Dean McLaughlin-Townsend’s Reviews > The Long Walk > Status Update

40 miles from Boston, McVries asks Garraty for a story, so he tells one. McVries seems pleased with it, and collapses. He gets shot moments later. 2 left. By 8:00 PM they were walking through Danvers, and Garraty was about to give up, when suddenly Stebbins died of exhaustion. Garraty had won. But he was delusional, and saw the Major congratulating him as a new person to out-walk, so he started running. The End.

It's the 5th day of their Walk now. Garraty was so gone it took him a huge effort to just keep going, let alone eat, but Stebbins was somehow still going fine... Garraty and McVries ask about Stebbins, who relents, telling them he is the Major's illegitimate son. 2 got shot. 7 left. They crossed into Massachusetts. Bill and Rattigan got shot shortly after. 5 left. Garraty started to cry. Baker got shot then...

They passed Portland, and 6 got shot. 19 left. Garraty starts to feel worse than ever. He talks with Abraham about Scramm. Parker goes crazy and attacked the halftrack, killing a soldier before being shot. 17 left. Later Wyman got shot. 14 left. They are now 8 miles from New Hampshire. Abraham began to cough, and they entered New Hampshire, where they got another salute. Then 4 more got shot, and Abraham. 9 left.

Garraty woke up, and has a huge migraine, and 8 got shot. 26 left. Garraty was talking to Stebbins when his shoes came apart, so he took them off. It started raining. Another got shot. 25 left. And word is that a boy up front has appendicitis. They crossed into Freeport, and Garraty saw Jan, his girlfriend, and went crazy. He was stopped by McVries though.

Must be f****** hard to do that, jeez...

They passed through Augusta with little emotion left, and the biggest crowd yet. 2 got shot. 35 left. Garraty falls back to talk with Barkovitch, who's limping a bit, but finds that he's still going strong and slightly crazy. A while later Barkovitch went crazy and got shot. 34 left. They walked on in silence, and Garraty drifted off to semi sleep.

I really wasn't expecting Barkovitch to die so soon, but oh well.

Abraham and Baker are playing heads or tails with a coin. Then Garraty screamed about his leg, stopped to massage it, taking 3 warnings. Just as the safeties were coming off, he got back up. He and McVries talked about what they did when they knew they were gonna be in the Walk. Then 3 kids got shot. 38 left. They talked about being begged not to go. Another got shot. 37 left. A dog ran out and got shot too.

2 more got shot in the night. 43 left. Barkovitch tries to tell Garraty that they got off on the wrong foot, but I get the feeling he isn't buying it. Then Scramm and Mike decided that they were down, and sat down and got shot. 41 left. They walk went on solemnly, nobody spoke for a long time.

What a sad thing, that they just felt down so they ended it...

They've joined the turnpike now, and there's talk of a 300-gun salute for the ones that are left, and talk of saluting back with raspberries.A little while later, it happened, although it was kinda pitiful... Garraty drifted off again, then got a warning for taking a crap. They kept walking, the crowds getting thicker and thicker as they went.

Now WHY would they have an event like this??? God****...

It continued to drizzle for awhile, and 4 more got shot. 49 left. Garraty has a huge pain in his arches. Garraty then talks with Stebbins about Olson. 3 more got shot entering Oldtown. 46 left. Then Olson snapped HARD. He climbed the halftrack and yanked a gun from one of the soldiers. He got shot multiple times and still kept going... He almost killed them. It took a lot of bullets to kill him. 45 left.

They've been walking for 115 miles now, and for a long time, no one had been shot. Then at noon, 6 kids got shot. 56 left. Later, Percy's mom came looking for him and fighting the cops trying to hold her back. Scramm got a cold, and another kid got shot. 55 left. Then a man gave them watermelons, and was tackled by cops, another got shot. 54 left. Then a thunderstorm came it hailed hard. Jensen got shot. 53 left...