Stu Redman's accident and separation
Stu Redman's accident and separation is the event that breaks the four-man quest party sent by Mother Abagail to confront Randall Flagg in Las Vegas, transforming a unified mission into a desperate struggle for survival on both sides of the Utah desert. The fall, which occurs on September 23, 1990, in a washout of Interstate 70 west of Green River, leaves Stu with a shattered leg and forces the others—Larry Underwood, Glen Bateman, and Ralph Brentner—to abandon him in accordance with the old woman's strict walking rules. This separation not only removes the group's natural leader but also creates the conditions for Stu's eventual rescue by Tom Cullen and for the final three pilgrims to reach Flagg's stronghold alone.
The Fall and the Fracture of the Quest
The accident happens when the four men attempt to cross a thirty-foot-deep gully carved by a flash flood. Stu climbs the western bank first, but near the top the loose sedimentary rock gives way. He slides, slams into a boulder, and hears his leg snap. A backward somersault breaks it again. He lands at the bottom, his leg now broken in at least two places, his knee sprung. The others help him splint the leg and give him a bottle of morphine-based pills that Glen Bateman has carried for his arthritis. Stu immediately understands what the pills are for: a way to end his life if the pain or exposure becomes unbearable. He tells the others, "I figure I'll be walking again in about three months," but the irony is bitter; he knows he cannot continue.
The Argument and the Decision to Leave
Larry Underwood, now the de facto leader by Mother Abagail's succession, refuses to leave Stu. He argues that they can carry him, that they can find a car, that the accident was "just loose dirt" and not part of any divine plan. Glen Bateman and Ralph Brentner, however, hold to the original terms of the quest: they must walk, carry nothing, and trust in God's providence. Glen tells Larry, "We made an agreement. We stood around Mother Abagail's deathbed and entered into it." Ralph adds, "It's a test." Stu himself casts the deciding vote: "I vote you go on." Larry, weeping, finally submits. Before leaving, Glen gives Stu the pill bottle and says, "Pull the plug if you have to, Stuart. Don't screw around." The three men climb the western bank and walk away without looking back. Stu watches them go, then lies alone in the gully with his broken leg and his morphine.
Kojak's Choice and the First Night
Kojak, Glen Bateman's dog who has followed the party from New Hampshire, does not leave with his master. Instead, he stays with Stu. That night, as Stu shivers in the cold and the wolves howl in the distance, Kojak brings him a rabbit. Stu skins and cooks it over a fire built with wood the dog fetches. They share the meat. The wolf howls continue, but Kojak growls back, and the pack does not approach. Stu sleeps with the dog curled beside him, drawing warmth from the animal's body. The first night ends with Stu alive, fed, and guarded—a small mercy that will prove decisive.
The Aftermath: Tom Cullen's Return and the Long Road Home
Stu survives in the washout for several days, his fever rising and his leg festering. He writes a farewell note to Frannie Goldsmith, attaches it to his key ring, and clips it to Kojak's collar, hoping the dog will find its way back to Boulder. But on the night of October 1, Tom Cullen—the retarded man who had been sent west as a spy and who has just escaped Las Vegas—stumbles upon the camp. Tom has been guided by dreams of Nick Andros, who told him where to find Stu. He carries Stu to Green River in a makeshift travois, finds penicillin in a drugstore (guided, he believes, by Nick's ghost), and nurses him through a near-fatal bout of pneumonia. The two spend the winter in Grand Junction, then cross the Rockies on snowmobiles, arriving in Boulder on January 9, 1991—just in time for Stu to meet his newborn son, Peter, who is fighting his own battle with the superflu.
Significance: The Quest's Broken Vessel
Stu's accident is the event that most directly tests the theological framework of the quest. If Mother Abagail's God truly guided the four men, why would He allow their leader to fall at the very threshold of the journey? The accident forces the remaining pilgrims to proceed without their strongest member, and it is they—Larry, Glen, and Ralph—who are captured, brought before Flagg, and ultimately die in the nuclear explosion that destroys Las Vegas. Stu, meanwhile, survives through a chain of improbable coincidences: Kojak's loyalty, Tom Cullen's return, the discovery of penicillin, and the long winter that gives his leg time to heal. The event thus embodies the novel's central ambiguity: is survival a matter of divine providence, blind luck, or the stubborn love of a dog and a simple man?
