The Running Man
by Stephen King
Contents
…Minus 012 and COUNTING… An hour passed. The time
Overview
Richards spends the hour after Killian’s revelation in a state of numb collapse, weighing the temptation of surrender and even imagining himself reshaped into the Network’s Chief Hunter. The deaths of Sheila and Cathy seem at first too devastating to grieve, but a sudden vision of Cathy’s murdered body breaks through his detachment. Richards wakes screaming, rattles Donahue with a threat about his nose filter, and turns back to the Free-Vee to face Killian again.
Summary
After an hour of silence, Ben Richards drifts through memories of the people and events that brought him to this point: Stacey, Bradley, Elton Parrakis, the YMCA basement, the gunfire, Laughlin, and the boys who betrayed him. Killian’s revelation that Sheila and Cathy have been murdered leaves Richards feeling severed from morality, purpose, and political conviction; even Bradley’s warnings about pollution seem distant and irrelevant.
Richards considers Killian’s offer with a numb, almost practical detachment. Richards imagines the Network healing him with doctors, drugs, and a changed mind, then using him as Chief Hunter. Because Richards now feels utterly alone, the promise of peace seems tempting, and Richards suspects he might even be good at the work.
Richards notices Amelia Williams still crying and thinks about how the experience has changed her beyond return to her old suburban life. Richards imagines she too will be processed through therapy and drugs, and for a moment Richards wants to comfort her, but the names Sheila and Cathy keep repeating in his mind until even grief feels unreachable.
Richards sinks into a partial doze, then sees a vivid imagined photograph of Cathy’s mutilated body in her crib. The image snaps Richards fully awake, screaming, and Amelia screams in terror with him. Donahue rushes in with a gun, but Richards explains that it was a bad dream about his daughter.
As Donahue leaves, Richards deliberately unsettles him by saying he could scare him worse by threatening to take away his nose filter. Exhausted, Richards closes his eyes until the image of Cathy fades, then turns on the Free-Vee and sees Killian on the screen.
Who Appears
- Ben RichardsNumb hijacker grieving Sheila and Cathy; tempted by surrender, then jolted awake by traumatic vision.
- Amelia WilliamsTraumatized hostage who cries steadily and screams when Richards wakes from his nightmare.
- DonahueArmed crewman or guard who rushes in after Richards screams and is taunted by him.
- KillianNetwork executive whose offer and revelations dominate Richards’s thoughts; appears on the Free-Vee.
- Cathy RichardsRichards’s murdered daughter, whose imagined body breaks through Richards’s emotional numbness.
- Sheila RichardsRichards’s murdered wife, remembered with Cathy as the source of his grief and disorientation.