Chapter 3

Sunday, January 5th, 1986

Hill Valley, California

9: 24 P. M.

They reappeared flying high over the famous Clock Tower. Doc turned back toward his home, sighing in relief. "Whew! I thought we would be caught in that. Though I suppose my panic was really unnecessary," he apologized to his friends as they landed. "I simply panicked when I saw the time ripple."

"What's a time ripple?" Marty demanded.

Doc responded with a question. "Marty, have you ever wondered why only your imageswere fading from the photograph when you were trapped in 1955? Were you ever curious about why the photograph itself wasn't vanishing?"

"Yeah, I have. But what's that got to do with anything?"

"A lot." Doc switched into 'Lecture' mode. "You see, an image from a photograph is a fairly easy thing to vanish. It's just a thing printed on a special paper. The photograph is a physical object and needs more time to disappear. If you had not succeeded in restoring your time line and vanished, the photograph would have followed in a day or two. After all, why would anyone take a picture of empty space? The vanishing would have been accomplished by a time ripple-an actual movement in time that erases completely any evidence that the former time line existed. It is the space-time continuum correcting itself. Even your erasure from existence is a form of time rippling."

"How do you know so much about them, Doc?"

"I saw something time ripple before. Remember the blank fax I showed you that represented Marty's bad future? A few days later, as I was examining it to make sure the words were completely gone, it shimmered, rippled like water, and vanished! There wasn't a trace of it left. I immediately went to check on Marty's future and found he still seemed as content as ever. I read up on some time-travel theories and concluded that the paper vanished because it was redundant to the current time line."

"And that thing we saw was one of those?" Mystie asked.

"Precisely. On a much grander scale, of course. It was changing the future to fit the current time line."

"But Doc," Jennifer pointed out, puzzled, "you told us we go to the most likely future of the moment. How could a time ripple get us?"

"Apparently something happened after we vanished from this time that had such a great impact on the space-time continuum, it started a time ripple to change the future in a way that wouldn't, for lack of a better word, overload it," Doc theorized.

"It was more like a time shockwave," Mystie commented, pale. "Could it really have hurt us, Emmett?"

"I don't know. The one that erased the fax didn't harm me in the slightest. But that one was small, a minor glitch. A large one could have had an effect on us. That's why I didn't want to get caught in it. I was afraid."

"I don't blame you, Doc," Marty admitted. "I saw past the time ripple. Hill Valley looked a lot different. A lot of the buildings were wrecked and boarded up. What do you think happened to the future?"

"I'm not sure. But I think the Time Trippers should live up to their name and investigate."

Monday, January 6th, 1986

7: 14 P. M.

"Deja-vu," Marty commented as he and Jennifer returned to Doc's house. "That must happen a lot when you time-travel and stuff."

"Marty, I'm scared. I hope that the time ripple didn't mean anything really horrible was going to happen to the future."

"Jen, I don't know what to tell you. I saw that those buildings behind the time ripple were trashed."

"Renovations?" Jennifer suggested weakly. Marty looked at her. She sighed. "Yeah, I know. I feel it in my gut too. Something really bad has happened."

"Technically, going to happen," a voice spoke up. The teens both turned to see Doc waiting by the fence for them. "How are you two doing?"

"Nervous as hell. You?"

"I'm also experiencing increased nervous tensions. This time ripple is obviously heralding an extremely significant event. Our lives could hang in the balance."

"Stop being so melodramatic," Marty complained. "I'm freaking out as is."

"Sorry. I get this way when I'm frightened." He clapped his hands. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I guess. When are we going?" Jennifer asked as Doc led them into the garage.

"Present time, in a minute. Future time, 10 years from now. The time ripple should have already passed through that date, and I feel it's far enough into the future to serve our present purpose."

"Do you think we'll see our future selves?" Despite her worry over the time ripple, Jennifer was still excited enough about going to the future to ask that question.

"If we do, do not talk to them," Doc warned. "No person should know too much about his destiny. Besides, you'd probably faint once you got a good look at their face."

"Why? We'd know it was us," Marty said, backing up his girlfriend.

"That's just it. Seeing yourself aged would be a traumatic experience. So forget it." Jennifer pouted.

"Stop that," said Mysteria, waiting by the car. "He is not being a stubborn old fart. He's worried about you. He doesn't want you to get hurt, that's all."

"How could finding out about my future hurt me?" Jennifer protested.

Doc paused in his search through the garbage can. Unbidden, those 2 horrible newspaper headlines from the bad future slipped into his mind. "It hurt me," he whispered.

"Don't start crying again," Marty begged. "That future's gone. I didn't race Needles, and now my future's bright."

"True- but what future replaced it?"

January 6th, 1996

7: 30 P. M.

As the DeLorean burst into the future, Marty and Jennifer felt the hair on the back of their necks rise. They grabbed each other's hands as tightly as possible, starting to sweat. "Jesus Christ," Marty mumbled. "There must be a lot of soulless vampires around. I've never been so scared in my life."

Doc sniffed the air, counting the number of infected blood scents he picked up. "Great Scott!" he gasped. "I'm smelling at least 50 vampires in this vicinity! Hill Valley could neversupport a population that large, especially if the majority of vampires are soulless!"

"And especially not in this condition," Mysteria said, staring out the window. "Look around. The place is completely ruined."

The Time Trippers looked around. Hill Valley was a wasteland. Houses were boarded up and/or falling apart. Businesses looked like they had been through a few L. A. riots. The roads were cracked and filled with potholes. A few smashed and abandoned cars stood as a mute testament to what had wrecked their hometown.

Mysteria sniffed the air wildly. "There's no people! The only non-vampire blood scents I'm getting are coming from the backseats! How can vampires live here with no people?"

Jennifer stared at her hometown, now in ruins. "I wanted to see Terminator 2," she mumbled in shock. "Not live it."

"But there has to be people," Marty protested. "Like Mystie said, vampires can't live without people. Turn on the radio, Doc."

Doc clicked it on. There wasn't even a burst of static from the station it was set on. He fiddled with the dial. Every station he tried was nothing but dead air. "Nothing," he whispered, clicking it back off. "Absolutely nothing."

Mysteria rolled down her window and listened carefully for signs of life. "There's a big hullabaloo down by the courthouse. I think we should check it out."

"Me too, but not in a flying DeLorean. The last thing we want is to attract attention to ourselves." He landed behind a large house that was falling apart in what was once Lyons Estates. Everyone got out, staying in a tight huddle as Doc locked the doors. "I should go to 2019 and see if they have Identi-Pad carlocks," he commented. "I don't feel safe leaving our only mode of transportation here."

"We'll just have to take the chance, Emmett. Let's go." They walked towards the courthouse, holding hands as tightly as possible.