The Survivor Wants to Die at the End

Alano drives to Griffith Park to leave a journal entry at the Wisdom Tree. As he hikes to the tree’s location, he sees a figure about to jump from the Hollywood sign. Alano realizes that his final Death-Cast notification ends at midnight, so he knows that he won’t die this day, but he might in 20 minutes. Still, he is determined to save a random boy from jumping, despite the risk.

Using the light from his cell phone, Paz instantly recognizes the person who accosted him. Alano also recognizes Paz from his earlier film work and his father’s murder trial. Alano tries to reason with Paz by admitting that he too has attempted to die by suicide.

Alano is convinced that fate intervened to bring the two boys together at this moment. He is determined to help Paz if he can and coaxes him to talk about his life. Alano admits that he tried to jump off a roof once. At that moment, a police helicopter warns the boys to leave the Hollywood sign because it’s a restricted area. Alano gets Paz to follow him into the woods.

The boys scramble for cover among the trees, where Alano has a brief asthma attack, and Paz helps him use his inhaler. Alano says that he cancelled his membership in Death-Cast, so he might really die without warning. He then proposes a deal, asking Paz to wait until 2:50 am in case he receives a Death-Cast call. If he doesn’t, and Alano can’t convince him that life is worth living, then Alano will pull the trigger and help Paz die.

Alano briefly thinks back to the first death he witnessed. A bird flew into the window of his family’s high-rise apartment. It was seriously injured. Joaquin considered it a mercy to bash in the bird’s head with a brick. Now, Alano thinks of the promise he just made to Paz: “I think again about […] how badly I wanted that bird to be able to fly again. How I can try to nurture Paz back to life, but he might call on me to be his brick” (219).

As Alano drives Paz away from the Hollywood sign, they talk about Paz’s film career and how much he loves to perform. They end up on Hollywood Boulevard, discussing the actors who didn’t get a star on the Walk of Fame until late in their careers. Paz isn’t willing to wait 20 years. He confides that his death by suicide will be easier on his mother with a new baby on the way. Alano says his parents tried for years before conceiving him, and the pressure of being their miracle baby is enormous. The boys begin to flirt, and Paz can’t ignore how handsome he considers Alano to be.

Their next destination is the Present-Time Gift Shop that caters to Deckers who want to leave gifts for their loved ones. Paz picks out a locket for his mother, a Pac-Man watch for Rolando, and a board game for his unborn sibling. He is in the process of recording farewell messages for them when a Death Guard activist storms into the shop with a steel bat. “‘TIME IS RUNNING OUT!’ the man shouts. ‘DEATH TO DEATH-CAST!’” (258). Paz fears that the man will kill Alano if he recognizes him.

Alano crouches behind a counter, trying to figure out how to tackle the man. Then, he notices Paz drawing his gun.

Paz’s gun contains three bullets. Alano sneaks around to Paz’s location and talks him into surrendering the gun. When a siren approaches, the Death Guarder flees. The boys also leave the shop before the police arrive. Paz still has 40 minutes left before his deal with Alano must be fulfilled, one way or another. They go to a theme restaurant called Hollywood DIEner. The staff are dressed like dead celebrities, and the menu choices are all “FOOD TO DIE FOR” (268).

While they wait for their order, Alano explains that he didn’t want Paz to shoot the Death Guarder because that would turn the activist into a martyr. His also feels sympathy for the way Paz’s killing of his father has ruined his life and doesn’t want him to have to kill again. In the 20 minutes remaining before Paz’s deadline, Alano asks him to write the obituary he would want if he lived to be 100.

At first, Paz resists the idea, but Alano is insistent. He tells Paz that he wants to know what kind of life Paz would have wanted for himself.

Paz’s obituary describes the years after his early struggles when he succeeded in becoming a famous actor, winning an Oscar for a film about his father’s death, and finally getting a star on the Walk of Fame in his 50s. He then talks about his dream family. Paz is swept away by the vision and says, “I want that life as badly as I’ve wanted a Death-Cast call” (276). Nevertheless, at 2:50 am, he is still planning to die.

Paz runs out of the diner, and Alano chases him down the street, where he finds him once more pointing a gun at his head.

Alano takes the gun, intending to shoot Paz, but he pleads with the boy one last time, suggesting that he wants Paz to live a long life so he can live it with him. Because Alano finds something worthwhile in Paz, the latter begins to see himself as more than a killer. He relents in his determination to die by suicide on this particular night, feeling hopeful for the first time in years. Alano promises to help Paz build his dream life, one step at a time.

After the crisis has passed, Alano thinks, “Saving Paz makes me feel as if I’ve broken a curse that’s been plaguing me, one where I send the grim reaper to people’s doors” (283). They go to Echo Park, where Paz throws the three bullets and the gun into the lake. Alano realizes that while Paz won’t die today, his own future is uncertain now that he’s disconnected from Death-Cast.

Before they part for the night, Paz and Alano agree to meet up again. Alano will fly back to New York in four days. Paz confesses that he has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but this fact doesn’t deter Alano. They make a pact to be supportive of one another and sign an official contract in magic marker on Alano’s arm bandage from the knife attack, calling it their Begin Day.

Afterward, Alano ponders the circumstances that brought him together with Paz. He had intended to meet the boy on August 15, 2010, after the Death-Cast error that resulted in Death’s Dozen. However, circumstances prevented this encounter. He hints that he has far more blood on his own hands than Paz does, but looks forward to the new chapter starting for both of them.