Since Christopher has just moved to the area, he is still making friends but he has already made his way into a group. This group plays a secret game called death. And now for the first time, he is going to go join them in playing the game. So after school they meet in the court yard before going to play the game.
After meeting up at school they walk through the woods to go play the game of death. But not only humans are coming, a vicious dog named Jax is coming to make sure that the rules of the game are followed and to enforce that the game will remain a secret.
After arriving at the cave where the game takes place, Christopher sees that there are names all along the walls. They all were people's names and then their age. Then, a knife was placed in the middle of the cave and spun. Whoever it landed on would die and eventually come back to life.
Askew age 13
George age 13
Christopher Watson age 13
Unluckily for Christopher, the knife landed on him. He then blacked out, and everyone proceeded to head out of the cave and wait for him to wake up and come out. Meanwhile Christopher was in a sort of bad dream; he was seeing little children who had died playing around with one another.
John Askew aged 13
Fred Cook aged 15
"Jeez Kit," "Thought you were never going to come out" (51).
Finally, Christopher came out of the cave. He was in shock at what he had experienced; he had thought that the game was a joke and not real. But he was wrong; he had just experienced what "death" was like. Quickly, his friend Allie rushed over to make sure that he was okay.
"I'm all right" (51).
"You see them?"(52).
After coming out of the cave, Christopher started walking back home through the woods with Allie. While talking about what happened, he started seeing children all around him playing and giggling. This was all because of the game. He soon discovers that only he can see them, not Allie.