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*** Below is a work in progress ***

The Long Walk: Fan Fiction: Chapter 2: McVries: The Long Walk Begins

NOTE: Have exerpts from the book colored blue, then add what people are thinking.
NOTE: Olson's legs feel baggy p53 then gets cigs p58 so the cigs cannot cause the baggy feeling
NOTE: could perform two obscene acts upon themselves, the second proceeding directly from the first.
      Maybe come up with what he said.
NOTE: McVries would need a way to hide his drugs. Add an inspection where they take away the illegal stuff
      things that could be used as a weapon
      drugs painkillers, stimulants
NOTE: McVries sees that Parker has anger issues, so McVries fakes trying to pick a fight with the soldiers so he can trick Parker into attacking the half-track telling him they'll join him if he leads.

IDEA Conversation:
Walker1 - I wish I had some pain-killers.
Walker2 - too bad it's not allowed.
Walker1 - I wish I had some X.
Walker2 - Too bad it's not allowed.
Walker1 - I wish I had some Y.
Walker2 - Too bad it's not allowed.
Walker1 - I wish I had some Z.
Walker2 - Too bad it's not allowed.
(continue through a list of things that are not allowed and have them laugh about it)



Day 3 2:05 am
McVries, Garraty and Baker are walking half-awake when McVries suddenly speaks up.
McVries: I'm gonna go terrorize Barkovitch for a while. It will help me stay awake and prevent him from dozing. Win-Win!
     Where is the killer?  I don't see 'em.
Baker: He passed us about an hour ago. I think he's trying to catch up to the vanguard.
Garraty: Why don't you just leave him alone?
McVries: Because my one goal in life at this point is to beat that guy.
     It's like a chess game and I'm making my move.
McVries picks up his pace slightly and leaves Baker and Garraty behind.
After forty minutes he is walking behind Barkovitch who doesn't notice him.
McVries: HOW'S THAT LIMP, KILLER?!
Barkovitch starts, then laughs.
Barkovitch: You interrupted this beautiful dream I was having dancing on your grave.
They both laugh.
McVries: Yeah, I guess our old schtick has become an overused trope.
Barkovitch: Look ... Rank got himself killed because he couldn't handle a little taunting.
     He kept trying to attack me and got violation-warning for breaking Rule 8.
     You should be thanking me for taking out the competition.
McVries: How tall are you?  Like five feet?
Barkovitch: Four foot nine.
McVries: Statistically speaking, the winners tend to be tall skinny guys with long legs.
     You're a short guy, with short legs and you're kind of chunky.  You're not built for this like me, Garraty or even Stebbins.
     What makes you think you can win this?
Barkovitch: I told you at the start that I have a plan, but obviously I can't tell you what it is. You just have to experience it.
     Ask Rank, he knows. You could be next!
McVries: What the hell are you talking about?
Barkovitch: Guess what I do when someone tailgates me on the highway?
McVries: Slam on your brakes?
2:00 Barkovitch: Hah! I just throw it in neutral and gliiiiiide ... slowly losing speed until they pass me.
     At first, they don't notice ... they're like that boiling frog.
     You know that experiment with the boiling frog?
     If you raise the temperature slow enough, the frog won't notice and will boil to death.
     That's what I do with tailgaters.
     You're now the frog in my experiment.  Welcome to my plan.
1:31 McVries: I have no idea what you're ...
1:30 Soldier: Warning 5! Warning 61! First Warning!
1:26 McVries: You got me. I'm your boiling frog, but the jigs up.
1:24 McVries suddenly noticed that other walkers have been passing them. Baker, Scramm, Abraham.
1:22 Barkovitch: It doesn't matter if we're walking at 3.9 miles per hour, or just standing still.
     Our two-minute timer counts down in either case.
1:14 Barkovitch stops suddenly and so does McVries. Barkovitch turns to face McVries.
1:11 McVries: So, you DO slam on your brakes!
1:08 Barkovitch: I knew we both had no warnings, which means our timers were maxed out at two-minutes.
     Since you were matching my speed, that means you fell under four miles per hour when I did.
1:00 Soldier: Warning 5! Warning 61! Second Warning!
0:57 Barkovitch: Less that one minute to live, McVries. How good are you at playing chicken?
0:53 Garraty and Parker pass them yelling something but McVries and Barkovitch have shut out the world focusing only on each other.
0:52 Barkovitch: Are you going to stop following me, or are we going to buy our tickets together?
0:47 McVries: You're bluffing. You're in it to win it. The question is, who will start walking first?
0:40 Barkovitch: Forty seconds left "Peter". Look into my eyes. Am I bluffing?
0:36 They both stare into each other's eyes, looking for that poker-face tell.
0:30 Soldier: Warning 5! Warning 61! Third Warning!
0:27 McVries notices Stebbins walking by as if they didn't exist. They are now the caboose of this train.
0:24 McVries thinks "Now's my chance to deliver the poison".
     McVries reaches into his right pocket and breaks open the capsule. The poison explodes onto his hand.
     "I hope Masaru was right about that antidote".
0:20 McVries: Since we're on a first name basis Gary, let's call a truce, what say you?
0:15 McVries holds out his right hand to shake on it.
0:13 Barkovitch raises his hand, but when McVries tries to shake it, Barkovitch recoils "Psych!" and laughs.
0:09 Without warning, McVries suddenly slaps him hard across the face, delivering the slow-acting poison,
     then runs past Barkovitch in a limping jog, his foot still hurting and muscles stiff from standing.
0:07 Barkovitch stands there stunned for a few seconds wondering why McVries didn't buy his ticket for slapping him.
     If you have three warnings, and you violate a rule that gives you a violation-warning, you buy your ticket.
     Then realizes that Rule 8 forbids interference which is defined as causing someone to slow under four miles per hour
     or preventing them getting their speed up to four miles per hour.
     The soldiers obviously didn't deem this slap as "interference" according to that definition.
0:03 Within seconds to live, Barkovitch resumes his limping pace.
He wipes something from his left cheek and wonders what it is. It tastes bitter.
"Stick to the plan" he tells himself.
McVries thinks "It's done. It's only a matter of time before Barkovitch starts to lose his mind."



p281 - Barkovitch starting to lose it from the drug
MARRIED? ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT NUMBSKULL IS—
I mean a guy's got to have a couple of friends on a thing like this. It's no good to be alone, right?


p317  McVries and Parker are talking
And at the height of the excitement, at the top of the first hill on 202,
overlooking the mobbed turnpike behind and the gorged and glutted town at their feet,
two huge purple-white spotlights split the air ahead of them and the Major was there,
drawing away from them in his jeep like an hallucination, holding his salute ramrod stiff,
incredibly, fantastically oblivious of the crowd in the gigantic throes of its labor all around him.
        Hey McVries, are you and Garraty queer for each other, or what?
        A shifty-eyed Walker named Milligan saved them all by falling to his knees

p319 McVries talks with Garraty
        "He thinks we're queer for each other," McVries said, amused.
        "He's not such a bad guy,"
        McVries said: "Would you let me jerk you off?"

p329 The guns blasted and they all jumped.
        "It was Barkovitch or Quince," Pearson said. "I can't tell ... one of them's still walking ... it's—"
        Barkovitch laughed out of the darkness, a high, gobbling sound, thin and terrifying. "Not yet, you whores! I ain't gone yet! Not yeeeeeetttttt ..."
        His voice kept climbing and climbing. It was like a fire whistle gone insane. And Barkovitch's hands suddenly went up like startled doves taking flight and Barkovitch ripped out his own throat.

p358 McVries tells Parker that he, Baker, Garraty and some others (figure out the names) want to attack the halftrack, kill the soldiers then escape.
        But the need someone to lead the attack. He deceives Parker because he's too strong and needs to be eliminated.
        One of the soldiers had fallen off and lay staring up at the sky with empty, expressionless eyes.
        Stebbins sees the whole thing. Describe what happened.