The Running Man
by Stephen King
Contents
…Minus 088 and COUNTING… The waiting room on the eighth floor
Overview
Richards reaches a private eighth-floor waiting room where the remaining candidates are processed one at a time for what appears to be The Running Man. His conversation with Jimmy Laughlin shows another desperate contestant driven by poverty, illness, and corporate cruelty.
The chapter heightens the sense that Richards has entered the Network’s most lethal and prestigious game. By the end, Laughlin has gone through the interview, and Richards is called in to learn his fate directly.
Summary
On the eighth floor, Ben Richards is separated from three of the other candidates, who are taken away by guards. Richards, Jimmy Laughlin, and the blinking young man, identified by the receptionist as Mr. Jansky, are placed in a small, plush waiting room outside an inner office.
While Jansky goes in first, Richards and Laughlin talk cautiously. Laughlin says he lives near Richards on Dock Street and used to work for General Atomics until he was fired after joining a sit-down strike over leaking radiation shields. Radiation exposure has left Laughlin sterile, and his withered arm and his wife’s severe asthma have pushed him toward the Games as a desperate chance for money.
Laughlin concludes that they have been selected for The Running Man, the dangerous prime-time game Richards has suspected. Jansky soon exits on the arm of a glamorous woman, and Laughlin is called inside next, leaving Richards alone with the receptionist and the room’s luxury.
Richards notices that even the cigarette machine offers expensive Dokes, which confirms for him that the finalists have reached the Network’s highest-stakes level. After about twenty minutes, Laughlin returns with an ash-blonde escort, tells Richards that the man inside speaks plainly, and leaves. The receptionist then calls Richards into the inner office.
Who Appears
- Ben RichardsWaits in the eighth-floor room and prepares for his decisive Network interview.
- Jimmy LaughlinFellow contestant; bitter ex-worker whose illness-filled life drives him toward the deadly game.
- Mr. JanskyBlinking young contestant called into the inner office before Laughlin and Richards.
- ReceptionistPolished Network employee who manages the waiting room and calls contestants inside.