Final Destination 3, page 29
part #1 of Final Destination Series
"Come on, Kevin," Wendy said, looking at him. "We have to get Julie and get the hell out of here."
But Kevin was barely listening. He was staring up at the sky, his eyes glazed, wheezing like an asthmatic old man. His face was singed. He had blisters on his left cheek. His hair was smoking. His hand was pressed to his chest.
"Kevin?" Wendy asked. "Kevin, are you okay?"
"Just… just need to catch… my breath," he said. "Christ, that hurts."
"Hang on Kevin," Wendy said. "I'll see if I can find a paramedic for you, and for Julie."
She craned her neck, looking around again. People were rushing away from the burning barbeque tent now. Others, official men in uniforms, were rushing towards it. Still others were simply staring at it, their attention pulled away from the fireworks in the sky by the earthbound explosion.
"Can somebody help us?" she cried, reluctant to leave Kevin's side. "Can somebody get a paramedic?"
Nobody looked her way. Everyone was focused on the blazing tent. Everyone except…
A figure in the center of the crowd was staring right at her. She focused on him, reaching out her arm. It was Ian McKinley. His eyes were wild with reflected fire. Wendy's arm dropped. She frowned at him, confused. Why was he staring at her like that? He took a step toward her. Had it been Ian who followed her? Suddenly she was horribly sure it had been.
"Kevin?" she said, looking down, filled with dread and unease.
"Yeah, I'm good," said Kevin. "Let's go."
He tried to push himself up, but his arms wouldn't support his weight.
Wendy turned toward Julie and Amber. Julie was sitting up now and Amber was getting to her feet.
"Amber. Julie," she called. "Help me. Kevin needs help."
Julie looked up at her with wide, wet eyes. "What's happening?" she sobbed. "Why is everything going crazy?"
"I'll explain it once we get out of here, I promise," she said. "Amber, help me get Kevin on his feet. We have to go."
Julie staggered to her feet and leaned against a tent pole while Amber stumbled over to them. The redheaded girl took Kevin's left arm as Wendy took his right, and they hauled him up. Kevin blinked around, dazed, trying to focus his eyes. He frowned.
"What is McKinley doing here?" he slurred. "He hates his family and everything about this town."
Wendy froze, and almost let go of Kevin. "McKinley," she said. "Oh my God. McKinley. Of course!"
Kevin wove on his feet and nearly fell. Wendy clutched him again and got his arm over her shoulder.
"We need to leave here now," she said. Her voice was sharp and hard. "Julie, come on!"
Kevin turned to look at her, blinking and confused. "Huh?" he asked. "What's the deal?"
Wendy whispered in his ear. "Ian followed me," she said. "In my picture. The one where I'm standing with Jason, we are wearing the McKinley grad night shirts. The way Jason's hand is on my shoulder it looks like he's pointing to the word McKinley. Ian McKinley."
Kevin's mouth dropped open. "Holy shit," he said. "Come on. Let's move. The first aid station, there'll be security."
He leaned forward and Wendy and Amber guided him down the path while Julie followed close behind. Ian watched them, and changed his course to pace them. They moved slowly down the slope toward the fireworks launch area and the security tent beyond.
Julie frowned as she struggled to keep up with Wendy, Amber and Kevin.
"What are you guys talking about?" she asked. "McKinley grad night shirt? I don't get it."
"It's a long story," Wendy said over her shoulder, talking loudly over the constant explosions of the fireworks. "It sounds goofy as hell, but haven't you noticed how everybody who got off Devil's Flight before it crashed has died. In order?"
Julie's eyes went blank as she thought about it, then they widened as she was hit by a realization.
"And I was on the roller coaster," she cried. "Next to Perry. That means I'm…"
Wendy shook her head. "Maybe not," she said. "It looks like Kevin saved you. You might be safe."
"Then you saved Kevin," Julie said. She stopped walking suddenly, and Amber stopped too, almost toppling Kevin. Julie stared at Wendy, eyes growing huge in her still too pale face. "But, that means you… you…"
"That means I'm next," Wendy said. "Right. And the other half of the weirdness is the pictures I took that night. They all seem to give clues on how the people in the pictures are going to die. Ashley and Ashlyn looked like they were on fire in theirs. Lewis looked like his head was going to be crushed. Frank had a fan that looked like it was slicing through his neck. Kevin's photo was all over exposed like a bomb went off in his face…"
"And you were wearing a McKinley T-shirt," said Julie, getting it. "With Jason pointing to the name McKinley. Oh my God."
"What are we talking about, kids?" asked Ian, appearing beside them suddenly. He sounded as cheerful as a kindergarten teacher, but there was a demented glint in his eyes.
Kevin glared at him. "Get the fuck out of here, McKinley," he shouted over the noise. "I've had more than enough of your shit for one night."
Ian made a shocked face. "What? Have I offended you?" he asked, with mock sincerity. "I'm just here to celebrate our beloved town's Tri-Centennial, like the rest of our happy citizens."
"You followed me," Wendy said, eyes narrow and hard.
"Who? Moi?" Ian said. "You're getting paranoid." He laughed, a nasty sound. "Of course, I guess you've got reason to be. I saw everything that happened just now, and you're next, aren't you? Kevin saved your sister. You saved Kevin. So you're number's up, isn't it? You're the end of it. When you're gone, it's done. Unless somebody saves you."
"I thought you said you didn't believe me," Wendy said bitterly.
"Seeing is believing," Ian replied. "Twenty nails through Erin's face was pretty fucking convincing." The veins in his neck were pulsing.
"Well if you believe me," she said, "you have to stay away from me."
"Yeah, asshole," Kevin said, voice more breathless than badass. "Beat it."
"I have to stay away from you?" Ian said, frowning. "Who died and made you Death's stage manager? Why do I…?" He paused, as a realization struck him. "Wait a minute. Do I… Do I cause your death? No way." He laughed hysterically. "Well, isn't that poetic justice? Isn't that just a perfect fucking circle?" He snarled at Wendy. "Tit for tat, right, eye for an eye. I cause your death, the way you caused Erin's!"
They all jumped as three mortars fired right next to them, fireworks whooshing up into the sky. They had reached the plastic barricades that had been Kevin's post before all the chaos had begun. None of them noticed that the flatbed trailer was angling down a little more every time one of its mortars fired.
Ian shouted as the fireworks exploded overhead. "Was I in one of your visions, Wendy? What did you see?"
Wendy tried desperately to ignore him. She looked forward, toward the first aid station, only twenty yards ahead. Paramedics and security officers were carrying Perry's body, and the body of the burned cook inside, while others with minor injuries waited outside. Wendy thought of shouting to the guards for help, but they wouldn't hear her over all the explosions. She kept walking, doggedly urging Kevin forward.
Ian looked ahead and saw where they were heading. He stepped in front of them, blocking their path. Amber gasped and stepped back, letting go of Kevin. Wendy staggered as Kevin's full weight hit her, but she bore it up, angry now, chin up and defiant.
"Was I in one of your magic photos, Wendy?" Ian asked. "Was I in your photo? Was I in front of a tent?"
Wendy veered Kevin to the right, angling away from the fireworks launch area as Amber and Julie tried to edge around Ian.
He shuffled in front of them again, laughing.
"Come on, Wendy," Ian said. "Isn't this exciting? Isn't the tension killing you? Don't you want to finish it? Just tell me how I start it off. Let's…" His moment of villainous menace was marred somewhat when a clump of loose Mylar balloons bumped into him and hugged his face. He batted them angrily away. "Goddamn it. Let's get it over with!"
Most of the jaunty balloons drifted behind him, bobbing over the plastic barricaded and then drooping and rolling across the ground toward the flatbed mounted mortars. One hung around Wendy's legs like a needy puppy.
"It'll be over if you just stay away from me," Wendy said, pleading. "Then it'll all be over and none of us will have to worry anymore."
The Mylar balloons bumped against the flatbed trailer. A gust of wind pushed them up and they bounced toward the electronic matches. The matches were bare wires screwed into a plank, with simple open switches waiting for a pulse of electricity to complete the circuit and light the fuse. One of the balloons landed lightly on both sides of one switch, and the silver coating of the Mylar balloon closed the circuit. Sparks flew, popping the balloons, and a fuse lit.
"It's already over for me," Ian said. "It skipped me. I'm not dying, but I don't want it to be over for you."
"You're sick," Wendy said, grimacing. "I didn't do anything to you."
Flames belched from the largest mortar on the flatbed. Wendy jumped and looked behind her. The forlorn Mylar balloon blocked her view, and then floated in front of her. She pushed at it, annoyed, and froze as she saw in its mirror finish the reflection of herself standing, with Kevin draping his arm over her shoulder. She recognized the pose, but where from? It struck her. She had been standing in exactly the same pose with Jason in her grad night picture. A shiver of nauseous dread ran through her. Her death was near, it had to be, but where?
The force of the big firework's exhaust at last unbalanced the flat bed completely, and it tipped down to the ground like a seesaw. The heavy mortar frame slid down the incline and tipped over until the mortar tubes were parallel with the ground, and the openings were pointing right at Wendy, Kevin, Amber and Julie's backs. The flaccid Mylar balloons settled across all the electronic matches on the board. Sparks flew. And all the remaining fuses lit at once.
Wendy turned at the hiss of the fuses, just in time to see four mortar tubes erupt with flame, launching fireworks straight at her. She screamed and dropped, dragging Kevin and Julie with her. They collapsed in a pile on the grass as the four rockets screamed over them, cascading sparks, and shot directly at Ian. He froze in shock, eyes wide, but at the last second, the fireworks veered up and arced into the sky, missing him by inches.
Wendy, Kevin and Julie looked up, amazed to see Ian still standing. Down near the security tent, Clark and Polanski looked up at the sudden noise and light.
Ian remained motionless for a moment, deeply unnerved by his close call, but then he relaxed and grinned, pointing a triumphant finger at Wendy.
"See?" he said, cackling maliciously. "See? I'm not going to die. It's you, Wendy. You're next. You're dead!"
The four fireworks exploded together next to the towering cherry picker crane holding the large McKinley Tri-Centennial sign high over Ian's head. The blast shredded the cable holding the cherry picker's basket, over which the sign was draped, and the basket dropped, straight toward Ian. He looked up and raised his hands over his head, wrists crossing in the shape of an X.
The basket hit him square in the forehead and pile-drove him into the ground. Blood welled up around the frame of the basket, which had buried itself two feet deep into the soft earth. One of Ian's pale hands poked limply out from the side of the basket until the sign fluttered down and covered it, the word McKinley marking Ian's final resting place in yard high letters.
Wendy, Kevin and Julie got slowly to their feet, staring at yet another gruesome accident and edging away. Amber was edging back and then suddenly bolted away into the crowd. As Wendy stepped back, her foot hit something hard. She looked down. The yearbook camera that Julie had borrowed earlier lay at her feet. She picked it up as warily as if picking up a tarantula.
Julie looked at it and flinched. "I didn't take any pictures. I swear!" she said. "I'll take it back Monday."
Wendy hesitated, then shook her head. She threw it down again and stomped on it. It cracked and bent with a snapping of plastic and metal as she ground it under her heel.
"Forget it," Wendy said. "It's broken."
Julie nodded and exchanged a half smile with her sister.
"Good fucking riddance," Kevin said.
Wendy looked at him and slipped under his arm again. "You all right?" she asked.
He nodded as Julie tucked under his other arm and they limped forward. "Yeah," he said. "I'll be fine as long as you're fine. Everything's under control now, Wendy. It's over."
As they limped toward the first aid tent, a pair of paramedics hurried toward them, and Clark and Polanski ran toward the cherry picker basket and Ian's body. Wendy breathed a sigh of relief. The feeling of foreboding was gone. The nightmare was over. Kevin was right. Everything was under control again. All she had to worry about from now on was plain old ordinary life.
A sudden, bright white light flashed behind her. She paused and looked back. The crushed camera's lens winked at her. The electronic flash was fading to red.
Her blood ran cold. This couldn't be happening. It was over. Everybody that got off the roller coaster had already had their brush with death, and either died or survived. It had skipped her and Julie and Kevin and… and…
A sudden horrible realization nearly stopped her heart. Ian had thought it skipped him, but he had died after all, hands up in the shape of an X, just like in his photo. Maybe it didn't skip anyone. Maybe the order of deaths was still preserved. She thought back to what Ian had said in the Home Land warehouse. There was no reason to think that the people on the roller coaster had died in the exact order they were sitting. Some of them might have hung on for a few seconds or even minutes before their hearts stopped and their higher brain functions ceased. Even though Perry was sitting behind Ian and Erin, Ian might have hung on just a little bit longer, long enough to have breathed his last just seconds after she did. And if that was the case, then Julie and Kevin and Wendy were still fair game. Worse, they no longer had any idea who was going to die first. It could be any of them.
It wasn't over after all.
Christa Faust, Final Destination 3
