The Long Walk Traditional Cache
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In honor of the ten Stephen King caches placed on this section of the Eastern trail, we thought it would be fitting to add a Richard Bachman cache. The log paper is slightly different than your average log. We're experimenting with this container for it's water resistance.
The Long Walk is a novel by Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1979 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback & hardback. Set in a dystopian present, the plot revolves around the contestants of a gruelling walking contest, held annually by a somewhat despotic and totalitarian version of the United States of America. In 2000 the American Library Association listed The Long Walk as one of the 100 best books for teenage readers published between 1966 and 2000. Stephen King has revealed that it is the first novel he ever wrote, begun eight years before Carrie was published in 1974, when he was a freshman at the University of Maine in 1966-67.
One hundred teenage boys participate in an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk," which is the "national sport". Each Walker must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he drops below that speed for 30 seconds, he receives a verbal warning (which can be erased by walking for one hour without being warned). If a Walker with three warnings slows down again, he is "ticketed." The meaning of this term is intentionally kept vague at first, but it soon becomes clear that "buying a ticket" means to be shot dead by soldiers riding in half-tracks along the roadside. Walkers may be shot immediately for certain serious violations, such as trying to leave the road or attacking the half-track. The soldiers use electronic equipment to precisely determine a Walker's speed.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)