Captain Trips

Captain Trips is a fictional virus occurring in the Stephen King novel The Stand.

A form of superflu (influenza), it originates in an American biological weapons laboratory under the Mojave Desert in California, commanded by a General William "Billy" Starkey, and is hinted to have been created by breeding a hybrid of influenza and an AIDS-like illness. 99.4% of the human population is vulnerable and the disease is universally and swiftly fatal to those that catch it. Those who are immune to Captain Trips are utterly immune &mdash; in one instance, Stu Redman is unknowingly injected with the virus, only to have his immune system kill it. No medical basis for this immunity is identified in the research conducted, nor is it discovered why some people have immunity. The only evident connection between the immune persons that doctors identify is that all seem to be heavy, vivid dreamers.

Captain Trips is given several other nicknames by survivors, including “the superflu,” “the rales,” and “Tube Neck.” “Captain Trips” and “the superflu” are the dominant names. The official code name of the virus development project was “Project Blue.”

Release
The plague is released in an unspecified accident. Charles Campion, a military guard at a government biowarfare installation somewhere in California, notices the warning light indicating the release, and manages to escape before the installation is locked down. He flees with his family.

His flight ends in the small town of Arnette, Texas. Near death, Campion crashes into the fuel pumps at a Texaco gas station owned by Bill Hapscomb. Stuart “Stu” Redman, a friend of Hapscomb’s who will become a major character, manages to turn off the fuel pumps and avert an explosion. Of the four men who come to Campion’s aid, Redman is the only one who turns out to be immune. Among the investigators is a state trooper, Joseph Robert “Joe Bob” Brentwood, who is a cousin to Bill Hapscomb. Attempting to halt the spread of the illness, the military nearly succeeds in imposing a quarantine on Arnette, but then Brentwood stops at the gas station to warn Hapscomb and contracts the illness himself. He then leaves Arnette on patrol and all hope of containing the disease is lost (if, indeed, there ever was any hope). The citizens of Arnette are taken to the Plague Center in Atlanta, Georgia. However, containment at the Atlanta facility fails, and the few survivors are moved to Stovington, Vermont, where all the remaining survivors from Arnette (except Redman) succumb to the virus. When it becomes clear the plague will not be contained and will destroy America, Starkey gives orders to have the plague spread behind the Iron Curtain as well as in Red China. The plague lasts only nineteen days, but more than six billion people worldwide are killed. In the United States, a country of 218 million at the time in which the book is set, it is later estimated by a character that only a few thousand survived. In terms of the 99.4% mortality rate, only 1,308,000 would have survived.

The spread of the plague is very fast and rapidly fulminant. At one point, a military guard who had been in the presence of Captain Trips patients for only a few hours is shown to have begun displaying symptoms. The virus, which the military denies exists, picks up little attention until it is realized that there are very few survivors. Communications break down and in the final phase before the wasteland period, the few with immunity walk around the deserted country, finding those in the final terminal stages.

The virus remains active after all susceptible characters die. Babies who were conceived prior to the outbreak contract the virus after birth. However, the mother passes enough immunity to her child so that the illness is not always fatal.

In the novel, Randall Flagg observes that the same laboratory that produced Captain Trips also created similar mutations of cholera, anthrax, and bubonic plague.

Pathology
It is explained that the superflu is so deadly because it is different from the common types of flu. Influenza normally mutates every couple of years or so, hence the need for flu shots. But Captain Trips is a “constantly shifting-antigen” virus. This means the flu changes every time a person’s immune system comes to a defense posture. For the same reason, a vaccine is impossible to create. The human body can’t produce the antibodies necessary to stop an antigen-shifting virus because every time the body does produce the right antibody, the virus has already shifted to a slightly new form, negating the effect of the new antibodies. It just shifts from form to form until the body is worn out. The result, inevitably, is death.

With those 0.6% who were immune, every time the flu shifted, their immune system was shifting “right back at it.” The vast majority of those who were immune never got sick at all, but apparently it was possible, as evidenced by Fran’s baby, Peter Goldsmith, who survived because he was able to shift right back at the virus and continue creating antibodies without being overwhelmed.

Immunity
One curious aspect of Captain Trips is that there is no blatant indication in the novel of why certain people might contract it, and why others are immune. However, it is possible, after studying the text, to realize why the disease was so selective. A military doctor who examines Stu Redman can come up with nothing abnormal about him, save for his tendency to dream more vividly and frequently than other people. Most of the characters who survive the plague also admit that they have always had vivid dreams. (See: lucid dreaming)

Given that the God of The Stand and Randall Flagg both “transmit” signals to their respective followers in order to draw them either to Boulder or to Las Vegas, it is possible that one’s immunity to Captain Trips is actually influenced by one’s ability to dream clearly, and in a way that one can remember strongly in the morning.

Another interpretation might be that God has decided to purge the Earth via disease this time (as opposed to the flood of Noah’s time). Survivors may simply have been chosen by the powers that be to play out one last battle between the forces of light and darkness. Seen in this context, the immunity and sensitivity to dreams are necessary plot elements for setting the stage for the conflict which occurs after the plague.

Symptoms and stages
A military doctor identifies four stages. He notes that some characters bypass a stage or stay in one stage longer than most. Some characters appear to improve for a while, only to relapse strongly afterwards.

Stage One has no frank symptoms, although the victim is infectious. Blood pressure shows unusual variations, and “wagon wheel” incubator cells are present in the sputum.

Stage Two resembles the common cold, with mild symptoms such as nasal discharge, sneezing and coughing. A low-grade fever may be present. Many characters in this stage do not limit their activities; they continue to shop, travel, or work, spreading the disease.

Stage Three at the start may resemble asthma, bronchitis, influenza, or mononucleosis. The cold-like symptoms of Stage Two become more severe. Chills, high fever, swollen lymph glands, dizziness, weakness, and painful urination develop. Most characters in this stage go to bed or try to see a doctor. Late in this stage, the illness becomes more like pneumonia; a few characters show delirium just before entering the fourth, terminal stage.

Stage Four resembles pneumonia, bubonic plague and, in some cases, hemorrhagic fever. Breathing becomes difficult and there is much swelling in the face, neck and groin. Swollen areas turn purple, then black. There is much discharge of mucus, which may be bloody. Fever is extremely high, and delirium is common. Characters in this stage are immobilized in most—but not all—cases; as in the earlier stages, any caregiver will be infected unless he or she is immune. Death is usually caused by respiratory failure.

Night Surf
Captain Trips is also a main plot element in Night Surf, a short story in King’s Night Shift. There are a few differences from The Stand therein, however.

The story centers on a group of superflu survivors on a New England beach. They are teenagers who appear to have rather sinister natures and seem to be sort of partying at first. Later, though, they become frightened when one of them gets sick and they realize it may only be a matter of time until they are all dead.

In Night Surf, Captain Trips is also known as “A6” and was said to have originated in East Asia rather than in California. It was not said if the disease was man-made or a natural mutation. A story circulates after A6/Trips crops up that a person who has contracted Hong Kong flu will be immune to the new virus. However, this appears to have been a falsehood by the end of the story, Hong Kong flu merely stalling the disease.

Night Surf is said to be part of King’s inspiration for The Stand. It was made into a low-budget movie.

The Dark Tower
Captain Trips appears again in Stephen King’s epic series The Dark Tower inspired by Robert Browning’s poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. It appears in the lead story of a newspaper in the fourth installment Wizard and Glass, which explains the lack of living people in the area.

Other references
In Stephen King’s miniseries The Golden Years, a hippie was nicknamed Captain Trips.