The Running Man
by Stephen King
Contents
…Minus 086 and COUNTING… The receptionist popped promptly out
Overview
Killian privately gives Richards a loan in Games Certificates, allowing Richards to send money home for Cathy’s medical care before the game begins. The gesture momentarily complicates Richards’s hatred of the Network, but Richards quickly sees it as a practical, self-serving move meant to protect the show’s investment.
The chapter reinforces Richards’s central motivation: he is entering a deadly spectacle not for fame, but to buy time and treatment for his family.
Summary
After leaving Dan Killian’s office, Ben Richards passes the receptionist, who gives him an envelope from Killian. The note anticipates that Richards needs money immediately and explains that the Games Authority does not issue advances because contestants are treated as paid workers, not stars.
Killian writes that no rule prevents him from making Richards a personal loan. Inside is ten percent of Richards’s advance salary in Games Certificates, which can be redeemed for New Dollars and, according to Killian, will be accepted by reputable doctors but not by quacks.
Richards opens the envelope and finds forty-eight ten-New-Dollar coupons, totaling four hundred eighty dollars. He briefly feels grateful because the money can help Sheila and Cathy, but he suppresses the feeling, recognizing that Killian’s generosity is also a calculated investment in keeping the show and its star contestant functional.
Richards reacts bitterly, then asks the receptionist for directions to the elevators, continuing toward the next stage of his preparation for The Running Man.
Who Appears
- Ben RichardsReceives Killian’s loan, resists gratitude, and stays focused on helping his family.
- Dan KillianSends Richards Games Certificates as a personal loan with practical and strategic motives.
- ReceptionistDelivers Killian’s envelope and directs Richards toward the elevators.
- Sheila RichardsAbsent but implied recipient of the certificates for Cathy’s medical care.
- Cathy RichardsAbsent sick daughter whose need for treatment motivates Richards’s participation.