The Talisman Trilogy, #3
Other Worlds Than These
by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Contents
Chapter 11
Overview
Jack searches Positronics Hold 19, equipping himself with a radiation suit, a G-H blaster, Dragonfire missiles, and a Binny Ding vehicle. Guided by the Binny’s AI, he navigates deadly terrain—collapsing bridge, rockfall, and mutant-haunted woods—while staying south of the Blasted Lands. He presses toward the Gullet, warned of radiation and an ominous pull.
Summary
Following Anda’s advice, Jack explores Positronics Hold 19’s living quarters and mess, finding eerie emptiness and only a dead dog. He discovers radiation-prevention suits and fine-mesh caps in every closet, plus an armory stocked with American rifles and alien G-H pistols stamped SOMBRA. He takes a blaster and a rifle, washes up, and wrestles with fears that the vanished staff might be vampires below.
After a restless night visited by Sophie’s voice and nightmares of beheading Dale, Jack chooses not to risk the stockpiled food, eats Manni supplies, and searches the motor pool office. A pried-open key cabinet shows only one key missing; he deduces the teen killers knew exactly what to take, likely guided by a malign force bent on Discordia. Jack loads a Binny Ding with Dragonfire missiles and provisions, then retrieves a radiation suit labeled “Maj. Iulia,” whose chest monitor glows green.
Outside, the Binny’s solar panel deploys and its AI comes online. Jack names the voice “Mrs. Talbot.” Using autopilot and a structural scan, they creep across a collapsing bridge with a 92% success probability and survive. Farther on, Jack muscles a boulder over a cliff to clear a narrowed, tilting road, then threads the Binny through on autopilot.
As dusk falls, a failing stretch of road forces an overnight stop among skeletal trees. Laughter and howls ring from the dark, and Mrs. Talbot locks the Binny. Jack glimpses green-eyed, tail-dragging shapes and later mutants with ulcerated faces; Mrs. Talbot identifies them as Slow Mutants from the abandoned mines. In the cold night, Jack dozes fitfully, grieving Pay and Sophie and dreading what lies ahead.
At dawn, giant maggots slime the windshield; the wipers clear them. Mrs. Talbot confirms the road leads to the Gullet but it is still “two hundred wheels” away and close to the shifting border of the Blasted Lands. She warns that the Gullet is dangerous for radiation and “the pull.” Jack orders autopilot and continues, resolved to reach and gleep the Gullet before returning to face events in Pernil and Dezi.
Who Appears
- Jack SawyerProtagonist; arms himself at Hold 19, secures a Binny Ding, and drives toward the Gullet, surviving hazards and mutants.
- Mrs. TalbotThe Binny Ding’s AI; scans bridges, runs autopilot, locks doors, identifies Slow Mutants, jokes, and warns about radiation and the pull.
- Sophie SawyerJack’s late wife; appears as a teasing, cautionary voice, prompting deductions and providing bittersweet companionship.
- Slow MutantsDeformed descendants near the Blasted Lands; flee the Binny’s lights and underscore the area’s danger.
- Pay (Payton) O’RourkeDead ally; remembered wryly by Jack, a sign of his grief on the lonely road.