The Long Walk

Garraty looked down at Stebbins’s feet and saw with surprise that Stebbins had removed his tennis shoes and was wearing a pair of soft-looking moccasins. His shoes were tucked into his chambray shirt.
    “I’m saving the tennis shoes,” Stebbins said, “just in case. But I think the mocs will finish it.”
    “Oh.”
    They passed a radio tower standing skeletal in an empty field. A red light pulsed as regular as a heartbeat at its tip.
    “Looking forward to seeing your loved ones?”
    “Yes, I am,” Garraty said.
    “What happens after that?”
    “Happens?” Garraty shrugged. “Keep on walking down the road, I guess. Unless you are all considerate enough to buy out by then.”
    “Oh, I don’t think so,” Stebbins said, smiling remotely. “Are you sure you won’t be walked out? After you see them?”
    “Man, I’m not sure of anything,” Garraty said. “I didn’t know much when I started, and I know less now.”
    “You think you have a chance?”
    “I don’t know that either. I don’t even know why I bother talking to you. It’s like talking to smoke.”
    Far ahead, police sirens howled and gobbled in the night.
    “Somebody broke through to the road up ahead where the police are spread thinner,” Stebbins said. “The natives are getting restless, Garraty. Just think of all the people diligently making way for you up ahead.”
    “For you too.”
    “Me too,” Stebbins agreed, then didn’t say anything for a long time. The collar of his chambray workshirt flapped vacuously against his neck. “It’s amazing how the mind operates the body,” he said at last. “It’s amazing how it can take over and dictate to the body. Your average housewife may walk up to sixteen miles a day, from icebox to ironing board to clothesline. She’s ready to put her feet up at the end of the day but she’s not exhausted. A door-to-door salesman might do twenty. A high school kid in training for football walks twenty-five to twenty-eight . . . that’s in one day from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night. All of them get tired, but none of them get exhausted.”
    “Yeah.”
    “But suppose you told the housewife: today you must walk sixteen miles before you can have your supper.”
    Garraty nodded. “She’d be exhausted instead of tired.”
    Stebbins said nothing. Garraty had the perverse feeling that Stebbins was disappointed in him.
    “Well . . . wouldn’t she?”
    “Don’t you think she’d have her sixteen miles in by noon so she could kick off her shoes and spend the afternoon watching the soaps? I do. Are you tired, Garraty?”
    “Yeah,” Garraty said shortly. “I’m tired.”
    “Exhausted?”
    “Well, I’m getting there.”
    “No, you’re not getting exhausted yet, Garraty.” He jerked a thumb at Olson’s silhouette. “ That’s exhausted. He’s almost through now.”
    Garraty watched Olson, fascinated, almost expecting him to drop at Stebbins’s word. “What are you driving at?”
    “Ask your cracker friend, Art Baker. A mule doesn’t like to plow. But he likes carrots. So you hang a carrot in front of his eyes. A mule without a carrot gets exhausted. A mule with a carrot spends a long time being tired. You get it?”
    “No.”
    Stebbins smiled again. “You will. Watch Olson. He’s lost his appetite for the carrot. He doesn’t quite know it yet, but he has. Watch Olson, Garraty. You can learn from Olson.”
    Garraty looked at Stebbins closely, not sure how seriously to take him. Stebbins laughed aloud. His laugh was rich and full—a startling sound that made other Walkers turn their heads. “Go on. Go talk to him, Garraty. And if he won’t talk, just get up close and have a good look. It’s never too late to learn.”
    Garraty swallowed. “Is it a very important lesson, would you say?”
    Stebbins stopped laughing. He caught Garraty’s wrist in a strong grip. “The most important lesson you’ll ever learn, maybe. The secret of life over death. Reduce that equation and you can afford to die, Garraty. You can spend your life like a drunkard on a spree.”
    Stebbins dropped his hand. Garraty massaged his wrist slowly. Stebbins seemed to have dismissed him again. Nervously, Garraty walked away from him, and toward Olson.
    It seemed to Garraty that he was drawn toward Olson on an invisible wire. He flanked him at four o’clock. He tried to fathom Olson’s face.
    Once, a long time ago, he had been frightened into a long night of wakefulness by a movie