Summary

This novel takes place in New York, following a group of exchange students from around the world. The lead characters, Danny and Louise King, a pair of twins, also take part in the exchange program. While sneaking around at a closed amusement park, Danny has a horrific vision of the group of students on a subway that crashes. Spooked, Danny tries to shake the bad dream off, but the next day, he finds the group in the same position as they were in his vision, and realizes that they are on a doomed subway train. The train stops for no apparent reason, as it had in his vision, and as he tries to convince everyone to get off the train, another train is heard speeding up behind them. The group of exchange students, as well as their guide and another old man finally pull open the doors and scramble out into the subway tunnel and begin running to the front of the train. A sudden collision is suddenly heard, as Danny's gory vision plays out in real life. The group of survivors has cheated the Grim Reaper, but soon enough, Danny realizes that Death won't stop until they're all dead, each by terrible accidents. A mysterious nurse, Kate Shelley, also becomes mixed up in the events, leading to a dark and terrible truth.

Deaths

Kate Shelley: During a hazing game in an unfinished hospital wing, Kate is injected with a large dose of Suxamethonium, and as she races down the corridor to see how far she can get, she drops, and slowly succumbs to the icy effects of the drug. As her fellow associates race up behind her with the oxygen tank, they discover that something is wrong with it, and Kate dies. She is soon revived, however, once the oxygen tank is fixed.

Clues/ Notes: Kate was not meant to die, and when she was brought back to life after dying out of turn, she became a servant of Death, letting her see for herself the deaths of others around her while unknowingly setting off events that will lead to others demises.

Taxi Driver: While driving along the road, his cab is hit by a semi, splitting the fuel tank and igniting on impact, causing his taxi to explode.

Clues/ Notes: As Kate was walking on the sidewalk, she watched as the taxi drove by, and was horrified to see the cab driver’s head in flames, seconds before the accident happened.

Later on she takes note of the iPod a hooded person is listening to and it plays "A Grisly Car Crash" by Nevous Norvus.

Subway Train: While on a ride at the Coney Island Amusement Park, Danny King has a vision that he and everyone else in his exchange program die while onboard a train. The train comes to a sudden stop for no apparent reason, and behind them, another engine is heard. A second train smashes into the first one, sending flaming debris everywhere as the door of the car Danny is in detaches and slices Rinoka Aratsu, a Japanese girl, in half before crushing Peter Hoffman’s head into the window. The whole train erupts in an explosion, killing everyone onboard. As the amusement ride comes to a stop, Danny is winded from the premonition, but decides it was just a freaky hallucination. The next day, Mary-Beth Bradbury, the host of the program, decides to take the kids on a tour, and they head into the subway. While onboard, Danny realizes that everyone is set to die, just like in his vision. As the train comes to a sudden unexplained stop, Danny tries to convince everyone onboard the train to get off, telling them that another train is going to crash into it. He manages to get his twin sister Louise, Mary-Beth, Rinoka, Peter, Bodil Raden, James Barker, and an old man named Jack Cohen off the train, escaping through the door. As they all run down the tracks, the second train explodes into the first one, sending flaming debris everywhere, narrowly missing the survivors.

Clues/ Notes: While on the train, Danny notices that someone is listening to "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.

Rinoka Aratsu: While lying in her hospital bed due to severe burn injuries, the room above her begins to overflow due to an abandoned bathtub. Rinoka dodges fate twice in her room after nearly being stabbed by a falling scalpel and almost being electrocuted on the floor as her heart-monitor fell into the dripping water. As the water from above her continues to drip onto the floor, she rolls into the only dry spot of the room to avoid the growing puddle. The bathtub from upstairs finally falls through the flooded floor, crushing Rinoka to death under its weight.

Clues/ Notes: Rinoka nearly died three times before she was crushed. As the train was crashing, a flaming piece of debris almost hit her. Later, at the hospital, she falls out of her bed just as numerous sharp instrument falls at her, but she avoids them. As she lies in the pooling water on the floor, her heart monitor begins to topple over, but she rolls out of the water in the nick of time, only to be crushed by the bathtub on the floor above her.

Peter Hoffman: After escaping from a restaurant fire at the zoo, Peter runs to get away from the flames as a fireman, holding a live fire hose, slips on a purse, blasting the water at Peter, lifting him off his feet and throwing him over a fence, into the gazelle display. Peter dies as he lands on a gazelle's horns, impaling him through his chest.

Clues/ Notes: Peter almost dies in the restaurant as it ignites in flames, but he narrowly escapes, only to be blasted by the fire hose and into the gazelle exhibit.

Tony Forelli: While eating his dinner at a restaurant, Tony is shot in the head by a waiter.

Clues/ Notes: Several days before being killed, Tony was at the hospital when Kate Shelley first saw him. When she saw him, she could see a bullet wound in his head.

Jack Cohen: While dancing in the park with Mary-Beth, Jack accidentally slips on a banana peel and falls to the ground. As he stands up, he realizes he has landed on a corkscrew, which is now protruding from his eye. As he yanks it out, part of his brain comes with it, and he dies.

Clues/ Notes: Jack was almost killed before the corkscrew incident. As the group of survivors unexpectedly meets up at the hospital, a heavy rain pours down on them, and Danny manages to get everyone out of the way before an MRI scanner drops from above, almost killing the group.

Brad: After walking in on Danny and Kate having sex, Tony Forelli’s bodyguard Tim steps in and shoots Brad in the chest.

Numerous Policemen and Gangsters: While waiting in the police lobby, Mary-Beth, Bodil, and James witness a shoot-out between several gangsters and policemen.

Mary-Beth Bradbury: While standing with James and Bodil, a nearby scaffold collapses. One of the workers left a chainsaw plugged in and its wire is held into the outlet by a piece of plywood. The chainsaw swings at Mary-Beth, slicing through her neck, before its wire wraps around a light post, causing the saw to swing back and slice through her stomach. As her body begins to collapse, her head falls to the ground as the chainsaw comes around for its final circuit, slicing through the falling head before tearing through her ankles.

Clues/ Notes: Mary-Beth was almost killed before the chainsaw incident. As the group of survivors unexpectedly meets up at the hospital, a heavy rain pours down on them, and Danny manages to get everyone out of the way before an MRI scanner drops from above, almost killing the group.

Tim: After beating Danny in front of Kate to get an answer as to how she knew Tony was going to be shot, Tony finds out that the two of them had nothing to do with it. As he’s about to kill Danny, Louise bursts into the warehouse and sends her motorbike flying into Tim’s chest, toppling him into a meat-hook which impales him through the chest.

Bodil Raden: After a swarm of hornets come from a hole in their hotel's floor, Bodil drops some weed on a pillow and it lights on fire. As she is putting out the fire with an extinguisher, its foam gets all over the floor. James opens the window to let the hornets out just as Bodil slips on the foam and knocks him out the window. She runs outside and climbs a nearby cherry picker to rescue James. While trying to save James from falling, the two of them are swung violently through the window of a department store. As the glass cuts through Bodil, she looks up in time to see several sharp-pointed umbrellas drop from their display, point-first, stabbing and impaling Bodil and James, killing them.

Clues/ Notes: Bodil was almost killed before the umbrella incident. As the group of survivors unexpectedly meets up at the hospital, a heavy rain pours down on them, and Danny manages to get everyone out of the way before an MRI scanner drops from above, almost killing the group.

James Barker: After having his arm torn off by a chain, James and Bodil are swung from the arm of a cherry-picker, smashing through the window of a department store. While lying on the floor, several sharp-pointed umbrellas drop from their display, point-first, stabbing and impaling Bodil and James, killing them.

Clues/ Notes: James was almost killed before the umbrella incident. As the group of survivors unexpectedly met up at the hospital, a heavy rain poured down on them, and Danny managed to get everyone out of the way before an MRI scanner drops from above, almost killing the group.

Louise King and Kate Shelley: After she and her brother decide to die and get brought back to life in order to get taken off Death's List, Kate injects a syringe of Suxamethonium into Louise in attempt to kill her and bring her back to life with an oxygen tank. But as Louise goes into a seizure, Kate realizes that she accidentally injected Louise with Lidocaine, and accidentally kills her, but brings her back to life just in time. A terrible secret is then exposed, and Kate kills herself by jabbing the syringe into her heart and tearing her heart apart.

It turns out that Kate caused the deaths of every survivor. She accidentally gave a patient too much medication which made him falls asleep, allowing the water from the tub he was in to overflow and cause Rinoka's death. It was her purse that the fireman tripped over and accidentally shot Peter into the gazelle exhibit. It was her banana peel that Jack slipped on, and the scaffold that collapsed and caused Mary-Beth's death was loosened by her because she brushed into it everyday on her way to work. While in the hotel room that Bodil and James are in before they die, she uses the sink and a pipe begins to leak, slowly angering the hornets that cause their deaths, and she accidentally injected lidocaine into Louise, almost killing her.

Clues/ Notes: Louise was almost killed before the lidocaine incident. As the group of survivors unexpectedly meets up at the hospital, a heavy rain pours down on them, and Danny manages to get everyone out of the way before an MRI scanner drops from above, almost killing the group.

Louise dies out of order. She was meant to die after Danny, but since she is injected first, she dies first, only to be brought back as an unknowing servant of Death just as Kate was.

Danny King: While racing his sister on his motorbike, Danny's brakes cut out and send him flying down a deadly ravine, killing him.

Clues/ Notes: Danny was almost killed before the ravine incident. As the group of survivors unexpectedly meets up at the hospital, a heavy rain pours down on them, and Danny manages to get everyone out of the way before an MRI scanner drops from above, almost killing the group.

Danny dies out of order. He was meant to die before Louise, but since she was injected first, she died first, only to be brought back as an unknowing servant of Death. Louise is the one who accidentally tampers with Danny’s brakes, sending him hurtling into the ravine