Chapter 14

Jack awakens in Taylor City Memorial, bleeding and arrhythmic, when Officer Greg Cormier secretly lets him speak to Sarah Gilbertson. Jack tells Sarah and David that Dale is dead and that the teens were responsible; Sarah demands justice. Handler arrives later, pressing for answers, but Jack stonewalls with repeated demands for a lawyer.

Dr. Ed Buczkowski takes Jack for tests and, at the nurse’s urging, allows him a covert call in MRI. Jack uses it to set a plan with Sarah. MRI findings reveal Jack’s left ventricle is nearly destroyed yet functioning, alarming Dr. Ed. Back in his room, Jack endures harassment from Maynard “Stinger” Stingley and a parade of hospital staff while his fever, cough, and bleeding worsen.

That evening, a nurse and orderly escort Jack to a “private” whirlpool—revealed as Sarah and David in disguise with clothes for an escape. They hustle Jack down stairwells to the laundry and out a propped emergency door. David retrieves his Kia, and they flee, avoiding main highways to dodge Handler.

As they drive north on back roads, Jack’s condition deteriorates; he cannot flip from this side near the Gullet’s pull. Near South Yankton, at the brink of collapse, Jack stumbles into a cornfield to flip unobserved, focusing on the statue of Roland and his ka-tet in Mejis to break the Gullet’s grasp.

After a wrenching struggle, Jack succeeds. He emerges in Mid-World at the bronze of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy in Mejis, the Gullet’s pull gone. His heart steadies and strength begins to return. He salutes the gunslinger: “Hile, gunslinger, well met.”