Chapter 5

Monday, January 6th, 1986

Hill Valley, California

7: 20 P. M.

It was a group of very subdued Time Trippers that crossed the time barrier back to 1986. "We gotta stop it," Jennifer murmured as Doc landed and drove back to his house. "We simply can't let that future happen."

"But how?" asked Mysteria, feeling helpless. The idea that she could become a toy of her greatest enemies had numbed her brain. "I can't believe that it actually happens. No vampire population could grow that big without people noticing, and/or without some sort of famine for us."

"We have to examine the facts closely and decide on the most probable cause of that time stream," Doc said impressively. "Then we can decide on the course of action best suited to preventing the effect." He parked the car in his garage and turned to face the back. "What are the facts?"

"Biff Tannen is trying to take over the world," Jennifer snorted. "He's responsible for all this."

"Precisely. To be more exact, Biff building up an army of soulless vampires is what causes the disaster in the future. Hill Valley was overwhelmed by soulless vampires. Nobody had a chance to fight back. We must stop him from making his group any larger."

"But how is he keeping all of them under control? And where is he keeping all of them?" Mystie wondered. "God knows Hill Valley couldn't handle a major infestation of vampires."

"I estimate that the main metropolis of our town could support perhaps 15 to 20 vampires, the majority souled," Doc said. "However, there's some farmland nearby, like the new Peabody Farm. It's possible Biff is holding the majority of his army on an abandoned farm and feeding them on stray animals. As to how he's doing it, he's as violent as the rest of them. He probably lets them fight among themselves in order to keep them under control." Doc paused for breath. "Unfortunately, this seems to prove Biff does have a measure of intelligence."

"I'd call it street smarts," Marty suggested, unable to see an intelligent Biff. "He definitely didn't learn this stuff in school or on the job. How do we stop him?"

"I don't know," Doc sighed. "We're quite limited in our resources. We're only 4 people with no formal combat training. How could we stop any number of soulless vampires?"

"We did it before at the McFlys," Mysteria argued. "We can do it again."

"Yeah, but we'd probably need an army of our own," Marty muttered.

Doc's eyes lit up. "Marty, that's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?"

"What did I think of, Doc?" Marty inquired, lost.

"We need our own help! Mystie, we're not the only souled vampires in Hill Valley, are we?"

"No, of course not!" Mystie said, catching on. "I can get them and explain our predicament, leaving out the time travel of course. I'm sure they'd be happy to help!"

"Do you think there will be enough?" Jennifer asked. "Remember what Doc said."

"There should be. I said that the majority of the vampires would have to be souled. Once we even up our numbers, it should be a fair fight. Mentally we differ enormously, but physically souled and soulless are perfectly alike. And any Partial vampires like yourselves can help too," Doc reassured her. "In the end, we should have enough of an advantage in numbers and intelligence to defeat Biff."

"Great! And that future we just saw will disappear?" Marty asked eagerly.

"Exactly. The time stream will realign itself to the future I saw for Hill Valley. That alternate future will fade away."

"Speaking of fading away, I think I need to make some memories of yours fade away," Mysteria gently reminded him. Doc and Marty nodded and obediently followed her inside.

Monday, January 6th

8: 27 P. M.

Jennifer looked up from her playing cards. She listened to whatever she had heard for a moment, then nodded. "Mystie's bringing back the souled vampires she found," she reported to the guys. "She seemed upset about something. Wouldn't tell me over the mental link."

"She's probably still upset about Hell Valley," Doc theorized, studying his cards. He and his friends were playing Go Fish to pass the time. "I can't say that I blame her. It's bothering me too. Seeing those corpses reminded me of my own death in the alternate 2015." He shuddered. "But with a little luck, we'll stop it from ever happening." He rearranged some of his cards. "Do you have any 3s, Jennifer?"

Jennifer handed over the 3 of Spades, thankful that Mysteria had wiped the boys' memories clean of seeing their own corpses. She hadn't asked them about it yet, but neither seemed to recall seeing their dead bodies. "By the way, what did you guys see in that house?"

"Pardon?"

"You know. The house we parked behind."

"We didn't see anything," Marty said with a strange look. "Doc pulled me out before I could find whoever had died inside."

"Marty, I didn't want you to be traumatized by seeing the body of a friend. What if it had been Jennifer in there?" Doc asked, setting aside a set of cards.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I wouldn't have wanted to see Jenny with her throat ripped out." He kissed her. "Why'd you ask?"

"Just curious." She smiled inwardly. "Good thing it wasn't your dead bodies. How about any 5s from you, Doc?"

"Perish the thought of ever seeing my own corpse," Doc shuddered, handing over two 5s. "I hope you appreciate those. It took a lot of fishing to get them."

"Be quiet; you're winning," Marty told him with a barely-concealed grin. Doc smiled back and patted the large pile of cards beside him. "While you're giving up cards, how about some 7s for me?"

"Sorry Marty. Go Fish," Doc said with a shrug. Marty grumbled and reached for the pile of cards.

Mysteria chose the moment to enter the house, trailing 4 men and a woman. "Hi, honey," she sighed, kissing Doc.

"Hi. You sound very tired. Hard search?"

"You ain't kidding," she said, plopping down next to him. She indicated the 5 people standing politely to the side. "May I introduce James Curdala, Natalie Brabant, Louis Drayven, Henry Fleming and Magnus Carpenter."

"Hi. I haven't seen you before," Louis commented, shaking hands with Doc. "At least, not as a vampire. And I know every souled vampire in Hill Valley. How old are you as a vampire?"

"3 weeks, and 3 days," Doc told him. "I'd give you an hour and minute estimate if I knew it."

"That won't be necessary," Louis chuckled.

"You're lucky to have a souled vampire who adores you as your mentor," Natalie said with a friendly smile. "My mentor abandoned me shortly after I Changed." Her smile lessened. "Is it true you burned down your house?"

"Completely by accident," Doc assured her. "An experiment simply got out of control." She went back to smiling.

"I couldn't abandon my future husband, could I?" asked Mystie with a grin, squeezing Doc gently. Her smile faded to nothing, though, as she turned to face him. "We've gotten a monkey wrench thrown in our plans, Emmett."

Doc set down his cards, wondering what she meant. "What do you mean, Mystie? Once you track down the rest of the souled vampires, with Louis's help, we-"

"That's just it. There aren't any more. We 7 are the last of them."

Doc stared at her. "You're joking. There can't be only 7 of us. Hill Valley could support, with no soulless competition, 20 of us! There has to be more!"

Louis sadly shook his head. "We're the only ones left. There used to be a lot more souled vampires here, and fewer soulless ones. We lived peacefully off animal blood and the occasional human donor. Then, for some reason, the soulless vampires ganged up on us. They worked together to destroy us than alone. It took us completely by surprise, and we were practically wiped out."

"We're in hiding," added James nervously. He was a fidgety sort of person, always doing something. "If the soulless ones find us, we'll be taken to the crematorium for sure."

"We're too afraid to make Partials," Magnus answered Doc, reading his mind. "We don't want any innocent humans tortured to death for being in league with us. Your Martin and Mysteria's Jennifer are the only Partials in Hill Valley."

Henry glared at Doc with nasty-looking blue eyes. "Mysteria said you know who's behind us getting our butts kicked. Please enlighten us so we can go rip his throat out."

Doc had a hunch he and Henry were not going to become friends. "Biff Tannen is the leader of the soulless vampires, but I'd wait to rip his throat out," he cautioned.

"Why? Aren't you the nutty who burnt down his own house?"

"As I told you before, that was an accident," Doc said, with a sigh. "I assume you all know about the disappearances locally these past few days." Puzzled nods. "We have reason to believe Biff 'recruited' those unfortunates for his army. He'd simply let them tear you to pieces."

The souled vampires looked at each other. "Biff Tannen? The car waxer? Leader of an undead army?" Magnus said skeptically.

"It's true," Marty insisted. "We can tell you how we found out about it." The Time Trippers proceeded to relate their incredible story of Doc's first weeks as a vampire. The souled vampires were completely enthralled, barely even breathing as they listened. They were convinced as Doc wound up with their investigation of the disappearances.

"How many people vanished?" Louis asked as the group ended. "We know we started out with 11 soulless vampires."

"There were 7 here," Marty said. "All homeless people or people with no family to miss them."

"Grass Valley nearby lost 5," Jennifer reported. "On a hunch, we also checked the San Francisco papers. 9 missing there."

Doc did a quick add-up. "32 soulless vampires to 7 souled ones," he moaned. "And more to come, I'm sure. Biff won't stop until he's certain he can win."

"Then let's kill them all before the numbers grow any further," Henry suggested, all for immediate action.

"Henry, have you absolutely no sense?" Mystie demanded. "We'd be caught and charged with murder. We need a strategy."

"I've got a strategy. Use the 2 Partials as bait."

Doc glared at him, his fangs extending. "Would you care to repeat that?" he growled. "I'll have you know Marty and Jennifer were nearly killed by a soulless vampire. I will not allow you to risk their lives in what would be a plan of immense folly."

"This from the town crackpot," Henry hissed back, his eyes beginning to glow.

"Enough, you 2," Louis ordered. "Dr. Brown's right. If we want to win this war, we'll need cunning along with strength of numbers."

"But we have no numbers," Magnus reminded him. "Do we rely on just cunning for now?"

"Or do we create numbers?" Natalie asked.

"We can't afford too," James said. "Biff's got a monopoly on the ones we could safely convert. We'd be caught and burned."

"So why don't we just find the hideout and set it aflame?" Henry persisted.

"We're outnumbered 32: 7," Doc said, wondering how dense a guy could be. "And I'm sure Biff and his gang are Partials, so Marty and Jennifer would have their own battle to fight. We'd be killed, and the teens would be-" he paused from disgust "would be brought over to their side."

"We have to take that chance! Kill them all!"

"Oh, shut up!" Natalie snapped. "Sometimes I think you'd make a better soulless vampire than a souled one!" Henry sulked, but shut his mouth. "I'm sorry, Dr. Brown," she apologized for him. "I know how close you must be to your Partial."

"It's impossible not to be close," Doc smiled, automatically placing his hand over his heart to feel the double pulsations. Then he became serious again. "Have any of you any ideas on how to stop Biff? We can't let him win. The world wouldn't be fit to live in if he won." He looked at them with pleading eyes. "Please help us. We can't do this alone."

"We're sorry, Dr. Brown," Louis apologized. "We'd love to fight Biff, but like you said, we're too outnumbered. We'll be happy to help in other ways, though."

"Okay," Doc said sadly, looking at Marty. The teen looked back just as sadly. Suddenly, that horrible future seemed inevitable.