The area within the canyons is named Mars' Lower Surface. Along with a dozen other men, Ransom is surveying the newly discovered Lower Surface of Mars on a voyage in 2113. The explorers are surveying the ground so that a decision can be made on where to build a permanent spaceport so that larger numbers of people can be brought to the inhabitable areas of Mars. One day Ransom and his partner are surveying a hilly area when his partner is fatally injured after a landslide covers him with heavy rocks. As Ransom is starting to head back towards the explorers' campsite, he is confronted by a tall, quick reptilian creature with a wooden rod and knocked over the head with the rod, making him lose concscious-ness.
Ransom awakes to a pungent smell in a damp, musty holding area.
His side has been torn open and scraped but strangely stitched back together. A bloody cut is on his head next to a swelling bruise. He soon discovers the smell is coming from rotting corpses that have been slaughtered. At first Ransom kneels next to the wall and cries softly, overcome with fear. But he decides that to stay in his holding cell will surely mean a horrible death at the hands of the savage reptile creatures.