He tossed the ball of pennants in the back of the DeLorean. One of these days, he would have to clean up back there.
He turned as he heard a groan behind him..
Great Scott! It was Marty. But his face was smudged, his clothing torn. He looked like he’d been run over by a truck!
Marty tried to smile at Doc as he struggled up the last few steps of the metal ladder.
Doc rushed over to help him onto the roof.
‘Marty!’ Doc asked as he helped Marty from the ladder. ’What happened?’
Marty shook his head.
‘I blew it, Doc! Biff nailed me and got the book back. He drove off with it in his car.’
Doc looked back down over the roof. He could see no sign of Biff or his old Ford convertible.
‘Which way did he go?’ he asked Marty.
Marty thought for a minute as he managed to stand on his own.
‘East.’
Doc told Marty to get in the DeLorean. They had a job to do.
Marty felt better, once he got his breath back. He’d be sore for a couple of days, but otherwise, he felt all right. Doc was flying the DeLorean east, following the main highway out of town. Now, ail Marty had to do was concentrate on sweeping the area below them with his binoculars, until he found Biff.
He saw a single car, really tearing down the high, way. He looked through the binoculars. Yeah! It was Biff, all right! Marty could even see the Sports Alma-nac on the back seat!
He pointed down at the car beneath the flying DeLorean.
‘That’s him. Doc! We can just land right on top of him and cripple his car!’
But Doc frowned and shook his head.
‘No, Marty, we can’t risk damaging the DeLorean. We don’t want to be stuck here in 1955.’
Marty looked down at Biff’s car, then back at Doc.
‘Then what do we do?’ he asked.
Doc grinned at Marty. Marty knew that smile.
Doc had a plan.
Boy, Marty had to admit it, when Doc came up with a plan, it was a plan.
It also helped that Doc never cleaned out the rear section of the DeLorean. It seemed there was still a certain pink hoverboard back there - the one a little girl had given to Marty in the future!
Doc turned off his headlights and brought the DeLorean down so that it almost brushed the ground, then eased it forward so that it was almost touching the Ford’s rear bumper.
The rest was up to Marty.
He opened the gull-wing door, and tucked his left foot snugly into the strap at the rear of the hoverboard. Then he pushed the hoverboard out of the car, and, while still keeping one hand on the DeLorean, was soon hoverboarding over nothing but air!
Now, all Marty had to do was move forward along the DeLorean, and grab some part of Biffs car. He pushed the hoverboard forward, skating across the space between the cars.
There! Marty grinned as he grabbed hold of Biff’s rear bumper. He waved at Doc with his free hand. Doc waved in return, then lifted the DeLorean back up into the sky.
Biff was blasting tho radio, and had his foot down on the gas. But he wasn’t even glancing in his rear view mirror. And the book was in the back seat, only a few feat away.
Marty moved into position. But just as he prepared to grab the Almanac the sports news had come on the radio - and Biff reached around to grab the book. Marty ducked as Biff turned, squatting on the hover-board to hide himself outside the car.
‘In collego football today,' the sports announcer droned. ‘UCLA defeated Washington, 19-17; Stanford over Oregon, 24-10...’
‘Son of a bitch!’ Biff muttered. Marty’s heart sank. Biff had found that the scores were really in there. It would be twice as hard to get the book now.
But he still had to try. Marty waited a minute, then rataed himself slowly, only to see Biff drop the book on the front passenger seat.
Double damn! Marty thought. The book had been so close! But he told himself to calm down. Biff was just making this a little more challenging.
Marty ducked down low again so his head was below window level, and pulled himself forward using the door handles. If Biff was going to leave the book in the front seat, Marty would simply have to go up to the front seat.
Marty reached the front door. He grabbed the handle, and pushed the button. The door swung open.
Marty reached his arm inside the car, just above seat level. His fingers closed around the Almanac.
Then Biff looked over at the passenger seat.
‘Hey!’ Biff yelled.
He saw Marty’s hand on the sports book. Biff grabbed the book, too, and looked up at Marty, standing inside the open door.
‘You again!’ Biff screamed.
Marty tried to pull the book toward him, but Biff had too strong a grip. Maybe, Marty thought, he’d have to get all the way into the car.
But Biff had other ideas. He picked his right foot off the accelerator, and stuck his left foot there Instead. He kicked his right foot out, against the door, forcing it open with Marty still on it.
Marty lost his grip on the book. But Biff had lost his hold, too.
The overmuscled teen took his foot off the gas as the sports almanac went flying. It landed on the hood, and the wind whipped it on to the windshield.
Marty had to get that book, now.
He started to pull himself up past the door, up toward the windshield.
To his surprise, Biff didn’t try to stop him. Instead the burly teenager grinned, and floored the gas pedal.
Doc had put the DeLorean on autopilot, so he could watch everything below on his own set of mini-binoculars - except when the occasional cloud got in the way. It was taking far too long! If only there was some other way he could help Marty! But he couldn’t get any closer. He’d risked showing the DeLorean far too much already.
He saw Marty reach the front of the car, and actually get his hand on the book. But then Biff had it, too, and, after a brief tug-of-war, it ended up on the windshield! Marty started pulling himself toward the book again -
There was another one of those pesky clouds.
Oh, no! There was a hill up ahead - Deacon’s Hill, as Doc recalled - which meant they were coming up to the Deacon’s Hill Tunnel! And Marty was so busy trying to get that book, he wasn’t paying any attention to where Biff’s car was going!
Biff swerved the car to the right. He was going to wipe Marty off the side of his car like an insect.
Doc pulled out his walkie-talkie.
‘Marty!’ he yelled. ‘Look out!’
But the DeLorean was already flying over the hill, and Doc lost sight of Biff’s car below.
If only he had been in time!
Chapter Twenty-one
Marty had almost bought it.
He had turned the second he heard Doc’s warning, and seen the tunnel coming up fast!
He let go of the car, more from panic than from any plan. The hoverboard fell back away from the speeding Ford as Marty grabbed the rear bumper, barely swinging himself away from the wall as Biff threw the car to the right. Sparks flew when Biff scraped the side of the car against the rough brick of the tunnel.
But Marty was still here, hanging on to the back of Biff’s car. And he was still going to get that Sports Almanac.
He started to move the hoverboard forward again, this time on the driver’s side.
All he had to do was keep low as he pulled himself past Biff.
Marty glanced up and saw Tannen grinning at him in the side-view mirror. He couldn’t duck fast enough. Biff socked him in the ear, hard.
His head ringing, Marty almost lost his grip. Somehow. he managed to hold onto the windshield. Biff swung at him again, but this time Marty was ready. He dodged the blow as Biff had to throw his hands back on the wheel to straighten out the car.
Biff jerked the wheel left. He was going to try to crush Marty against the other wall.
Marty had to get out of here.
There was the sound of an air horn, and
Marty saw two truck headlights, headed straight for them! Biff swung the car back into the right lane, and the truck missed Marty by inches. It was a dump truck of some sort - Marty watched it travel away from them through the tunnel for a second until he felt Biff jerk the car back into the left lane. They were awfully close to the other wall. Marty had to do something!
But then he remembered how, when he had been in the future, the hoverboard had been able to skate over more than just the ground. In fact, it could go over anything but water! Maybe, he thought, he should stop trying to avoid the wall, and lean the hoverboard into it, instead.
Yes! It really worked. Still holding the side of the windshield, he pushed the hoverboard away from the car and skated up the side of the tunnel! And - this was even better than he thought! - going up the tunnel wall brought him above the hood of the car, that much closer to the Sports Almanac.
He grabbed the book.
Biff reached over the windshield in a wild grab for Marty.
‘You son of a bitch!’ he yelled.
But Marty simply let go of the car. The Ford shot . ahead, and Marty, no longer sharing in the car’s acceleration, fell behind. He shoved the almanac in his inside jacket pocket as his hoverboard glided to a halt. He zipped the jacket up, and started kick-pushing the hoverboard with his free foot toward the end of the tunnel where they had come in.
He heard a squeal of tyres behind him. Marty glanced back as he tried to kick the hoverboard forward with greater speed. Biff had stopped, and was turning his car around in the tunnel.
Without a car to tow him along, Marty could only go as fast on this hoverboard as he could kick it, just like the skateboards Marty was used to. But he had to get out of this tunnel before Biff caught up to him.
He just hoped he could kick this sucker fast enough!
So where was Marty?
Doc had kept the DeLorean hovering over the exit to the tunnel for the last minute, expecting Biff’s car to show up at any second. But there was no sign of Biff, and no sign of Marty - no sign of anything, really, except a big old truck carrying fertilizer that had gone into the tunnel beneath him.
Gone into the tunnel?
Oh no, Doc Brown thought, Marty didn’t have to come out this way at all.
He raised the DeLorean quickly. He only hoped he wasn’t too late to rectify his error.
Oh, shit.
Marty saw the mouth of the tunnel in front of him. But he could hear Biff behind him, coming on fast. And Marty couldn’t push the hoverboard any harder. His leg felt like it was going to fall off, and his ribs had started aching all over again.
But he couldn’t stop now. He was so close to the mouth of the tunnel, so close to getting away.
He didn’t want to look back again. He expected to get run over by two tons of Ford convertible at any second.
Marty kicked even harder.
Pour it on, McFly! Pour it on!
He swore he could hear Biff laughing, over the sound of the revving engine.
Oh, God!
The tunnel mouth was just in front of him, but Marty had no energy left. Even his adrenalin was all used up!
Biff’s car roared behind him. Marty had never heard a car sound so loud. Kick! He had to kick!
A rope tied with multi-coloured pennants dropped down in front of him. It looked like the rope from a used-car lot - or the Lyons Estates sign!
Marty grabbed it, and felt himself being lifted aloft, the hoverboard still strapped to his foot.
Marty looked up.
Doc waved down at him from the open door of the DeLorean.
Marty looked down, and saw Biffs astonished face as his old Ford sped through the space where Marty had been only a second. By the time Biff had turned his eyes back to the road, and saw that slow-moving fertilizer truck just ahead, it was much too late for him to put on the brakes or get out of the way.
‘Shit!’ Biff screamed as the Ford smashed into the truck.
Then tons of manure fell down to silence him.
Chapter Twenty-two
The wind was picking up.
Marty hung onto the pennant rope as Doc flew the DeLorean a safe distance away from Biff - even if the burly teenager was currently covered by manure, neither one of them wanted to take any chances. But the increasing gusts of wind were blowing the rope back and forth in ever bigger and more dangerous arcs. There was no way Marty could call Doc on the walkie-talkie, either - he had to use all his strength just to hang on.
But Doc must have seen Marty’s problem, too, about the time the Lyons Estate billboard came back into sight. He brought the DeLorean down low enough for Marty to jump from the rope - and Marty decided he’d better do just that. The hoverboard helped to break his fall, anyway. Marty put his free foot on the ground and slipped his other foot out of the hoverboard strap. He looked up at the DeLorean as a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.
That’s right! In all the excitement, Marty had almost forgotten - this was the night of the big lightning storm - the same night Doc had last sent him back to the future!
The wind was nearing gale force. Marty could see the DeLorean rock overhead, buffeted by the turbulence.
He pulled out his walkie-talkie:
‘Yo, Doc! Is everything all right - over?’
He saw Doc slam the car door firmly shut overhead, with the pennant cord still hanging down. There was a burst of static on the radio.
‘Ten-four, Marty,’ Doc answered on the walkie-talkie. ‘But it’s pretty miserable flying weather - much too turbulent to make a landing from this direction. I’ll have to circle around and make a long approach from the south.’
There was another burst of static as lightning streaked the sky.
‘Have you got the book?’ Doc asked.
Marty could still feel the Sports Almanac inside his jacket.
‘Check, Doc!’ he called back.
Another burst of static, then Doc’s response:
‘Burn it!’
Burn it? Wasn’t Doc overreacting a little? Why burn a perfectly good key to the future? But then Marty realised that Doc was right - it was because this book was a perfectly good key to the future that it had to be burned! As long as this book existed where it shouldn’t be, there was always a chance that Biff, or somebody even worse, could get hold of it, and change the future back into something like that terrible version of 1985 they had so recently escaped.
So he had to burn it, but in this wind? Marty decided he’d better go over and use the billboard as protection against the storm. He could feel a match-book in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was the same black and white book he’d picked up when he was back in 1985 - the bad 1985.
He looked at the matchbook in his hand, and the bold black letters on white:
BIFF’S PLEASURE PARADISE
So he was going to burn up the sports almanac with a matchbook advertising the business empire that very same almanac had made possible? Marty liked that. There was a certain justice there.
He struck a match, and held the flame under one corner of the sports almanac. The paper caught right away, and a moment later, the book was in flames. Marty let the burning book drop as he glanced at the matchbook in his other hand.
The lettering on the matchbook had changed. It now read:
BIFF’S AUTO DETAILING
Biff’s Auto Detailing? But that was what Biff had done in 1985 - that is, the real 1985, the 1985 Marty had come from when this whole thing started!
Did that mean other things had changed, too?
Marty reached into his back pants pocket, and pulled out the folded piece of newspaper he had ripped out of that bound library volume.
No. The smile left Marty’s face. Maybe it wasn’t as simple as that. There was the headline, still:
GEORGE McFLY MURDERED
But, as Marty stared at the page, the headline changed.
GEORGE McFLY HONOURED
The picture below changed too. It now showed his fath
er accepting the book award!
They’d done it. They’d changed the future! 1985 had gone back to the way it should be!
‘The newspaper changed. Doc!’ Marty yelled into the walkie-talkie. ‘My father’s alive! Everything’s back to normal!’
Could it be?
Doc Brown ignored the wind rocking the DeLorean long enough to pull out the newspaper article he’d saved from that awful 1985. There it was, his none-too-desirable future:
EMMETT BROWN COMMITTED
But, wait a minute! The last word wasn’t ‘committed’ anymore! No, his article had changed, too! It now read:
EMMETT BROWN COMMENDED
and beneath that, in a sub-heading:
‘Local Inventor Receives College Grant.’
Really? A college grant, hmm? Oh, that’s right! Doc remembered now. There he was, with those two fellows handing him that handsome placard, as recognition for the years he had spent as the professor of physics at the local University.
Doc sighed with relief. Everything had been corrected. The future was now restored to the way it was supposed to be, and the proof was right there in the newspaper. Had he not been sitting in the car, Doc would have jumped for joy! Mission accomplished!
All that remained was a simple matter of logistics. Doc would pick up Marty and they would go back to the future . . . actually their own present, October 26 1985. And this time it would be the same 1985 they had left from on the morning of October 26 1985.
Doc again sighed with relief. Finally, the adventure was over!
Epilogue
A bolt of lightning streaked through the sky. much too close to the DeLorean. It hit a tree across the road from the billboard. A large branch crashed to the ground.
Back to the Future Part II Page 16