Captain Harry E. Pearson
1:00 a.m. （Mountain Standard Time）
Death-Cast is calling Captain Harry E. Pearson to tell him he’s going to die today, moments before he was about to prepare his airplane for his centennial flight.
From the first officer to the flight attendants to the passengers, all eyes are on the captain. This is the kind of attention one dreams about during in-flight safety demonstrations, but people are often too lost in their magazines and phones to care. But now they’re rapt with great intensity, wondering when Captain Pearson will answer his End Day call. He’s about to when he feels a deep dread, such as when he used to watch horror movies but had to stop because his aging heart couldn’t handle the suspense and jump-scares anymore, and Captain Pearson becomes very suspicious of all on board.
If Death-Cast is calling while he’s not even in the air, then does that mean there’s someone on this plane who will kill him? A terrorist with intentions to hijack the plane? It can’t be a bomb because everyone would have to be a Decker, yes? Who’s to say everyone else isn’t about to get a call? This is all new territory.
In a state of distress, Captain Pearson makes a rapid decision, a decision that’s against all regulations because those guidelines were written for a world without Death-Cast, where one was to prepare for danger but not where you must accept inevitability. If he’s to save all his passengers from a hijacking, he must trust no one, including his first officer, who he shoves toward first class. Captain Pearson doesn’t wait to see where he lands. He locks himself in the cockpit, heartbroken he won’t make his one hundredth flight but proud of his commitment to safety first.
He sits down in his pilot’s chair and answers Death-Cast’s call while staring at the sky.
Scarlett Prince
1:02 a.m. （Mountain Standard Time） Is the pilot going to kill them all?
All Scarlett knows is that once the pilot seals himself inside the cockpit, all hell breaks loose. So many passengers go wild like animals freed from cages, charging to the front of the plane and demanding to be let out. Scarlett wants to do the same, but she’s terrified she’ll be trampled in the pandemonium, so she cowers with her back to the window. Did the pilot attack his copilot because he wants to fly everyone to their deaths? Or is there someone among them in the main cabin who is the greater threat?
It’s hard to hold faith in Death-Cast when they’ve incited this much hysteria.
What if they’re getting things wrong tonight?
Scarlett tries calling that boy Orion’s phone to reach Valentino, but she can’t get a signal.
Maybe a text will go through: Death cast called the pilot She types so fast, not giving a shit about proper punctuation. I didnt get a call but everyone is going crazy.
No messages are going through.
I’m scared, Val, she types anyway.
She might as well get used to these one-sided conversations with her brother now.
Orion
4:04 a.m.
Valentino calls Scarlett again, but it keeps going straight to voice mail.
“What if she’s talking to Death-Cast?” he asks, setting down the phone.
The thing is, if Scarlett is getting her End Day call, there’s nothing we can do about that. I just got to offer some support so Valentino doesn’t completely lose his shit.
“If Death-Cast is hitting her up, I bet you anything you’re the first person she’s going to call once she’s off the phone.” I find his eyes in the darkness, seeing him understand. “Scarlett is probably still having service issues.”
“You’re totally right. It took forever for my text to go through earlier on my flight before we took off. The message had just sent before I had to switch to airplane mode, and that was without interference from all the End Day calls.”