The answer is D. After the events of the story have taken place.
The first chapter of the book War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells, begins with a brief consideration of the events that will be narrated in more detail later on. The first paragraphs discuss such events in the past, making it clear that they have already happened. We can note that from the following excerpts:
"The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtlety—their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours—and to have carried out their preparations with a well-nigh perfect unanimity. Had our instruments permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century. Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet—it is odd, by-the-bye, that for countless centuries Mars has been the star of war—but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so well. All that time the Martians must have been getting ready."
