Chapter 4

January 6th

8: 00 P. M.

As they neared the courthouse, the teens began to shiver. "I think we just found out where all those soulless vampires were," Jennifer whimpered, her grip on Mysteria's hand tightening.

"Do you want to turn back?" Doc asked. Marty's heartbeat sounded and felt like a motorboat in his chest. "We don't have to see."

Marty took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "No. I gotta see what happened to my hometown. Let's keep going." They continued on, rounding the corner.

They stopped dead. The street was littered with corpses in various stages of decomposition. Most had looks of pure terror and pain on their rotting faces. The smell indicated that they were all humans or souled vampires. "Oh my God," Mysteria whispered, stunned.

"What in the name of Sir Issac H. Newton happened here?" Doc demanded, horrified.

"I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to know." Marty stared at the piles of bodies that surrounded them, willing himself not to throw up. Being around so much death made him extremely uncomfortable. "Oh, shit, J. J.," he whispered, recognizing one corpse as The Pinhead's keyboardist, Jeffery James Falls. "Now I really feel like I'm gonna vomit."

"Me too. That's Cheryl from the history club," Jennifer pointed out nearby. "And Nancy from science class."

"Spydo's right next to her," Marty shuddered. "We gotta get out of here, Doc. I know too many of these people."

"So do I," Mystie admitted, making a face. "But what happened to all of them? And how'd they get here?"

Doc knelt by a corpse, studying it. He found two holes in the neck, confirming the blood had been drained. But that wasn't the cause of death. "From the injuries, I'd say they were-" he shuddered as stood up "-tortured to death, and then just flung here to decompose naturally."

Mysteria shook her head. "But how could so many soulless vampires-"

Doc looked at her. "I believe we already know the answer to that question."

"NO. I refuse to believe it. It couldn't happen," Mysteria snapped, denying what she knew was true.

"You mean Biff- wins?" Jennifer whispered, picking up on Doc's meaning. "Oh, Doc, that can't be true."

"There's only one way to find out." Doc led the Time Trippers to the Clock Tower.

Once they arrived, the full horror of the future hit them. Everything except the courthouse/Clock Tower was in ruins. The smell of decaying bodies seemed to have soaked into every spare nook and cranny. Gathered in what was once a parking lot was a huge group of soulless vampires. They were watching one of their own strangle a young woman with fiendish glee, urging the killer to break her arm or smash in a eye. When she finally expired from lack of oxygen, the crowd let out a cheer.

The killer threw the dead woman over his shoulder and brought her up to a pair of soulless vampires who sat on folding chairs on the courthouse steps. "For you, my liege," he said, plopping her in the male's lap. He fell back into the crowd as the apparent King of the Vampires ripped open the dead woman's throat. "Always tastes better when they're scared," he growled.

"That's Biff all right," Jennifer thought, not wanting to speak for fear the crowd would hear her. "Figures he'd crown himself king and make everybody obey him. But who's that woman sitting next to him? She looks kinda familiar."

The queen hissed at the king. "I deserve some too," she snapped, clawing him viciously. "Quickly, before it all goes bad."

"Oh, here," Biff snarled, throwing the body at her. The queen hungrily lapped the still liquid blood, her face coming into clearer view.

Marty had never known if it was possible to whisper a scream. He found out quickly. "MOM!" he cried, too afraid to raise his voice. "Jesus Christ, it's my mother!"

Doc slid a comforting arm around Marty's shoulders. "Biff always loved her. He must have figured he should go for it. The bastard. I'm sorry." Marty leaned into him, not looking at the new Lorraine.

Lorraine finished her portion. She causally kicked the body aside. "Go get a new one," she commanded the soulless vampire nearest. He scurried to obey, entering the courthouse. She sighed. "Worthless creatures."

"Why did he go into the courthouse?" Mystie wondered, not at all sure she wanted to find out.

"I'll see. Stay here, out of sight." He gave his girlfriend a quick kiss and took to the air. He flew as high as he dared over the soulless vampire gathering. They didn't even notice him, too busy in watching a fight between 2 of their own. He landed on the ledge of the Clock Tower and went inside via the trap door.

He flew down the many flights of stairs to the top, letting himself enjoy the sensations. He needed some pleasure right now, to sustain him in being in this world. He landed by the door and peeked out through the crack. What he saw made everything worse.

Roughly constructed cages filled the courthouse, penning humans and souled vampires. A few were already dead, and many were starved and tired. Doc could count the ribs on one. It reminded him of the Holocaust. A few souled vampires tried their cage, only to be beaten down by the caretakers, Match, Skinhead, and 3-D. "This isn't Hill Valley any more. This is Hell Valley."

"I couldn't agree with you more, Doc," Marty thought, startling the scientist. "What's inside the courthouse? Or don't we want to know?"

"Humans and souled vampires in cages," Doc thought back, sending Marty a picture of what he saw. He felt Marty shiver as he received it. "They must be used for food and sport. It's horrible."

The soulless vampire who'd been sent to get a new victim appeared on the scene. "Match! How bout one of those creeps?" he called, indicating a souled vampire cage. Match grinned wickedly back at him and opened it. The souled vampires tried desperately to fight him. Match simply pushed them back and pulled a woman with jet-black hair from the bunch. She hissed and attempted to claw him.

Match slapped her and handed her over. "She's feisty. Great entertainment. I'm been meaning to punish her for a week." The souled vampire snapped at him.

Doc felt his heart stop beating. The woman struggling in vain against her captors had a very familiar blood scent. "Mystie," he whispered intensely. It took all he had not to go down there and rescue her. "That's not my Mystie. . . My Mystie's safe. . . ." he reminded himself sternly. "Don't meddle in future events."

Still, he couldn't watch her being tortured to death. He left the Clock Tower, shaking with disgust and fear. How could a nice place like Hill Valley end up like this?

Mysteria held her arms out to him as he landed. "Marty was still tuned in. He told me," she said, as white as a sheet. "To come to that. . . ."

Doc grabbed her and held her as tight as he dared. "I couldn't watch," he whispered. "I couldn't watch you die by those things' hands. Mystie, I love you so much." He kissed her as hard as he could. "You too, kids. If anything's happened to you. . . ." He pulled them close, feeling Marty's precious heartbeat pound in his chest.

They cuddled together, forgetting momentarily the world of misery that surrounded them. Then Doc separated them, a determined look on his face. "This is the future that results from Biff winning our fight against him," he restated. "We need to go back and stop this future from ever happening. There's no fate but what you make."

"That's right! Let's get out of here." The Time Trippers went back to the DeLorean, trying to ignore the shouts of the vampires behind them. They had almost forgotten this was the future, not the present.

As they reentered the backyard where the DeLorean was stowed, Marty noticed the back door of the house was open. "Hey Doc, we might have company," he warned, pointing.

Doc sniffed. "It's human and dead. We don't need to worry about it." He gathered garbage to load into Mr. Fusion. Marty looked back at the door. Morbidly curious, he went inside and looked around, wondering who had been killed in here.

Doc saw him go inside. "Marty," he sighed, dumping his collection into Mr. Fusion. He followed the teen's heartbeat to catch up with him. "Why do you want to see a deceased person? We've seen all we need to."

"I gotta know if I know who it is," Marty said. "Maybe it's-" his voice cracked slightly "-it's my dad, or another Pinhead. It'll only take a sec, Doc."

"Marty, it will only traumatize you further," Doc argued, pulling his friend back. "Come back to the car."

Marty pulled away. "Doc, I saw something in that kitchen. It looked like legs. I gotta take one quick look."

"Oh, all right," Doc sighed. "One quick look. I can't fathom the teenage mind sometimes." He and Marty entered the kitchen, looking at the legs under the kitchen table. "Please don't be Jenny," Marty begged as they crouched down to look.

It wasn't Jennifer. It was someone neither of them would have expected. Marty gaped, uncomprehending. Doc shut his eyes tight, as if trying to will the sight away.

The corpse was Marty.

He resembled most of the other dead bodies they'd seen. His throat had been ripped out and the blood drained. A few bones were broken and bruises were still faintly purple on his pale skin. There was an absolutely horrific look of terror on his face. Marty turned away and became violently ill. Doc took him in his arms, offering what comfort he could. "Marty, it can't hurt you. It's dead."

"It's me, Doc!" Marty sobbed, burying his face in Doc's chest. "They got me! They tore me up." He forced another glance at his corpse and nearly became sick again. "They even burned me."

Doc looked at Dead Marty. He could only imagine what his best friend had gone through. He held back tears of his own as he looked over the corpse. There was even a-

There was even a hand clutching Dead Marty's own.

Doc stared at the hand. It was all that was left of a body, burnt to a crisp. But even blackened and twisted, Doc recognized it.

His own.

Doc felt his own wave of nausea envelop him. He turned and added to the vomit puddle Marty had created. "No, Marty," he said when he trusted himself to talk. "The person they burned was me. I simply died holding onto you."

Marty looked again and saw Dead Doc's ashes and cooked hand. He was immediately sick again. "Jesus, Doc. . . ."

"I know. Let's go before the girls get curious." He stood up, pulling Marty up with him. They walked out together, reaffirming to themselves that yes, they were still alive.

The girls were waiting impatiently beside the car. Jennifer looked disgustedly at Marty. "For God's sake, Marty, why did you-"

Her tone abruptly changed as she got a good look at her boyfriend's face. "Marty? What happened in there? Was it your dad?"

Marty shook his head. "Me. And Doc. Or, what's left of Doc. They musta torched him before. . . ." He came dangerously close to sobbing again. "I'm all beat up, and Doc's hand is-"

"Still clutching Dead Marty's," Doc finished, feeling faint. It was one thing to read about your death, quite another to discover your own corpse. "We both vomited when we saw it."

"You poor guys." Jennifer and Mysteria tried to calm their boyfriends. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."

"Listen, once we get home, I'll make you forget that you ever saw them," Mysteria promised. "Unless you would prefer to remember. . . ."

"Forget, definitely forget," Marty said.

"Are you sure vampire hypnosis will work on a fellow vampire?" Doc asked.

"If the vampire wants to be hypnotized."

"Then it should work very quickly."

"Come on," Jennifer said. "Let's blow this joint."