Mile 81
| "Mile 81" | |
|---|---|
|
Cover of the original e-book release | |
| Author | Stephen King |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror, Science Fiction |
| Publication type | E-book |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster Digital |
| Publication date | September 1, 2011 |
Mile 81 is a novella by Stephen King, originally published as an e-book on September 1, 2011. The publication also includes an excerpt from King's novel 11/22/63, published two months later. It has also been collected in the 2015 short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
Summary
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded-up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into trouble. Pete Simmons sneaks away from his older brother and arrives there, where he finds a bottle of vodka and pornographic magazines. He drinks enough to pass out.
A mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there had not been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it is not going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates. He is then eaten by the wagon.
In the version in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, released 2015, several more characters get eaten by the station wagon, including a lesbian horse owner and the parents of two young kids. It is eventually revealed at the end of the story that the "station wagon" is not a station wagon at all, but a sentient, extra-terrestrial entity that only assumed the form of an earthly vehicle in order to lure in unsuspecting victims.
