The Road Virus Heads North

Infobox short story |
name = The Road Virus Heads North
author = Stephen King
country = United States
language = English
genre = Horror, fantasy short story
publication_type = Anthology
published_in = "999" (1st release),
""
publisher =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pub_date = 1999
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Road Virus Heads North" is a short story from the collection "" by Stephen King.

Stephen King based this work on a painting he has at his home, which is open to dislike by his family. King himself is a fan of "moving picture" stories, which inspired him to write this tale.

This story first appeared in "999", a short story collection published in 1999, and was also bundled with the game "Stephen King's F13".cite web |url=http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/0743235150.asp|title=Review: Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales|date=March 2002|author=Joe Hartlaub|work=TeenReads] The book consisted of 29 never-before published short stories by different authors and edited by Al Sarrantonio. The titled "999" is a reference to the number 666. The number 999 is speculated to appear upside-down and backwards when a person is in a dream state, producing the number 666.

Plot summary

The story follows a successful horror writer named Richard Kinell as he drives back to his home in Maine. Along the way, he comes across a yard sale, where he notices and is captivated by a bizarre painting of a sinister-looking man with filed teeth driving his car somewhere. The painting, which is apparently titled "The Road Virus Heads North," was painted by a tortured genius who had burned all his other paintings prior to killing himself, leaving a cryptic note that he couldn't stand what was happening to him. Kinnell, a collector of such oddities, has no hesitation in buying the painting from the woman running the sale.

As Kinnell travels north, he stops at his aunt's house to show her the painting... and notices that some of the details in the painting have changed. At first he dismisses this by assuming he hadn't examined it closely, but he soon realizes that the painting is continuing to change. Deeply unsettled by this fact, he discards the painting at a rest stop.

When he arrives at his home, he finds to his horror that the painting has somehow followed him, and hangs from his wall. It has changed again, this time depicting a bloody aftermath at the yard sale where he had purchased it. He hears on the news that the woman running the yard sale was brutally murdered. He realizes that the man in the painting somehow really exists, and the ever-changing painting shows him getting closer and closer. Kinnell lights a fire in the fireplace, and tosses in the painting. Confident this will destroy it once and for all, he decides to take a shower, where he passes out and has a nightmare about the various things he's encountered that day.

When he awakens, he realizes that the artist who created The Road Virus burned ALL his paintings, including this one, which means that the painting survived his attempt to burn it, and the man in the painting has arrived and is walking through the house. Kinnell tries to escape, but ultimately fails, and the painting gets him as well; the book's final passage describes Kinnell seeing the latest change to the painting, with fresh blood on the front passenger seat of the car, and realizes the painting is showing what is about to happen to him.

Compared with other Stephen King stories

*The plot of this story involves a changing painting, an idea which was also used by King for "Rose Madder".
*A somewhat similar idea, that of an instant camera whose pictures depict a scene that gets progressively more disturbing, was the basis of the novella "The Sun Dog" in the collection "Four Past Midnight".

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

"The Road Virus Heads North" was first filmed in 2004 by Dave Brock as a Stephen King "Dollar Baby" project and circulated on the film festival circuit.Fact|date=February 2007

The short story was adapted as an hour-long episode of the Turner Network Television mini-series Nightmares and Dreamscapes in 2006. The episode starred Tom Berenger as Kinnell.

Other adaptations

The short story has been adapted by artist Glenn Chadbourne for the book "The Secretary of Dreams", a collection of comics based on King's short fiction published by Cemetery Dance in December 2006.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0486465|title=The Road Virus Heads North
* [http://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com/goto.php?movies/road_virus_heads_north.php Stephen King Short Movies]