Let’s try not to make so many trips, she suggested. We can Walk side to side and gather up as many Walkers as we can find, then take them back all at once.
It wasn’t a bad plan, and if I had Josephine do most of the side-to-side Walking—meaning we’d go from dimension to dimension rather than back and forth through time—there was far less chance of us being detected. I had to make these next few trips count.
With that in mind, I cast about for the strongest source of Walker energy I could find.
; And I found it. Close.
Well, relatively speaking. We had been docked on one of the prehistoric Earths in InterWorld’s future. Hue took us back in InterWorld’s timeline, which took us forward in Earth’s timeline. The Walker essence I was sensing was on a parallel planet, an Earth that had never recovered from the meteor impact roughly sixty-six million years ago.
The energy I was sensing on this planet, this dead planet, was strong. Very strong.
Could it be a trap? Josephine asked silently.
A few days ago, I would have said no. I would have said there was no way to simulate Walker energy from someone who wasn’t a Walker. I would have said we would know.
I knew now that wasn’t true, so all I said was Maybe.
The landing sent a jolt through us both, like when you’re going downstairs and hit the floor sooner than you expected because you thought there was another step. The ground was hard and unforgiving, reddish, and cracked like a dry riverbed. The air was thick with dust and ash, the sunlight filtering weakly through the haze. It smelled like rot and marshland, the landscape restricted to a color palette of grays and reds and browns. Despite the warm colors, it was freezing.
“Ugh.” Josephine wheezed, lifting her sleeve to her mouth and nose. “It smells like bad water.”
“Yep,” I said, doing the same. “Hold on.” I closed my eyes, partly to concentrate and partly because they were stinging and watering. Taking a deep breath through my sleeve, I focused on the strong, clear pulse of familiarity, of power just like mine, the same way I’d found Josephine. It was here, still, laid out before me like a trail of bread crumbs.
“This way,” I said, starting off through the trees. Josephine followed, coughing.
“This dust is really thick,” she observed, voice muffled by her sleeve. “Did a volcano explode or something?”
I ignored the jolt of adrenaline that went through me as her question reminded me of the rockslide that had killed Jerzy. I wanted to stop and take a deep breath, but that wasn’t really an option. Instead, I shrugged and said, “Maybe. More likely it was a huge meteor.”
“You mean like what killed the dinosaurs?”
“Yeah. This is a version of Earth that suffered longer-lasting effects from that, whatever it was.”
“You just said it was a huge meteor.”
“That’s what it probably was,” I said. “But no one really knows for sure. Evidence suggests it was probably a meteor, but scientists have a few other theories.”
She tilted her head, looking curious. “Aren’t those things we could find out, though? Like if it was a meteor and whether or not there was an Atlantis, and what’s up with the Bermuda Star, and . . .”
“There’s actually nothing up with the Bermuda Star,” I said. “It’s called the Bermuda Triangle on my world, and it’s mostly a myth perpetuated by television and other media.”
“But all those planes and ships went missing,” she said, looking disappointed.
“Not really. There haven’t actually been any more disappearances or wrecks in that area than any other,” I said. She continued to look disappointed. “I mean, at least on my Earth. Maybe it’s different on yours.”
“Maybe,” she said, perking up “But what about the other stuff, like Atlantis or the missing crew of the Maria Christine?”
“I haven’t heard of that last one—might’ve had a different name on my world, if it happened—but the fact that you and I both come from a world with Atlantis myths might mean there’s something to them.”
“Huh.” She looked thoughtful. “I guess so. Would that be another way of finding out, do you think? Walking to different worlds and seeing if they have the same myths, or finding one where Atlantis never sank?”
“Yeah, probably. And that,” I said, removing my sleeve from my face long enough for her to see me grin, “Is what we call perks of the job. We do get to go off base sometimes.”
“That’s awesome,” she said. “I can’t wait to explore.”
“When we’re done saving all the worlds,” I reminded her.