The Stand

As the three men continue their westward journey, they notice that Kojak is no longer with them. The dog has returned to tend to Stu. As night falls, the dog kills a rabbit and brings it to the injured man. He then fetches pieces of wood so that Stu can cook the rabbit over a campfire. While Stu ad Kojak eat and sleep well, the other three continue their trek in hunger and cold.

On the morning of September 28, the trio finds two vehicles blocking the highway. Eight armed men are there to arrest them. Glen, Ralph, and Larry mock their armed guard since the three are willing to surrender themselves. The armed men take the trio to separate cells in the Las Vegas city jail.

Flagg and Lloyd visit Glen first. The old man bursts out laughing when he sees Flagg, who is far less imposing in person than everyone in the Free Zone imagined. Glen says, “We were all so frightened … we made such a business out of you … I’m laughing as much at our own foolishness as at your regrettable lack of substance” (1228). Flagg shows visible irritation that Glen isn’t afraid of him. When Glen observes that Flagg is losing his magical ability to impose his will on others, Flagg angrily orders Lloyd to shoot the old man. Lloyd hesitates but eventually follows orders and kills Glen.

Larry and Ralph ponder their fate overnight, but Larry has reconciled himself to whatever is about to happen. “The old wound in himself had finally closed, leaving him at peace. He had felt the two people that he had been all his life—the real one and the ideal one—merge into one living being” (1232).

The next morning, Larry and Ralph’s captors lead them to steel cages set up in the courtyard of the hotel. Trucks hitched to each cage will pull them limb from limb. As they’re shackled inside the bars, Larry speaks to the crowd. “I don’t expect you to stop it, but I do expect you to remember it! We’re being put to death because Randall Flagg is afraid of us! He’s afraid of us and the people we came from!” (1237).

There is a murmur of disapproval from the crowd as Lloyd and Flagg come forward to read a page of accusations against the condemned men. Flagg accuses Larry and Ralph of spying and blames them for the airbase fires that Trash caused. Whitney emerges from the crowd and insists that this execution is a travesty of justice. He says that this isn’t how Americans behave. Flagg stops his protest by sending a blue ball of electricity to fry Whitney’s face. The energy ball hangs suspended in the air afterward, as if to warn anyone else who wants to speak up.

Just before Flagg gives the order to kill Larry and Ralph, the crowd parts to reveal the arrival of Trash. “They had seen the final guest, arrived at last like some grim vision out of a horror tale. They had seen, perhaps, the raddled face of some final awful retribution” (1242). The pyromaniac has arrived with a nuclear warhead in tow. Trash is in the final stages of radiation poisoning, but he’s elated to have brought the bomb to his master.

The crowd scatters in panic. Filled with fear, Flagg vanishes into thin air. The tiny blue spark of electricity grows to immense size and hurls itself at the warhead, blowing up Larry, Ralph, Lloyd, and everyone else in the city. “The blue ball of fire flung itself into the back of the cart, seeking what was there, drawn to it […] Silent white light filled the world. And the righteous and unrighteous alike were consumed in that holy fire” (1246).

Stu struggles to remain alive. In addition to his broken leg, he’s come down with a fever and can barely function. Thinking he’s delirious, he hears an explosion off in the distance. With Kojak’s help, Stu struggles to the top of the embankment in time to see a mushroom cloud hovering over Las Vegas. Stu realizes that everyone must have died in the blast, friend and foe alike.

Feeling weaker, Stu is sure he’s going to die soon. He pens a message to Frannie and attaches it to Kojak’s collar. After nightfall, he hears the sound of someone approaching. The stranger turns out to be Tom, who is slowly making his way back to Boulder. He eagerly helps Stu get the food and water he needs by scavenging vehicles in the area.

Stu still feels himself declining but thinks it might be possible to get back to the Free Zone with Tom’s help. He has the young man drag him down the road on a travois in search of a vehicle that Stu might be able to drive. It’s a daunting task since most of the abandoned cars on the highway have dead batteries or flat tires. Eventually, they come across an old Plymouth with the keys still in the ignition. Stu thinks:

The hand of God came down out of the sky. And maybe God had left this battered ’70 Plymouth here for them, like manna in the desert. It was […] no more crazy than the idea of a hundred-year-old black woman leading a bunch of refugees into the promised land (1264).

Fighting dizziness, Stu gets the vehicle operational and drives Tom and Kojak to a Green River motel for the night. As Stu sleeps, Tom gets up and walks outside in the rain. 

Tom sleepwalks out of doors and has a conversation with Nick as they travel together through the rainy town at night. Nick says that Stu has developed an infection in his leg and that he has pneumonia. He needs antibiotics. Nick guides Tom to a drugstore where four bottles sit on the counter for him to take back to Stu. Nick also tells Tom that he must force Stu to walk around to clear the fluid from his lungs before he chokes. After receiving these instructions, Tom goes back to the motel. Now awake, Tom insists that Stu must take a penicillin pill and walk with him around the room.

Two weeks later, Stu wins his battle with pneumonia, and the infection in his leg subsides. As they resume their travels, the Plymouth carries them to Grand Junction, Colorado. It’s now the beginning of November, and Stu hesitates to go farther into the mountains with winter coming on, even though dreams of Frannie in labor haunt him. The men remain snowed in at Grand Junction until the end of November.

Stu is determined to get to Frannie by the time the baby arrives in early January, so he loads up two snowmobiles with supplies, and Kojak. He and Tom set forth once again to make it through Loveland Pass. Their progress is slow, and the threat of avalanche is all around. At one point, their snowmobiles slide off the road due to a small snowslide. They walk to the nearby town of Avon to get new snowmobiles and more supplies. By the time Christmas arrives, they are at the top of Loveland Pass, where Stu gives Tom and Kojak small gifts. Tom is upset because he forgot to get a present for Stu, but Stu says,

I don’t know how you picked the right pills … if it was Nick or God or just plain old luck, but you did it. You got no sense, calling yourself a dummy. If it hadn’t been for you, I never would have seen this Christmas. I’m in your debt (1287).

Three days before the New Year, they must hole up in the town of Kittredge because of another winter storm. Several days later, they press on until they run out of gas and have to walk the rest of the way to Boulder. To Stu’s amazement, he sees that the local roads are now plowed. A sentry accosts them at the town line but is relieved to see Stu, Tom, and Kojak returned safely. The sentry informs them that Frannie has given birth by cesarean, but the baby has developed plague symptoms and probably won’t live. Stu immediately rushes off to the hospital to see her.

Frannie is drifting off to sleep in her hospital bed. The baby, whom she has named Peter after her father, is struggling to stay alive. Frannie hopes that Lucy’s pregnancy will have a better result since both its parents were immune. She thinks she’s dreaming when she sees Stu standing at the door of her room. Pinching herself, she sees him with a beard and wearing a fur parka. Still not believing the apparition is real, she pinches herself again. Stu says, “‘Stop workin yourself over, honey.’ His limp was so severe he was nearly stumbling. ‘Frannie, I’m home’” (1304). 

Frannie is overjoyed at Stu’s safe return, but her happiness turns to anxiety when the doctor arrives to report on Peter’s progress. He cautiously announces that the baby will probably live. His disease doesn’t seem to be progressing to the fourth and final stage. His own body is finding a way to reject the virus. While Frannie is relieved, she’s also concerned about Stu’s leg and insists that he make an appointment to have it reset. Then, Stu wheels Frannie to the maternity ward so she can see her son. “Wincing at the pain in his leg, Stu knelt beside Frannie and hugged her clumsily, and they looked in at Peter in mutual wonder, as if the child were the first that had ever been gotten upon the earth” (1310).

By May, life has resumed a normal pattern in Boulder. Baby Peter is doing just fine, and several more infants have since been born and live. At a May Day picnic celebration, Frannie confides to Stu that she’s homesick and wants to return to Maine. To her surprise, Stu agrees that it’s time to leave. “He looked east and discovered he could at last name something he had felt stirring around in himself since the snow had begun to melt: an urge to move on. There were too many people here” (1314).

Stu feels that the growth in the town government will eventually lead to corruption. “Postpone organization as long as possible. It was organization that always seemed to cause the problem. When the cells began to clump together and grow dark” (1319). As the population swells to 11,000, some of the original colonists in the Free Zone are also migrating out of it to various regions of the country.

During the month of June, Frannie, Stu, and Peter arrive at Abagail’s house in Nebraska, where they take a break in their journey. Frannie is expecting another baby now. They plan to reach Maine by July, though at some point they might consider returning to Boulder so that their children can become familiar with people outside the immediate family. As they sit on the porch watching the sunset, Stu wonders whether Flagg is really dead, and he asks Frannie if she thinks people ever learn from their mistakes. She replies that she doesn’t know.

In another part of the world, Flagg finds himself awakening on a tropical beach. He can’t remember his name or any details of his past. When a group of natives with spears approaches him, Flagg spreads his arms wide and smiles at them. They can’t understand anything he is saying, but they fall down and worship him. The dark man thinks, “Life was such a wheel that no man could stand upon it for long. And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again” (1325).