The Traveler

Near the empty fuel tanks for the electric generator, he found a forty-two-year-old copy of a Phoenix newspaper, the Arizona Republic. The paper was yellowed and brittle at the edges, but still legible. Gabriel spent hours on the folding cot, reading news articles, want ads, and wedding a

The civilization that appeared in the pages of the Arizona Republic appeared to be violent and cruel. But there were positive things as well. Gabriel enjoyed reading an article about a Phoenix couple that had been married for fifty years. Tom Zimmerman was an electrician who liked model trains. His wife, Elizabeth, was a former schoolteacher who was active in the Methodist church. Lying on the cot, he studied the couple’s faded a

The old newspaper and thoughts of Maya were the only diversions. Usually, he walked into the main tu

HE WALKED DOWN a long passageway in a dream, then opened his eyes and found himself lying on the folding cot. After drinking some water and eating a handful of wheat crackers, he left the dormitory room and found Sophia in the abandoned control room. The biologist turned and gave him a sharp, appraising look. Gabriel always felt like a new student in one of her college classes.

“How did you sleep?” she asked.

“All right.”

“Did you find the food I left you?”

“Yes.”

Sophia saw a king snake moving in the shadows. Moving quickly, she sprayed a band on its tail, then counted the specimen with her hand clicker. “And what’s going on with that lovely water drop? Have you split it with your sword?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, maybe this time, Gabriel. Give it a try.”

And then he was back at the wet patch of floor, staring up at the ceiling and cursing all of the ninety-nine paths. The water drop was too small, and too fast. The sword blade was too narrow. This was truly an impossible task.

In the begi

Gabriel felt as if today would bring only more failure. But standing alone with the sword for several hours, he gradually forgot about himself and his problems. Although the weapon was still in his hands, he didn’t feel like he was holding it in a conscious way. The sword was simply an extension of his mind.

The water drop fell, but this time it seemed to fall in slow motion. When he swung the sword, he was one step back from his own experience, watching the blade touch the water drop and cut it in two. Time stopped at that moment and he saw everything clearly-the sword, his hands, and the two halves of the water drop drifting off into opposite directions.

Then time began moving again and the sensation disappeared. Only a few seconds had gone by, but it felt like a glimpse of eternity. Gabriel turned and ran down the tu

She was still in the control room, writing in her leather notebook. “Is there a problem?”

Gabriel stammered as if his tongue didn’t work anymore. “I-I cut the drop with the jade sword.”

“Good. Very good.” She closed the notebook. “You’re making progress.”

“There was something else, but it’s hard to explain. It felt like time slowed down while it happened.”

“You saw this?”

Gabriel looked down at the floor. “I know it sounds crazy.”

“No one can stop time,” Sophia said. “But people can focus their senses far beyond the normal boundaries. It may feel like the world is slowing down, but it’s all going on inside your brain. Your perceptions have been accelerated. Occasionally, great athletes are able to do this. A ball is thrown or kicked through the air and they can see it precisely. Sometimes musicians can hear every instrument in a symphony orchestra at the same moment. It can even happen to ordinary people who meditate or pray.”

“Does it happen to Travelers?”

“Travelers are different from the rest of us because they can learn how to control this kind of intensified perception. It gives them the power to see the world with an immense clarity.” Sophia studied Gabriel’s face as if his eyes could give her an answer. “Can you do that, Gabriel? Can you push a switch in your mind and make the world seem to slow down and stop for a while?”

“No. The whole thing just happened.”

She nodded. “Then we have to keep working.” Sophia picked up her kerosene lantern and began to walk out of the room. “Let’s try the seventeenth path to help your sense of balance and movement. When a Traveler’s body is moving slightly, it helps the Light break free.”

A few minutes later they were standing on a ledge that was built halfway up the sixty-foot silo that had once contained the facility’s radio ante

“There’s a pe

“If I fall, I’m going to break my legs.”

Sophia didn’t seem to be worried. “Yes, you could break your legs. But I think it’s more likely that you’d break both ankles. Of course, if you land on your head, you’ll probably die.” She lowered the lantern and nodded. “Get going.”

Gabriel took a deep breath and stepped sideways on the girder so that his weight was on the arches of his feet. Cautiously, he began to shuffle away from the ledge.

“That’s not right,” Sophia said. “Step with your toes pointed forward.”

“This is safer.”

“No, it isn’t. Your arms should be extended at a ninety-degree angle to the girder. Focus on your breathing, not on your fear.”

Gabriel turned his head to speak to Sophia and lost his balance. He swayed back and forth for a moment then crouched down and grabbed the girder with both hands. Once again, he started to fall until he threw his legs outward and straddled the girder. It took him two minutes to return to the ledge.

“That was pathetic, Gabriel. Try again.”

“No.”

“If you want to be a Traveler-”

“I don’t want to get killed! Stop asking me to do things that you can’t do yourself.”

Sophia set her lantern down on the ledge. Stepping onto the girder like a tightrope walker, she moved quickly to the middle of the girder, bent down, and picked up the pe