The plot of the book

A dangerous virus – an extremely contagious and equally lethal strain of influenza being developed as a biological weapon – escapes from a secret U.S. Defense Department laboratory by tragic accident, and a 19-day pandemic ensues. The edited 1990 reprint opens with a prologue in which King describes in more detail the development of the virus in the laboratory and the security breach that caused the virus to leak.

All of the lab employees are killed, but one of them, security guard Charles Campion, manages to escape and take his family out of state. A couple of days later, his Chevy crashes into a gas station in Arnett, Texas. The gas station owner Bill Hapscomb and his employees drag Campion, half-dead, out of the car, who dies on the way to the hospital, having managed to infect Bill and the ambulance workers. Bill infects his cousin, a traffic police officer. So the virus spreads out of state and an uncontrollable infestation begins. The army isolates the town, not shy of shooting unarmed people, but these efforts go to waste – the “super flu”, dubbed “Captain Torch” by journalists, spreads like an avalanche through the country and beyond its borders. Only 0.6 percent of people are unaffected; all those infected die. Through the prism of several personal tragedies, the writer describes the disintegration of society, the explosion of violence, the failure of the government and army to stop the pandemic and, in the end, the death of virtually all of humanity. Many survivors also die, unable to cope with the loss of their loved ones or unable to survive in a new world where they have to fend for themselves.

Stuart Redman, one of the first to be exposed to the flu, is immune to it. After being forcibly detained in a specialized center in Stovington while trying to create a cure, he manages to escape after the deaths of all the employees, one of whom has to be killed personally. He crosses paths with intelligent sociology professor Glenn Bateman, pregnant college student Franny Goldsmith, and a complex teenager, Harold Lauder, who wanted to get to the CDC, and talks them out of it. Larry Underwood, a disillusioned pop musician who became popular shortly before the outbreak, after his mother died, follows in their footsteps. Stu and Fran, to Harold’s disappointment, are drawn to each other, and they become lovers. The rejected Harold harbors resentment.

All of the characters share dreams in which they see a 108-year-old black woman named Abagail Freemantle from the town of Hemingford Home. Following their dreams, they visit this woman, the oldest person in the state of Nebraska. Mother Abagail becomes their spiritual leader; she leads the group to Boulder, Colorado, where other survivors, drawn by her telepathic messages, flock. They are joined by Nick Endros, a deaf-mute sheriff’s deputy from Shoyo, Arkansas, and Tom Cullen, a kindhearted retarded fellow from May Town, Nadine Cross, an old maid and former kindergarten teacher in New Hampshire, and Ralph Brentner, a good-natured farmer from Oklahoma. Uniting in Boulder, the heroes try to build a renewed society, christen their land the Boulder Free Zone, organize funeral crews, and restore electricity.

At the same time, in the west, a “dark man” calling himself Randall Flagg, who has paranormal powers, is trying to build his own state from people summoned by visions sent to him. His powers are many times greater than those of Mother Abagail, but he uses them for evil; the people he gathers worship him as a messiah and gladly submit to his fascist dictatorship. He crucifies drug addicts on crosses. Flagg saves Lloyd Henride, a cannibalistic prisoner, from starvation by making him his right-hand man. A pyromaniac nicknamed Garbage Buck, after destroying the Cheery Oil Company oil tanks in Gary, Indiana and meeting a madman named Kid, joins Flagg’s group in Las Vegas and becomes a weapons specialist. Flagg prepares for war with Boulder.

Mother Abagail receives a vision from which she realizes that because of the pride she is experiencing, she must go into the wilderness. Nadine Cross is visited by dreams in which she sees Flagg informing her that she is promised to him, so she does not respond to Larry Underwood’s signs of attention, who continues to date Lucy Swann. Nadine, teaming up with Harold, decides to destroy the Free Zone Council, which includes many key figures in Boulder. Shortly before, the council sends three scouts to Las Vegas, whose identities are kept secret from the others. Harold plants a bomb in the building where the council was to meet and detonates it, leaving Boulder with Nadine. As Mother Abagail returns at the same time, most of the casualties are avoided, but Nick is killed by the explosion. Before she dies of exhaustion, Mother Abagail reports “God’s will” that Stu, Larry, Glen, and Ralph must travel to Las Vegas to destroy Flagg.

Flagg identifies two spies, but they are killed before they can reveal the identity of the third, Tom Cullen. On the way to Vegas, Harold slips and falls off a cliff, breaking his limbs. Nadine tells him that it was all set up by Flagg from the beginning. Harold, repenting, dies. Nadine meets Randall and he has sex with her, during which she loses her mind. He introduces her to the community as the mother of his unborn child. During one of her epiphanies, Nadine provokes Flagg, and in a fit of rage, he throws her out the window of the building. Nadine dies, smashing to death on the sidewalk. Flagg’s infinite power begins to be questioned, and people begin to flee the city. On the way, Stu breaks his leg, and the other companions decide to leave him behind. Larry, Glenn and Ralph are taken prisoner by Flagg’s men. Glenn is killed by Lloyd for disobedience. Flagg decides to draw and quarter the prisoners in public. At that time Trashy Buck, who has obtained a nuclear bomb, returns to town.

Flagg is unable to control the ball of energy he created, which he used to incinerate one of the rebels. The ball takes the form of a hand, which in the visions the heroes called “the hand of God,” flies too close to the bomb and triggers an explosion that kills almost all the inhabitants of Las Vegas. Flagg takes the form of a shapeless monster and disappears moments before the explosion. The dying Stu is discovered by Tom Cullen and nursed back to health. They return to Boulder shortly after Franny gives birth to a baby. The baby falls ill with the “Captain Torch” virus, but is eventually cured of it. Everyone realizes that newly born babies can become immune to the super flu. Stu and Fran decide to leave Boulder and go to Okangwith.

The novel’s epilogue tells us that Flagg survives a nuclear explosion and wakes up somewhere in the southern hemisphere. He regains his former powers and memory and begins to gather new followers.

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