The Running Man
by Stephen King
Contents
…Minus 078 and COUNTING… Through a backyard; through a ragged
Overview
Richards reaches Molie Jernigan, a trusted South City black-market dealer, and secures help forging the papers he needs to keep running. Molie’s report that Sheila’s building is under heavy police watch makes clear that the Network’s pressure extends beyond Richards to his family.
The chapter shifts Richards’s flight from immediate evasion to a longer survival strategy, but it also deepens his isolation. Richards realizes he cannot safely contact Sheila and Cathy because his notoriety has made him dangerous to them.
Summary
Ben Richards continues fleeing through South City after leaving the cab, cutting across backyards, fences, asphalt lots, and an abandoned construction site while avoiding a motorcycle pack in the dark. He cuts his hand climbing a final fence and reaches Molie Jernigan’s back door, the real entrance to Molie’s Dock Street hockshop.
Molie initially refuses to acknowledge Richards because Richards is now dangerously recognizable, but the promise of New Dollars persuades Molie to let him in. The hockshop is a crowded black-market operation where Molie sells illegal goods and, for trusted locals, forged documents. Richards asks for a driver’s license, Military Service Card, Street Identicard, Axial charge card, and Social Retirement card.
Molie says the papers would be simple for an ordinary customer, but forging them for Richards could put Molie at serious risk. Molie agrees to do the work for Sheila Richards’s sake, not for Ben Richards, and says each document will take an hour. Richards wants to leave during the wait, but Molie warns him that doing so would be reckless.
Molie explains that police arrived at Richards’s building in a Black Wagon with an envelope for Sheila and that the building is now heavily watched. Because anyone visiting Sheila would risk arrest or a beating, even friends are staying away. Molie adds that Sheila has been sending Walt O’Sanchez for groceries, which reassures Richards only slightly.
The news forces Richards to understand that Sheila and Cathy are effectively trapped because of his participation in the Games and that his presence would now endanger them further. Overcome by despair and homesickness, Richards looks into the darkness while Molie begins forging the papers, humming an old song and slipping into memories of a past Richards barely knows.
Who Appears
- Ben RichardsFugitive Runner seeking forged papers; learns his family is under surveillance and despairs.
- Molie JerniganSouth City black-market pawnbroker and forger who helps Richards for Sheila’s sake.
- Sheila RichardsRichards’s wife, unseen but trapped under police watch at their building.
- Cathy RichardsRichards’s sick daughter, central to his motivation and now indirectly endangered.
- Walt O’SanchezNeighborhood boy sent by Sheila to buy groceries while the building is watched.