To the kids at Summer Fun '97--this is the "dino story" that I was working on in that notebook!

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." --James Baldwin

Chapter One

Friday, August 22, 1986
12:32PM
Hill Valley, California

The Tyrannosaurus lunged forward out of the trees and grabbed the Dysganus by the throat. With the neck firmly clasped in its teeth, the carnivore gave a couple hard jerks of its head, ripping the herbivore's throat open. The smaller dinosaur gave a faint dying cry as the T-rex roared with victory, then leaned over to dine on the fresh kill.

"Awesome," Verne Brown said softly, his eyes locked on the images playing on the screen of the television set. The camera pulled away from the sight of the attack, and the man's voice resumed it's narration.

"The Cretaceous period marked the end of the dinosaur era, 65 million years ago. No one knows for certain what killed the dinosaurs off, but we can be sure that it was a sudden and catastrophic event. Theories range from a massive meteor hitting the earth, to a volcanic eruption, to poisoning. But like the dinosaurs themselves, the real reason they died out could ever remain a mystery."

"You're watching that again?" Verne heard his brother say, entering the living room from the kitchen. Verne shifted his eyes off the screen enough to see Jules roll his eyes. "Why don't you find something else to rent?"

"Because this is interesting," Verne said, stopping the videotape with the remote.

Jules sat down on the couch next to his brother. "But you should have that program memorized by now. How many times have you watched this videocassette?"

"Not enough," Verne said defensively. "How come you care, anyway?"

Jules shrugged. "I just think you're wasting your time."

Verne scowled. "Dad doesn't think so. He's the one who found me this tape!"

Doc Brown had been pleasantly surprised when, two weeks ago, his youngest son had taken a sudden and passionate interest in dinosaurs. It was quite a change from the video games and comic books that usually captivated Verne. Doc had promptly dug up several books on the subject and found the videotape documentary at the video rental store. Verne had devoured all the information and found the tape to be the best of everything. Mostly because of the scene where the Tyrannosaurus Rex--Verne's favorite dinosaur, by far--brought down the Dysganus. He'd checked it out of the store five times since the original rental.

"I think both Mother and Father are just happy you've taken an interest in something scientific," Jules said. He picked up the plastic box the tape had come in, examining the back. "Why does this interest you so much? These models are poor excuses for real dinosaurs."

Verne snatched the box from his brother's hands. "It just does, okay. I think dinosaurs are so cool--can you imagine what it'd be like to see one?" He glanced at the video box and sighed. "Too bad it's impossible."

Jules stared at his brother as if he were crazy. "Verne. I don't think so. Are you forgetting what sits in Father's lab?"

"No," Verne said, shaking his head. "But Jules, dinosaurs were around millions of years ago! Do you know how far away that was? And the time machines can't go back further than 9999 B.C.--the display won't hold numbers in the millions."

"They can go back further then that," Jules said confidently. "Father just didn't think he would need to go back more than a four numeral year--human civilization has only really thrived in the last few thousand years, anyway."

Verne looked at his brother, his heart starting to pound. He sat up. "So you're saying we could go back there?"

"It's possible," Jules said, nodding. He glanced around the room, suddenly looking nervous. "Why don't you meet me up in our room."

Verne looked around, seeing no threat. As far as he knew, his father was out in the lab still, fiddling with another strange invention, and their mother was at the grocery store. But he didn't argue with Jules, following him, instead, up to their room on the second floor.

"Why'd you wanna come up here?" Verne asked as he shut the door. Jules walked over to his meticulously neat half of the bedroom, pulling open one of the drawers in his bureau and rummaging around.

"I want to show you something," Jules said as he sorted through his drawer. "And I don't want this to get back to Mother or Father."

Verne narrowed his eyes. "Why? Would you get in trouble?"

Jules looked up for a moment. "It's possible. And Verne, it would be in your best interest to keep quiet. Understand?"

Verne nodded, too curious to agree otherwise.

Jules pulled out the object a moment later. It looked only half done, wires sticking out of what looked to be the back and sides. The object was slender, about a foot long and an inch wide, the front resembling a shiny black ruler.

"What is that?" Verne asked, frowning as he stepped close to examine it.

"An liquid crystal display--or LCD--that holds eighteen digits or letters," Jules explained. "But it's not finished yet. I was going to use it in a science project last spring, but I found something better for my purposes. Anyway, I think I could finish this in a couple hours."

"And what good will that do?" Verne asked, not seeing at all how this related to the topic they had been discussing downstairs.

Jules shut the drawer and set the device on his desktop. "A lot. If I could get into the time circuits and reroute the display and programming capabilities for the destination time year into this LCD readout-"

"Then we could type in enough numbers to go back some million years!" Verne finished, catching on. He grinned. "Awesome! So we could go back to see the dinosaurs!"

Jules nodded.

Verne's excitement was short lived, however. As quickly as it had come, another emotion crowded it out, a familiar one when it came to having a sibling that was being unusually nice - suspicion. He looked at Jules, hands on his hips. "Hey, why are you being so nice to me? What's in it for you?"

"Nothing," Jules insisted, his eyes wide with sincerity. "I must admit, I'm curious to see dinosaurs in person. Science has more speculation than fact when it comes to them, and I want to see which speculations are fact and which ones are fantasy."

Verne eyed his brother, not entirely convinced. "So you want to go with me?"

"You can't go without me," Jules corrected. "Aside from Father--who wouldn't approve of such a trip, I'm sure--I'm the only one who would know how to rewire the time circuits to this. Admit it, Verne--you know nothing about electronics."

"So?" Verne said, shrugging. "Mom doesn't know much, either. Neither does Marty. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. I'm just saying that you can't go back without my help."

Verne hated to admit that, especially to Jules! He shrugged again instead. "So can we go tomorrow?"

Jules sat down at his desk and switched the lamp on, picking up his gizmo. "Maybe. But we have to work together on this, Verne. You'll have to make sure no one comes in the lab while I install this in the DeLorean."

Verne waved his hand in the air. "Simple."

"And when we're back there, I think we should stay for only an afternoon," Jules added, examining his invention. "You can pick the when and where, but I think it would be wisest to stay for only an afternoon."

This did not sit well with the nearly nine-year-old. "How come? That's hardly any time!"

"Oh, I think it'll be enough." Jules looked up at his brother, his face serious. "I'm sure you've collected quite a bit of information on dinosaurs in the last few weeks, but reading all the books in the world won't tell you much. The plain truth is--no human being has seen a dinosaur so they're mostly a mystery to us. It could be dangerous, being there after dark."

Verne took a moment, hemming and hawing with the restriction his brother had put on the trip. But he had to admit, it sounded reasonable. "I get to pick where we go, though, right?"

Jules nodded. "Sure."

Verne screwed up his face, searching the deal from all angles for a catch, then let out a long sigh. "Okay, fine. We'll stay only during the day."

* * *

The window of opportunity presented itself the following afternoon. Their father--in the midst of working on his holographic projector, which kept inexplicably shorting out - needed to stop by the electronics store for some additional parts. Knowing his firstborn son's interests, Doc Brown stopped by the boys' bedroom and rapped on the door.

"Jules?"

Jules Brown jumped, nearly dropping the LCD readout that he'd been fiddling with. He had finished it the day before, but was still trying to figure out the best way to tie it into the time circuits. In one swift movement, he opened his desk drawer and swept it inside. "Yes, Father?" he called back.

Doc Brown opened the door, leaning inside. "I was going to drive to the electronics store now. Like to come along?"

Jules shook his head quickly. "No thanks. I'm fine for right now."

Doc raised his eyebrows, a bit surprised. "Are you sure? I think they've got some new stock in."

"Tempting," Jules admitted, "but I already have plans for the day."

"Oh." Doc blinked, looking a tad disappointed. "Well, alright. I'll see you later, then."

"Bye," Jules said.

His father left, closing the door behind him. Jules let out a noisy sigh of relief, then jumped from his chair and rushed to the window. Minutes later he saw his father drive off in the station wagon they had purchased a couple months before for transportation in the present. Jules drew away from the window and left his room, running downstairs. He found Verne slumped before the television set, watching that same dinosaur video again.

"Where's Mother?" Jules asked, stepping before the screen of the TV. Irritation flickered across his brother's face.

"Out front weeding. Why?"

Jules turned the TV off. Verne sat up, scowling. "Hey, I was watchin' that!" he protested.

"Wouldn't you rather watch real dinosaurs?" Jules asked softly.

Verne's eyes widened. "Is it safe?" he whispered. "Can we do it now?"

"I believe so," Jules said, nodding slowly. "Father's at the electronics store--and you know how long he stays there! And with Mother occupied with yardwork, I think we have ample time to get the extension LCD display installed and depart."

"Cool!" Verne cried, jumping to his feet. "Let's do it!"

Jules returned to his room and loaded his empty school backpack with his invention, wrapping it in a blanket for protection, then added his own tools to hook it into the DeLorean's circuits. He knew touching his father's tools without permission--if he could even find them in what Doc called his "organized disorganization"--would spell instant punishment and lecture.

"Okay," Jules said a moment later as Verne came in the room. "Your job with this will be to keep watch while I install this in the time machine. If you see anyone approaching the lab, let me know immediately."

"Even if it's Marty?" Verne asked skeptically.

"Even then," Jules said. "But I doubt he'd come over now. Jennifer is due back in town today from summer camp and he has been talking about that all month." Jules paused a moment to zip his pack up. "Also, I think it would be best if you collected some items for our excursion - a sack lunch, maybe, and whatever else you want to bring."

"Okay," Verne agreed.

"Do that now," Jules told him. "I'm going to head downstairs and determine if it's safe to go to the lab at this moment. Meet me there."

Jules swung the pack over his shoulder and left the room. He went down the stairs, through the living room, and paused at the front window. His mother, Clara, was kneeling near the end of the driveway, a Walkman clipped to her ears and her attention focused on yanking out the weeds that were infesting her flowerbed.

Excellent, Jules thought, leaning back. He headed for the back of the house, going outside through the kitchen door. The back of their property was deserted. The lab was locked, habitual when no one was in it and there was a time machine to protect. But all of the Browns - and Marty McFly--knew where the key was. Jules bent over, pushed back the doormat, and plucked the key from the ground. After another glance around, to make sure he wasn't being watched, Jules unlocked the door and stepped inside the lab.

The DeLorean was locked, naturally. But the keys resided nearby, in a drawer. Jules fished them out of their hiding place and opened up the car. He set his pack on the passenger seat and examined the dark digital display for a moment, trying to determine the best way to get inside it.

The lab door opened a few minutes later, just as Jules was carefully screwing the protective metal casing off the circuits. The sound startled him so badly that he dropped the tiny screw he had been removing. It bounced off the leather seat and landed somewhere near the pedals.

"I got everything packed," Verne announced, shutting the door behind him. "I also checked on Mom--she's still weeding."

"Good," Jules muttered, bending over and searching for the lost screw. "Now keep an eye outside through the windows and let me know if anyone is approaching."

"Okay," Verne said. There were a few minutes of silence, during which Jules located the lost screw and finished getting the casing off the circuits. He was rewarded by what would look like to outsiders as a tangle of multicolored wires and circuits--but to Jules, who had inherited his father's knowledge of science and talent for inventing, it was very clear where he had to tie in his slight modification to the display.

"Hey Jules," Verne said as his brother started to take out the necessary tools for his job. "Wanna know where we're going?"

"Where would that be?" Jules asked, distracted.

"The Cretaceous period, 67 million years ago," Verne answered. "The T-rex was around then."

"What's the location and precise date?" Jules asked.

"Lemme look that up real quick," Verne said. Jules heard him unzip a backpack and rustle around. While he listened to his brother flip through book's pages, Jules was able to quickly tie in his LCD extension to the destination year display. The entire process took him only a couple minutes. Jules left the protective casing off the display and set it behind the seats in the DeLorean, unable to see a way to replace it without crushing the wires to his modification. He rested the digital extension on the dashboard.

"Okay," Verne said a few minutes later. "Montana is where we want to go. As for the city and time of year, it doesn't matter to me. Try the capital, maybe."

"Just a minute," Jules told him. He licked his lips, a bit nervous, then reached between the seats and twisted the time circuit control switch. The LCDs all lit up, including the extension he had tied in. The original four digit destination year display remained dark.

"Excellent," Jules said softly. He started to type in the destination coordinates. When he had finished, the display read:

OCT 1, -67,000,000, 10:00AM
 Destination Time
 AUG 23, 1986, 2:32PM
 Present Time
 JAN 1, -9999, 12:11AM
 Last Time Departed
 HELENA, MT, USA
 Destination Location

The last time the DeLorean had been used was two months ago, when the alternate version of Doc Brown had come to the present and taken Jules, Verne, and Clara as his own--as well as the train time vehicle. After it was all over, Jules learned that Marty had the messy job of discarding the body of "Doc B". He had taken it to the earliest date the DeLorean had been able to go back to--until now.

"Verne," Jules called out the driver's side door, "I think we're about ready to depart. I set it for October first at ten, since the weather shouldn't be as uncomfortable then and that hour of the day will give us plenty of daylight time. Are things clear outside?"

Verne hopped off the worktable he'd been perched upon and looked out the windows. "I don't see no one."

"I don't see anyone," Jules corrected without thinking.

"That's what I said!" Verne turned away from the window. "Can I drive?"

"Certainly not!" Jules said, moving his backpack to the floor of the passenger seat. "You don't know how to operate a five speed."

"Yeah, I do," Verne said, nodding. "It's a cinch. You have to just keep pedaling!"

Jules was confused for a moment, then realized his mistake. "No, not a five speed bicycle! A five speed transmission!" He sighed, shaking his head. "Don't you understand anything?"

Verne scowled, straightening up. "I understand plenty! Especially about dinosaurs. It's not my fault you're not saying what you mean!"

"Maybe we should just forget this whole outing, then," Jules suggested with a frown. "If you're that critical about me -"

"No!" Verne cried, shaking his head hard. "Fine, you can drive. Lets go now."

Jules used the remote in the car to open the double doors as his brother walked around and got inside. He took a moment to shut his own door, then turned to Verne.

"Do you have everything you want?"

Verne nodded. "Uh huh. Food, some books, a camera, and some other stuff. Lets go already!"

Jules turned the key and started the car. As he revved the engine, he glanced at the time display, a shiver of uncertainty creeping down his spine.

What if traveling back this far will be too much for this vehicle? What if the time machines had no more than four digits on purpose?

But it was too late to turn back now.

"Lets go!" Verne said again.

Jules flicked the hover circuits on, then lurched out of the lab and to the sky. Before leaving the lab behind, he took a second to shut the doors with the remote, to make it appear as if nothing was amiss. Then he accelerated up to 88 miles an hour--and the unknown.

Chapter Two

Monday, October 1, 67,000,000 B.C.
10:00AM
Helena, Montana

The world was unrecognizable.

Verne pressed his face against the glass, his mouth agape as his eyes took in the sights. The land and plants were all different, very tropical-like. What looked like a volcano sat on the horizon, vapors oozing into the mid-morning sky. And off in the distance, a large body of water resided.

"This is Montana?" Verne murmured aloud.

"Sixty seven million years ago," Jules said, his voice awed as well. "Many things have change in that period of time."

"It looks like Hawaii," Verne said. He paused a moment, a fact coming to him from his recent readings. "Actually, western North America was an island now. That must be the ocean over there." Verne tapped his finger against the window, at the glassy water in the distance.

Jules looked at him, impressed. "I guess you do know a lot about this time period."

Verne shrugged modestly. "Well, maybe but -" He gasped, his eyes catching sight of something. "Jules! Jules, look at that!"

The car shook as Jules twisted the wheel to the right, hard. "What is it?"

Verne pointed towards a river below them, where a herd of Triceratops was drinking. "Check it out! Real dinosaurs!"

"Naturally," Jules said, craning his neck to see as well. The DeLorean stopped, hovering in the air far above the treetops as the boys watched the sight. There had to be at least fifty of the large herbivores.

"This is so supremely cool!" Verne declared. He took his eyes away from the dinos below to open his backpack and pull out the camera he had brought along. "Swing in closer, I wanna get some pictures," he told his brother.

"That might be unwise," Jules said. "I don't believe the creatures here would be used to such a vehicle. It might be best if we stay up here."

"Jules, we can make a quick escape!" Verne cried. "C'mon, we're only gonna be here for the day!"

Jules sighed, then started the DeLorean's decent. The animals looked up as they grew closer. Verne seatbelted himself in the car, then opened the door for a better look. Hot humid air blew into the car. He could hear the dinosaurs now. They sounded like a mixture between a mooing cow and a trumpeting elephant. Verne grinned, raising the camera to his eye as Jules descended even more. They weren't much higher than twenty feet off the ground, now.

"Hurry up and get the photograph!" Jules warned. "I don't want to scare the dinosaurs."

"Justa minute," Verne said. "Stop the car for a sec. I can't focus with you moving around."

The car slowed, then drifted to a stop, hanging in midair ten feet above the brown water that the dinos drank from. The triceratops watched the car with obvious unease, stomping their feet and snorting.

"Be quick, Verne," Jules urged. "I think Father once said that the hover conversion does not work well in close proximity to bodies of water."

Verne aimed the camera at the triceratops and snapped a few pictures. The animals grew more agitated with the clickings and whirrings the camera made as the shutter snapped and automatically advanced the film forward.

"I think we should move now," Jules said, his voice sounding uncharacteristically nervous. "You're scaring the animals."

"Okay," Verne agreed as he clicked one last shot. Jules moved higher in the sky, away from the river.

Verne closed his door, even though the still air in the car was hotter beyond belief. "Wasn't that the coolest thing ever?" he marveled, watching the herd of triceratops as they grew more distant. "Let's land somewhere and look around."

Jules looked down. "I see a clearing over there that would be suitable for the DeLorean."

"Good. I wanna go look around and see some more dinosaurs."

A few minutes later the DeLorean touched down on the prehistoric earth. Verne wasted no time in hopping out of the car, taking his backpack with him. He turned around in a circle slowly, absorbing in the surroundings. Thick forest surrounded them. Visible above the treeline to the north was a large cliff. A packed dirt pathway ran out of the forest, around the perimeter of the south side of the clearing, then vanished back in the forest.

Verne started for the pathway. "Let's see what's in the woods!" he called to his brother, just getting out of the car.

Jules fingered the car keys, looking uneasy. "That might not be the wisest thing to do," he said slowly. "We don't know what lives around here."

"Dinosaurs do, Jules," Verne said, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, we're only gonna be here a day. I didn't come this far to just fly around in the car and look at dinosaurs that way!"

Jules sighed, starting forward to meet his brother at the entrance to the woods. A loud long roar stopped both boys in their tracks. Whatever made that noise sounded mad--and close by. Verne felt goosebumps pop up on his skin, despite the heat and humidity that surrounded them.

"What's that?" he said aloud, taking a step forward towards the shadowy foliage.

Before Jules could say anything, something burst out of the woods before Verne. He stumbled back, startled, and lost his balance, falling to the ground. The thing stopped, towering above him and roaring so loudly the ground shook. From his back, the creature appeared taller than tall to Verne. His mouth dropped open as he recognized the animal.

"It's a T-rex!" he cried.

The Tyrannosaurus looked down at Verne, spotting him for the first time. It roared again, starting to lean over. Dried blood was smeared around his mouth, and his teeth looked as sharp as razors. Verne gulped.

These things look a lot different in person!

"Hey!" someone shouted.

Verne glanced away from the dinosaur and saw Jules waving a stick on the other side of the clearing, trying to get the dinosaur's attention. "Over here!"

The T-rex roared and started after Jules, the footsteps shaking the earth. Verne scrambled to his feet and ran to the tree closest to him, climbing up into the branches until he was above the Rex's head--nearly 40 feet above the ground. "Jules!" he yelled, watching as his brother tried to lose the animal that now pursued him.

Jules threw the stick aside, into the bushes. It made a lot of noise in the greenery, shaking the leaves. The T-rex glanced away from the brown-haired boy, distracted, and Jules hurried for the tree that Verne had taken refuge in. By the time the Rex looked back, Jules was already scaling the branches, halfway up to where Verne sat, and gaining fast. The thick leaves on the tree concealed him from view of the dinosaur.

The Rex growled and looked around, his reptilian eyes scanning the area. Verne held his breath, his heart pounding and his hands trembling slightly. After a minute, the dinosaur turned swiftly around and headed for the pathway into the woods across from them. As he turned, his large tail rammed hard into the DeLorean. The window on the passenger side shattered and car was moved a few feet by the force of the blow.

The Rex stopped and turned his head, looking at the DeLorean and noticing it for the first time. He walked over to it, the ground shaking with each step, and lowered his head. The dinosaur sniffed the car, then opened it's mouth and clamped his teeth down on the protruding Mr. Fusion. A horrified gasp escaped Verne as the animal tore the device off the car, as easily as one might pluck fruit off a tree. The Rex tried chewing it, then let it drop to the ground, deciding it would make a bad meal.

"No," Jules murmured, perched beside Verne now. His face was pale, covered in sweat, and a look if utter despair shone in his eyes.

The Rex growled at the DeLorean, then gave it a hard kick. The car flipped over, smashing into the plants bordering the clearing. Then the dinosaur turned around and vanished into the woods on the opposite side of the clearing.

Neither boy spoke for a minute, the sounds from a long gone world surrounding them. The calls of different dinosaurs, the buzzing of large insects, the chirping of alien birds. Instead of drinking it all in, Verne's mind whirled and he felt sick with terror.

"The DeLorean," Jules whispered, the words coming out in a moan. "It's ruined!"

"Can you fix it?" Verne asked softly, looking at the crumpled pile of metal that was an automobile time machine only minutes earlier.

"Seriously doubtful," Jules said. "It'll be hard enough to turn it over." He moaned again.

Verne shifted his position, intending to climb down and have a look at the broken time machine. "Maybe it's not as bad as it looks," he said, starting his decent carefully. Climbing out of trees was always harder then getting in them.

"Fat chance," Jules said miserably. But he started down after his brother.

Verne took the climb down slow. For every branch that held him, there were two that wouldn't. He was careful to ease his weight down gradually on each branch, keeping his hands clenched tightly around the previous branch above him for support. He was thirty feet above the ground, and making excellent progress, when something went terribly wrong.

As Verne took one foot off the branch to step down, he heard a sharp crack. Almost as soon as the sound registered in Verne's mind, the branch he'd been standing on fell out from under him. Verne tightened his hands around the limb above his head that he'd been using for support. He kicked his legs out, trying to find something to set his feet on. His heart hammered hard in his chest when his high top sneakers struck nothing but air.

"Verne!" Jules yelled in alarm at his brother's predicament. "Hold on, I'm coming!" The older boy--climbing down the other side of the tree--tried to get around to where Verne was and give him a helping hand. But just as Jules started to reach out, the limb that Verne had been clutching snapped.

"Jules!" Verne screamed as he fell.

Chapter Three

Saturday, August 23, 1986
6:31PM
Hill Valley, California

Doc Brown had scarcely pulled the car in the driveway when his wife, Clara, ran outside. Her face was pinched with worry and, almost immediately, warning bells started to go off in the scientist's head. He stopped the station wagon and opened the door. "What is it?" he asked.

Clara looked into the car before speaking, biting her lower lip. "You didn't take the boys with you?"

Doc frowned. "No. I asked Jules if he wanted to come, and he said he had plans. And you know how much the store bores Verne. Why?"

Clara looked at Doc, her eyes wide and scared. "I can't find them, Emmett! Either of them!"

Doc stepped out of the car and took his wife by the shoulders. "All right, calm down. This isn't the first time the boys have gone off somewhere without telling us. How long have they been absent?"

"I haven't seen them since before I went outside to work on the yard," Clara reported. "That was before you left, and that was before noon."

Doc frowned. "I saw both boys on my way out. You didn't see either of them when you came back inside?"

Clara shook her head, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "No. And I didn't find any notes. Their bikes aren't gone, and they aren't anywhere in the house. I called a couple of their friends, and no one has seen them all day." Clara clutched Doc's arm hard. "Oh Emmett, what if they were kidnapped?"

Doc took his wife in his arms and hugged her, patting her back. "Now Clara, lets not jump to any conclusions. Why don't we search the house again--perhaps they left a clue on their whereabouts. Have you called Marty at all?"

"Not yet," Clara answered, sniffling a little. "Should we?"

"I'll give him a call if we can't find any evidence of where they might be," Doc said. "Perhaps Marty might have a few ideas that we don't."

They started up the walkway to the house, arms around each other. "But Emmett," Clara said as they stepped onto the porch, "what if he doesn't know? What if we don't find them?" Her voice rose shrilly.

"Then we call the police and report them missing," Doc said without hesitation. "But I'm certain they'll turn up, and probably with a very mundane explanation for their absence."

"They are going to be in the biggest trouble!" Clara said, her voice sharp. "I've been worried sick all day!"

Doc started in the boys' room, searching for something his wife had overlooked. The room appeared the same as always--Verne's half a wreck, clothes littering the floor, books on dinosaurs scattered across the unmade bed and messy desk. Jules's side was neat as a pin, not even a scrap of paper out of place. Doc meticulously searched the other rooms on the second floor--his bedroom, the two bathrooms, his study--then moved his investigation to the first floor. His only clue was a small one at that--Verne had stopped his videotape on dinosaurs in the middle, as if he had left suddenly. As a last resort, Doc looked in the attic, yet found nothing but boxes and trunks of some of their possessions from the 19th century.

Doc met Clara back in the kitchen, where she was wiping the counters down--a nervous habit. Dinner sat out on the table, cold. Clara looked up as her husband entered the room, his face serious.

"You didn't find them, did you?" she asked softly, tears appearing in her eyes again.

Doc shook his head, starting to feel some serious worry himself, and reached for the phone. "Don't jump to any conclusions, however," he cautioned his wife. "I think the time has come to call Marty. He might very well know something we overlooked."

* * *

Marty McFly raised his glass in a toast at the dining room table, his eyes locked on Jennifer Parker who sat across from him. "To having you home again," he said softly.

Jennifer smiled, raising her own glass of Pepsi. "To being home again," she agreed.

They clinked glasses. Then Marty leaned across the table, over the half eaten pizza they had ordered, between the set of candles that burned. Jennifer did the same. She started to close her eyes and Marty did the same. Their lips were about to meet, their first kiss in nearly two months....

The telephone rang shrilly.

Marty's eyes flew open, startled, and he sighed in irritation. "Damn," he muttered. "I shoulda unplugged that thing!"

"Just let the answering machine get it," Jennifer suggested.

Marty sighed again, getting to his feet reluctantly. "Can't. It broke last week and my parents haven't gotten around to getting a new one yet."

Instead of answering the phone, however--the last thing Marty felt like doing was taking some message for his family, who had kindly left him home alone this night--he took the phone off the receiver for a second, then hung it up again. The soft music from the stereo became the only sound in the room again.

Jennifer watched as her boyfriend returned to the table. "Are you sure that was the best idea, Marty? What if that was your mom calling to check up on you?"

Marty shrugged, not worried. "She'll think something went wrong with the phone. No big deal." He sat back down in his chair and smiled at Jennifer. She returned the smile. God, he had missed seeing that smile this summer! "Now where were we?"

They leaned towards each other again. The telephone rang.

Marty leaped out of the chair, more then a little irritated now. "Dammit! Don't they know when to quit?"

"Maybe you should just answer it," Jennifer said. "If they're calling back, it might be important."

Marty reached for the phone, picked it up, jiggled the receiver, then left it off the hook. The phone lapsed into silence. The house was finally, blessedly, quiet.

"That should do it," he said aloud.

Jennifer stood up from the table, frowning faintly. "I appreciate you trying to make this a romantic first evening back," she said to him, "but you shouldn't cut off the phone like that."

Marty waved his hand, unconcerned, and went over to the stereo, trying to find some appropriate music for the mood. "Don't worry about it, Jen. You're the only person who I want to talk to right now, and the rest of the world will just have to wait."

Jennifer sat down on the couch, watching Marty leaf through his family's record collection. After a few minutes he found something and set it on the turntable, selecting the proper song. "Heaven" by Bryan Adams began playing through the speakers.

"Oh, I like this song," Jennifer said softly. Marty smiled and stood before her, holding out his hand.

"Care to dance?"

Jennifer looked up at him, a slow smile spreading across her face. She took his hand and stood. "I'd be honored to."

Marty pulled her close and they swayed to the music, foreheads touching.

"How did you get your family out of the house?" Jennifer asked after a moment of silence.

"I paid them great quantities of money," Marty said, grinning at Jennifer. "Actually, it was my mom's idea, if you can believe that one! She and Dad and Linda went to L.A. to look at apartments with Dave, since he's getting a job there. And I get the house to myself all weekend."

"It's so peaceful here," Jennifer said, snuggling up closer to Marty. "At camp it was constant chaos. If one girl wasn't homesick, another had hurt herself. If one group wasn't fighting, then another was complaining about being picked on or teased." She sighed. "I missed you a lot, too."

Marty stroked Jennifer's hair, feeling the most content he had in months. "Me too, Jen. It was dead around here without you."

"What about that week you went back with Doc Brown?"

Marty shrugged, remembering the trip and the events that had happened then. "Not exactly a fun vacation, running around in the Underground Railroad and trying to get away from a psycho Tannen. But that week did fly by compared to the rest of vacation."

Jennifer looked at Marty, her breath ticking his chin. "You know, we never finished what we started before the phone rang," she said slyly, changing the subject.

Marty got the hint. A smile spread across his face. "No time like the present," he murmured, leaning forward a bit.

A moment later their lips met, finally. Marty felt as if he'd been waiting forever for that kiss. He ran his fingers through Jennifer's hair, hanging down in soft curls around her face. Jennifer stroked the back of his neck, the action tickling but not unpleasant. They broke apart an endless moment later.

"I've missed this," Jennifer whispered. "I've missed you."

"Same here," Marty said softly, running a hand down her smooth cheek. He kissed her again on the mouth and Jennifer kissed him back, sending pleasant warm shivers up Marty's spine. He hugged her close, feeling her heart beat against his chest -

The doorbell rang loudly, three times in a row.

The couple broke apart instantly, startled more with the sound then scared someone would catch them. Marty looked up at the door, more then a little irritated now. "God, this is not our night!" he groaned. "Wait here. I'll go see who it is and bite their head off."

Jennifer took a seat on the couch as Marty walked slowly towards the door. The bell rang another three times as he headed for it. Marty couldn't see much through the frosted glass that was set in the door, just the dark outline of the person on the porch framed against the porch light.

Marty opened the door, already starting to speak. "You better have a damn good reason for--Doc!" The rest of his tirade fell from his lips when he saw who his visitor was. Doc Brown stood on the porch, his face expressionless save for a faint glitter of fear in his eyes. Marty went from feeling like he could fly to feeling like he was going to be sick in three seconds flat. He didn't like that look. Something was wrong. "What is it?"

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" Doc asked him without even a hello. "I tried calling, but couldn't get through."

"Well, ah, Jennifer's here and it's her first night back and we were kinda....you know." Marty squirmed under Doc's stare. "We didn't want anything to spoil the mood."

Doc's eyes narrowed as he looked at Marty. "You have lipstick smeared next to your mouth," he said matter-of-factly. Marty's hand flew to his mouth and he rubbed around, trying to get it off his face. Doc continued to talk. "We have a problem."

"What is it this time?" Marty asked, a bit wearily. "Where are we going now?"

Doc blinked. "Nowhere--I don't think. Why? Should we be going somewhere?"

Marty rubbed his forehead, not understanding this at all. "Why don't you come in, Doc, and explain this better before you really lose me."

Doc stepped inside the house, Marty shutting the door behind him. Jennifer--who had been able to hear the conversation perfectly--had turned off the stereo and met them as Marty led Doc into the living room. "Dr. Brown? What are you doing here?"

Doc sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We've got a problem, and I thought Marty might be able to help."

Marty sat down on the couch, Jennifer joining him. She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. "What is it?" he asked, reluctantly.

"Do you know where Jules and Verne are?"

Marty blinked. It wasn't the question he'd been expecting. "Jules and Verne? As in your kids? No, I haven't seen them all day."

"Have you talked to them at all?"

Marty shook his head.

Doc sighed again, his shoulders slumping in a gesture of defeat. Marty hadn't ever seen him look like that before. He squeezed Jennifer's hand, feeling scared. "I thought as much," the scientist said softly. "But I had to believe in something to keep Clara calm."

"Wait a minute, Doc, what's happening here? Is something wrong with your kids?"

Doc looked up. "You could say that. They've been missing all day. No one has seen them since around noon today."

"Oh, Doc," Jennifer said for the both of them, her voice full of sympathy. "I'm sorry. You don't know where they are at all?"

Doc shook his head. "No clue whatsoever. I guess we should call the police now and report them missing."

"They didn't take one of the time machines, did they?" Marty asked. Doc snapped his headP towards Marty, his eyes wide.

"You know, I don't know that for certain!" he gasped. "I never checked the lab. I'd just assumed that Clara had already looked inside it and, anyway, the boys shouldn't know how to run a time machine. Although they've seen us do it enough. The DeLorean is a stick shift and those can be challenging to operate, but I suppose the hardest part is getting them moving. Once they're moving, it's easy to get through the gears and Jules was always a smart boy and -"

Doc stopped babbling and rushed for the phone, still off the hook. "Is your telephone in working order?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I just took it off the hook so it wouldn't keep ringing."

Doc dialed as he spoke. "I'm going to check with Clara about that issue." Moments later, Doc was conversing with his wife in a low voice.

Jennifer punched Marty on the arm then, hard. He winced at the blow, and looked at her, wounded. "Hey, why'd you do that for?"

"It was Doc trying to call, dummy! And you just ignored the phone!" Jennifer rolled her eyes, then slugged him again, more gently this time. "I told you not to ignore the phone!"

Marty raised his hands to ward off more blows. "Okay, all right, I surrender. You were right and I was wrong. There, happy?"

The playful look in Jennifer's face vanished, replaced by seriousness. "I will be once they find their kids," she said, nodding towards Doc. "What if something happened to them?"

Marty sighed. "Well, maybe we can go back in time and prevent it from happening in the first place."

Doc slammed the phone back down in the cradle, a new hope in his eyes. "The DeLorean is gone."

"So they took the time machine," Marty concluded. "That should be easy to find. Don't you have that tracking device on the car?"

Doc shook his head slowly, his gaze far off. "No, I still haven't gotten around to installing it in the DeLorean. A stupid move, especially in light of the Doc B incident, but I've been occupied with other projects." His looked at Marty. "I'm going to need your help in discovering the location and time period they've selected."

"Tonight?" Marty asked plaintively. "But Doc, Jen's back and we -"

"I'll help," Jennifer said, shooting Marty a sharp look before turning to Doc. "After all, the more heads the better--right?"

Doc nodded, hurrying towards the door. "Yes, exactly so. Clara's waiting for us back at the house. I'll drive."

Marty grabbed his keys and locked up the house on the way out, then joined Jennifer in the backseat of Doc's station wagon. The inventor had purchased it only recently, selling his truck in exchange for a more family-oriented vehicle. Even so, only Doc really used it. As far as Marty knew, Clara had yet to get a driving license and he didn't even think she had much of an interest in learning.

The ride took a couple minutes. When they arrived at the Brown residence, Marty noticed all the lights in the house--and the lab--lit. The sight gave him an eerie sensation of deja vu. Things had appeared the same the night Doc B had arrived and taken Doc's family.

Clara ran out to meet them as they got out of the car. "I found this in the boys' room, on Verne's desk," she said immediately, waving a piece of paper in the air. Doc took it from her hand and looked it over with a frown.

"What is it?" Marty asked him, trying to peer past Doc's shoulder.

"Notes," Doc said shortly. "Perhaps revealing the boys' destination." He showed it to Marty. Jennifer also took a look.

The paper, torn out of a notebook, appeared to be a list of some kind. "Cretaceous time--70, 69, 68, 67, 66 mil" was written in childish scrawl. The number 67 was boldly circled. Under it was written, "Rex places--Mont, Wyo, Col, N.M."

"Looks like notes about dinosaurs to me," Marty said. "What makes you think this has anything to do with the DeLorean missing? It can't even go back that far."

Doc's frown deepened as he stuffed the paper in his pocket. "Actually, it can," he said. "Both time machines have that capability, in fact. There are no limits to the distances they can travel through time. I just thought that the most interesting times to visit would be those with four digits in them. If one continued to punch in more than 4 numerals for the date, the time machine would go back to the number punched in, though it can't display the entire date."

"Do you think they went back to see dinosaurs?" Clara asked, her face pale in the early evening sunlight. She put a hand to her mouth. "Oh, Emmett, that's terribly dangerous!"

"And terribly stupid," Doc added. "I've never gone back that far, on purpose. The further back you go in time, the more you can alter the present. I believe it was Ray Bradbary who wrote a story about a situation where a band of time travelers killed an insect in prehistoric times that completely changed the world as they knew it."

Doc started walking towards the lab, the others hurrying to follow. "But we might be jumping to conclusions," he said as he walked. "The boys might have thought the same as Marty--that the time machines were unable to go back that far in time."

"So where else would they be?" Marty asked.

"The video might yield something," Doc answered over his shoulder. "I did find time to rig up a closed circuit motion activated security camera in the lab since June. It should have recorded the boys if they were in there."

Moments later Doc was rewinding the videotape in the VCR he kept in the lab. Jennifer, Clara, and Marty all gathered around the 13 inch video monitor to see what it revealed.

The video started with the lab door opening. Jules stepped inside, glancing around somewhat furtively. He was dressed as he normally was--in a crisp white short-sleeved button down shirt, tucked in, and shorts. Penny loafers were on his feet, and he had a backpack with him. The date and time was stamped in the lower left hand corner. August 23, 1986, 2:22PM.

"This is too perfect," Doc muttered aloud. The group watched as Jules moved out of sight for a moment, then returned with some keys in hand. The DeLorean keys. The boy went to the car, in the upper right corner of the screen, and unlocked the door. He vanished inside. On the soundtrack, the group could hear faint rustling from inside the car.

The clock at the bottom of the screen was at 2:26 when Verne entered the lab. He, too, was in typical 1986 clothing--a t-shirt with a dinosaur on it, shorts, and Converse sneakers. A baseball cap rested on his head and he, too, had a backpack slung over one shoulder. Conversation immediately followed his entrance. Doc snatched up a pen and pad of paper as Verne spoke.

"I got everything packed. I also checked on Mom--she's still weeding."

"Good. Now keep an eye outside through the windows and let me know if anyone is approaching." It appeared as if Jules was doing something inside the DeLorean.

"Okay."

Three minutes clicked by before Verne spoke again.

"Hey Jules. Wanna know where we're going?"

"Where would that be?"

"The Cretaceous period, 67 million years ago. The T-rex was around then."

Doc jotted something down on the paper, his eyes not straying from the video screen. "Now where are you?" the scientist whispered under his breath. As if hearing his father's voice, Jules asked -

"What's the location and precise date?"

"Lemme look that up real quick." Verne opened the backpack he had brought in with him and pulled out a book. Marty could see a picture of a dinosaur on the cover, but the title was too fuzzy for him to read. After a moment of flipping through the book, Verne looked up again.

"Okay. Montana is where we want to go. As for the city and time of year, it doesn't matter to me. Try the capital, maybe."

There was a pause from Jules's end. "Just a minute." Another long pause, then a faint, familiar bleep could be heard. It was the sound the time circuits made when they were turned on.

"Excellent," Jules said softly a second later, sounding pleased. He leaned out of the door of the DeLorean, looking at his brother. "Verne, I think we're about ready to depart. I set it for October first at ten, since the weather shouldn't be as hot then and that hour of the day will give us plenty of daylight time. Are things clear outside?"

"Bingo!" Doc said softly. "I think we know where they are now."

He allowed the rest of the tape played out, though no more important information was revealed. Clara's face was damp with tears when the screen went black, a couple minutes after the DeLorean pulled out of the lab.

"How could they do such a thing?" she moaned, burying her face in her hands. "I thought at least Jules knew better!"

"Jules is still a boy of nearly eleven, though he may act mature for his age," Doc reminded her, consulting his notes. "And he certainly would be intelligent enough to understand that the time machines could go back that far."

Clara sniffed, raising her head. "It's obvious something happened back there to them," she said, her voice trembling. "They would have come back by now, not wanting us to know they took the DeLorean."

Doc nodded, his face grave. "Yes. Which is why Marty and I are going back there, to pick them up."

"What?" Marty cried. "No way, Doc! Why do I have to come with you? I never liked dinosaurs, not even when I was a kid!"

"You don't have to come with me, Marty," Doc said, gazing at him a bit coolly. "I would appreciate your assistance and company on this journey. But if you feel that strongly about not going, then -"

"He wants to come, Dr. Brown," Jennifer said, giving Marty a sharp elbow in the ribs. She looked at Doc with a sincere smile. "Marty has told me for ages what a great friend you are to him. This is the least he can do for all you've done for him." She looked at Marty with raised eyebrows, the smile fading. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Marty's mouth open and closed as the three pairs of eyes stared at him. The last thing he felt like doing on this night was taking off on another time travel adventure! "Well, yeah," he sputtered, "but, I mean, ah, well -"

"What he's trying to say, Doc," Jennifer broke in, "is that he wouldn't mind at all. Right, Marty?"

No way! Marty's mind screamed, but he found himself nodding instead. "Okay, sure," he mumbled, forcing a smile on his face. He knew when he was beaten. "It should be a quick trip, right? In and out, get the kids and the DeLorean. Right?"

"We hope," Doc said. He turned and headed for the trap door set in the far corner of the barn that led to the stairs that led to the chamber where the train was hidden. Doc rolled back the rug that concealed the door from prying eyes. "I'm going to set up the time machine down here. Clara, do you think you could pack some food and water for Marty and I? I don't know how safe the food and water will be to consume back there."

Clara nodded at the request, looking a little calmer now. "Certainly." She left the lab as Doc descended down the stairs, his footsteps fading a moment later.

Marty sighed, sagging against one of the worktables. "Jesus, Jen, what'd you get me into?"

"Oh, Marty, it's all true," Jennifer said. "Doc has done so much for you--and me--that the least you can do is help him out when he asks you to. Remember how he helped you get our son away from that Tannen gang in the future? And how he gave you those Woodstock tickets for graduation? And how he helped you get back to the future all those times in the '50's?"

Marty sighed again. "Yeah, I know. But Jennifer, we're talking about a lot more then some little trip through time to the colonial period, or the Middle Ages. We're talking dinosaurs here! I don't even like snakes! And now I'm gonna be in a place where these things are big enough to eat me!"

"Oh, don't be silly," Jennifer admonished him. "Doc'll take care of you. And like you said, all you have to do is find the boys and come back here."

"It's usually never that simple," Marty muttered.

Jennifer kissed him quickly on the cheek, smiling widely at him. "Well, I'm glad you said yes. I think you owe Doc a lot. We both do. He saved us from being those--those losers in the future!"

Having only heard from Jennifer about the future-that-would-never-be, Marty wasn't as affected by it as his girlfriend had been, seeing it firsthand. He shrugged at her words, slipping an arm around her. "I just hope I'm not gonna regret this."

Chapter Four

Monday, October 1, 67,000,000 B.C.
10:01AM
Helena, Montana

It was less than five minutes after Doc and Clara had left the lab that both returned. Clara with two backpacks filled with food, water, and a first-aid kit; Doc to take Marty down to the train and leave. Jennifer stayed behind in the lab with Clara, to keep her company during the few 1986 minutes that Doc expected to be gone. Clara looked terribly uneasy as they left, but Jennifer gave Marty an encouraging smile and a cheerful wave.

Moments later, Marty found himself standing at a window of the flying train, in a world completely alien to him, searching the surrounding sky with binoculars. His heart hammered in his chest as he had his first look at dinosaurs below--a creature about as tall as a man with a domed head that had what looked like a crown of bony spike-like protrusions around the cranium, and some small spikes down it's sloped nose. They had greenish bodies and stood upright with their tails suspended a few feet above ground. The animals had short arms and what appeared to be a small hand with fingers. A group of them was gathered in a swampy area.

"Christ," Marty muttered, letting the binoculars fall from his eyes for a moment. He looked at Doc, covering the other window as the train ran slowly on autopilot. "What are those things down there in that swampy area?"

Doc focused on it a moment later. "Those animals with the large heads?"

"Yeah."

Doc frowned. "I don't know their name, I'm afraid. I never was interested much in the paleontology area of science. But they appear to be herbivores, harmless to us."

"That's one thing in our favor." Marty brought the binoculars back to his eyes and scanned the horizon. He saw a volcano off in the distant, and past that a large body of water. Montana sure looks different, he reflected.

"I see something," Doc said suddenly. Marty left his post and joined his friend's side. Doc's binoculars--a bit fancier than Marty's--were trained on something in the sky. To Marty's unaided eyes, he saw nothing.

"What is it?" he asked, bringing his own binoculars up and scanning the sky unsuccessfully.

"I believe it's the DeLorean," Doc said. "Yes, I'm sure of it!" He scowled for a moment. "Those kids are in tremendous trouble!"

"Let's fly over there and get them, then," Marty said, pleasantly surprised that they found the boys so quickly.

"I think the vehicle is descending," Doc said. "We'll wait until they land. I don't want to risk startling the driver and having them crash. After all, they won't be expecting us here now."

Marty picked up the car now on his own binoculars, but even with the highest magnification it was little more than a black speck. "How far away are they?"

"Two point three miles, according to my readouts on the binoculars," Doc reported. He was silent for a moment, his gaze trained on the nearly invisible DeLorean. Marty gave up trying to see it and looked at the land passing under them instead. Thick thick growths of trees were below them. It looked--and felt--very tropical. Doc had opened his window and hot, damp air gusted into the train cab.

"The door is opening," Doc said a moment later. "I see....I see Verne! He's leaning out the door.... Thank God, he has his seatbelt on! He's...I think he's taking photographs of something down there."

Marty leaned outside a bit, wind running through his hair. "Where?" he asked, squinting. He suddenly wished he'd brought sunglasses along. It was glaringly bright outside, looking and feeling more like summer than early fall. "Can you tell what it is he's photographing?"

"No," Doc said. "The DeLorean's stopped. It looks no more than ten feet off the ground." There was a long pause, during which Marty caught sight of something new on the ground--another dinosaur breed. He put his binoculars up to his eyes for a closer look. A moment later the image came in clear and he swallowed hard.

This animal looked smaller than the first one he had seen--half the size, maybe--and was covered with a smooth, shiny yellow/green skin. It walked upright, like the first animal, suspending it's tail in a stiff straight line a foot above the ground, and had short arms that ended with three fingered hands that tapered to large, lethal-looking claws. The creature also had large claws on it's feet, and moved fluidly, in quick, smooth gestures. The dinosaur had a long narrow head at the end of a slender neck and large, round eyes that appeared cat-like and were set more forward on it's face than the other dinosaur Marty had seen. A dozen of them were gathered over the remains of a large, dead creature, ripping at it. To Marty, the small dinosaurs resembled a snake that had grown arms and legs.

"God, I hope we don't run into that!" he whispered with a shiver. As the train drifted above the feasting creatures, they looked up and bore their tiny razor sharp teeth in a sneer.

"The DeLorean is moving again," Doc reported. "The door is closing....they're going higher in the sky." Doc paused. "No, I take that back. They're starting a descent. It looks like they might land somewhere."

"Great!" Marty said sincerely. "Are we gonna go over there and pick them up, now?"

"Not quite yet," Doc said. "I want to see what they're going to do."

It was silent for a moment. Very silent. Marty realized that he'd never before heard such a quiet. Even way out in the woods, you'd hear occasional airplanes fly by. But not here, not in a time where dinosaurs ruled the earth. Marty could hear little more then the sound of the wind rushing by.

"They've landed," Doc finally announced. "It looks like they might be a clearing--there's a break in the treeline where they landed." He lowered his binoculars, finally, and turned to the controls of the train. "We'll need to get closer to see what they're doing there."

Marty grabbed the windowsill for support as the train jumped from about five miles an hour to twenty. As they got closer to the place where the DeLorean had landed, it became obvious that there was a clearing up ahead. Then, as they got even closer, Doc let out a gasp.

"Great Scott!" he cried, rushing to the side window. Marty joined him and looked out, wondering what had frightened his friend so much. Then he saw it.

"Holy shit!" Marty breathed.

In the clearing stood a Tyrannosaurus. Marty--who knew even less about dinosaurs then Doc probably did--recognized it at once, only because it was a fairly popular dinosaur in the future. And Verne had talked frequently about them the last couple weeks, showing Marty pictures of the animal.

Now he was staring at it in person, about a hundred feet above it. It was bent over the DeLorean. As Doc and Marty watched, then saw the dinosaur grab the Mr Fusion unit with it's teeth and tear it off the car. Doc let out a soft moan at the sight.

"That would explain why the boys are missing from the future," Marty heard him say softly.

But the dinosaur wasn't done yet. As the two time travelers watched, the animal dropped the remains of Mr Fusion, glared for a moment at the car, then gave it a hard kick with one of it's large, powerful feet. The blow was so strong that the car became airborne, flipped over, then slammed into some of the trees and brush that bordered the clearing.

"Oh God!" Doc gasped, his face ashen. "The boys!"

"Maybe they're not inside it," Marty offered hopefully, feeling sick as he stared at the twisted remains of the time machine. If the kids were in that, they'd be seriously hurt at the very least. The dinosaur, meanwhile, lumbered off into the thick forest that surrounded the clearing.

Doc didn't look any better with Marty's optimistic suggestion. His jaw tightened as he turned away from the window and back to the controls of the train. "If they'd gone outside, I don't think they would be in much better condition."

Marty nodded slowly, his eyes still on the DeLorean. "Yeah. But maybe if, well, something bad happened to them"--he couldn't seem to say the word "dead"--" we could go back and prevent it. Right?"

"Certainly," Doc said without hesitation as he brought the train closer to the ground. "The risk of such a mission would be substantial, but I can't let the boys..." He left the sentence unfinished, then looked up at Marty.

"I'm going to keep the train hovering in the air, above the treeline. I don't want what happened to the DeLorean to happen to this time vehicle, or we could quite possibly be stranded here for the rest of our lives."

"How do we get down there, then?" Marty asked, gesturing to the clearing.

Doc tossed Marty one of the backpacks Clara had fixed for them. "There's a rope in there. I'll secure it in here, then we'll climb down there one at a time."

"I guess I get to be first, huh?" Marty said with a sigh. "Hope I don't end up a dino snack."

* * *

Verne stopped falling.

The sensation was so out of the blue and unexpected that, for a moment, he was certain he'd died and this was now the afterlife. But when he cautiously cracked open his eyes, he saw that he was now suspended twenty feet off the ground...by his backpack. Somehow, a branch had snagged one of the straps in his fall, and now he dangled precariously in the air.

"Verne!" he heard Jules shout. "Don't move! Don't move a millimeter!"

"I'll try!" Verne called back, his voice shaking.

Jules quickly--but cautiously--climbed down the ten feet that separated them. Then, with one arm wrapped around the thick trunk of the tree and one ankle hooked around a sturdy branch, he leaned forward, towards Verne. "Grab my hand," he told the younger boy. "Then jump forward, so you can get your strap off the branch." Jules looked into the blue eyes that stared up at him in wide-eyed fear. "I will nots let you fall!" he swore.

Slowly, Verne raised his right arm towards Jules's outstretched hand. "Promise?" he whispered.

Jules nodded, looking more serious then Verne had ever seen before. "I promise."

Verne leaned towards his brother, slowly, carefully. Their fingers brushed.

Then the branch that was holding his backpack let out a sharp pop and dropped an inch. Verne forgot all about calm and collected and let out a bloodcurdling scream of terror.

* * *

Marty heard the scream when he was halfway down the rope to the clearing. He paused a moment in his climb down, cocking his head to the side. It sounded close, very close. But was it human or made by one of the dinosaurs? Either way, it was quite obviously a cry of pure fear. Goosebumps had sprouted up on his arms at the sound of it.

Marty looked up at the train, wondering if Doc had heard it. The scientist was on his knees, leaning out the door. Marty thought it was a very unwise position to be in, but his friend seemed oblivious to the danger. His eyes were wide, and his mouth hung open.

"Doc?" Marty called. "What is it?"

Doc answered without looking down. "Verne!" he gasped.

* * *

The branch held. Groaning in protest now, under Verne's weight, but holding nonetheless. Verne's heart was pumping so hard he felt dizzy.

"Verne!" Jules said, his voice firm and authoritive. He almost sounded like their father, then. "Grasp my hand! Hurry!"

Verne tried to move his arms, but neither responded to his mental commands. He was literally frozen with terror. "I can't!" he whimpered. "If I move, the branch'll break!"

"The branch will break either way," Jules said, his voice sharp. "You've got to grab hold of me! Now!"

Verne started to lift one badly shaking hand up towards his brother.

* * *

Marty's sneakers touched ground, finally. He looked up at Doc, then pulled out the walkie-talkie that his friend had given him before he had left the train from the back pocket of his shorts. "I'm on the ground. Which way did that noise come from?"

"To your left, from the forest," Doc replied succinctly. "It sounded like Verne--I'm sure it was him!"

"Okay, I'm gonna check it out."

"I'll be right behind you," Doc said. Marty looked up and saw the scientist put away his two-way radio, then start down the rope.

* * *

"Slowly," Jules said, his voice soft now. "You can do it, Verne!"

Verne bit his lower lip, trying desperately to blink away the tears of fear that continued to blur his vision. You can do it, Brown! he told himself in his firmest mental voice. You've done riskier things before!

Verne held his breath as he moved, a part of him believing that if he didn't breathe during this portion, he would make it. Jules, on the other hand, was breathing hard, his face red and the arm around the tree starting to shake from the effort of supporting his weight as he leaned over.

"Come on, Verne," he pleaded. "I can't stay in this position much longer!"

Verne steadied himself, taking in a quick shallow breath, then put his hand in Jules's. But before his brother could clench his hand around Verne's, the boy heard another sickening snap--and the world fell out from under him again.

* * *

Marty heard faint human voices as he stepped under one of the trees bordering the clearing. He looked up, straining his eyes to see through the large, thick growth of leaves that coated the branches. He thought he saw something move. Marty squinted, trying to see past the leaves. He heard a loud gasp, and a scream. Small branches snapped, sounding like rifle shots.

Then something alive and heavy crashed down on top of Marty. He fell to the ground, landing hard on his stomach, his breath knocked out of him. Whatever landed on him--Marty was too shocked and dazed to figure out precisely what it was--stopped their screaming, the sound cut off all at once. There was a long moment of silence.

"I'm okay!" a voice whispered, belonging to the person that had slammed into Marty and was now perched on his back. The teenager was too busy trying to breathe to turn his head and take a look at the person.

"Verne Newton Brown!" Doc shouted, rushing over. Marty had a glimpse of Doc's face. It was caught in a state of flux between tremendous relief and tremendous anger. "What the hell are you doing back here?!"

"Father!" another voice cried, from above--Jules, by the sound. Oh please, don't fall on me! Marty thought, still trying to draw in a breath. His surroundings started to dim and look a little shaky. Not a good sign when one was already lying on the ground.

"I just wanted to see dinosaurs, Dad," Verne said, sounding sheepish. At long last he got off Marty, who managed to finally suck in a quick, frantic breath. With his face half buried in the dirt, he also got a mouthful of dust, which naturally made him cough--never a good thing with a low air supply.

At the sound, Doc seemed to notice Marty for the first time. His eyes widened with concern as he knelt down next to his friend. "Marty? Are you okay?" he asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Marty couldn't answer. Verne said something instead. "I landed on him," the boy explained. "I was stuck up in that tree on a branch that was gonna break and then it did, even though Jules tried to help me off it, and I fell and then Marty broke the fall." Verne leaned down before Marty's face, looking none-the-worse for wear, and peered into the teen's eyes. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"What are you doing here?" Jules asked, sounding closer this time. Marty heard a muffled thump, as if Jules had jumped to the ground, then saw him come to his father's side.

"I'll explain it later," Doc said, preoccupied. "Can you sit up?" he asked Marty.

I can't even speak! Marty thought. But sitting up sounded good, if he could lean against something. Then, maybe he'd get some fresh air.

Summoning all his strength, Marty sat up--

- and promptly passed out.

* * *

He was only out for a minute or two. When Marty opened his eyes again, he found himself propped up against the trunk of a tree, three faces huddled closely around him. Doc was lightly slapping his cheeks.

"Lemme breathe," he gasped, his mouth dry. Jules, Doc, and Verne obediently leaned back. Marty took several slow, deep breaths, glad he finally could. After a couple minutes he started feeling steadier and less woozy.

"Okay," he said finally, in a soft voice. "I'm okay. Verne just knocked the wind out of me."

"You're fortunate it wasn't worse then that," Doc said, narrowing his eyes at his youngest child. Verne winced at the look. He looked back to Marty. "Does your head hurt at all?"

Marty lifted a hand up and felt his forehead. His fingers came back stained with dust, nothing worse. "It's fine. Doesn't even really hurt."

"Good. I don't think there's any concussion to worry about, then. Anyway, you were only unconscious for a minute. It was probably due to the air loss."

Doc turned to the kids, bookending Marty. "Okay, boys, start talking. I want to know what you are doing 67 million years away from home. And why you had the DeLorean when I distinctly recall never granting permission for such a trip."

"Can we talk somewhere else?" Verne asked, his eyes darting around nervously. "What if the Rex comes back here?"

"Here will suffice fine," Doc answered. "We'll have to climb a rope to get to the train, and I don't think Marty can handle that right now, after what just happened to him."

"Okay, if you say so," Verne said, the tone of his voice indicating he thought it was a bad idea. Marty thought he looked remarkably cool for a kid who had just had an up close and personal brush with a dinosaur--and who had fallen some distance from a tree.

"Jules is the one who took us back here," Verne went on. "He's the one who made the whatchamacallit to hook up to the time display so we could get a million numbers in."

Doc turned his head sharply to look at Jules. "You hooked something foreign into the time circuits?"

Jules nodded, uneasy now. "Yes. I created a LCD extension that could display up to eighteen digits. I tied it into the destination time display for the year."

Doc closed his eyes for a moment and let out a long breath. "You didn't have to do that! If you merely continued to punch in more than 4 numerals for the date, the time machine would go back this far, to the number punched in. Even though it cannot display the entire date."

"I didn't know," Jules said, frowning. "But I didn't harm the time circuits, or we obviously would not be here now." The frown deepened. "How did you know where to find us? And how did you know we were gone?"

Doc glanced over his shoulder, at the all-but-destroyed DeLorean. "To answer your first question, we viewed the security tape that was recorded when you entered into the lab. It's standard procedure for the security camera to turn on when something moves in the lab--or where the train is stored. It wasn't terribly difficult to piece together where and when you were, especially with the audio track."

"But how did you know we were even gone?" Jules asked. "We intended to return a minute after departing."

Doc looked at the DeLorean again, his face grim. "Marty and I saw what the dinosaur did to the DeLorean. It's my guess that the damage invoked upon the automobile time vehicle was irreparable in this time and location by the both of you. Thereby leaving you stranded back here the rest of your lives. You never came back home."

Jules and Verne both looked shocked and scared at the revelation. Doc continued, his voice gentle. "When I returned home from the store at about 6:30, your mother was frantic with worry--she hadn't seen either of you since noon. The way things went originally, you never made it back."

Verne--who seemed to have about the same grasp on the logistics of time travel as Marty did--looked deathly pale at this news. "Does that mean we're never gonna see home again?" he whispered.

"No," Doc said. "We have the train now. Marty and I have already altered the original procession of events by coming here."

"Does that mean that I might've really hurt myself if you guys weren't here first, since I didn't have Marty to land on?"

"Probably," Marty muttered, recalling the force that Verne had hit him from above.

"It's possible," Doc allowed. "But think of it as the timeline that never was--at least to our points of view."

Doc got to his feet and walked over to the DeLorean. Jules and Verne followed his footsteps, leaving Marty behind. Marty watched them a moment, then carefully climbed to his feet. He leaned against the tree for a minute, standing, then followed the others to what remained of the car. Doc was examining the wreckage with a frown--not that there was much to see but the undercarriage of the car.

"Marty, do you think you can help me push the car over?" the scientist asked.

Marty took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair as he looked at the car. DeLoreans were pretty lightweight, being sports cars--but they were also constructed from stainless steel. Yet the car wasn't exactly lying flat on it's top--it was propped up against the trees, at an angle. "I guess," he said after a moment.

It took close to fifteen minutes and a lot of pushing but, at long last, the DeLorean returned to having four tires on the ground. Doc wasted no time in opening the door and crawling inside. From Marty's perspective, outside the car, things didn't look good. All the windows in the DeLorean were cracked. One was completely shattered. The passenger door looked like it wouldn't open--it had a huge gash in it where the dinosaur had kicked it. The remains of Mr Fusion was a useless pile of broken plastic and wires. Most of the little gizmos that were on the rear half of the car were crushed and broken.

"Damn," Doc muttered from inside the car. He emerged a moment later, looking very unhappy. "The flux capacitor shattered. I was afraid of that."

"What's that mean?" Marty asked. "Is the time machine busted?"

"In a nutshell, yes," Doc said. He studied the car, eyes narrowed. "And we cannot go home with it this way."

"What?" Marty cried, completely stunned with this announcement. "Why not? We have one working time machine, right? Why don't we just tow this behind us when we go back to the future?"

"It wouldn't work," Doc said. "The flux capacitor is the device that allows the DeLorean--and the train--to travel through time. Mr Fusion powers the flux capacitor. With both out of commission currently, we have no way to bring the DeLorean back to 1986. We cannot fit the car in the train, and we cannot pull it behind us--even if the hover circuits do work, which is unknown right now. All that would happen when we reach 88 is that we would return to the future--but the DeLorean would remain here."

Marty was silent a moment, digesting the information. Verne looked as confused as Marty still felt, but Jules nodded in agreement.

"Yes, that sounds logical. So what is your suggestion? That we repair the DeLorean?" Jules eyed it, doubt clearly on his face. "Is that even possible?"

Doc shrugged--not an encouraging sign from Marty's point of view. "I have some spare parts in the train, and in the DeLorean. Theoretically, it should be enough to rebuilt the flux capacitor, and tap that capacitor into the fusion generator that powers the train. But I never thought I would end up in such a primitive time, without some type of power source to use for tools." Doc paused a moment, thoughtful. "Although I suppose I could use the fusion generator in the train to power the tools...."

"When do you think we can go back home, then?" Marty asked, focusing on the point in the conversation that most mattered to him. "I'd like to be out of here before nightfall and back in Jen's arms."

Doc's eyes strayed to the DeLorean wreck. "Doubtful. At earliest, I think we could be out of here by tomorrow evening--if we can find a safe place to set the train down and I can work undisturbed."

Marty choked back the groan that threatened to escape. "Wonderful," he muttered under his breath, turning away from the DeLorean. This is the last time I let Jennifer talk me into doing something!

Chapter Five

Monday, October 1, 67,000,000 B.C.
12:39PM

The first obstacle that faced them was moving the DeLorean from the clearing. Doc Brown guessed that the pathway that ran through the clearing was a game trail of some kind--and that staying in the immediate area would not be the wisest choice in the world. Leaving Marty and the boys on the ground, Doc climbed the rope to the train, then looked around the cab for something that might suit his purposes. Eventually, at the bottom of a chest stashed with odds and ends that sat under one of the windows, he found a length of chain. Doc brought the train down to the ground, quickly secured it to the back of the train, then had the locomotive back in the air to avoid any unexpected dinosaur encounters.

After climbing back to the ground, Doc--with Marty's assistance--wound the chain around the DeLorean. Jules and Verne, meanwhile, scouted the ground and picked up every single piece of the Mr Fusion they could find. Doc didn't care to think of the implications that a stray microchip might have on the future. Who knows what science would make of such a find?Doc wondered.

The job took two hours. After the four of them returned to the train cab, Doc took the controls and carefully brought the vehicle higher in the air, pulling the DeLorean off the ground. The back end of the train groaned a bit under the weight, but supported it without incident. When Doc had gone high enough to have the DeLorean--dangling 20 feet under the train--clear the treeline, he set the train on autopilot and joined Marty, Jules, and Verne at the windows.

"Keep your eyes open for a large space that we can set the train down," he reminded them. "Preferably a place that the dinosaurs stay away from."

"That might be hard, Dad," Verne said. "Dinosaurs are really territorial. If we saw them staying away from somewhere, then it must belong to another dino."

Doc looked at his youngest son with some surprise. "I never realized you were so well informed about dinosaurs."

"It's probably like anything, Doc," Marty said, glancing away from the window. "I know a ton about music because it interests me. But while you might not know much about that stuff, you know loads about science and time travel--which completely baffles me. We know a lot about what interests us."

Doc nodded, then went over to the chest where he had found the chain. He pulled out a gun--a tranquilizer gun, to be more accurate. Marty's eyes went wide at the sight of the thing. "Where the hell did you get that?"

Doc picked up the gun, examining it. "Remember when Doc B took the train?" he asked. At Marty's nod, Doc said, "Well, he had assembled quite a collection of weapons in the train. About three different guns, a stun gun, and this tranquilizer gun. At the time, I tossed them in the chest, intending to get rid of them when we got back home. But I had completely forgotten about it until now."

"What are we going to be using that on?" Jules asked. "The dinosaurs?"

Doc nodded. "It's not much, but it'll have to do. I don't know if these tranquilizers are powerful enough to knock out a dinosaur, but perhaps they might be enough to momentarily stun them."

"What about screwing up history?" Marty asked. "What if you accidentally kill one?"

"By the time the fossils would be found, no trace of a drug would be detectable in the remains," Doc said. "At least I don't think so.... Anyhow, this is only for emergencies."

"I see somewhere we could use," Jules said, pointing out the window. "See that cliff? It looks like it's pretty difficult to get to. And I think that might be a cave in the side of that hill."

Doc set the gun down and pulled out his binoculars from the pocket of his khaki shorts. He examined the area Jules was talking about. The cliff was about three hundred feet above sea level, barren and appearing deserted. It did look as if a cave was set in the hillside, about fifty feet from the edge of the cliff. The cave had a wide opening--big enough to drive the train into.

"What do you think, Verne?" Doc asked, looking at their resident dinosaur expert. Verne squinted at the sight, frowning faintly.

"That might work," he said finally. "I don't see any plants around, which means there shouldn't be any herbivores around. And without herbivores, their shouldn't be any carnivores." Verne paused a moment. "But maybe some mammals live in that cave."

"What, like a saber tooth bear?" Marty asked, the tone in his voice only halfway teasing. Verne shrugged, his face serious.

"You never know."

"I thought you knew all about this time period," Jules said, eyeing his brother suspiciously.

"I know about the dinosaurs!" Verne emphasised. "I kinda just skimmed over the other animals that lived in this time. Anyway, dinos basically ruled now. There weren't many mammals around until later."

"You hope," Jules muttered.

Verne bristled, opening his mouth to retort. But Doc stepped in before the disagreement could escalate into a full fledged fight. "I think that landing on that cliff would be the best for now," he said, already starting to turn the train in that direction. "If that cave goes back deep enough, we might even be able to bring the train and DeLorean in there for the repairs to be made."

"Who wants to check it out first, to make sure it's safe?" Marty asked.

"I will," Doc answered without hesitation. "I'll take one of the guns with me."

Doc Brown kept the train in the air when they reached the cliff. He threw the rope down, swung the rifle strap over his shoulder, then prepared to climb down. Before he exited the train cab, however, he gave Marty strict instructions that, should something go wrong, he should fly the train away from the site.

"I expect that we'll be in constant contact, however," he added, patting the walkie-talkie in his pocket. "But if this cave is home to a large dinosaur, you must get away and not worry about me. If anything happens to this time machine, we're all stranded here!"

Marty eyed the dark cave opening with a touch of unease on his face. "Okay, Doc," he said.

"Don't worry, Dad," Verne said, patting his father on the arm. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

Doc nodded in hopeful agreement. He grabbed hold of the rope and, minutes later, was on the cliff. Doc examined the ground as he walked slowly towards the cave opening. The stones were sharp, jagged, unworn. Dust had settled on top of them in a fine, undisturbed layer. From all outward appearances, no creature had ventured up here.

Doc unhooked the flashlight he'd brought with him off his belt loop and switched it on, aiming it into the black void ahead. He stopped in his tracks, concerned that the sudden appearance of a light in a space where there was none would startled any creatures inside. After a moment of shining the light around and seeing nothing but cave walls, Doc continued his advance.

He stopped again on the threshold of the cave, straining his eyes and the beam of the flashlight. The cave was deep; the beam of the flashlight ran into a wall of darkness. It was very large inside, with a ceiling that was easily thirty feet above. And no sign, still, that any animal lived there.

Doc pulled out the walkie-talkie and thumbed the button. "Come in," he said, his voice echoing in the cavern.

The was a response almost immediately. "This is Marty. Is everything okay down there?"

"Quite so. It looks like this cave is deserted. And it's plenty big for the train and DeLorean." Doc paused for a moment, turning around to look at the hovering train in the air outside. "Do you think you can land the train?"

There was a long pause from the other end. "Are you kidding?" Marty finally called back, his voice crackling with static. "The DeLorean is a cakewalk compared to this! I don't even know what half the buttons do in here."

Doc sighed. "All right, then. I'm coming back up." He put the walkie-talkie away and left the cave. Fifteen minutes later he was in the train again, making preparations for the landing. It was a long, complicated process now that the DeLorean was dangling from the train. Doc had all the passengers get out of the time machine. Then, with Marty giving directions from the ground via walkie-talkie on the status of the DeLorean, Doc eased the train down.

Once the DeLorean was touching the ground, the landing was even more painstaking. Doc didn't want to accidentally land on the car, nor did he want to inadvertently move too far forward and drag the vehicle along the hard, brutal ground. It had already suffered enough damage in the hands of the dinosaur.

Finally, finally--nearly an hour after starting--the train was on the ground with the DeLorean. But the work wasn't over yet. With Marty's help, Doc was able to detach the chain from the DeLorean. Then, Doc backed the train in the cave, taking great pains not to touch the walls of the cave. He hovered the time machine inches off the ground as it moved inside, not wanting to destroy the wheels. Once the train was parked, Marty helped Doc push the DeLorean inside.

By the time the job was finished and things were in place, it was after three in the afternoon. The temperature was well into the nineties, and the humidity had not leveled off in the least. Marty slumped against the DeLorean in the cooler shade of the cave, fanning his face with his hand.

"Do you have any water?" he asked, his voice raspy. "I'm dying of thirst! It's gotta be over a hundred out!"

"Not quite," Doc answered, heading back towards the train where the supplies were stored. "But humidity tends to make the heat worse. And we don't have this kind of weather in Hill Valley."

"Thank God," Marty said. He joined Doc at the train a moment later, the light from the train cab revealing a frown on his face. "Where'd Jules and Verne go?"

Doc looked up, a jug of water in hand. Marty took it from his hand without a word. "I don't know!" Doc realized, his heart starting to pound. "Aren't they outside the cave?"

"Not that I noticed. I thought they were in here." Marty took the cap off the water and took a long drink from the gallon jug. Doc was too concerned with the new problem to remind him they should conserve the rations. He ran out of the cave, skidding to a stop outside. There wasn't a soul around. A strong wind had started to blow, bringing a welcome coolness to the air--but Doc noticed dark clouds on the horizon. A storm was coming. And the boys were nowhere to be seen.

"Jules!" Doc called, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Verne!"

There was no answer.

* * *

While Doc Brown was finally noticing the absence of his offspring, Jules and Verne were making their way down the cliff, towards the forest below. They had been gone for a little more than an hour. Verne had gotten bored watching their father and Marty moving the time machines. Both he and Jules were deemed "too young" by their father to help out with that work, so Verne had decided to turn his attention to something else--like seeing more dinosaurs. Taking Marty's walkie-talkie with them--which he had given Verne to hold while he was helping Doc--the boys had found it easy to get away without being noticed.

"How much longer do you think it'll take before we get in the woods?" Verne asked his brother, wiping the sweat off his face. A breeze had finally started to move through the air, and the feeling of it against Verne's skin was almost as soothing as air conditioning would feel.

"Not much longer, I'll bet," Jules said. "We passed the treeline sometime back."

Verne kicked some loose rocks out of the way, watching them roll over the side of the cliff. "This makes me nervous," he said slowly.

"What? Leaving without telling anyone?" Jules glanced over his shoulder for a moment. "I don't believe they will move while we're gone. And we have the walkie-talkie for emergencies."

"Not that," Verne said. "Well, I know we're gonna get in trouble with Dad for doing this, but that's not what's bugging me."

"So what is troubling you? Are you afraid of what we might run into out here?"

"Not exactly," Verne said. He stopped walking. "This is what bothers me," he added, gesturing to the ground.

Jules stopped walking and looked at the earth, a frown creasing his face. "What? The dust?"

"No, there's a path here!" Verne exclaimed, rolling his eyes at his brother's ignorance. "If no one goes up to that cave, there shouldn't be something here. But if there's a path, it's gotta mean animals or something go up there. Right?"

Jules nodded slowly, the realization dawning on his face. He looked at his brother with something Verne hadn't seen in his face before. He's impressed with me! Verne realized with a mixture of shock and delight.

"That's right!" Jules said. He looked at the ground again, crouching down for a closer inspection. "But I don't see any prints whatsoever."

"That's what's bugging me!" Verne said, kicking another rock off the cliff's edge, a foot away. "All we really know is that whatever uses this path and goes up to the cave isn't really big, like a T-rex. But a lot of dinosaurs could be small enough to go up here." The path was only three feet wide.

Jules nodded again at his brother's observations. He turned around and looked behind them. A look of confusion briefly seized his face, then his eyes lit up. "I know why there are no tracks!" he cried. "The wind is blowing them away! Look!"

Verne turned around to see for himself. Indeed, he saw that their footprints--made only minutes earlier--were nearly erased in the dust. "You're right!" he exclaimed, glad that part of the mystery was solved. But Verne didn't feel much better with that revelation. His stomach knotted up in nervousness as he continued to wonder about the animals that traveled the path.

I hope they're not carnivores!

The boys reached the forest five minutes later. Verne saw nothing at first but strange looking plants that he didn't recognize. He could hear the trickle of water nearby.

"Is that a creek?" he asked Jules. Jules shrugged, squinting through the foliage.

"I think it might be the river we saw from the air. That might be a good place to start looking for dinosaurs."

The boys followed the sound of the water.

* * *

Doc Brown turned around and ran back to the cave. Marty met him at the entrance, munching on an apple from the food supply. "Are they out here?" he asked around the mouthful of fruit.

Doc shook his head. "When was the last you saw them?"

Marty chewed slowly as he thought. "I think it was when we were getting the chain off the DeLorean and everything."

Doc frowned, checking one of his watches. "That was over an hour ago! You haven't see them since?"

"Doc, I was kind of busy," Marty said, sounding irritable. "You were, too. When was the last time you saw them?"

"When I told them to stay back as we were freeing the DeLorean," Doc admitted. He sighed, suddenly angry. "I cannot believe those kids! First they take off to this place and worry Clara and I to death, then once we locate them they slip away again!"

"They're kids, Doc," Marty said with a shrug, taking another bite from the apple. "They aren't stupid. They knew you wouldn't let them go off by themselves, and they were probably bored silly watching us move the time machines. If I was in some place that I went to purposely and had the chance to sneak away, I'd probably do the same."

"You did," Doc replied without thinking about it. "When we were in 2015. I told you to wait with the DeLorean while I located Jennifer, but you tried following me to your future residence." Doc left the rest of the sentence unspoken, though he finished it in his mind. Thereby allowing Biff Tannen access to the time machine.

Marty looked flustered at the words, grasping what Doc had left unspoken. "I said I was sorry about that, a million times," he said tersely. "Anyway, everything worked out okay. If I hadn't done that, you wouldn't have met Clara."

"I know," Doc said. "I didn't mean to sound inculpatory." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "How are we going to locate those boys now?"

"We could fly the train over the area and used the binoculars," Marty offered.

Doc shook his head at the suggestion. "No, we would have to move the DeLorean to allow the train enough room to pass. It would take to long. Not to mention if the boys are in the forest below, the trees are too thick to see past well."

"Are we going to go down there, then?" Marty asked, sighing.

Doc looked at the horizon, at the dark clouds that were getting closer with each passing minute. "No. The boys know where to find us now. If we go off after them, we risk only getting more separated than we are now."

Marty nodded, looking relieved. "Too bad they don't have -" He stopped suddenly, his eyes widening and a hand flying to his back pocket. "Doc!"

"What is it? What's wrong?" Doc asked anxiously.

"Nothing! I just remembered--Verne has my walkie-talkie!"

* * *

Verne pushed back the low-hanging branches of a tree and stepped onto the damp soil beside the running water. "Wow!" he said softly at what he saw.

Jules stepped beside him a moment later, gazing around at the scene with a look of awe on his face. "Impressive," Verne heard him murmur.

They were surrounded by dinosaurs--Edmontosauruses to be exact. They were large herbivores, Verne recalled, part of the duckbilled dinosaur family. A group of them was gathered not more than a hundred feet away, caring for a handful of babies! The adult dinosaurs were huge, nearly fifty feet tall. But the smallest of the babies looked about half the size of Verne.

"I wanna get some pictures of this!" Verne said, pausing to take his camera from his backpack.

"Don't get too close," Jules advised as Verne started towards the large animals. "You don't want to startle them or anger them."

"Jules, these are herbivores. They don't eat us," Verne reminded him.

Jules didn't look any less worried. "If an animal that size is agitated, it can still hurt you."

Verne saw his point. He moved more cautiously towards the Edmontosauruses. As he approached the dinosaurs, he would pause every so often to snap some pictures. When Verne was about ten feet away from the nest, trying to see past the adult dinosaurs to the babies, the unexpected happened.

Marty's walkie-talkie, which Verne had clipped to his shorts, suddenly came shrilly to life. "Jules, Verne, this is your father speaking," Verne heard, the sound shattering the stillness. At the noise, the dinosaurs looked up, trumpeting nervously. "Answer me at once!"

Verne muttered something under his breath that his mother would have been horrified to hear, then picked the walkie-talkie up. "Yeah, Dad?" he whispered, trying to keep from scaring the dinosaurs even more.

"Where are you?" Doc demanded over the walkie-talkie, sounding furious. "I want you and Jules back here immediately!"

"In a minute," Verne said softly as the dinosaurs started to stomp their feet and make more noises. "And please don't yell right now. You're scaring the Edmontosauruses!"

"Get back here, posthaste!" Doc repeated. As he spoke, the walkie-talkie emitted a shrill feedback sound. Verne winced at the noise, but the dinosaurs went wild! They bellowed loudly, making a kind of honking sound, running back and forth and swinging their big tails around. Verne threw himself to the ground and put his arms over his head, a tail narrowly missing his baseball cap. The walkie-talkie slipped from his hand as he hit the ground, sliding under a bush.

The Edmontosauruses, still honking loudly, started to run as a herd further down the river bank. When the dust cleared and the honking grew fainter, Verne lifted up his head and looked around. He spotted the walkie talkie a couple feet away, half buried in the remains of dinosaur eggshells. Verne picked it up and spoke into the device. "Nice one, Dad! You just scared the herd away! I could've gotten trampled to death!"

"Verne Newton Brown, get back up here now!" Doc said firmly. "It's not safe down there!"

Verne got to his feet, brushing the dust off his clothes. "Alright already! Jules and I will leave now, okay?"

"Verne!"

Verne turned around and saw Jules running over, his eyes wide. "What did you do to the dinosaurs? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, and I didn't do anything!" Verne insisted, holding out the walkie-talkie to Jules. "It was Dad's fault! The radio scared 'em!"

Jules took the walkie-talkie from Verne's hand. "Father?"

"Jules, I'm disappointed in you," Doc said, his voice all staticy. "Why did you both go off on your own?" Without giving the boy time to answer, Doc added, "I want you both back here in an hour. If you're not, you will both be in tremendous trouble, and not only from me! A storm is on it's way as we speak."

"Don't worry, we're leaving right now," Jules assured their father. He looked at Verne as he put the walkie-talkie away. "Lets go. Father is right. There is a storm on it's way and it would be a poor idea to get caught up in it."

Verne sighed, kicking a rock. "This bites. I'll never get a chance to -" He stopped talking suddenly, a noise catching his ear. "Do you hear that?"

Jules frowned. "Hear what?"

"That squeaking." Verne got down on his hands and knees. "I think it's coming from the bushes," he whispered, hearing the noise again. Verne ducked under the bush and bumped into something smooth and warm. The thing squeaked, then Verne felt something wet and rough sliding down his cheek.

"Ah!" Verne cried, pulling his head back. A moment later a small head poked out from the bushes. It was a baby Edmontosaurus. It waddled out from under the bush and rubbed up against Verne, squeaking.

"Uh oh," Jules said, frowning. "It looks like this creature was left behind."

Verne reached out slowly and touched the animal's skin. It felt reptilian, but warm. This creature was warm blooded. The Edmontosaurus licked Verne's hand, the action tickling his skin. Verne giggled. "Hey, he's kinda cute!"

"Lets go, Verne," Jules said impatiently. "We shouldn't interact with the wildlife here. Who knows what repercussions that might have."

Verne stood up. Jules was right. "Okay, fine," he sighed.

The boys started walking away. The baby continued to squeak. As the boys moved further away from it, the noises became louder and more frantic, until the animal was nearly screaming.

Verne turned around. The dinosaur was trying to go after them, but its little legs couldn't go fast enough.

"Oh, Jules, he wants to follow us," Verne said, going over to the baby. "We've got to take him back with us."

"Are you insane?" Jules cried. "Absolutely not! This creature should not be interacting with humans! And Father would have a fit!"

"But if we leave him out here, he'll die," Verne said. "A carnivore'll pick him off for sure! Trust me, Jules, I know these things." Verne straightened up, his mind made up. "I'm taking him back with us and I don't care what you say!"

Jules gazed at the baby dinosaur, letting out a long sigh. "I'm not carrying him."

Chapter Six

Monday, October 1, 67,000,000 B.C.
4:57PM

Marty stood on the edge of the cliff, wind whipping him in the face, pushing his hair off his forehead. The sky was dark now, filled with clouds the color of lead. The swift breeze was cool and refreshing, chasing away the heat. But the air felt strange, like it was charged with electricity. They were in for one hell of a storm.

Marty turned around and walked back to the cave, the wind at his back now. Doc stood in the doorway of the cave, hands on his hips and a frown on his face.

"Any sign of the boys yet?" he asked Marty.

Marty shook his head. "Not yet. Don't worry, Doc, I'll bet they'll be here any minute."

Doc's frown deepened. He turned around and went back into the cave, to the DeLorean. Earlier, he had rigged up a few camping lanterns around the time machines. They were turned up to their brightest, but the light still failed to reach the back and ceiling of the cave. Marty had helped the scientist run an extension cord from the train's fusion generator to the DeLorean. But so far, all Doc had gotten done was removing the busted flux capacitor. Marty could tell he was distracted with Jules and Verne's absence.

"How's it look?" Marty asked, following Doc to the damaged time machine. Doc sighed as he sat down in the front seat of the car.

"Well, the time circuits are mostly unscathed, thank God. The blow from the dinosaur didn't shatter the LCD crystals, so it won't be a problem setting a destination time. It shouldn't be terribly difficult to run the power cable into this time machine to temporarily run the time circuits and the flux capacitor. And I'm sure I can repair the flux capacitor, or build a new one. But we might have a new problem I didn't consider originally."

Marty leaned back against the side of the car, bracing himself for the worst. "What's that?"

Doc gestured to the cracked and shattered windows, the dented stainless steel. "With this damage to the time vehicle, temporal displacement might blow out the circuitry in the car, or do things we may not even be able to imagine right now."

"Does that mean we won't be able to get back to the future?" Marty asked, worried.

"Oh no, we'll be able to return home in the train. I just don't know how well the DeLorean will fair. If worst comes to worst, I might need to buy a new one and make another time machine out of it." Doc sighed again, looking exhausted at the mere idea. "But that will be rather expensive and I'd prefer to find a way to salvage this one first."

A crack of thunder split the air outside, shaking the ground. Marty turned at the sound and saw Jules and Verne standing in the doorway of the cave. Doc saw them at the same moment and leapt out of the DeLorean.

"I was worried sick about you!" Doc cried, hurrying over to the kids. He grabbed Jules--who happened to be the closest--and shook him by the shoulders, suddenly angry. "Why did you run off like that without permission?"

"It was Verne's idea," Jules blurted, looking nervous now. "And so is what he has in his backpack."

"Jules!" Verne cried, glaring at his brother. Only then did Marty notice Verne's backpack, bulging and straining the seams. As he watched, the pack shifted and moved. Doc noticed it too. His eyes narrowed as he saw the movement.

"What's in there?" he demanded.

Verne sighed, slipping the pack off his shoulders and setting it down gently on the stone floor. He unzipped it and a moment later a head popped out. To Marty, it looked like a cross between a lizard and a horse. He backed away at the sight of the animal.

"What the hell is that?" he gasped.

"It's a baby Edmontosaurus--I call him Eddie for short," Verne explained, picking up the dinosaur in his arms. The baby licked Verne's face and he laughed. "Isn't he the neatest thing?"

Doc scowled, the look unusual on his normally easygoing face. "Verne Brown, put that thing back where you found it! The last thing we want to do back here is interact with the wildlife!"

"I told you so!" Jules muttered, glancing at Verne sideways.

"I can't put him back, Dad!" Verne insisted, setting Eddie on the ground. "You scared his family when you called me and Jules, and they left him behind. If we would've left him there he would've gotten eaten, since he's a herbivore. The bigger carnivorous dinosaurs like to have abandon babies for dinner!"

Thunder crackled through the air again, followed with a sudden pouring of rain outside the cave. "You are not keeping that animal!" Doc said firmly, shaking his head.

Verne pouted. "Why not? I know I can't take him home--Eddie will be about fifty feet tall when he's all grown up--but why can't I keep an eye on him now? Just until we go?" Verne glanced down at the squeaking dinosaur.

Doc continued to frown. "I don't like it, Verne. We should not be interacting with the cycle of nature here, even if it means the death of one of these animals. Who knows what disasters this could spell for the future?"

Verne shrugged, looking as if he cared less. Marty tried to remember if him or his brother had ever had the experience of seeing a changed and alternate present time before, but ran into a brick wall there. He was sure if the kids had, they might listen to their father's warning with greater concern.

"I don't think helping Eddie out while we're here and keeping an eye on him will hurt anything," Verne insisted. "And Eddie won't eat us--he likes plants. I've done tons of research on dinosaurs, Dad. I swear, nothing bad will happen and I'll let him go when we leave!" Verne swallowed hard. "Even if he will get eaten."

Doc bit his lip, his defense visibly wavering. Verne stared at his father with the perfect expression of childish begging. Marty hid a smile with his hand. I wonder how long he's practiced that look?

"All right, Verne," Doc finally said. "You can take care of Eddie while we are here. But I warn you, it should only be an additional twenty four hours--and both you and Jules must under no circumstances wander off again. Is this understood?"

The boys nodded, their faces appropriately solemn. But a moment later a wide smile broke through on Verne's face and he threw his arms around his father. Doc staggered back a couple steps, unprepared for the hug. "Thanks a lot!" Verne gushed. "I promise you Eddie won't hurt the future."

Doc looked at Marty and shook his head.

* * *

"Wow, you caved pretty fast tonight with that dinosaur and Verne," Marty remarked, hours later. It was close to midnight. Most of the thunder and lightning had moved through, but it was still raining hard outside, making the air in the cave incredibly humid. After a dinner of sandwiches and warm bottled water, Verne had ventured outside to grab some plants for Eddie. Once the baby dinosaur had eaten, it fell asleep, the boys quickly following suit at the back of the cave, between the DeLorean and train. Doc and Marty remained up, however, working on the DeLorean.

"What else could I say?" Doc asked, his eyes on the insides of the flux capacitor he was rewiring. To Marty, it looked like a mess of wires and circuits. "The damage had already been done. The last thing I wanted to do was send Verne out in that storm to put the animal back exactly where he had found it."

Marty--seated on a blanket on the floor of the cave, leaning against the side of the DeLorean--looked back at the baby dinosaur huddled up next to Verne. "That thing isn't dangerous, is it?"

"To us or the space-time continuum?" Doc asked.

"Well, to us. It looks kind of....well, like a big lizard breeded with a horse."

Doc glanced up for a moment, through the windshield of the car, at the vague shadow of Eddie. "He's harmless to us. As Verne mentioned earlier, he's an herbivore, and eats only plants. I trust Verne's knowledge on the subject, considering how much I saw him studying dinosaurs in the future."

"What about danger to the space-time continuum?" Marty asked.

Doc turned his attention back to the flux capacitor repairs. "That remains to be seen at this point. I don't like the idea of us back here, period, let alone taking care of a baby dinosaur. For all we know, dinosaurs are able to catch viruses and illnesses from humans, and vice versa. I don't know about you, but I'd hate to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs."

"Yeah," Marty agreed. He was silent for a moment, staring outside at the darkness. It was strange how dark it actually was. He could only tell it was still raining out from the actual sound of the precipitation hitting the ground and trees outside. "Do you think we're safe here in the cave?"

"Safe as we could be in a time like this," Doc said without hesitation. "I think the weather is working to our advantage presently, making it more difficult for a creature to come up here. But all the evidence I saw suggested that nothing comes up here."

"Hope that's right. The last thing I want to see is some T-rex wandering in here. Or a sabertooth bear." Marty yawned suddenly. He was exhausted after the weird events of the day, but a nagging feeling of unease--and his responsibility to help Doc out with the job--kept him awake.

As if reading his mind, Doc looked up from his work. "You can get some sleep if you want. I don't need your help right now. Much of this work only I can do."

Marty considered the suggestion for a moment, tempted, but shook his head. "No, I'm okay. I've gotten used to late nights anyway this summer."

"If that's how you feel. But don't let me keep you up." Doc turned his eyes back to the currently out-of-commission flux capacitor.

After a moment of silence, Marty got to his feet and walked over to the train. The gull-wing door was open, allowing the cable to run from the generator to the DeLorean without hinderance. Marty stepped inside the cab, turning on the interior lights. He saw what he came for a moment later, lying on the passenger bench. The guns.

Marty stepped over to the bench slowly. He reached out towards one of the tranquilizer guns, his hand shaking slightly. He had bad memories of those things, ever since Doc B had shot him in late June. Every time Marty saw a gun now, he felt slightly sick. Touching one was the last thing he wanted to do!

"Just pick it up, McFly," Marty whispered to himself.

His hand shook harder as he got closer to the gun. Finally, after a long moment, his fingertips brushed the cool metal. A shudder passed through his body at the touch. Marty swallowed hard and slid the rest of his hand over the handle of the gun. He picked it up, surprised at the weight of the sucker. After another long moment, Marty left the train, the gun cradled under one arm.

Doc looked up as he returned to the DeLorean, doing a double take. His eyes widened in surprise. "Why did you bring that out here? I thought you didn't like guns!"

"I don't," Marty agreed, settling back down against the DeLorean. "But I'd hate for some dinosaur to eat me even more."

Doc looked at him a moment, eyes thoughtfully narrowed, then returned his attention to the DeLorean repairs. "I don't think that's terribly likely, but if that makes you feel better..."

"Not really," Marty said, setting the tranquilizer gun an arm's length away. He leaned back against the cool metal of the car, folding his arms across his chest. "The only thing that would make me feel better was being home now."

"If all goes well, you'll get your wish by this evening," Doc promised.

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