The Talisman Trilogy, #3
Other Worlds Than These
by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Contents
Chapter 32
Overview
The tet reaches Hold 19, resupplies, and is ambushed by corrupted Wolfs; Alice is killed. Jack destroys a fuel tanker to break the assault, while Mary and Richard are burned but live, and Ry executes Ulrich. That night the blobs fall silent, then seize Mary’s arm—she declares they are awake.
Summary
On the eleventh day, Jack leads the convoy to North Central Positronics Hold 19, recognizing it from his earlier journey. They refuel, stock the trucks, and explore crew quarters. Mary questions how ancient technology and food remain functional, while Jack distributes radiation suits despite the group’s growing fatalism.
Outside the motor pool ramp, Alice admires graffiti moments before a projectile decapitates her. Mary yanks Ry backward, saving him as Wolfs—now corrupted by the hive mind behind the Redheads—open fire. Jack recognizes Lena among them and tries to parley, but the Wolfs taunt him with the severed, birdberry-painted head of their noble leader, Seth.
Amid escalating fire, Jack fears the Wolfs will flood the ramp with fuel and burn the group out. He arms a Dragonfire launcher, but Ry fires first, scattering the pack. Mary shoots Lena when Lena aims to kill Jack. Jack bargains for time as a tanker approaches; Richard distracts the Wolfs with a daring run, and Jack hip-fires a Dragonfire into the tanker. The explosion kills most attackers; Mary and Richard are burned but survive, and Ry executes a blinded Ulrich.
They camp in Hold 19. Jack tends Mary’s burns with plasum, and the shaken group debates Hestin’s motives and whether the gray blobs tell truth or lies. Jack refuses to promise success but insists they press on at first light.
Deep in the night, the constant whispering from the blobs stops. Jack wakes to silence and finds Mary at the back of Lazaro: the gray mass, now a full bed-sized pond, has engulfed her entire arm. Calmly, Mary says the blobs are awake.
Who Appears
- Jack SawyerLeader of the tet; recognizes Hold 19, organizes resupply, fights ambushing Wolfs, detonates tanker, tends Mary, and confronts awakening blobs.
- Mary KleeQuestions the facility’s age, saves Ry from the first strike, shoots Lena, suffers burns, tends Richard, and later has her arm engulfed by the blob.
- Ry ConnorsEcstatic over supplies, nearly killed in ambush, fires Dragonfire, later executes a blinded Ulrich; grief-stricken over Alice.
- Richard (billy-bumbler)Warns, endures injury from debris and burns; creates crucial diversion before the tanker blast; later survives and stays by Mary.
- Alice of DeziCompanion briefly buoyed by finding graffiti; abruptly killed by the first projectile in the Wolf ambush.
- Lena (Wolf)Former ally turned corrupted attacker; taunts Jack, wounded by him, then shot by Mary and finished by Ry’s stomp.
- Ulrich (Wolf)Leads the ambush after Seth’s death; schemes to burn them out; survives blinded, then is executed by Ry.
- Seth (Wolf leader)Once noble pack leader; revealed murdered and displayed by the corrupted pack to demoralize Jack.