The War of the Worlds

The barrow of ginger beer stood, a queer derelict, black against the burning sky, and in the sand pits was a row of deserted vehicles with their horses feeding out of nosebags or pawing the ground,

This quote seems pretty apocalyptic to me.

But it passed and spared me, and left the night about me suddenly dark and unfamiliar.

The narrator survived an alien fly-by!