A/N: Since today was a double chapter submission, you may get confused. If you haven't already, go read Chapter Thirty so you understand what the heck is going on XD Also, a lot of explaining in this chapter so if you want to learn what the survivors learn, pay close attention.
Finally, all explanation in this chapter is solely what I perceive it should be. This is no way what the official explanation is (not that there is one). So, read on!
Joshua had talked for the better part of two hours. He had talked about the North Bay Bride collapsing, Flight 180 exploding, the pileup on Route 23, Devil's Flight derailment and the race crash at McKinley Speedway. From the briefcase he had brought out folders with massive amounts of details of the 'accidents', pictures of the scenes days after they happened. Joshua detailed everyone of importance, from the very first death; the death of Candice Hooper, all the way nine years and one month later to Nick O'Bannon, Lori Milligan and Janet Cunningham dying in the cafe due to a truck. Joshua brought out pictures of the deceased, from the broken body of Terry Chaney to the decapitated body of Nora Carpenter; from the impaled face of Erin Ulmer to the hole in Samantha Lane's eye. Even the death of Nathan Sears, perhaps the most gruesome. All that remained was bits of charred flesh and a hand.
Throughout every bit of information, all the survivors leaned closer, taking in every grisly detail. Knowing it was important, realising it had a meaning. No-one argued with Joshua, interrupted him or walked out. All listened to him and looked at the pictures and started to see what could happen. What had happened to some.
After detailing everybody who had died and each of the accidents, Joshua went on to talk about the list. About how that decided the order on who was to die. How you could skip your place and have to wait until you came back around again. How killing someone could give you their lives.
"Of course, I know the list. I know the order you would all die." Joshua finished, bringing out a piece of paper and handing it around the room. Fifteen names. Fifteen deaths. The only ambiguity was the order of Josie, Jay and Alex as they all died relatively at the same time. Once Alex had finished reading it, Joshua took the piece of paper back. "Tyrone, you are first." Joshua nodded towards Tyrone, who was shaking slightly. "You may be asking, how to we protect you from dying when we don't know when and where Death will strike? Simple. We don't."
"We don't?" Jason spoke out for the first time. "What do you mean, we don't? You said that we could all survive."
"We have to look out for clues." Joshua said patiently. "Perhaps a reflection in a window or a newspaper opening at a certain page."
"That could be anything then. Really narrows it down, doesn't it?" Chloe said with a roll of her eyes.
"True, but you'll know it when you see it. It's so out of place, it's striking."
"What about mine and Dorothy's visions?" Jason asked. "Not the main ones, but the ones where I draw pictures on the wall. Where Dorothy speaks the thoughts of the soon to be dead. What about those? "
"That..." Joshua licked his lips. "Is something which I'll have to talk to you two about in a contained environment with nobody else around us."
"Why?" David asked defensive of Dorothy.
"Otherwise, it won't work. I have a theory but I can't test that theory with anybody else in here. I'd be threatening them and I'd screw up their minds."
"What the hell are you planning to do then?" David narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Again, I can't say. But look, If I was planning to do anything, I'd have done it. If you feel like that..." Joshua shook his head. "I've said a helluva lot. Before I get into the main topics, I'll say this. Do you trust me? Do each of you trust me?"
Silence once again. Someone asking for trust was a tough question. To say yes would be confirming the fact that you have to believe what he says. To say no would mean that they would have to leave straight away. And after what they had been told... the proof... they couldn't just leave.
One by one, they nodded. Even Nick, who was thinking hard.
"Good." Joshua allowed a faint smile to emerge on his face before it disappeared again. "Tyrone, don't worry. For now, you aren't in danger. Not in this room, not with us here."
Tyrone could only nod. Far too late he had understood what Jason had meant back in the store. That he was going to die. Jason wasn't any kind of murderer, he just saw that Tyrone was meant to die and was trying to do something about it. He felt bad, but also felt confused. Were they forgetting about the bridge accident? What about that list? Tyrone quickly raised his voice to ask the question.
"The bridge accident?" Joshua shook his head. "First off, that was no accident. Second, that was a fake in terms of Death. Death had no involvement. That was somebody somewhere wanting to imitate death and doing a pretty good job of it. The list from the bridge was fabricated."
"So... are you saying..." Tyrone's face fell. It suddenly dawned on him. "J-Jake didn't die in... in some kind of accident?"
"No."
Tyrone felt an intense pressure in his stomach, but he kept it bottled up. This wasn't a good time to break down.
"What about Dylan?" Becca suddenly called out, her eyes wide. "Did he... was that an accident?"
"No." Joshua repeated. "Dylan and Jake... they weren't on a real list. They weren't killed by accidents or design. They were murdered. Murdered by the scum who think it is smart to copy Death. Trust me, I will find out who murdered them and I'll not only avenge Jake and Dylan, but everybody else who died on that bridge. I cannot forgive anybody who takes another human life."
"You almost killed me!" Nick found himself calling out. "You shot me. You shot Jason, too, and I'm pretty sure you were intent on doing it."
Joshua nodded sadly. "I was. I was fully prepared to kill Jason. I wasn't planning on killing you though. But I believed that if Jason died, then I would have already avenged those on the bridge. I've only recently realised that Jason had no hand in it, at least none that he knows."Joshua looked up. "If you had died, I would have handed myself into the police. Because killing you would have meant killing an innocent man. I would have become as bad as so many others. I would hold my head up high and hand myself in." Joshua looked deeply at Nick. "Trust me; I am not a bad man. I had my reasons."
Nick nodded. Something about Joshua's tone of voice made him believe it.
"But that situation will be something done by myself. No, what I want to talk about is visions. Specifically, the visions of Dorothy and Jason." Joshua looked to the two. "I want to explain why you have these visions. What they really are."
"What they really are?" Jason raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly. First off, the whole point of visions is selection." Joshua raised a finger as if he were a lecturer in the middle of a classroom.
"Selection?" Jason questioned.
"That's what it's all about. Finding the cream of the crop. Selection. It's actually simple in a way." Joshua crossed his arms and cleared his throat. "Do you find it unusual? That the visionaries follow a pattern. Do you know what that pattern is?"
Jason could only shake his head. He didn't know and if he didn't know none of the others would know, apart from perhaps –
"Is it that we focus solely on single people?" Dorothy spoke out, facing straight towards Joshua. She had been taking in every single word, putting it into her mind and storing it there. She didn't know what Joshua looked like, or what anybody other than David looked like, but she had taken in their voices and identified them from their voices. "In both the bridge and the hospital... and in those files you showed us. The... visionaries always saw single people up to the point that they died, and moved on to the next."
"You're a perceptive one." Joshua nodded. "That's right, though. They always see single people. For example, in the hospital, you and Jason saw Tyrone first. You saw him get hit by the lightning. Then you moved on to Chloe and essentially experienced what she saw until she died." Joshua shrugged. "Never does a visionarie see everyone. Only a select few people. Do you know why? Because that's the selection at work. Selecting the people who have the most to give. People who, in the end, have the chance of being the most important being in the world."
"Now, I know that sounds kind'a sci-fi, 'in the world' and all that, but it's true. All of you were selected by Death, who gave his message to the visionaries and were given a chance. The fact of the matter is, the fourteen of you are more important than anyone else in that hospital. Hell, at the moment, you are the most important people in America. More important than the FBI, than the CIA, even more important than the president himself." Joshua narrowed his eyes. "It's a lot to take in, trust me, I know, but you are important. I cannot stress that enough. Why are you important? Because you have potential."
"P-Potential?" Jennifer called out, trying to make her voice work. "What do you mean, 'Potential'?"
"Potential of being... messengers, of sorts. Working for Death. Saving the innocent, punishing the bad." Joshua let out a small chuckle. "Some would say that you would become Gods. Some would say you would become Angels, Acolytes, all these things. We humans on planet Earth, we never truly think that there is anything out there. But there is. Death is hard to comprehend, but he is real. He co-ordinates everything, from terrorist disasters to heart attacks to mass genocide. If someone dies, that's a result of him."
Joshua paused for a moment, taking in each expression and nodding to himself. "Usually. But recently, people have been dying and Death can't do anything about it. Death... he himself can't stop death? Something is wrong. It has been for the last twenty years. He can't come out from where he is. Death cannot come to Earth because he... isn't a physical entity, so to speak. He doesn't have form. He is the shadows, the night sky, fear, courage, everything rolled up into one. No matter how much you know about him, you will never see Death, you will never see him walk up to you to give you instructions. Your mind will tell you 'Death doesn't exist'. But trust me. He does."
"So ten years ago, Death decided he was going to try and figure out who was causing these deaths and how they were causing these deaths. Since he couldn't come to Earth, he had to choose people to find out for him. He had to choose the best of the best. So, he knew a bridge was going to collapse. He knew hundreds would die. Death chose Sam Lawton and gave him the vision that told him of the other people with potential. Death decided that, if Sam Lawton survived... if anyone survived after a year and managed to avoid death for a year, he would choose them."
"So far... no-one has succeeded. Everyone has died. So now, all of you are the new batch. You all need to survive a year. You survive a year, then you can do Death's bidding. You find out who has died and why they died, whoever is living by the end of the solution will be given health humans could only dream about. You will die at a nice old age, you will have no diseases, no problems. A perfect human, some would say."
"I realise that this is a lot to take in. A lot of information. All I can say is, go back to what you usually do. I know that the first chance of death will happen in around three days. So, Tyrone, you can be safe for the next two days. On the third day, that's when you will almost die. Everyone will need to look out for signs. I don't know what time of day it will happen, or where it will happen, that is all up to you."
"But... but why can't you do it?" David called out, one of the only ones still with a voice.
"It is unfortunate, but because I have told you what I have told you, I've had that ability taken away from me. I will never see clues on the deaths, but I know what day the assigned death will happen. If Tyrone's death is prevented, then I will know when his next day of death will be. If you all work with me, tell me what you see, tell me the clues, I can lead you all to surviving the year. This day, next year, will be the day when Death will contact us and inform us on what to do next. Consider next year as our deadline."
Joshua unzipped his jacket and tucked it under his arm, allowing a grin to come back and his eyes to sparkle. "Until then, we are going to be working our asses off to survive. It isn't going to be easy, it isn't going to be a walk in the park, but we will succeed. I'll bet my life on it."