Chapter Eight

Monday, December 31st, 1941

3:30 PM

The Delorean touched down on in Eastwood Ravine. Yes, Eastwood Ravine, Marty had glanced at the sign as they came in for a landing just to make sure. The relief was coming in waves now for both he and Doc.

When the car landed and the two passengers got out, Marty could see why Doc needed the flight circuits. From where they were standing, it looked like the entire steam engine had plummeted from the sky and drove itself into the earth like a meteorite. The trail of dirt stretched almost as far as the ravine itself.

Doc ran towards the sight of his wife and children. Clara received a huge kiss from the scientist and both of the boys were promised rides in the strange new time machine their father had just landed in.

Clara seemed relieved to the point of tears and she almost broke down crying. "Oh, Emmett, we were so worried. You've been gone for several hours."

"Never the worse for wear, my dear." Emmett said, embracing her. "It's all in the past."

"You mean the future?" Marty asked.

"Oh yes." Doc said, thinking for a moment, "Quite right."

"Whatever took you so long?" Clara asked as Doc put on his work gloves.

"We ran into a few snags." Doc said, now ducking to get under the train. After he had squeezed in, his eccentric voice could be heard echoing off the iron clad boiler, "Marty did just the right thing at just the right time and he's the only reason that I'm alive today."

Clara smiled at Marty. Ever since that day that he and Doc had rescued her from her runaway carriage, she had considered Marty more respectable than most children she knew of that age. It was easy to tell she was thankful once more for Marty bring Doc back.

"Blast!" came Doc's voice from beneath the train. It was followed by a loud clanging noise that Marty safely assumed was the sound of Doc's cranium striking the very hard iron clad boiler. Then came the clamor of tools falling out of a toll chest and onto Doc's foot, which emanated yet another "Blast it All!" from the scientist. This lead to Doc striking his head on the boiler yet again in frustration.

Marty tried to suppress a grin in the heat of Doc's misfortune while Clara, obviously very alarmed, knelt down to see under the train. Einstein came bounding through the bushes and stared with his head sideways and one ear perked up. He simply moaned in curiosity at what had happened to his master.

As Marty had assumed, Doc was perfectly fine. None of his inventions had hurt him thus far. Doc dusted himself off and gingerly rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, that's not going to work." He mumbled as he sat down on a crate that had been turned upside down to pose as a makeshift chair.

"What's not going to work, Doc?" Marty asked.

"I hate it when you say such foolish things, Emmett." Clara said, reprimanding him with a look.

"Those flight circuits aren't going to work. I didn't remove the bad ones properly and now the new ones just blew a fuse! Oh, Einstein! What am I going to do now?"

Einstein simply cocked his head the other way and then licked Doc's greasy glove.

"What about the other time machine, Emmett?" Clara asked, "Does it have the right parts?"

"No, my dear. The flight circuits would only work for about thirty seconds before…" Doc's eyes shot towards the Delorean, then to the train, then to the Delorean again. In one wild motion he jumped up from the crate and started pacing back and forth like he always did. The only thing Marty and Clara could do was stand back and let the brilliant, albeit scatter-brained, scientist work through his idea. They knew better than to interrupt Doc's thinking as it might be their ticket back to the future.

"Okay, okay," Doc said, massaging his temples and letting the thoughts get back to normal, "We know it won't fly on it's own and we know that the Delorean's circuits won't work…" Doc rambled on.

"Doc," Marty ventured, "You said it might fly for thirty seconds. Well, they way I see it, it'll only take thirty seconds to get up to the top of that bridge." Marty pointed up to the massive structure that spanned the ravine.

"Marty!" Doc said, his eyes wide with excitement, "By George, you're right! All we need is thirty seconds!" Doc hopped back to the Delorean and opened up the hood. Marty and Clara gave each other looks.

Doc was up to his old tricks again. He had a plan, but for some reason, it was always one of those things that ended up being more like an action scene than a time-traveling experiment.

Why did time travel have to be so hard?

- - - - -

Now it was close to six o'clock in the after noon on December 31st, 1941. The sun was nearly starting to set and most people in the small town of Hill Valley were on their way home. No one would concerned in the slightest way about what was about to happen at the Eastwood Bridge.

And, for their own safety, that was probably a good thing.

Down at the base of Eastwood Ravine, Doc was testing one of his walkie-talkies. It was attached to a solar cell so it would never run out of juice, and a longer antenna to widen the radius of contact. He spoke into the receiver.

"Marty, are you there?" Doc hollered.

"Yeah, Doc! I'm here!" Marty was standing on top of the Eastwood Bridge. He walked over to the Delorean, which was also on the bridge, and leaned against the front fender. The Delorean had been fitted with the train wheels again. The real wheels were safe in the trunk.

"We're ready up here!" The 'we' Marty was speaking of was him and Einstein. The poor dog had missed Marty so much that he planted himself firmly in the Delorean's passenger seat and refused to budge. 'Let him ride in the Delorean.' Doc had said.

Down below, Doc received Marty's signal.

Doc was standing in the conductor's cabin of the train. Clara, Jules, and Verne sat in seats in the cabin with him. Doc reached for a large golden rod and pulled it back gently.

The big black train shook and shuttered as it displaced the dirt and grass around it. Doc pulled the whistle just for good luck and the mammoth steam engine lifted up into the air as it's iron wheels folded up beneath it. The rocket-ship fins branched put as the train rose higher and higher.

Soon, Marty could see the train hover above the bridge.

"It's all clear Doc!" he shouted. He could see Doc wave his hand from the cabin in response. The black engine lined up with the rails and carefully set down with a loud 'swoosh'. The cabin door opened up.

"That's it, Marty!" Doc hollered, "Now lets get back to the future!"

No sooner had Doc finished his sentence than a large cracking sound followed by a fuse burning out reached their ears. The entire group rushed towards the front of the train where the sound had come from. They all got that sickening feeling right away.

That flux capacitor that Doc had built for his train was spitting out sparks from behind a shattered case. Then it died altogether.

That was prone to be a problem.

"Great Scott!" Doc said and cursed, "I put to much strain on the reactor and it overloaded the flux capacitor!" He threw his gloves down on the tracks. "It'll take me months to rebuild it!"

These little emergencies were starting to wear a little.