Nathan drives. Eric rides shotgun. Jackson and Melissa are in the back. Everyone anxious, looking for cops.
"I can't go home," Jackson said. "After Ms. Twist's, they'll be after me."
"We're taking you to a cabin n the woods. It's only a couple miles from my house." To Nathan, she says, "Keep off the highways. They'll be looking for us."
Nathan, however, continually glances into the rearview mirror, checking Jackson. Finally, hotheaded and unable to hold any further, he says, "Alright, Cody, you freakin' warlock…did you know about Ms. Twist or what?"
"Why do you think I was hiding?" Jackson says.
Melissa says, "Eric told the F.B.I. he saw you runnin' away from her house."
"They blame me for everything. Her, Lex, the whole freakin' plane crash."
"You shoe prints were in the blood. Your fingerprints on the knives." Eric spoke up.
"I already told you-"
"I'm not talkin' about if you did it. Or if you knew she was dead." Nathan pauses a beat. "Did you know she was going to be next…before she was?"
Jackson looks at Melissa, her expression asking the same question. "Yeah," Jackson says quietly. Almost to himself, he says, "When she died…at that moment, I could tell she saw something…horrible."
The three others turn quiet, considering what it must be.
"Out of us…who's next to see it?" Nathan asks.
Jackson eyes them, hesitant to respond.
"Please tell me I'm gonna get to see the jets win the Super Bowl," Eric said.
"Me, right?" Nathan says. "That's why you're not saying."
Eric looks out the window, despondent. "Should've made out with Tammy in the pool, that time."
Nathan says to Eric, "Whatta you whining' about? He said I'm next."
"He didn't say nothing," Melissa said. "Just drive."
"You have a responsibility to tell me," Nathan says.
"You think it's gonna make it easier to know, Nathan? Huh?" Jackson said. "It makes it freakin' harder."
"You get off havin' control over me. Let me choose how to deal with it," Nathan said.
"It doesn't matter who's next," Jackson said. "We're all on the same list."
The three are silent.
"Aw, dang…really?" Nathan's expression becomes frightened, but he can't have this. He counters with an irrational bravado. "Then why bother? What's the freakin' point? Taylor and me will be back together on the other side, so why wait any longer?" Nathan bares down on the steering wheel and hit's the gas.
The muscle car roars past a stop sign. The interior bounces as the car clears a dip past the intersection. Jackson, Melissa, and Eric tense.
"Nathan, what are you doing?" Jackson said. "Slow down. Slow down, Nathan!"
"Screw you!" Nathan says.
"Knock it off," Melissa says.
"May as well go out under my own free will, right?" Nathan says.
"Not with us in the freakin' car," Eric yells.
The car guns it through another stop sign.
Every passenger hangs on as the car bounces from the next dip.
Melissa and Eric speak at once. "Stop it!" Melissa screams. "Hey, c'mon, man." Eric says.
"Nathan stop the freakin' car." Jackson said. He looks down to buckle in, but the seat belt is ripped.
"What's your freakin' worry? If it's not your time…? I could get nailed runnin' this red light and you all wouldn't get crap! Only me, right?" Nathan said.
"It doesn't work that way, Nathan," Jackson says.
Up ahead is a red light.
Jackson quickly turns his attention back to his seat belt to try and tie it together but it's already connected, as if it weren't just separated in half. Jackson looks confused, but turns his attention back to the road.
A car approaches with a green lighted right of way. Nathan's car just misses being t-boned in the intersection as the other car hit's the breaks, fishtailing.
"And I freakin' hated French class," Eric said.
Melissa and Jackson speak at the same time. "Nathan, stop it, you freakin' maniac!" Jackson says. "Get control of yourself," Melissa says.
"That's what I'm doin'!" Nathan yells back.
"I know what you're doing!" Melissa says. "It's alright to be scared. Nathan. You don't have to prove to us how brave you are. Not now."
"I'm not afraid! I decide when it's time! I control my life! I control my death!"
"Watch it! Watch it!" Eric yells.
Nathan barrels through the intersection as a car makes a left turn. He takes his hand off the wheel and raises them in the air, like a terrorized child on a roller coaster The turning car honks, roaring through the intersection as Nathan's car nearly clips the rear end of the car.
Nathan hooks his elbow on the window and his right arm around the front seat, driving, no hands.
Together, Melissa and Jackson speak at once. "Stop the car!" Melissa yells. "Let us out," Jackson says.
"I am…so close to puking, you don't wanna know," Eric says.
"We're afraid, too, Nathan, but we're not going to quit. Maybe you are. You act like you're not but you are!" Melissa said.
Nathan eyes Melissa in the rearview mirror.
Melissa continued. "So, stop what you're doing and stop this car! Right now."
Nathan begins to slow the car down.
In the back seat, Jackson and Melissa ease just as railroad crossing arms drop. They hear the clang, clang, clang of the railroad crossing alarm.
The front crossing arm drops before the car, trapping them on the track.
Nathan turns and flashes a "that's why I stopped" smile.
"Move it!" Melissa yelled.
Nathan turns off the engine, then sits back into his seat and folds his arms, indicating he has no intention of moving.
"Eric, get out." Jackson said.
Scared to death, Eric fumbles with the car door handle. From the front passenger seat, he looks up and to his left.
A locomotive headlight arcs across the trees…approaching.
Melissa and Jackson speak at once. "Can't you open the door?!" Melissa said. "Easy, Eric, just open it," Jackson said calmly.
Eric is still having trouble opening the door.
"Eric, open the freakin' door!" Jackson yelled, kicking the back of Eric's seat.
Melissa screams at Eric, whose eyes are wide, glued to the approaching train. Jackson leans forward, opens the door handle, and pushes Eric out.
The train appears around the blind bend.
Melissa is quickly behind Eric.
Nathan remains in the driver's seat.
Jackson, standing outside the passenger's door, says, "C'mon Nathan. Listen to me. You don't wanna do this."
Nathan just turns to him with a smirk.
Jackson slams the door shut.
The train warning whistle blows as Jackson, Melissa, and Eric hustle away from the car on the same side of the tracks. They quickly turn around, desperate to convince. "Nathan, get out!" Melissa calls. "Don't do it! Don't do it!" Jackson says. "It's coming! It's coming!" Eric yells.
Arms crossed, Nathan remains in the front seat. As the interior fills with light from the headlight of the oncoming train, Nathan turns and looks at them with a smart aleck smile, pleased that he's shown how brave he truly is. With a beam of cocky defiance, he says, "It ain't my time." He coolly turns back to the ignition, grabs the key, and turns it over, only to be met with the dull clack of a dead engine. His eyes flare with tension. He turns it again and again…nothing. He looks up.
The train is moments away.
Jackson, Melissa, and Eric assess the situation. "Get out! Get out of the car! Get out of the freakin' car!" Jackson yells. "Get out of the car!" Melissa screams. "Get out!"
As he turns away from them, Nathan sees something in the rearview mirror.
The passing shadow is darker than any surrounding darkness.
Nathan, as if the image has affected him, looks to his lap belt and clacks the button. He tugs at the restraint, but it will not move. He's strapped in. He tries to open the door. It won't budge. He pulls at the door handle…tugs at the seatbelt…panicked. Horrified, he whips toward the others. "I can't get out!" he yells.
Jackson, Eric, and Melissa look at each other, equally frightened.
"Man, he really is next," Eric says.
Jackson takes off toward Nathan's car. He hustles around the driver's side. Jackson desperately tries freeing the seatbelt.
The train whistle screams.
Melissa and Eric tense as the train nears.
Jackson grabs Nathan by the shoulders and strains with all his might to pull the much more muscular kid out of the driver's window.
The shadowy presence is reflected by the chrome buckle. However, as it passes, the seat belt begins to tear.
Jackson releases a deep groan.
The train tears through the front end of the muscular car.
Glass and metal erupt as the locomotive thunders.
Melissa and Eric must turn away from the shower of metal and broken glass.
Jackson holds Nathan by the shirt at the shoulders, dragging him away from the wreckage.
The two boys collapse on the road as the train continues to roar past.
As the train wheels thunder and clack, a broken two foot long shard of the car's debris bounces upon the tracks, kicked about by the train wheels.
Melissa and Eric run to the two survivors. Melissa falls into Jackson's arms, holding him tight.
Nathan lies on the road, hyperventilating and near tears.
"Scared now?" Melissa said.
Nathan looks at a piece of seatbelt. "It broke."
"No one's that strong," Eric said.
"Bullcrap! He saved your life…again." Melissa said to Nathan.
The train wheels continue to kick around the chunk of metal. The thundering train intensifies the situation.
"That's right! He's right! You are next! I'm getting the heck away from you!" Eric begins backing up from the others.
"Shut up, Eric," Nathan yelled.
"We don't need this," Melissa said.
Eric continues backing away, horrified. "I don't need it ever! Get away from him! He's next!"
The debris rattles beneath the wheels.
Nathan and Jackson are still on the ground.
"Screw you, Eric! I'm not dead!" Nathan yelled.
Still backing away, Eric said, "You will be! You're dead! You're dead!"
The debris bounces directly on the track. With great power and force, a train wheel runs over the debris, cutting it in half. It catches in the wheel and is spun around until shot out with the force of a missile.
Eric continued. "And you ain't takin' me with you!"
Fwoop! The metal tears through the air ripping Eric's head from his shoulders.
The roar of the train seems exaggerated as Jackson, Melissa, and Nathan are frozen in horrified shock.
The train is gone. Jackson, Nathan, and Melissa can do nothing but watch Eric's decapitated body macabrely wobbling on its two feet before falling to the ground.
"Holy crap!" Nathan says.
For a beat, there is silence, until, in the distance, sirens can be heard, approaching.
As Jackson stands, and Nathan manages to rise on his wobbly legs, none of them can remove their eyes from Eric's body.
To Nathan, Jackson says, "You should have been next. After Twist, you should have been next. That's the only pattern. You should be dead."
"Cody, you're the freakin' devil," Nathan said.
"But I intervened. Just like the plane. That's the design," Jackson told Melissa.
"Police are coming," she said.
"That's why it skipped Nathan and went to the next one in the path of the explosion: Eric." Jackson looks at Melissa as if experiencing an intense epiphany. "My intervention in the death of 180 survivors will cheat the design."
"Intervention?" Nathan repeated. "What? Are you a god now?"
"Of course not. Gods aren't afraid to die. Gods don't die. We do!" Jackson said.
"You're losin' it," Melissa said. "The police will be here. We have to go to the cabin. You can hide there. Get your head together."
Jackson considers, mind racing, then realizes, "After Eric…it's me…"
"And then me," Melissa says.
Jackson grabs Melissa and lifts her chin with his index finger. "Hey, I won't let it happen, okay?"
Nathan turns to them. It's as far as he will go to admit he believes…or will help. "Then, get outta here."
As she moves to Jackson, Melissa nods her acknowledgement and appreciation to Nathan. She takes Jackson by the hand and the pair begins running away, off into the woods.
In the distance, a train whistle blow, eerie, as if Death was punctuating the moment.