Stephen King's The Stand

Abagail Freemantle (known as "Mother Abagail"), a 108-year-old black woman from Hemingford Home, Nebraska;

Frances Goldsmith, a pregnant college student;

Harold Lauder, an overweight high school outcast, brother of Frances Goldsmith's best friend, both from Ogunquit, Maine;

Stuart Redman, a factory worker from the fictional, tiny Arnette, Texas;

Larry Underwood, a disillusioned pop musician from New York City;

Nick Andros, an insightful deaf-mute wanderer originally from Ridley Park, PA;

Nadine Cross, a virginal kindergarten teacher with a dark secret from New Hampshire;

Leo "Joe" Rockaway, a savage, amnesiac, and telepathic boy;

Glen Bateman, a quick-witted, pessimistic sociology professor from New Hampshire, and his dog, an Irish Setter named Kojak (or Big Steve) one of the very few dogs immune to the plague;

Lucy Swann, a 24-year-old housewife from New Hampshire;

Ralph Brentner, a jolly, easy-going farmer from Oklahoma who joins Nick Andros' group;

Dayna Juergens, a hard-headed and determined woman from Xenia, Ohio who joins Stu Redman's group;

Susan Stern, a former student from Kent State University who joins Stu Redman's group;

Tom Cullen, a kind-hearted mentally retarded man from May, Oklahoma.

Randall Flagg (known as "the Dark Man," "the Hardcase," "the Tall Man," and "the Walkin' Dude"), an evil being with supernatural powers;

Lloyd Henreid, a not-too-bright common thief;

Donald Merwin Elbert, known as "the Trashcan Man", a schizophrenic pyromaniac;

Whitney Horgan, an ex-Army cook and butcher;

Julie Lawry, an unstable, oversexed teenager;

"the Rat Man", a pirate-like hood;

Barry Dorgan, a former detective of the Santa Monica Police Department;

Jenny Engstrom, a nightclub dancer and later construction worker; and

Hector "Heck" Drogan, a civilian who is executed by Flagg's system for drug abuse.