Skeleton Crew

Table of Contents

 

 

In this brilliant collection of twenty-two stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine....

 

A supermarket becomes the place where humanity makes its last stand against unholy destruction . . . a trip to the attic turns into a journey to hell . . . a woman driver finds a very scary shortcut to paradise . . . an idyllic lake that could be the home of bottomless evil . . . and a desert island is the scene of the most terrifying struggle for survival ever waged.

 

THE BACHMAN BOOKS

—
Philadelphia Inquirer

CARRIE

—
Chicago Tribune

CHRISTINE

—
Playboy

CUJO

—
Newport News Daily Press

THE DARK HALF

—
Kirkus Reviews

THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER

—
Booklist

THE DARK TOWER II: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE

—
Chicago Herald-Wheaton

THE DARK TOWER III: THE WASTE LANDS

—
Chicago Sun-Times

THE DEAD ZONE

—
Cosmopolitan

DIFFERENT SEASONS

—
New York Times Book Review

DOLORES CLAIBORNE

—
San Francisco Chronicle

THE EYES OF THE DRAGON

—
Cincinnati Post

FIRESTARTER

—
Miami Herald

FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT

—
Milwaukee Journal

GERALD’S GAME

—
USA Today

IT

—
Washington Post Book World

MISERY

—
Houston Chronicle

NEEDFUL THINGS

—
Kirkus Reviews

NIGHT SHIFT

—
Dallas Times-Herald

PET SEMATARY

—
Pittsburgh Press

‘SALEM’S LOT

—
Kirkus Reviews

THE SHINING

—
Pittsburgh Press

SKELETON CREW

—
Associated Press

THE STAND

THINNER

—
Booklist

THE TOMMYKNOCKERS

—
Boston Globe

NOVELS

Carrie
‘Salem’s Lot
The Shining
The Stand
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Cujo
THE DARK TOWER I:
The Gunslinger
Christine
Pet Sematary
Cycle of the Werewolf
The Talisman
(with Peter Straub)

It

The Eyes of the Dragon
Misery
The Tommyknockers
THE DARK TOWER II:
The Drawing
of the Three
THE DARK TOWER III:
The Waste Lands

The Dark Half
Needful Things
Gerald’s Game
Dolores Claiborne
Insomnia
Rose Madder
Desperation
The Green Mile
THE DARK TOWER IV;
Wizard and Glass
Bag of Bones
The Girl Who Loved Tom
Gordon
Dreamcatcher
Black House
(with Peter Straub)
From a Buick 8
THE DARK TOWER V:
Wolves of the Calla
THE DARK TOWER VI:
Song of Susannah
THE DARK TOWER VII:
The Dark Tower

 

AS RICHARD BACHMAN

Rage
The Long Walk
Roadwork
The Running Man
Thinner
The Regulators

 

COLLECTIONS

Night Shift
Different Seasons
Skeleton Crew
Four Past Midnight
Nightmares and
Dreamscapes
Hearts in Atlantis
Everything’s Eventual

 

NONFICTION

Danse Macabre
On Writing

 

SCREENPLAYS

Creepshow
Cat’s Eye
Silver Bullet
Maximum Overdrive
Pet Sematary
Golden Years
Sleepwalkers
The Stand
The Shining
Rose Red
Storm of the Century

SIGNET

Published by New American Library, a division of

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

First Signet Printing, June 1986

Copyright © Stephen King, 1985

eISBN : 978-1-101-13810-6

All rights reserved

 

The author gratefully acknowledges permission from the following companies to reprint material in their control: Famous Music Publishing Companies for lyrics from “That’s Amore” by Jack Brooks and Harry Warren, copyright Paramount Music Corporation, 1953; copyright © renewed Paramount Music Corporation, 1981. Sherlyn Publishing Co., Inc., for lyrics from “I’m Your Boogie Man” by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch, copyright © Sherlyn Publ. Co., Inc. and Harrick Music Co., 1976. All rights reserved. Tree Publishing Co., Inc., for lyrics from “Okie From Muskogee” by Merle Haggard, copyright © Tree Publishing Co., Inc., 1969. International copyright secured. All rights reserved.

“The Mist” first appeared in
Dark Forces,
edited by Kirby McCauley, copyright © Stephen King, 1980

“Here There Be Tygers” copyright © Stephen King, 1968, 1985

“The Monkey” copyright © Montcalm Publishing Company, 1980

“Cain Rose Up” copyright © Stephen King, 1968, 1985

“Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” first appeared in
Redbook
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1981

“The Jaunt” first appeared in
Twilight Zone
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1981

“The Wedding Gig” first appeared in
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine,
copyright © Stephen King, 1980

“Paranoid: A Chant” copyright © Stephen King, 1985

“The Raft” first appeared in
Gallery
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1982

“Word Processor of the Gods” (as “The Word Processor”) first appeared in
Playboy
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1983

“The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” first appeared in
Shadows 4,
edited by Charles L. Grant, published by Doubleday & Co., Inc., copyright © Stephen King, 1982

“Beachworld” first appeared in
Weird Tales,
copyright © Stephen King, 1985

“The Reaper’s Image” first appeared in
Startling Mystery Stories,
copyright © Stephen King, 1969

“Nona” first appeared in
Shadows,
edited by Charles L. Grant, published by Doubleday & Co., Inc., copyright © Stephen King, 1978

“For Owen” copyright © Stephen King, 1985

“Survivor Type” first appeared in
Terrors,
edited by Charles L. Grant, published by Doubleday & Co., Inc., copyright © Stephen King, 1982

“Uncle Otto’s Truck” first appeared in
Yankee
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1983

“Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)” copyright © Stephen King, 1985

“Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)” first appeared in
New Terrors 2,
edited by Ramsey Campbell, copyright © Stephen King, 1982

“Gramma” first appeared in
Weird Book
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1984

“The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet” first appeared in
Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine,
copyright © Stephen King, 1984

“The Reach” (as “Do the Dead Sing?”) first appeared in
Yankee
magazine, copyright © Stephen King, 1981

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.