Chapter 1 - THE RULES IN SEAT 14C
My name is Garrett Cole, and until that Friday night, the strangest thing I had ever experienced on an airplane was a six-hour delay in Chicago.
Flight 237 was supposed to take me toward Seattle so I could make it home in time for my younger sister Emily’s wedding.
Instead, the moment I boarded, a pale flight attendant with auburn hair called me by name before looking at my boarding pass and secretly handed me a folded piece of cream-colored paper.
She told me to read it after I sat down.
She told me not to show anyone.
And she told me that if I wanted to survive, I had to follow every rule.
The cabin itself felt wrong.
Too empty.
Too quiet.
Too cold.
Although the flight had supposedly been sold out, large sections of seats remained vacant. The air smelled faintly metallic, almost like blood, and the passengers who did board avoided looking at one another.
When I unfolded the paper in seat 14C, I found a title written in frantic black handwriting:
SURVIVAL RULES FOR FLIGHT 237.
READ CAREFULLY.
YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.
The first rule instructed me to check the time immediately.
The next sentence claimed I had approximately four hours until landing.
That made no sense.
My itinerary said the first leg alone should take almost six hours.
I was still trying to convince myself that the note was some elaborate prank when the cabin doors closed.
The engines began to roar.
And beneath the first rule, I noticed something I had somehow missed.
A second sentence, written in smaller letters.
IF A BABY STARTS CRYING BEFORE 9:43 P.M., DO NOT TRY TO COMFORT IT.
IF THE BABY STARTS CRYING AFTER 9:43 P.M., PRAY SOMEONE DOES.
May you like
Because at exactly that moment, somewhere near the back of the airplane, a baby began to scream.
And every passenger in the cabin turned toward me.
