Chapter 39: Death Knocks (Part 2)
Everyone was stunned.
The very AF180 flight they had all been on had exploded!
Everything happened exactly as Alex had predicted.
All eyes instinctively turned toward him.
Alex quickly noticed the strange looks he was getting.
Instead of gratitude, people were staring at him like he was a monster.
Nearby, Gideon Black was quietly watching Emma.
Though he was 90% sure they had been caught up in the "Death Is Coming" incident, a small doubt lingered — could Emma be behind it all?
Emma herself was shaken by the scene but quickly sensed a hint of hostility.
"You have to understand, I'm just a nine-year-old kid who knows nothing about machines," Emma calmly explained, taking a subtle step further away from Gideon.
"Besides, you know me — if I were planning this, I wouldn't have let you board the plane," she added.
Gideon rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
This girl had stuck close to him since they entered the terminal.
Even on the plane, he had briefly restrained her hands, leaving little chance for her to act.
"Looks like I was overthinking it."
...
At the airport conference room,
Several people including Gideon were gathered.
The crash had come without warning and caused huge impact.
It quickly drew the attention of the FBI.
At the same time, Gideon recalled some rules from the original story.
For every major disaster, someone at the scene suddenly gains the ability to foresee the future.
If that person uses this power to escape the disaster, then all survivors who escape with them will die afterward in a certain order, matching the order in which they were supposed to die in the disaster.
However, this rule isn't always fixed.
If a survivor is saved at the moment of death, the sequence is temporarily broken.
Death skips that person and moves on to the next.
For example, if it's person A's turn to die, but A is saved, then the next disaster claims person B instead.
But this skip isn't permanent.
Once all remaining survivors die, the disasters circle back to those previously skipped, until everyone on the list has died.
...
During the FBI questioning, Alex repeated his account of his precognitive vision.
Unsurprisingly, no one believed him.
"Officers, you must have completed background checks on Alex and the rest of us."
At that moment, Gideon suddenly spoke up.
"If I'm not mistaken, Alex has no terrorist ties."
An agent named Wayne raised his eyebrows and asked,
"Do you have evidence to support that?"
As the priest mentioned, their investigation had yielded nothing incriminating.
"I suppose next come the toxicology and drug tests..." Gideon continued.
"And if those come back clean, then we have to face the reality — Alex's precognition is real."
He objectively analyzed the situation, trying to remind the agents.
Though these two were FBI agents, in stories like this, law enforcement often plays the skeptic.
Yet as soon as he finished speaking, Gideon noticed the others' gazes grow even stranger.
"Hey, dear Father, are you saying God granted Alex this ability?" Carter sneered.
"You should understand, now is not the time for preaching."
Agent Wayne added, "I respect your faith, Father, but I hope we can stay grounded in reality."
At first, Wayne thought the priest might have uncovered a clue.
But soon realized he was just using the situation to promote the church.
He shook his head.
He had seen people like this before — whenever faced with the unexplainable, they jumped to "miracles" and "revelations."
Seeing no progress, Wayne and his colleague planned to conduct a private interrogation.
An hour later, a few people were released.
As Gideon had anticipated, Alex's record was clean, and the FBI could only let a few individuals go for the time being.
Gideon sought out Alex.
"Do you still remember where the plane explosion started, according to the prophecy?"
Alex looked puzzled.
After a moment's thought, he replied, "I think it was the right wing, near my friend Tod. Are you asking because…"
"I believe you," Gideon interrupted, "and I think this isn't over by a long shot."
Gideon chose his words carefully, speaking in a way Alex could accept, laying the groundwork for what was to come.
Hearing this, Alex felt a warmth in his heart.
Though he found the priest's behavior a bit strange, recalling the classmates lost that night and the distrust from friends and teachers, the priest's words gave him some encouragement.
"Thank you."
...
After parting with Alex, Gideon returned to the airport.
By now, he was on high alert.
Not only did he wear the sacred relic on him, but he also deliberately avoided any potential dangers while moving — whether it was a turning machine or crowded places.
Of course, Gideon kept his distance from Emma as well.
But this time, she was among the survivors.
Though Emma was a bit reluctant, Gideon still had her wear the sacred relic.
After some time, the two found the airport office.
At first, Gideon tried to convince the FBI to temporarily detain the survivors.
After all, prisons don't allow any dangerous items, which might delay the unfolding disaster.
But the two agents thought he was overthinking it.
Still, Gideon wasn't about to sit back and wait for fate.
He approached the staff and obtained the seating chart for Flight AF180.
In the original account, the order of death followed the survivors closest to the explosion, based on the seating chart.
Using Alex's information, Gideon quickly drew a route map.
Perhaps because of his and Emma's presence, the death sequence differed from the original.
On this path, Tod was closest to the explosion's center.
Next came teacher Lewton, followed by the hot-headed youth Carter.
After them were Gideon and Emma.
Though Gideon wondered if the sacred relic and holy power could resist the death curse, it was only a guess.
He resolved to help the other survivors find a way to escape the death list.
With that decided, Gideon immediately took Emma to the airport entrance and hailed a taxi.
Since the disaster could happen at any moment, he chose to find Tod first.
Two hours later, Gideon and Emma arrived at a residential neighborhood.
Both Alex and Tod lived there.
Before looking for Tod, Gideon stopped by Alex's house.
True to the typical American temperament, people only truly believe they might die when danger is imminent.
Therefore, to prevent death from picking them off one by one, survivors needed to recognize reality early.
After some effort, Alex was called out.
Since returning home, he had felt uneasy, as if something was about to happen.
So when Gideon came looking, Alex agreed without hesitation.
The three then headed to Tod's house.
Tod was grieving the recent loss of a family member.
To relieve stress, he planned to take a hot bath.
After grabbing a towel, Tod turned the handle and opened the bathroom door.