Chapter Text
BOOM
The final log exploded with a puff of brilliantly red smoke, and the train surged forward.
Clara’s shoe slipped off the edge of the train and she barely clung on by the fabric of her dress. Doc held tightly on a pipe that had broken loose in the explosion. They both screamed and Marty could only watch from the moving car in horror.
He also kept his eyes on the speedometer, which was reading a steady 80, but the number wasn’t budging. They were well past the windmill, the point of no return, and Marty shouted out.
“Doc! We’re not gonna make it! We can’t get past 80! We have to bail!”
He didn’t really expect an answer but Doc looked to be frantically searching for answers to their predicament. The hoverboard nudged gently against Marty’s ankle, and he tried to think of how to get out of the car AND save Clara and Doc. He saw their hands meet and Doc managed to pull her up just enough so she was clinging to his waist.
Marty attached his foot to the hoverboard and jumped out of the moving car, holding out his hand to Doc, but their fingers barely brushed as they passed. Marty turned around and flew as fast as he could, but it wasn’t enough. The train and car still barreled towards the edge of the ravine.
Clara was still holding tightly to Doc’s waist while he looked ahead. Marty panicked as he leaned forward, trying to urge the hoverboard to move any faster, but the train was nearly at the edge. Doc extended an arm upward, and Marty noticed the nearby branch hanging just within reach just before the edge of the ravine. It would have to be timed perfectly, but it could be done.
Marty closed his eyes, not wanting to watch what may unfurl, and Doc reached as far as he could, there was a slight bump as the DeLorean was sent flying off the edge of the ravine, and that bump was just enough to jerk Doc’s hand up to the branch. He grabbed on tightly before removing his other hand from the train and attaching it to the branch as well. The couple’s feet lifted from the edge of the locomotive just as it tumbled over the edge of the tracks.
Hearts racing, Doc and Clara dangled only about 6 feet off the ground. The crash at the bottom of the ravine sent sparks and clouds of steam and smoke shooting into the air, Marty opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw them swinging from the branch. He took off quickly towards the couple.
“Clara, let go, be sure to bend your knees when you land,” Doc said to her.
Just as she let go, Marty reached the tree as well, extremely out of breath. Clara landed on her feet and brushed off the front of her torn dress. Doc landed beside her.
“Doc, don’t ever scare me like that again,” Marty panted, “I thought you were goners.”
Doc pat Marty on the back firmly, “I’ve always got a plan, haven’t I?”
“You let yourself get shot by terrorists in front of me in the other timeline, remember?”
“Yes, well, I survived didn’t I?”
“Only ‘cause I warned you,” Marty rolled his eyes.
“Alright, Marty, I’ll be more careful,” Doc said, pulling him close.
The three of them paused for a moment, the quiet of the open frontier grew too much for Marty.
“As relieved as I am that we’re all alive, what are we going to do now?” he said, looking over Doc’s shoulder at the wisp of smoke still streaming from the wreck.
They all approached the edge slowly, to see just how severe the damage was, though they all knew the time-travel technology would be unsalvageable. A majority of the DeLorean was crushed beneath the weight of the train, and melted metal was all that was left. Marty caught a glimmer of something in the sun,
“Doc, look, we’re doomed,” he said, pointing to the crushed case of the flux capacitor, no longer any glass or anything left inside. Just an empty box with a darkened red label, unreadable from this distance.
“Marty, don’t worry. I put you into this mess, and I will get you out of it,” Doc said, raising his hand to his forehead the way he does when he’s trying to think. Marty knew him better than to disturb him during this, but Clara hadn’t seen him quite like this.
“Marty is welcome to stay as well,” she said, pulling Doc from his thoughts, making him lose his train of thought.
“”Oh, uh, well yes, of course, but-” Doc started, surprised by the interruption.
“I’ve got a family back in 1985, I’ve got a girl,” he told Clara, recalling his similar conversation that he had had with Doc in 1955.
“Oh, I see,” she said quietly.
“I believe the only thing left for us to do at the moment is just head back to town,” Doc said, always the practical one.
“Right,” Marty replied.
—
The three of them headed back up the tracks, and after what felt like ages of walking, they saw the long-standing hill valley sign in the distance.
When they went into the main road through town, there was still a small crowd gathered, chattering about the duel and some about the girl Doc had lost his edge over.
The moment they came into view, Clara now also in tow, most of the crowd approached them.
Marty heard lots of, “Congratulations” and “Well done”s, Doc got a few hearty laughs and comments about Clara’s beauty.
If there was any time machine repairing to be done, it was obvious that it wouldn’t be done today, and Marty was so stressed that he decided he really needed to take the edge off, and the saloon doors looked mighty inviting to the troubled teenager.