History NightmareFuel / TheStand

* [[DisasterDominoes The way it all starts, circumstances and mistakes coming together to damn civilization]] forms a terrifying prelude to the madness and horror to come. On a secret military base known as Project Blue, an experimental weaponized form of influenza is created. One day, at random, a dumb mistake leads to it being accidentally released on the base, which promptly goes into lockdown… only for ''one'' hapless security guard to foolishly break the quarantine by fleeing as the lockdown initiates, taking his wife and daughter and fleeing in his car. The man and his family proceed to drive through ''four states'' trying to get as far away from the base as possible to avoid punishment for evading the lockdown, not realizing they were infected by the virus or that one even existed. As they drive, they get sicker and sicker while continuing to evade capture, before eventually the guard decides to pull into a gas station in Arnette, Texas seeking help for his increasingly ill family. Dying from the virus, he crashes into the pumps at the station and the people inside rush out to help. They are infected the second the car door opens with them nearby, with only ''one'' of them being later revealed as TheImmune. The virus that will soon be named Captain Trips has officially broken containment. TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has begun. And you're about to watch every second of it.

There were worse things than crucifixion.\\

-->"It was then that she noticed, after two years of coming and going down here, that there [[OhCrap was no inside knob on the freezer door.]] By then it was too warm to freeze, [[ImAHumanitarian but not too cold to starve. So Judy Horton died in the company of her son and husband after all.]]"

* [[DisasterDominoes The way it all starts, circumstances and mistakes coming together to damn civilization]] forms a terrifying prelude to the madness and horror to come. On a secret military base known as Project Blue, an experimental weaponized form of influenza is created. One day, at random, a dumb mistake leads to it being accidentally released on the base, which promptly goes into lockdown… only for ''one'' hapless security guard to foolishly break the quarantine by fleeing as the lockdown initiates, taking his wife and daughter and fleeing in his car. The man and his family proceed to drive through ''four states'' trying to get as far away from the base as possible to avoid punishment for evading the lockdown, not realizing they were infected by the virus or that one even existed. As they drive, they get sicker and sicker while continuing to evade capture, before eventually the guard decides to pull into a gas station in Arnette, Texas seeking help for his increasingly ill family. Dying from the virus, he crashes into the pumps at the station and the people inside rush out to help. They are infected the second the car door opens with them nearby. The virus that will soon be named Captain Trips has officially broken containment. TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has begun. And you're about to watch every second of it.

*** No great loss.
* The rape gang and their "zoo". A group of four army deserters decide to set up traps for passing travelers, killing all the men and taking the females to abuse and molest. To keep the women from running away or fighting back, the men force feed them drugs to instill apathy. One survivor of this group testifies that one of the rapists sodomized a woman with ''barbed wire'' in a sadistic haze.

** The vampires of 'Salem's Lot, however, would be totally fine...[[FridgeHorror and starving.]]

** When Flagg takes her back to Las Vegas, he smugly shows her off to the crowd at the hotel, and gets into an elevator to go up to his suite. As the doors are closing, Nadine has a brief moment of lucidity, stares at the crowd, and says, "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis We. Are Dead.]] [[DespairEventHorizon And. THIS. IS. HELL!]]" What makes this especially creepy is she has a smile on her face, and almost laughs with that last word.

** It's especially worse [[HarsherInHindsight in hindsight]] [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic post-2020]].

* The whole chapter or two when the reader knows [[BigBad Flagg]] has found out [[ActionGirl Dayna's]] identity and she still thinks she's successfully incognito. The reader wants her to catch on as soon as possible but knows that she doesn't have a hope of escaping, especially when the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad henchmen]] get into her hotel room. With the whole build up to her meeting with Flagg where she notices his [[UncannyValley hands]] and what happens [[{{Squick}} afterwards]]. To avoid giving away the identity of the third spy, Dayna rams her head through a window in Flagg's office and ''slashes her own throat with the broken glass''.

* The common cold and flu season will make you scared after reading this book. Seriously, sniffles and coughs have never sounded more terrifying.

* The death of Judge Farris, one of the three spies sent out from Boulder to gather intel on Las Vegas. For context, Randall Flagg orders his minions to kill the Judge without inflicting any head wounds, so that Flagg can send his severed head back to Boulder as a warning. The two guards who stop Farris end up getting into a shootout, with one of them accidentally killing the other and blowing Farris' head to pieces. When the surviving guard realizes his mistake, he starts inwardly panicking and plotting to flee south...only for Flagg himself to come charging up the road, grinning with rage, and shift into a HumanoidAbomination as he attacks the poor bastard. The narration makes it clear that Flagg [[ColdBloodedTorture took his time killing the man]].

** Also of unsettling note is when it's related that one of them shot one of the girls in the face in a rage when she wouldn't go down on him. Said girl was only 12.

** The fact that he winds up painfully [[EyeScream blinded]] in one eye after someone gouges it out. Just imagine what would happen if he lost the other one...

* The aftermath of the Judge's death. For context, Randall Flagg orders his minions to capture the Judge alive and with his face intact so that they can behead him and throw his severed head into the Boulder Free Zone. Instead, the two assigned to capture him end up getting into a firefight, ending with one of Flagg's men getting killed and the Judge's face getting destroyed by a couple of gunshots to the head. When the surviving assailant realizes his mistake, he starts inwardly panicking and plotting to flee south...only for Randall Flagg himself to come charging up the road, grinning with rage, and shift into a HumanoidAbomination as he attacks the poor bastard. The narration makes it clear that Flagg [[ColdBloodedTorture took his time killing the man]].

** Even after the nuke goes off in Las Vegas, wiping out Flagg's society, he is still alive, and re-awakens on a tropical island somewhere, getting the natives to fear and worship him as a God.