Richard Bachman

Life on Poplar Street seems idyllic, but before the sun sets on this summer day, the quiet Ohio suburb will become a terrifying slaughterhouse.

In an ultra-conservative America of the not-too distant future when America has become a police state, the annual marathon is the ultimate sports competition. One hundred boys are selected each year to enter a grueling 450-mile marathon walk. The game is simple: maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you're out--permanently. The winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life;...

Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as The Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping ... with the winner being awarded "The Prize"--Anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystophian America year after year, there are some harsh...

In a dystopia where market capitalism and television game shows have spiraled out of control, Ben Richards enters himself in the last-chance money-making scheme of the Free-Vee games. Success means a life of luxury, and failure means death. Unfortunately, in the last six years no one has survived the game.

"The "extraordinary" (booklist) novel of one man's quest to find the source of his nightmare and to reverse it before he becomes ... nothing at all. this #1 national bestseller from Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, "pulsates with evil ... it will have you on the edge of your seat" (publishers weekly)"--

A future world game show offers convicts a chance at freedom if they can run to escape hi-tech killers, and Ben Richards is determined to do so.