The Running Man
by Stephen King
Contents
…Minus 038 and COUNTING… An hour passed. It was four o’clock.
Overview
Richards reaches Winterport badly wounded and increasingly convinced that the authorities intend to erase Richards through overwhelming force and official propaganda. The standoff shifts when Richards, worried about Amelia Williams, tells Amelia to stop and leave rather than remain trapped in the likely destruction of the car.
Amelia’s panic deepens, but Richards’s decision to drop the gun shows a moment of grim mercy and resignation. The chapter narrows the broader chase into an intimate crisis between a dying fugitive and a civilian hostage caught in the state’s violence.
Summary
An hour later, at four o’clock, Ben Richards remains slumped low in the car while shadows lengthen across the road. Richards drifts in and out of consciousness and examines the new bullet wound in his side, realizing it has clotted poorly and will reopen if Richards has to move quickly.
Richards concludes that the forces ahead have enough weaponry to destroy Richards and the air car, making Richards’s plan feel useless. Richards imagines the Network reducing the killing to a buried report about a tragic accident, and Richards becomes increasingly worried that Amelia Williams will die because Amelia happened to cross Richards’s path that morning.
Amelia, near hysteria, says there are tanks outside and identifies the town as Winterport. When Amelia says Amelia cannot wait for the attack, Richards tells Amelia to stop the car and get out, explaining that the authorities can kill Richards without Amelia having to see blood.
Amelia fears Richards is lying and will kill Amelia, so Richards drops the gun onto the floor to show Richards is releasing control. Amelia breaks down, craving pot and blaming Richards for choosing Amelia’s car, while Richards laughs painfully until tears come. The chapter ends with Amelia, still terrified and disoriented, complaining about the cold from the broken windshield and asking for the heater.
Who Appears
- Ben RichardsWounded fugitive who expects annihilation and tries to spare Amelia from the coming attack.
- Amelia WilliamsCivilian hostage overwhelmed by tanks, fear, withdrawal-like craving, and Richards’s offer to let her go.