The Bachman Books Quiz: The Long Walk | 10 Questions

Answer: Stebbins

In the beginning of the race, Ray Garraty and ninety-nine other teenage boys began their long walk. Starting at the Maine/Canada border, the boys began their long walk with no particular end. The walk would take them down the eastern coast, not stopping until only one boy remained.

At 9:02am, two minutes after the race began, Stebbins had already gotten his first warning. This was done for him to determine the minimum speed at which he could travel without taking a penalty or a ticket.

Answer: 47

All of the boys in the race are handed their bib numbers prior to the beginning of the race, and with one hundred boys in the race, they often refer to each other by the numbers they were given. At the beginning of the walk, walkers are warned of the three warning rule. If a walker earns himself three warnings, he is at risk of getting his ticket, which results in his elimination.

The first walker to get his ticket was Curley, who had a charley horse early in the walk.

Answer: Caribou

As the racers progressed, things got worse. The second walker to claim his ticket was a boy named Ewing, who had to cut his walk, and life, short due to blisters. Following the death of Ewing, the boys passed through the towns of Limestone, Caribou, and Jefferson on Route 1.

In this race, the first walker to earn his ticket, Curley, only made it to the nine-mile mark. This is the furthest that all one hundred walkers have traveled without a ticket.

Answer: 4 mph

If any walker passes under the four mile per hour mark at any point in the walk, he will be given a warning, and after three warnings, the walker will earn a ticket. The majority of walkers in the race were eliminated because of this rule. One such incident was the racer named Zuck, who tripped and fell early in the race. If a walker earns a warning, he can eliminate that warning if he does not pass under his minimum speed within an hour after it is given.

Answer: Twenty-six

On the first night of the walk, the boys encountered their first rainstorm, and though many found it to be relieving, it had some negative effects on boys later in the walk. During the night, the boys also encountered their first large hill, and many could not stay over their 4 mph minimum speed. Because of this, less than three quarters of the walkers remained by sunrise on the second day.

Answer: Harkness

As the boys progress through the walk, Garraty meets one boy, Harkness, who plans to write a book about the event, so he brings a notebook around to get the name of the walkers. When he later gets a cramp, he receives three warnings and rushes to keep above his 4 mph minimum. He earns his ticket shortly thereafter, ahead of the crowd of walkers.

Answer: Scramm

At one point in the race, Garraty meets Scramm, walker #85, who had the Vegas odds favoring him at the beginning of the race. As he progresses, the boys realize that he is contracting pneumonia (possibly from exposure during the first rainstorm). When he realizes that he can't go on any further, he and another walker decide to sit on the track and take their tickets without hesitation.

The other walkers decide to donate some money to Scramm's wife and unborn child to support them.

Answer: Priscilla

Garraty's best friend on the walk, McVries, decides to tell him the story about how he got his scar. When he and his girlfriend, Priscilla, began working together at a pajama factory to earn money and move away, he soon began to lose interest in being with her.

When he tried to talk to her, she cut him on the face with a letter opener and caused the scar. McVries figures that he decided to race both because he wanted to show her he could, and because he wanted to die. Along the way, Garraty's other friend from the start, Olson, decided to climb the half-track when he couldn't go any further.

He surpasses more than fifty other walkers who fell along the route.

Answer: Jan

As the walkers continue on their route, Barkitovich, who is portrayed as an antagonist for the walkers throughout the book, is killed after the boys pass through Augusta. Another boy, Collie Parker, attempts to steal a gun off the half-track, but manages to get himself killed in the process.

This brings down the members of 'The Musketeers', the group of boys who stuck together through the race. At this point, the group consists of Abraham, Garraty, McVries, Pearson, and Baker. When the walkers finally arrive in Freeport, Garraty reaches the goal he set- to reach his mother and girlfriend, Jan.

This nearly costs him though, as he stands paralyzed when this happens, and he takes three warnings.

Answer: Massachusetts

After arriving in New Hampshire, only nine racers remain. As the number of both racers and musketeers begin to dwindle, Stebbins confesses to Garraty that he is 'The Major's son'.
After five days, McVries becomes the ninety-eighth walker to take his ticket. He decides he can't walk anymore, and true to his word, he sits down and accepts his fate.
In the end, only Stebbins and Garraty remain. When they reach Danvers, Massachusetts, Stebbins drops dead and Garraty becomes the only surviving walker. In the end, he sees a black figure in the distance and finds the strength to run towards it, despite having walked nearly 450 miles in five days.