Summary

This novel takes place in Los Angeles, following the lead character, Patti Fuller, who works at a magazine called Borderlands Control. While boarding the South Hill Metroline with her boyfriend, Patti is suddenly caught up in an explosion on board the car she's in. Fire destroys everyone inside her car in an instant, but in an odd twist of fate, Patti realizes that she and her boyfriend, as well as a few others, have yet to board the doomed car of the Metroline. Patti begins to make a scene, blocking these few people from getting on board, and soon enough, it pays off. The stranded few begin to argue with her as the Metroline leaves the station, but seconds later, a horrible explosion is heard as a bomb goes off on the Metroline. Patti knows that what she experienced was more than a lucky dream, and as she slowly figures out that she, like countless in the past, has had a premonition, the few survivors begin to die in gory ways. Patti and her boyfriend Will become desperate to find a way to remove their names from "Death's List" in time, and while researching, Patti learns that her great-grandmother, Juliet Collins, also cheated death once, saving many from a house fire. As Patti slowly figures out how her great-grandmother cheated death for good, time becomes strained as her and Will's name end up at the top of the list.

Victorian England

Deaths

Madame Adrienne’s house: As Juliet Collins takes a seat in the room at her first séance with several other guests at Madame Adrienne’s house, she has a sudden vision of an explosion that happens in a flash, burning everyone to death in the room, including Matthew Upton, Hector Barnes, Mrs Stanley, Andrew Caine, Stewart Tubbs, Bill Sangster, Adrienne and her servants, and herself. In a panic, she causes a scene, which results in all of the guests leaving Adrienne’s house. As they all begin in their separate directions, an explosion erupts from the underground excavation for the new railroad line, sending flames shooting up the walls of Adrienne’s house. In a terrible flash, Adrienne and her servants are all burnt to death.

Matthew Upton: As Matthew is walking along a street, he trips and falls into a pile of debris from the abandoned hospital next to him. A pipe, lined with certain deadly chemicals, ignites from his acids as it jabs through his stomach. Fueled by his fat, the chemicals then proceed to burn him from the inside-out.

Hector Barnes: While opening an Egyptian sarcophagus with Mrs. Stanley and Andrew Caine, a large family of spitting-cobras escapes. One attacks Hector, and he is bit. He dies from the poison.

Mrs. Stanley: While opening an Egyptian sarcophagus with Hector Barnes and Andrew Caine, a large family of spitting-cobras escapes. One manages to coil up and spring at Mrs. Stanley's face, biting her tongue. She dies from the venom as it soaks through her blood.

Andrew Caine: While opening an Egyptian sarcophagus with Hector Barnes and Mrs. Stanley, a large family of spitting-cobras escapes. Several attack Andrew at once, spitting poison in his eyes and slithering around him, biting him in several different places. He dies from the venom of the cobras.

Stewart Tubbs: After escaping from possible danger, Tubbs breaks into the basement of a hospital in search of some clothes to hide his own nudity. In the process, he accidentally topples some jars of unknown gases, which proceed to knock Tubbs unconscious. He is found, but is thought to be dead, and as another doctor begins to perform the autopsy, he slices Tubbs open and pulls back one of the lungs, just as Tubbs wakes up. He soon dies thereafter.

Bill Sangster: While chasing after Juliet, he finally catches up to her on the edge of a large drawbridge that has been drawn open. He tosses Juliet down into the water several feet below to prevent his secret from being let out, but as he stands at the top of the split bridge, he looses his footing as the bridge begins to close. He drops to the very bottom, landing in the gears of the bridge which continues to close, crushing him to death in the gears and mechanics of the bridge.

Juliet Collins: After being thrown from the top of a drawn open bridge, Juliet lands in the water. She struggles to stay alive, but soon enough, she drowns to death. As her body is pulled out of the water, she is brought back to life.

Modern Times

Deaths

South Hill Metroline: While waiting to board the Metroline, Patti Fuller has a flash of a vision that an explosion will kill everyone onboard of the train in a few minutes. In a fit, she manages to prevent several other would-be-passengers from boarding the train, including her boyfriend Will Sax, a man named Al Kinsey, a construction worker named Zack Halloran, a biker named Hal Ward, and a woman named Susan Fries. The Metroline continues on its way without the passengers, and shortly after, a bomb goes off in one of the cars, vaporizing everyone inside while derailing the front two cars and exploding the majority of the train inside the tunnel.

Hal Ward: While biking in a dried up river, Hal tumbles off of his bike as his foot is snagged in a protruding root. A sudden flash-flood rips down the dry river, flooding it instantly. Hal fails to escape the water as his biker helmet weighs him down, and he eventually drowns.

Clues/ Notes: Before he drowns, there is a sudden tremor that leaves a series of cracks beneath him, looking like a skeletal hand has him in its palm.

Hal notices a shadow along the wall of the dried up creek before he starts riding down it.

Zack Halloran: While leaving a building that is under construction, a large pane of glass drops from a scaffold high above Zack, and it hits him edge first, cutting down the middle of his face, neck, chest, and stomach, slicing him in two vertical halves, killing him instantly.

Clues/ Notes: As he looks at his watch, he notices a dark shadow creep by accompanied by an eerie chill.

Susan Fries: While working at a car repair shop, Susan carries a bucket of metal fibres to a shed, but on the way, a few stray metal shards ignite in sparks in a complicated reaction from static from her clothes. Some land on her shirt and burn a hole through her chest, killing her.

Clues/ Notes: As she’s carrying the pail of aluminium shavings, she catches a glimpse of a shadow circling the rim of the pail.

Ironically, her last name is "Fries"; when saying her name it sounds like Susan fries, as in burns.

Al Kinsey: While racing another car, Al falls behind and laughs as the other car hits the train tracks and blows a tire. The hubcap of the car shoots outwards, spiraling in the air before smashing through Al's windshield, slicing off his head.

Clues/ Notes: As he’s racing the other car, he notices a dark shadow slither across the railroad tracks just as the other car slams into them, sending the hubcap ricocheting at his head.

Will Sax: While working at Circuit City, several loaded CD and DVD players begin to malfunction, opening up their lips and shooting their discs at Will, who attempts to dodge the razor-like discs, but eventually fails as they shoot one-by-one into his back, and his neck, killing him.

Clues/ Notes: Before Will is killed, Patti has a dream that the terrorist who was responsible for the bomb talks to her, telling her that he did not kill Hal Ward, Zack Halloran, Susan Fries, Al Kinsey, or Will Sax. Patti is shocked when he says Will's name, as he is still alive.

As all the lights go out in the store, the TV’s all begin to turn themselves on, revealing deathly skulls in the static.

Patti Fuller: Depressed after Will's death, Patti decides she must die and be brought back to life, as she and Will had planned before. She runs into a dog pound and holds the manager there hostage until she injects herself with the toxic chemicals used to kill the dogs, ending her life. She is later brought back to life at a hospital, taken off Death's List.

Clues/ Notes: Had she not injected herself with the chemicals just as she did, she would have been impaled through the head by a television antenna that was launched by an explosion.