The Long Walk

Part 3 is titled “The Rabbit.” Nine walkers remain. Tubes of food concentrates are distributed for the last time. Stebbins taunts Garraty. McVries thinks that they’ll make it into Massachusetts for the first time in 17 years. The boys are suspicious about Stebbins’s extent of knowledge about the Walk. Garraty tells Stebbins that he still has energy and is pleased to see Stebbins deflate a bit. Stebbins throws up, receiving a warning (only his second warning of the entire Walk).

The boys ask Stebbins why he’s there. He says that he’s the rabbit, referring to their earlier conversation about the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He clarifies that he’s like the rabbit that greyhounds chase because no matter how fast the dogs run, they can’t catch the rabbit. Stebbins tells them that the Major is his father. The crowd cheers loudly. Stebbins adds that he’s the Major’s bastard. He didn’t think that the Major knew—and planned to ask to be taken into the Major’s home as his Prize. To his surprise, the Major did know that Stebbins was his child. Rain pours.

Seven boys cross into Massachusetts. Baker is bleeding badly. Spectators fill the hills alongside them.