The Stand by Stephen King. Short summary

5 seconds

After the pandemic of a deadly virus, almost all of humanity has died out. The survivors unite into two groups, establish a new social order and confront each other.

1 minute

A deadly strain of the flu virus breaks free from a secret U.S. laboratory. Everyone in the lab dies, only security guard Charles Campion manages to escape from the state. Soon Charles dies, but manages to infect the owner of the gas station. This is how the virus breaks out of the state and kills almost all of humanity.

The few survivors, learn to live in the new cruel world. People unite into two groups and establish a new social order. One group is called the Boulder Free Zone. Under the leadership of Abagail Fremantle, a 108-year-old black woman, the people build a free society based on humanism and equality.

A dark man who calls himself Randall Flagg also unites people around him. The people he gathers worship him as their messiah and gladly submit to his fascist dictatorship.

Flagg tries with all his might to destroy Boulder, but as a result he creates an energy ball that he cannot control and dies with his followers.