The Running Man
Stephen King
 The story's protagonist, Ben Richards, is a citizen of Co-Op City (not to be confused with the real Co-Op City), a suburb of the fictional Harding, which is located somewhere in the Midwest, west of Detroit in the year 2025. The world's economy is in a shambles, and America has become a totalitarian dystopia. Richards is unable to find work, having been blacklisted from his trade, and he needs money to get medicine for his gravely ill daughter Cathy. His wife Sheila has resorted to prostitution to bring in money for the family. In desperation, Richards turns to the Games Network, a government-operated television station that runs violent game shows. After rigorous physical and mental testing, Richards is selected to appear on The Running Man, the Games Network's most popular, lucrative, and dangerous program. Richards meets with Network producer Dan Killian and Running Man host Bobby Thompson. The men proceed to discuss Richards' contract for appearing on the show, as well as the challenges he is expected to face when the game starts. The contestant is declared an enemy of the state and released with a 12-hour head start before the Hunters, an elite team of Games Network-employed hitmen, are sent out to kill him. The contestant earns $100 per hour that he stays alive and avoids capture, an additional $100 for each law enforcement officer or Hunter he kills, and one billion "New Dollars" if he survives for 30 days. Viewers can receive cash rewards for informing the Games Network of the runner's whereabouts. The record time for survival is eight days and five hours — a mark that Richards eventually surpasses. The runner is given $4,800 and a pocket video camera before he leaves the studio. He can travel anywhere in the world, and each day he must videotape two messages and mail them back to the studio for broadcasting. If he neglects to send the messages, he will be held in default of his Games contract and will lose the prize money, but will continue to be hunted indefinitely. As the game begins, Richards obtains a disguise and false identification records, traveling first to New York City and then Boston. In Boston, he is tracked down by the Hunters and only manages to escape by setting off an explosion in the basement of a YMCA building that kills five police officers. He narrowly escapes through a sewer pipe and emerges in the city's impoverished ghetto, where he takes shelter with gang member Bradley Throckmorton and his family. Richards learns from Bradley that the air is severely polluted and that the poor are kept down as a permanent underclass. Bradley also says that the Games Network exists only as a propaganda machine to pacify and distract the public. Richards tries to incorporate this information into his video messages, but finds that the Network dubs over his voice with obscenities and threats during the broadcast. Bradley smuggles Richards past a government checkpoint to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he disguises himself as a half-blind priest. In addition, Bradley provides Richards with re-mailing labels so that the Network will not be able to track him by the postmark on his videotapes. Richards spends a few days in Manchester, but he dreams that Bradley has betrayed him after being tortured. He travels to a safe house owned by a friend of Bradley in Portland, Maine, but he is reported by the owner's mother. As the police and the Hunters close in on the safe house, Richards is wounded, but he manages to escape. The next morning, after arranging to mail his videotapes, Richards carjacks a woman named Amelia Williams, holds her hostage, and makes his way to an airport in Derry, Maine, passing through the towns of Rockland, Camden, and Winterport along the way. Richards has a standoff at the airport and manages to bluff his way past Evan McCone, the lead Hunter, onto a plane by pretending he is carrying "Black Irish" a form of plastic explosives of almost nuclear explosive force. Richards takes both Amelia and McCone as prisoners. He has the plane fly low over populated areas to avoid being shot down by a surface-to-air missile. However, he is confronted by Killian on a video call, who states that he knows Richards does not have any explosives, as the plane's security system would have detected if he did. To Richards' surprise, Killian offers him the job of lead Hunter. Richards is hesitant to take the offer, worried that his family will become a target. Killian then informs him that Sheila and Cathy were brutally murdered over ten days earlier, even before Richards first appeared on the show. He gives Richards some time to make his decision. Richards falls asleep and dreams of his murdered family and a gruesome crime scene. With nothing left to lose, he calls Killian back and accepts the offer. He overpowers the flight crew and kills McCone, who mortally wounds him. After allowing Amelia to parachute to safety, Richards uses his last strength to override the plane's autopilot and fly the plane toward the skyscraper housing the Games Network. The book ends with the plane crashing into the tower, resulting in the deaths of Richards and Killian. The novel comes to a close with the description, "...and it rained fire twenty blocks away."