speaker 5: The march was over. Of the seven thousand Martians who started,

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00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,519
nine hundred were alive. They gathered now on the rise

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00:19:31,559 --> 00:19:35,200
of ground and faced the hills. Their thin bodies wavered

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00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:37,759
as they stood, and some dropped to the ground as

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00:19:37,799 --> 00:19:40,839
they stood there, but there was a light of hope

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00:19:40,839 --> 00:19:44,759
in their large, staring eyes. Most of them had died,

348
00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,200
but they had died on their way home, And now

349
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:57,200
the march was over. Then the patrol planes were spotted

350
00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,720
on the horizon, and within ten minutes they had landed.

351
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:06,359
The Martians stood silently as the squads piled out and

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00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,799
set up the fifty caliber machine guns and the petroleum

353
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:10,000
jee flamethrower.

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00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:14,480
Speaker 3: All right, you spiders, hands up and stay together. Gather

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00:20:14,559 --> 00:20:17,880
in a bunch and don't try anything. Sergeant, Yes, sir,

356
00:20:18,519 --> 00:20:24,799
shoot the first spider that moves and shoot to kill. Alright,

357
00:20:24,799 --> 00:20:30,000
where's that boy? There was a boy reported here? Oh

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00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:31,119
are you all right?

359
00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:31,680
Speaker 7: Kid?

360
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:33,160
Speaker 4: They hurt you.

361
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,720
Speaker 6: No, I'm all right. John gave me his.

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00:20:35,599 --> 00:20:38,519
Speaker 4: Water rash the leader. Uh well, I've got a warren

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00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:38,960
for him.

364
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:40,440
Speaker 3: Where is he there?

365
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:41,559
Speaker 6: He's dead?

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00:20:43,039 --> 00:20:47,799
Speaker 3: Oh well, just as well. I hate to be him

367
00:20:47,839 --> 00:20:49,440
in front of a settler's jury.

368
00:20:49,839 --> 00:20:51,160
Speaker 6: What are you gonna do to them?

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00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,960
Speaker 3: The spiders see those transport planes coming in. We're going

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00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,720
to ship them all back to the reservation where they belong.

371
00:20:59,039 --> 00:21:00,759
Speaker 6: You can't. I can't do that.

372
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,400
Speaker 4: What are you talking about, kid, You can't.

373
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:06,599
Speaker 6: Take them back. They're home. John said they were home.

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00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:10,440
You can't take them back. It isn't there. I won't

375
00:21:10,519 --> 00:21:11,920
let I won't.

376
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:14,640
Speaker 7: Sag.

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00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,440
Speaker 4: Yes, peel this crazy kid off me?

378
00:21:17,799 --> 00:21:20,519
Speaker 7: All right now, kid, take it. I must be shot.

379
00:21:20,559 --> 00:21:21,519
Can't believe safety.

380
00:21:21,559 --> 00:21:22,599
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess that's it.

381
00:21:23,519 --> 00:21:26,079
Speaker 3: All right, You spiders, step it up, move along to

382
00:21:26,079 --> 00:21:30,720
those transport planes. It's all over now you're headed right

383
00:21:30,759 --> 00:21:31,839
back to the reservation.

384
00:21:41,279 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 5: They separated them in groups of fifty and loaded them

385
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:48,759
on the plains, nine hundred out of seven thousand, and

386
00:21:48,839 --> 00:21:51,599
soon the first big bellied ships waddled out on the

387
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,759
hard sands and lifted slowly into the air. Headed back

388
00:21:54,799 --> 00:21:58,119
to the south, flying over the trail of dead and dying,

389
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,279
and started on the march to the highlands, the march

390
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:01,799
to home.

391
00:22:02,799 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 3: Don't worry about them spiders, kid, We'll take care of them.

392
00:22:08,039 --> 00:22:10,400
Come on out, kid, you'll feel better as soon as

393
00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:11,039
you get back.

394
00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:12,880
Speaker 4: It's civilization.

395
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,359
Speaker 5: I looked once more at the green mountains towering through

396
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:24,160
the mist, and then just before the motor raced, I

397
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:28,279
saw John Crazy John propped up against a dognut bush

398
00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:31,559
where the Martians had placed him. The wind from the

399
00:22:31,599 --> 00:22:34,400
south gave the wild hair and beard a rippling life.

400
00:22:35,559 --> 00:22:38,119
He faced the hills, the home and rest he had

401
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:41,640
promised his brothers as he led them through the wilderness

402
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:42,279
of Mars.

403
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,759
Speaker 2: You have just heard X minus one presented by the

404
00:22:59,839 --> 00:23:04,279
Night Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers

405
00:23:04,319 --> 00:23:05,680
of Astounding science fiction.

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Speaker 4: Your announcer, Fred Cowens.

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Speaker 2: X minus one was an NBC Radio Network production