The Stand, Part I: The Plague

Stu Redman:
Country don't mean dumb.

Larry Underwood:
That brown soun' sure do get around!

[When Stu stops cooperating with the Vermont CDC staff, Dr. Denninger enters in his isolation suit to talk to him.]

Dr. Denninger:
Patty Greer says you've given her… quite a bit of trouble. She's quite upset.

Stu Redman:
Well, that makes two of us. Being hijacked by a bunch of government sons of bitches in spacesuits does that to me every time. So, if you don't wanna see how quick I can rip a hole in that thing 'fore you can get outta here, you better give me a little information.

General Starkey:
So what are we telling the public?

Major Len Creighton:
Anthrax. New strain.

General Starkey:
[Laughs grimly] Yeah, it's real new! It's very good at its job!

Nick Andros:
Who are you, ma'am?

Mother Abagail:
Abagail Freemantle. But folks 'round these parts just call me Mother Abagail. I'm a hundred and six years old, and I still make my own bread!

[Sheriff Baker and Dr. Soames see the beaten Nick Andros emerge from his cell.]

Sheriff Baker:
When I was a boy, we caught ourselves a mountain lion back up in the hills. We shot it, 'n' dragged it back to town. What was left of that critter when we got home was the sorriest lookin' sight I've ever seen. You the second sorriest, boy.

[An isolation-suited Dr. Dietz enters Stu's room with a small animal cage.]

Dr. Dietz:
I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Meet Geraldo.

Stu Redman:
Geraldo, huh?

Dr. Dietz:
Um-hmm. Now, the virus your fellow townspeople contracted passes easily from human to guinea pig, and vice-versa, presumably. But Geraldo has been breathing your air, via convector, for the last three days. And Geraldo is fine and frisky, as you see. I'd call that rather comforting, wouldn't you?

Stu Redman:
I see you're not taking any chances.

Dr. Dietz:
That's not in my contract. However, it does appear there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Mr. Redman. Or, may I call you "Stu"?

Stu Redman:
Just don't call me Geraldo.

. . .

Dr. Dietz:
All right, now, you listen up! I'm not responsible for you being here, or for the dead people in your home town. Neither is Denninger, or the nurses who come in to take your blood pressure.

Stu Redman:
Then who is?

Dr. Dietz:
No one. Everyone. God. Who knows?

. . .

[Stu starts coughing, causing Dietz et al. to scramble to leave the room.]

Stu Redman:
Dietz! Calm down. I was just faking.

Dr. Dietz:
Why… why would you do a thing like that?

Stu Redman:
You talk about this thing in here like you were outside of it. I just wanted you to get a little taste of what it's like on the inside. How'd you like it?

Dr. Dietz:
You stupid son of a bitch!

[Stu laughs]

[Later, after the hospital is shown to be deserted and its staff killed by the plague, a dying Dietz returns to Stu's room with a pistol]

Stu Redman:
[Warily] Where's Denninger?

Dr. Dietz:
He's dead. They're all dead. Everyone except me, and thee.

Stu Redman:
And you're here to take care of me, is that it?

Dr. Dietz:
Hole in one! [Goes into a coughing fit]

Stu Redman:
Why?

Dr. Dietz:
Why? Because I've decided a chickenshit coward like you isn't fit to live. Not with so many good men dying.

Stu Redman:
"Good men". Those "good men" caused this mess!

[On the phone, Larry talks to Arlene, his bartender friend in L.A.]

Larry Underwood:
Listen, I'm gonna try and get the, uh… the afternoon flight back, so… you put on your sexiest number, I'm gonna take ya out to dinner, then I'll take ya out dancing… then maybe I'll just take ya.

[Larry walks along a New York City street. In the background, a robed man slowly approaches, ringing a bell.]

Monster Shouter:
Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead! Bring out your-

[Suddenly the robed man lunges at Larry, grabbing his shirt and talking straight into his face.]

Monster Shouter:
He's coming for you, Larry. The Man With No Face!

[Two men are boozing it up, cruising in their convertible down a remote Arizona highway.]

Poke:
Ya know what time it is?

Lloyd Henreid:
What time is it?

Poke:
Time to make a cash withdrawl!

Lloyd Henreid:
I heard that!

Poke:
And if anybody - I mean anybody - says anything, or does anything to stop us…

[Lloyd talks into the barrel of Poke's gun.]

Lloyd Henreid:
We gonna Pokerize 'em!

Poke:
Dead right! Damn straight!

General Starkey:
"Things fall apart. The center does not hold." [A] man named Yeats said that. I didn't understand that poem in college, Len. But I… must be getting smarter in my old age, because I understand it now. And one other line from that poem: "What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"

[Later, with all Army operations and the United States overall falling apart, Major Creighton returns to General Starkey's deserted headquarters. The General has shot himself, hanging a sign around his neck that reads:
"GUILTY".]

Major Len Creighton:
"You were right, Billy...the center didn't hold. It didn't..."

[Rae Flowers continues her radio talk show as the military invades the building.]

Rae Flowers:
Tell ya what, Portland - it looks like the Marines have landed, and they don't look too happy.

[Frannie and her flu-ridden father are listening in horror.]

Frannie Goldsmith:
This is a joke! Right? I mean, this has gotta be a joke!

Peter Goldsmith:
I don't think so, Frannie. I really don't think so.

Rae Flowers:
Hi, there. You're on the air.

Caller:
Rae, you all right?

Rae Flowers:
Well, to tell you the truth, honey, it doesn't look too good for the kid right now. Several soldiers have just broken into the studio. They- they're fully armed, and they're… they're dressed in some kind of protective clothing. They're wearing… they're wearing respirators on their faces.

[The soldiers break into Rae's studio.]

Soldier:
Shut it down!

Rae Flowers:
Hey, Bluto! You ever hear of a little number called freedom of speech?! Bill of Rights?! Any of that ring a bell? [to her audience] Folks, I've just been ordered by my uninvited Fascist guests to shut down, and I've refused. I think-

[Sounds of gunfire over the radio, then silence.]

Frannie Goldsmith:
Oh my God, what's happening?!

[At night, on a desert highway, a tall, long-haired man in jeans spies a deer.]

Randall Flagg:
Rub-a-dub-dub…

[He makes a gun-firing motion with his hand, light flashes, and the deer falls dead.]

Randall Flagg:
… thanks for the grub.

[The robed Monster Shouter passes down the road ringing a bell, continuing his chanted warning]

The Monster Shouter:
Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your --

[He sees Randall Flagg and stops still in his tracks, utterly terrified]

The Monster Shouter:
...the Dark Man...he is here!

[Flagg zaps him dead]

Major Len Carsleigh:
We found him; we located Campion. He crash-landed on a one-stoplight town in East Texas.

Lieutenant General William "Billy" Starkey:
He made it halfway across the country. How'd he do that?

MAJ Carsleigh:
I don't know. But the important thing is, right now, we got a shot at containing this.

LTG Starkey:
Is he dead or alive?

MAJ Carsleigh:
He's dead.

LTG Starkey:
Denninger says this thing has a communicability rate of over 99%. You understand what that means? Any chance of containing this went by the window when Campion bought his first takeout burger.

MAJ Carsleigh:
We can't think that way, Billy.

LTG Starkey:
Yeah, you're right. Of course you are. What about the rest of his family?

MAJ Carsleigh:
They're dead, sir. Contact with the townspeople was minimal.

LTG Starkey:
That doesn't matter. We're gonna have to shut that town down, lock it up, dig a moat around it.

MAJ Carsleigh:
That operation's already on the launching pad, sir.

LTG Starkey:
What kinda coverage you come up with?

MAJ Carsleigh:
Anthrax. New strain.

LTG Starkey:
[Laughs grimly] Yeah, it's a new one, all right! It's real new! It's very good at its job, too! Too good.

MAJ Carsleigh:
Well, it's bad, General, but it could be worse.

LTG Starkey:
Ha! How's that? What's the name of this town?

MAJ Carsleigh:
Arnette. Arnette, Texas.

Dr. Herbert Denninger:
Mr. Stuart Redman, Dr. Herbert Denninger. Would you mind accompanying us, please?

Stu Redman:
Hey. You wanna take your hand off my arm, hoss?

Dr. Herbert Denninger:
[To the soldier accompanying him] He was one of the men who had direct contact with Campion; put him in the truck. If he resists-

Stu Redman:
I ain't gonna resist. Country don't mean dumb.

MAJ Carsleigh:
We have a rather large problem in Wyoming, sir.

LTG Starkey:
What large problem is that, Len?

MAJ Carsleigh:
News team got out of Pine Bluff with some potentially damaging video tapes, sir.

LTG Starkey:
Flu victims, body dumps?

MAJ Carsleigh:
Little of both. And our ops, I'm told.

LTG Starkey:
Well, we can't have that. Showing footage like that would not be in the national interest!

MAJ Carsleigh:
Absolutely not, sir.

LTG Starkey:
Well, do we know where these news people, these rabble rousers are now?

MAJ Carsleigh:
Yes, sir, we do.

LTG Starkey:
Get that video tape, Len. By any means necessary. Make it a priority.

MAJ Carsleigh:
Yes, sir.