The Running Man
by Stephen King
Contents
…Minus 099 and COUNTING… The drizzle had deepened into a stea
Overview
Ben Richards leaves Co-Op City and walks through rain, poverty, and urban decay toward the Network Games Building because he cannot afford transportation. The journey exposes the sharp divide between the abandoned south side and the guarded, cleaner uptown world.
By joining the massive qualifying line under contemptuous police surveillance, Richards turns his desperate decision into action. The chapter deepens the stakes by showing that the Games are not just entertainment but one of the few remaining paths for the poor to reach money.
Summary
Ben Richards leaves the apartment in steady rain, thinking of the cold room behind him and Cathy’s flu. Outside, Co-Op City is shown as neglected and dangerous: rats move through cracked streets, derelict cars sit stripped, and the police rarely enter the area south of the Canal.
Richards walks quickly through the ruined streets because he has no money left for a pneumo bus token. Cycle riders pass and one throws asphalt at him, but Richards ducks and continues; his visible poverty seems to make him unworthy even of robbery.
As Richards moves farther toward the city center, the surroundings gradually change. Liquor stores, smoke shops, sex houses, hockeries, and blood emporiums give way to cleaner, guarded uptown streets, with police on corners, Rent-A-Pigs outside shops, and the People’s Fountain Park fenced off behind an admission fee.
Richards crosses the Canal and approaches the Network Games Building, a massive tower that dominates the skyline. In uptown, the police watch him as someone whose only acceptable purpose is applying for the Games.
At noon, Richards joins the end of an enormous line for the qualifying examinations, even though the line begins more than a mile from the building. Police officers mock the applicants as the crowd stands in the rain, and after a while the line begins to move.
Who Appears
- Ben RichardsDesperate father walking from Co-Op City to the Network Games qualifying line.
- Cathy RichardsBen’s sick daughter, whose flu and fever motivate his dangerous trip.
- Uptown policeGuard the cleaner district and mock the poor Games applicants waiting in rain.
- Cycle ridersStreet gang members who pass Ben and throw asphalt at him.