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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmJud turned to look at him, and in the dim light Louis thought the old man looked a hundred and twenty.There was no sign of that odd, dancing light in his eyes now. His face was drawn, and there was starkterror in his eyes. But when he spoke, his voice was steady enough. “Just a loon,” he said. “Come on.Almost there.”They went on. The tussocks became firm ground again. For a few moments Louis had a sensation ofopen space, although that dim glow in the air had now faded, and it was all he could do to make outJud’s back three feet in front of him. Short grass stiff with frost was underfoot. It broke like glass atevery step. Then they were in the trees again. He could smell aromatic fir, feel needles. Occasionally atwig or a branch scraped against him.Louis had lost all sense of time or direction, but they did not walk long before Jud stopped again andturned toward him.“Steps here,” he said. “Cut into rock. Forty-two or forty-four, I disremember which. Just follow me. Weget to the top and we’re there.”He began to climb again, and again Louis followed.The stone steps were wide enough, but the sense of the ground dropping away was unsettling. Here andthere his shoe gritted on a strew of pebbles and stone fragments.twelve. . . thirteen. . . fourteen.The wind was sharper, colder, quickly numbing his face. Are we above the treeline? he wondered. Helooked up and saw a billion stars, cold lights in the darkness. Never in his life had the stars made himfeel so completely small, infinitesimal, without meaning. He asked himself the old question—is thereanything intelligent out there?—and instead of wonder, the thought brought a horrid cold feeling, as ifhe had asked himself what it might be like to eat a handful of squirming bugs.twenty-six. . . twenty-seven. . . twenty-eight.Who carved these, anyway? Indians? The Micmacs? Were they tool-bearing Indians? I'll have to askJud. “Tool-bearing Indians” made him think of “fur-bearing animals,” and that made him think of thatthing that had been moving near them in the woods. One foot stumbled, and he raked a gloved handalong the rock wall to his left for balance. The wall felt old, chipped and channeled and wrinkled. Likedry skin that’s almost worn out, he thought.“You all right, Louis?” Jud murmured.“I’m okay,” he said, although he was nearly out of breath and his muscles throbbed from the weight ofChurch in the bag.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (103 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM