The Stand, Part III: The Betrayal

Lloyd Henreid:
Flagg wants to see you.

Trashcan Man:
[whispering intensely] My life for him. Yes. My life for him!

[The Rat Man turns to Lloyd, whispering.]

Rat Man:
Dude's crazy.

Lloyd Henreid:
Like we're not?

[Nadine has another dream about Flagg.]

Nadine Cross:
I'm here. I came to you.

Randall Flagg:
The bride cometh to the bridegroom as a flame to the wick of a lamp.

Nadine Cross:
Is that the Bible?

Randall Flagg:
Hmm, Danielle Steel, I think.

[Glen, Larry, Stu, and Ralph talk about the imminent restarting of the Boulder power station.]

Glen Bateman:
The plague took the people, but it couldn't take the gadgets, could it? No, they're all still out there. Everything from electric can openers to cobalt bombs, just waiting for someone to come along and pick 'em up. And the scavenger hunt… starts today.

Ralph Bretner:
Ah, hell, Professor. What's wrong with puttin' the rocks back in people's scotch?

Glen Bateman:
It's the old way. And the old way was a death trip.

Stu Redman:
That's a little heavy, don'tcha think?

Glen Bateman:
Do you? There's an old woman down there who might tell ya different, East Texas. If she'd talk about this end of it at all, that is.

Stu Redman:
What's the problem?

Glen Bateman:
I don't know if there is one. But I know I'm very concerned about the way things are going. She wants a mass meeting. Except she says it's really God who wants the meeting. We say, "Fine. You're fine, Mother. God's fine, too." And then we go right back to tinkering with the power station, trying to recreate the world that damn near choked the human race to death. What's wrong with this picture?

[Nadine, her back turned to Mother Abagail, is next in the new arrivals' greeting line.]

Mother Abagail:
Who's this woman who comes?!

[Nadine turns to look at the old woman.]

Randall Flagg:
[in Nadine's mind] Go to her!

Nadine Cross:
My name is Nadine Cross.

Mother Abagail:
Mayhap it is, and mayhap it ain't!

Nadine Cross:
I'm from New York.

Mother Abagail:
Mayhap you are…

Nadine Cross:
[muttering] Mayhap I ain't.

[She looks up.]

Nadine Cross:
I won't keep you long.

[She slowly climbs the steps toward Abagail.]

Nadine Cross:
You look so tired. Of course, anyone your age is bound to tire easily, isn't that so?

[She holds out her hand, but Joe rushes past her to hug Mother Abagail.]

Mother Abagail:
Hello, Joe, what'd'ya know? [laughs]

[The new Boulder Free Zone Committee meets to discuss Mother Abagail's unexpected departure and their own next move.]

Ralph Bretner:
Flagg is our business right now. And we'll have to trust Mother Abagail… to her God.

Glen Bateman:
Our friend in the cowboy boots and jean jacket isn't gonna just sit over there on his side of the Rockies playing mumblety-peg, you know.

[At a barbecue, the Committee discusses plans to send spies to scope out Flagg's activities in Vegas.]

Larry Underwood:
Well… we haven't been elected one whole day yet, and already we've managed to, uh, reinvent the CIA. Who needs Monday Night Football?

. . .

Larry Underwood:
Oh my God, I'm a politician. This isn't Colorado, it's Hell!

. . .

Larry Underwood:
I can't believe we're doin' this!

Stu Redman:
Hey, if you didn't wanna get your hands dirty, you shoulda stayed off the Committee in the first place! We're probably sendin' people off to get killed!

Larry Underwood:
Yeah?

Stu Redman:
Yeah, that's right! Makin' decisions like that is what bein' in charge is all about! Either grow up and do it, or get out!

[Everyone stares at Larry in silence.]

Larry Underwood:
You're awful cute when you get angry, Stu.

[The Committee hypnotizes Tom to prepare him to be a scout, but find that he's surprisingly aware while under.]

Frannie Goldsmith:
Are you the same Tom that Nick met in Oklahoma?

Tom Cullen:
Yes. No. I'm God's Tom.

. . .

Stu Redman:
Look. And then you come back here to Boulder, when the moon is full. Do you understand?

Tom Cullen:
Yes! M-O-O-N… spells moon.

[Tom Cullen is now working at Indian Springs AFB, where his coworkers call him "Moose".]

Barry Dorgan:
And get the toolkit outta the cab and take it into the hangar office.

Tom Cullen:
You bet! M-O-O-N, that spells "toolkit"!

[Harold is working on explosives in his basement, listening to "Boogie Fever". Nadine tries to get his attention by killing the music.]

Harold Lauder:
What the hell are you doing? Don't screw with my disco, Nadine!

Nadine Cross:
Is everything all right?

Harold Lauder:
No.

[He holds up three sticks of dynamite, taped together and fused.]

Harold Lauder:
If I had dropped this, you would be washing my guts out of your pretty white hair for the next two weeks.

Nadine Cross:
I'm sorry.

Harold Lauder:
Let me make a suggestion, my little disco queen. Take a walk.

Nadine Cross:
Take a walk?

Harold Lauder:
Yes! A walk. Because, you see, I have no idea how old this stuff is. I do know that old dynamite sweats pure nitroglycerin. So, take a walk, and, if you hear a very loud bang, that will probably be me going to that great disco inferno in the sky.

[After Nadine conceals the bomb in Frannie's closet, she returns to Harold.]

Harold Lauder:
Nadine?

Nadine Cross:
What?

Harold Lauder:
We're damned.

Nadine Cross:
Yes. I know.

[As Nick frantically digs through Frannie's closet, and the Committee rushes to leave the house…]

Nadine Cross:
Do it, Harold! Do it!

[After being blown violently across the yard by the explosion, Frannie and the rest of the main cast is talking to Mother Abagail.]

Mother Abagail:
You're not to go. Only these four: Stuart, Ralph, Larry, and Glen. You'll abide-

Frannie Goldsmith:
No, Stuart's not going anywhere! He's gonna stay with me when I have my baby! Neither one of us is going to have any more to do with your killer god!

Mother Abagail:
The Devil's imp has called his bride to put her with child. Will he let your child live, little girl?

[Frannie collapses, sobbing.]

Mother Abagail:
Father, mother, wife, husband. Set against them… the Prince o' High Places! I have sinned in pride! So have you all! That's passed now. It's time now… to give over your will… to the will o' God. It's time to make your stand.

[Mother Abagail's last (living) words.]

Mother Abagail:
You… your four men… are to go west… to take no food or water, but to go this very day in the clothes you now wear. You are to go on foot. I'm in the way of knowin' one will fall by the way, but I don't know which it will be. I'm in the way of knowin' the others will be taken before this Flagg, who isn't a man, but a creature from beyond the world. I don't know… if you will defeat him. I only know… God wants you to go, and with God's help, you will stand, and be true.

Frannie Goldsmith:
And what if we say no?!

Stu Redman:
Frannie, come on-

Frannie Goldsmith:
What?!

Stu Redman:
Come on, shhh.

Mother Abagail:
Your will is as free as that of Eve in the Garden, child. "Go where ye list" has always been God's way, but… this is what God wants of you. Be true! Stand.