Chapter 7: A Walk With Death

For the next two days there was very little that happened out of the ordinary, and for that Thomas and Franklin were grateful. Their fathers had returned from the horse auction empty handed, and Thomas' father had decided that they would stay an extra day with the Denbrough's so he could help Franklin's father chop some firewood to store in preparation for the coming winter. They would set out for the Barrens before sunup the next morning, and Thomas and Franklin volunteered to go with them and help.

The next morning the four of them left with the Denbrough's cart in tow while it was still dark. It was chilly outside but the conversation and chatter between fathers and their sons warmed their souls with laughter and good-natured joking. They walked from the Denbrough's farm through the woods along the bank of the Penobscot River and found a few choice logs to chop up along the way. There was better and more abundant trees to chop in the Barrens however, so the four of them continued on. As they were walking, Thomas and Franklin walked a bit farther back from their fathers so they could talk about the evil clown without being overheard. Thomas whispered to Franklin, "Several times I swear I've felt like Pennywise was watching us, but I didn't see him when I looked around." Franklin glanced over his shoulder and whispered back, "What made you start referring to it by the name it gave you? I assume the damn thing is a monster for what it's been doing to children, so I'm still going to call it an It." Thomas rolled his eyes and answered, "what does it matter what I call it? It told me in my nightmare that one of its names was Pennywise, so I might as well call it by the name it gave me. But either way, I don't think it matters because it's obviously a very bad..whatever it is, and as I said before, our best chance to not end up like the other children is to stay away from it." Franklin nodded and said, "well just stay vigilant and keep your eyes open, it could be anywhere and following us at this very moment for all we know." And so the whispering between the boys dwindled for the time being as they continued on into the Barrens.

As they neared a section of the Barrens along the Kenduskeag Stream, the boy's fathers began to pick out small trees and logs to chop up. The boys helped them load the wood into the cart for awhile, and then asked if they could take a break and go to the stream to skip rocks. They were right near the stream, so their fathers agreed, but told them to stay close and to be aware of their surroundings while they played. A short walk of less than 100 yards led the boys to the Kenduskeag, but when they parted the tree branches beside the stream bank, they froze instantly and their blood ran cold as there was suddenly an unnaturally icy chill in the air. When the boys looked toward the stream, they could hardly believe their eyes.

In the middle of the stream stood Pennywise, staring at the boys with a huge wide grin bearing his razor sharp pointed teeth. Floating in the stream all around him and for as far in either direction as the boys could see, were the bloated and mutilated corpses of children. Franklin and Thomas could only stare as Pennywise pointed at them and cackled with a raspy laugh, and then reached down in the water and picked up one of the floating corpses, eyed it voraciously, and proceeded to take a bite of flesh from the corpse's arm. Thomas felt that he would be sick from watching Pennywise eat and from seeing the strings of flesh hanging from the corners of the clown's mouth and the blood running down its chin. Pennywise looked again at the corpse in his hand, and with a shrug and a laugh he tossed it over his shoulder and back into the stream. Thomas then stared at the corpses of the children, which were floating in the stream much like logs would float as they were sent downriver to a sawmill. Some of the bodies were missing arms and legs, some were missing heads, and some barely looked as if they had once been human at all due to the gruesome nature of their mutilations. Thomas also noticed that the bodies of the children appeared to be dressed in a wide variety of clothes, as he saw corpses clothed in what he could only describe as something that early white settlers would have worn. He also saw what appeared to be the bodies of Indians, or Native American children. And as he looked, Thomas could have sworn he saw corpses of children that he recognized, children that had gone missing last summer and the children found dead this past month. The bodies looked horribly bloated and waterlogged, and many of them had skin that was a greenish tint from decay. The boys diverted their attention back to Pennywise as he began to speak...

"Little Thomas and Franklin, look here at your coming demise! Look at how they all float! And very soon, you'll FLOAT TOO!" The clown continued to laugh maniacally and mock the two boys who could only stare in sickened horror as the corpses of the children appeared to be moving. And then the corpses began to rise and stand in the stream with Pennywise, and with the squeaky and gargled voices of life cut short, they began to shout the words of the clown as if they were his puppets. Pennywise and the dead children sounded like Hell's own chorus as they shouted together, "You'll float too..You'll float too..YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!!" Thomas looked at Franklin, who was frozen in fear and staring at the macabre display before him. When Thomas looked back toward the stream, he was horrified to see that all of the reanimated corpses of the dead children were now walking through the stream toward the two boys with Pennywise in their midst, ready to add new prey to his collection of death. And then Thomas was snapped out of his trance, and he grabbed Franklin by the arm and pulled him back up the stream bank and into the trees and bushes and the boys started running to escape. They had run only a few feet before they both heard a low chuckle and a feeling of warmth returned. With a quizzical look the boys stared first at each other, and then back towards the Kenduskeag. When they looked back, Pennywise and the corpses of the children were gone and the stream was empty as the normal sounds of nature had resumed. The sounds of birds chirping and the water bubbling by relieved Thomas to know that the horrific episode was over. When he looked back, he saw that Franklin was crying, and with tears streaming down his cheeks he said, "we have no chance to survive this thing, it's nothing but pure evil, and we're nothing but children. It's going to kill us just like it's killed all of the others for who knows how long. I don't want to die!" And then Franklin sat down on a rock and broke down into muffled sobs.

Thomas leaned down to reassure Franklin and said, "we can and we will survive this, it didn't get us before or today, and it won't get us ever. It won't get us because we're not going to give it a chance to catch us alone. Whether it's you and me sticking together or we're with our parents, we will not let ourselves be anywhere alone. I think that's how this thing catches its victims, it lures them away from safety. But if we stick together at all times at school and stick with our parents at home, we won't give it the opportunity to get us. Now come on Franklin, get yourself together and let's get back before our fathers come looking for us."

Franklin got up and the two boys nodded and shook hands in agreement to the plan, and then they walked back to where there fathers were chopping the wood. When they got back the day's work was finished, so the four of them loaded up the cart and left the Barrens to return home.