his paintings, except this one. The painting survived Kinnell's attempts to destroy and discard it and the man in the painting has already arrived at his house. Kinnell tries to escape and fails. In the end, the painting gets him: the story's final passage describes Kinnell seeing the latest change to the painting, with fresh blood on the driver's seat of the killer’s car, and realizing that it is portraying what is about to happen to him. Adaptations "The Road Virus Heads North" was first filmed in 1999 by Dave Brock as a Stephen King "Dollar Baby" project and circulated on the film festival circuit. The short story was adapted as an hour-long episode of the Turner Network Television mini-series Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King in 2006. The episode starred Tom Berenger as Kinnell. It was also 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. See also Stephen King short fiction bibliography References External links Stephen King Short Movies 1999 short stories Short stories by Stephen King Short stories adapted into films