The walk to Las Vegas

The walk to Las Vegas is the final, fateful journey undertaken by Stu Redman, Larry Underwood, Glen Bateman, and Ralph Brentner, who set out from Boulder on foot in early September 1990, following the dying commission of Mother Abagail. This quest, undertaken without food, water, or weapons, is the novel's climactic act of faith, a direct confrontation with the dark man Randall Flagg that ends not in a battle of arms but in a supernatural cataclysm, destroying Flagg's stronghold and leaving only Stu and Tom Cullen to return to Boulder.

Commission and Departure

Mother Abagail, on her deathbed after returning from her own wilderness ordeal, delivered the commission for the walk. She told the surviving members of the Free Zone Committee—Stu, Larry, Glen, and Ralph—that God had not brought them together to form a community, but to send them further, on a quest to destroy the dark man. She commanded them to go west, to Las Vegas, taking no food, no water, and no weapons, and to go on foot, in the clothes they stood up in. She prophesied that one of them would not reach their destination, but that the rest would be taken before Flagg. The four men accepted the commission, with Stu, as the leader, declaring, "I have to go." They left Boulder on September 6, 1990, walking southwest toward Golden, leaving behind a grieving Fran Goldsmith and Lucy Swann.

The Journey and Separation

The four pilgrims walked for over three weeks, covering over 360 miles across Colorado and Utah. They followed Mother Abagail's instructions to the letter, carrying nothing and foraging for food. The journey was a physical and spiritual ordeal, a process of emptying out the self. As Glen Bateman explained, they were like batteries being charged, stripping away the accessories of normal life to become vessels for a higher purpose. They experienced a growing sense of clarity and peace, a feeling of being "high" without drugs. The journey was marked by hardship, including a harrowing crossing of the Eisenhower Tunnel and the discovery of Harold Lauder's corpse. The group's unity was shattered when Stu Redman fell while climbing out of a washout on I-70 in Utah, breaking his leg badly. Unable to continue, he insisted the others go on without him, fulfilling Mother Abagail's prophecy that one would not reach the destination. Larry, Glen, and Ralph, after a painful argument, left Stu behind with a bottle of morphine-based pills, continuing west.

Capture and Execution

The remaining three pilgrims were captured by Flagg's men on September 28, just east of Las Vegas. They were taken to the city and imprisoned. Glen Bateman was executed the next day, shot by Lloyd Henreid after he mocked Flagg's power, laughing at the dark man and calling him "nothing." On the morning of September 30, Larry and Ralph were brought to the lawn of the MGM Grand Hotel, where Flagg had prepared a public execution. They were placed in steel cages on flatbed trucks, with chains and handcuffs attached to their wrists, intended to be pulled apart by cars. Flagg read a bill of charges against them, declaring them spies and saboteurs. As the execution was about to begin, Whitney Horgan, the cook, protested, but Flagg killed him with a ball of blue fire. The crowd was on the verge of panic.

The Cataclysm and Aftermath

At the moment of crisis, the Trashcan Man arrived, driving an electric cart carrying a nuclear warhead he had retrieved from a secret military base. He was in the final stages of radiation sickness, his body ravaged. He presented the bomb to Flagg as an offering, crying, "My life for you!" Flagg, terrified, ordered Lloyd to make him take it away. As the blue ball of fire Flagg had used to kill Whitney Horgan rushed toward the warhead, a blinding white light filled the world. The nuclear explosion destroyed Las Vegas, killing Flagg, Larry, Ralph, Lloyd, the Trashcan Man, and everyone else in the city. Stu, who had been left behind, witnessed the mushroom cloud from a distance. He was later found by Tom Cullen, who had escaped Las Vegas on the night of the full moon. Together, they survived the winter, and Stu returned to Boulder in January 1991, just after Fran gave birth to their son, Peter. The walk to Las Vegas ended not with a triumphant return, but with the destruction of the dark man's power and the beginning of a new, uncertain future.