10 Question Literature Quiz: The Stand | Stephen King

Answer: Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?

Late one June night, a man with the surname Campion flees from an army base shorty before a crucial lock-down, bringing his wife and infant daughter along. They make it to the Midwest town of Braintree before their ride comes to an end. A gas station attendant finds their bodies, bloated and infected, in the front seat of their car before the ambulance arrives and the higher-ups in Atlanta are called in.

It's too late-- the infection, spread with the slightest bit of transmission, is already branching out like wildfire. It begins with a slight headcold and the symptoms are apparent nearly immediately. A group of civilians from Braintree are sent to the CDC in Georgia. Meanwhile, in Maine, Frannie Goldsmith deals with the news that she's pregnant and Larry Underwood, a musician originally from the Bronx, flees Los Angeles near-broke despite having released a new single, "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?".

In quarantine in Atlanta, Stu Redman discovers that he is somehow immune to the disease, but nearly everyone else that came with him from Braintree is dead. One night he has a dream that he's in a cornfield with some powerful force watching.

Answer: Shoyo

The town of Shoyo is the next to feel the fever. A deaf-mute man by the name of Nick Andros is beat up by a gang in town and they're placed into the local prison. While Nick waits at the prison for a few days, the townspeople start to get sick...and die. The town doctor, also infected, lists off the symptoms and Nick discovers that he may be immune. That night Nick has a similar dream to Stu, set in a cornfield. As the disease spreads, Shoyo is cut off from the outside world. Soon, everyone starts to die off.

In New York, Larry Underwood's mother passes away. Visiting Central Park after the most of the infection passes through, he meets an older woman named Rita Blakemoor and they decide to band together. In Ogunquit, Maine, Frannie's family gets sicker; as the town empties out, she discovers that only she and Harold Lauder, her best friend's socially-stunted brother, are alive. Stu Redman is sent to another facility in Vermont.

The United States fall into chaos. As the media tries to continue covering up the truth, people try to flee the major cities; others try to get in. The army is waiting to control the situation with their weapons, but they too fall victim to the disease known as 'Captain Tripps'.

Answer: Kojak

After Frannie's parents die she finds herself virtually alone with Harold, and she decides that she needs to extend a hand to him before they can make their way in this new world. Harold gets the idea to head to the disease center in Stovington, Vermont, so they leave a note in paint on the roof of a barn, take some bikes, and begin the trek.

While a dark figure known as 'The Walking Dude', Randall Flagg, ends up collecting a truck to cross the country, a murderer named Lloyd Henreid awaits starvation locked in a Phoenix prison and an arsonist named 'The Trashcan Man' starts a spree of destruction.

In Shoyo, Nick is attacked by an infected former prisoner before he decides to leave the town behind forever. Larry and Rita opt to leave New York City for the Maine coast. A horrible trip through Lincoln Tunnel alerts them to the reality of their new lives.

Meanwhile, Stu Redman breaks out from his cell in in Stovington, Vermont and starts to hike through New England. He comes across a man named Glen Bateman, a former professor, and his new dog, Kojak. That night, Stu has a horrible nightmare of a dark figure standing atop a cityscape with glowing, red eyes.

The Wandering Man, Randall Flagg, visits Phoenix and lets Lloyd out of his prison cell when he needs it most. At a price, of course.

Answer: Tornado

Larry and Rita leave New York City and arrive in Vermont. Awakening one morning in a stolen tent, Larry discovers that Rita has died in the night, overdosed on pills. He heads out alone, on foot, to reach the coast. Meanwhile, Stu Redman leaves Glen Bateman, but ends up meeting Frannie and Harold on their way out of Vermont. Despite Harold's initial worry that Stu will try to take Frannie from him, they all decide to return to Glen's and head westward.

In Kansas, Nick meets a mentally-disabled man named Tom Cullen who initially doesn't realize that Nick is a deaf-mute. The two continue on together, heading through Kansas and coming face-to-face with a deadly tornado. Nick is inadvertently saved by Tom who recognizes the warning signs before Nick can see anything. While hiding in an abandoned barn, they both feel the eyes of a deep-seeded evil watching them in the cellar. They also come across more people-- Julie Lawry, a girl who proves to be more dangerous than she lets on (and who's subsequently left behind) and Ralph Brentner, who offers them a ride in his truck.

On his way up the coast, Larry meets a woman named Nadine and her companion, a boy named Joe who can't speak and whose actions are frighteningly primitive. When they reach the ocean, they decide to go along together despite Joe's initial hostility. The boy opens up when he picks up Larry's guitar and eventually starts to learn words with which he can communicate. When they arrive in Ogunquit, they find the message left on the barn roof by Frannie and Harold. Heading west to Vermont, they find another sign left behind at Stovington's disease control center leading them westbound. This comes as a shock-- all of them, including their new companion, Lucy Swann, have had dreams of the evil, dark man with red eyes, and all of them have been told to head to Colorado to meet an elderly black woman. But what can it all mean?

Answer: False

East of the Rockies, Mother Abagail Freemantle starts to prepare. Following the word of God and getting her 108-year-old self into the act, she starts to take it upon herself to allow what survivors may remain to take up lodgings with her. Her dreams, of course, are plagued by the man in the denim jacket with red eyes-- he knows she has a power and he warns her that he can destroy her.

In a matter of days, a truck arrives. In it, Abagail meets Nick, Tom, Ralph, and others picked up along the way. They break bread before spending their time on the farm and planning to depart, perhaps for Boulder. Abby has had seemingly-prophetic dreams for years, all leading her to this Colorado city, and she says it will be there that they will put up a stand against the dark man. The next day, they gather the supplies they need, switch out their vehicles, leave directions at the driveway, and depart for Boulder.

Stu, Glen, Frannie, and Harold head through Ohio with two new companions-- Mark and Perion-- but an issue arises. Mark's appendix is inflamed and needs to be removed; there are no doctors amongst them. When Stu and Glen track down some medical supplies and try to perform the operation themselves, Mark dies; Perion kills herself with a dose of Veronal, originally bought to disrupt the group's bad dreams, that night. The four decide to continue on with hopes of joining with Mother Abagail.

En route, the four come across a tipped-over trailer in the middle of the road, but before they can drive around it they find a group of twelve people-- four men and eight women. Frannie immediately realizes that something is wrong, but before anything can be done a gun battle breaks out and the eight women make a mad dash to escape or fight back. In less than a minute, four of the women and the four men are dead. The survivors, terrified, decide to band together with the others on their westbound trip.

The night before the eight head to Indiana, Fran and Stu spend the evening together and she confesses her pregnancy to him. While everyone is asleep, Harold reads her diary and dreams of a dark eye, watching and beckoning him.

Answer: Leo

During the summer, the arsonist known as the Trashcan Man, suffering from severe burns and perhaps a touch of insanity, left Illinois to find the dark man of his dreams. Urged by the offer to sit atop the dark man's artillery, he crossed most of the states, well into the west, all while riding a bike. In Colorado, he met The Kid, a crazy southerner who forced him along at gunpoint for the most part. Arriving in Vegas on Randall Flagg's will (alone), he met Lloyd and worked at the Boulder Dam before meeting the dark man himself. And then he set out to burn things.

At the same time, groups converge in what they later name the Boulder Free Zone. Their goal: to set up a firm society and reestablish government. When Larry's group arrives, Mother Abigail senses that Nadine has 'a darkness' inside her-- it's 'him'. When Abigail meets Joe, he speaks in coherent sentences for the first time. To the shock of his fellow travelers, he claims that his name is actually Leo.

Harold, meanwhile, broods, writing a journal marked 'Ledger' and planning his journey west.

Answer: Harold Lauder

Upon arriving, Larry meets Harold specifically-- after all, it was Harold's notes (from Ogunquit onwards) that kept them riding onward to Boulder. He notices something odd about him, however. Meanwhile, Fran finds a chocolate thumbprint in her diary and realizes that Harold must have read her private notes.

Soon after, Mother Abagail leaves, simply walking into the woods without a trace. A search begins to ensure her safety and, to the others' surprise, it's Harold's idea. What they don't know is that he plans to kill Stu (and others) and leave westbound. The plan doesn't come to fruition. Hebacks out at the last moment and goes on to head the search efforts (and later work on the Burial Committee). At the same time, Glen Bateman is surprised to see that Kojak has followed him to Boulder (though this dog's adventures feature the Dark Man just as much as everyone else's).

An ad hoc committee consisting of seven members (Stu, Fran, Larry, Ralph, Glen, Sue, and Nick) meets for the first time and, amongst their orders of business, they decide to send spies west to infiltrate Randall Flagg's operations and report back. The following day, a much larger meeting is held with the whole town involved and, to the committee's surprise, Harold prompts the town to vote the existing members of the committee in as a semi-permanent group to oversee the society's success in the first year.

That evening, leaving the meeting, Nadine tries to get Larry to 'save her' by leaving Lucy Swann. This way, she could feel needed. Instead after being rebuffed, she seeks out Harold Lauder and subsequently descends into darkness. First, she heads into the mountains to the Ampitheater and uses a planchette to receive a message from Randall Flagg from a spot between the mountains where magic flows. This tells her what she must do.

Answer: In a closet in Ralph's house

The Boulder Free Zone commences the dirty process of clearing bodies and, shortly after becoming a member of the Burial Committee, Harold meets Nadine, who essentially invites herself into his house, spends the night, and moves her stuff over. Over the next few days, both slip into the darkness, unable to turn back.

Judge Ferris leaves shortly thereafter, planning to loop around Vegas in his Land Rover; Tom is sent via hypnosis (and the key phrase 'do you want to see an elephant?') and Stu, Ralph, and Nick discover that perhaps he has a link to divine powers; Dayna Jurgens is sent via Colorado Springs-- she is never seen again.

Fran worries about her baby after learning that two newborns died after the outbreak. The doctor who enters Boulder shortly after the news arrives says that it is unknown how they actually died. Her child, on the other hand, seems healthy.

Speaking with Leo who, like Tom Cullen, finds himself in a divine trance, Larry discovers that he must speak to Fran about Harold and the ledger. They break into his house to steal it and discover his dastardly plan to kill Stu. What they don't discover is that he has been building a bomb out of dynamite and a walkie-talkie. Nadine placed it into a closet in Ralph's house while they broke into Harold's.

On the night of September 2nd, during a committee meeting, Fran feels uneasy about something. When motorcycles are heard in the distance, she has the idea to leave the house. Nick also realizes that something is amiss. He searches through the closet to find the bomb but it's too late. It explodes, killing Nick, Sue, and six others and wounding many.

As Mother Abagail returns to Boulder (her return signaled by the motorcycles arriving to spread the news), Harold and Nadine head west to Vegas.

Answer: One

A few days after her return, Mother Abagail awakens in Larry's bed and beckons the remaining committee members to her side. She tells them that it is God's will that she shall pass on by sunrise and that it is also God's will that four of them will head west and three will face Flagg. Stu shall lead them, and if not him, Larry, and if not him, Ralph. Frannie must stay behind. The next day, the four men of the committee depart on foot, bringing nothing with them.

The Free Zone spies head onward to infiltrate Randall Flagg's territory. Judge Farris is killed in Oregon; Dayna infiltrates Vegas but refuses to give up the whereabouts of the final spy, Tom, instead jumping through Flagg's window and committing suicide. For both of these deaths, Flagg wanted the victims' heads to send back to Boulder; he received neither.

After crashing his bike on an oil slick, Harold (now with a broken leg) is left behind by Nadine. He commits suicide five days later. Nadine, meanwhile, reaches the desert and, in the night, is attacked and impregnated by the Man in Black who brings her to the city.

While Lloyd is left to deal with the problem of the dangerous Trashcan Man whose recent hobby has been blowing up Flagg's aircraft, he's told about Tom Cullen by none other than Julie Lawry. Unfortunately, Tom leaves the city that night as the full moon rises and Flagg can't determine his whereabouts. This frustrates him to no end and he ends up in a fit of rage. After further damages in the desert, his temper gets the best of him. Nadine takes advantage and, in a fight, he throws her off his balcony, killing her and his unborn child.

Answer: Stu

As Tom heads east and the four head west, people start fleeing Vegas, fearing that Flagg's plan has gone south. The Trashcan Man, seeking redemption of any sort, locates a warhead in the desert; Lloyd hangs in as Flagg saved him from what would've certainly been death.

En route to Vegas, Stu falls down a steep rock hill, breaking his leg in the process. Recalling Mother Abigail's words, the others have no choice but to leave him behind. Kojak stays with him. Within a few days, the others are met by Flagg's men in Nevada and taken directly to the big city to be placed behind bars. While there, Flagg meets with Glenn Bateman exclusively and gives Lloyd the chance to prove his worth by shooting the man. After some taunting, Lloyd does so, leaving Larry and Ralph for their proceedings. Flagg plans to string them up outside the MGM Grand and tear them limb by limb. Although the men are scared, they know that something will intervene. Sure enough, this comes in several forms. The first is dissension amongst Flagg's worried followers; one distracts Flagg long enough to postpone the event. The second is the Trashcan Man having returned, poisoned by radiation, with his bomb. Before Flagg can stop it, a force mirroring that of the Hand of God smacks down on the warhead, killing everyone in the city and causing Flagg to dissipate.

Stu, still alive thanks to Kojak, struggles to get by with his broken leg. The blast doesn't reach him-- it's blown west towards Flagg's followers in California. To his surprise, however, Tom Cullen finds him on his way east. After building a travois and finding a working vehicle, the two are able to ride to the nearest town and take up shelter. Tom, receiving visions from Nick, is able to find the proper medicine to stave off infection and begin Stu's healing process.

When Stu is able, the two start their journey back to Boulder, hitting snow along the way. The two vow to make it back despite the horribly treacherous conditions. They do, but by the time they arrive, Frannie has already had her baby. It survives, combating Captain Tripps and giving hope to the Free Zone.

Within the year, thousands more arrive in Boulder. Many seek to explore the land and reclaim it. Lucy has Larry's twins; both survive. Stu and Fran decide to return to Maine to see what's in store for them. They decide to leave Boulder in the hands of the other survivors and, while they fear that some may already be reverting to their old ways (for the worse), things may yet turn out alright for humanity.

Somewhere in the South Pacific, a man by the name of Russell Faraday washes up on shores populated by a primitive civilization and the Wheel of Ka continues to spin.