Part 7:

"And so then I called the regional director, for Gods' sake….and STILL here I am driving this Godforsaken shipment to California. This was supposed to be my vacation, Hey, you asleep?"

Liz shook her head with a start, "Yeah, what an ass to make you do that…" she contributed, rolling her eyes to the passenger window. Could he talk about this any more?! She looked at the Clock on the dash, 2:14a.m. He'd been bitching about this trip for the last 7 hours it seemed.

Must. Get. Out

"Um, this is my stop." She interjected as he began to go into another rant against the trucking business.

"You sure sweetie?" he added, looking out at the small town that they were approaching.

Liz gave him a smile and a nod. "Definitely"

He pulled the Semi over and Liz jumped out, striking the pavement with a small thud.

"Thanks again for the ride" she offered….

The man looked around at the barren streets and looked at her with a concerned expression...

"Really, I'm o.k." she assured him

"Well Good Luck Sarah" he waved at her a little as she closed the door.

In a moment he was gone and she was left staring at the sign, 'Welcome to Soda Springs, Idaho. Pop. 3,803'

Oh god, this really was a small town. Do they even have a motel?

She walked down the street still barefoot, shivering in the cold. She saw a neon sign, letters flickering ominously…….though she tried to push the last word out of her head. Not ominously, she thought, just kind of scarily. Yeah, scarily.

She made her way towards the sign, shivering harder……the thin scrubs given to her at the hospital providing her with little warmth.

'Soda Inn' it read, well at least when the two N's weren't flickering in and out. The lobby was dark and the door locked. She pressed the buzzer on the door hopefully. It took a few minutes but finally the door opened and she found herself looking at a middle aged woman.

"Hi, I'm here about a room." She managed to make out between her chattering teeth.

"Oh honey, you must be freezing!" the woman exclaimed as she deftly brought Liz into the lobby. She closed the door behind her and took Liz in with a long stare. 'I'm sure the scrubs don't help my appearance' she thought.

"I need a room."

"Of course you do," the woman went behind the counter and dragged out a large accounting booklet. "That will be 25.99; I'm assuming you want a single, right?"

Money.

Shit.

Liz really, really didn't want to do the next thing, but what were her alternatives?

I am Liz. I have power. I fear no one. I leave no tracks.

Liz found the woman's eyes and looked deeply, "I don't have any money, but you are going to give me a room anyway, you will not wonder why I have no I.D or car, I am simply staying overnight, Understand?" The woman just nodded and then shook her head as if coming out of a daze.

"Well, I suppose I'll put you in room 5" she grabbed a key from behind the desk and opened the door, indicating for Liz to follow her.

After a short walk they approached #5 and the lady handed her the key and wordlessly walked back to the main office.

Liz opened the door quickly, entered and locked it behind her……a headache already beginning to well up behind her temples. She was exhausted and freezing. She turned the heat in the room to the highest and took a hot shower. In the shower she marveled in a disquieting mixture of disgust and amazement at her wounds, most of which were healing nicely. 'How could I have gotten this bad?' she wondered to herself as she combed her damp hair out with her fingers...

She wasn't happy about stepping back into the hospital scrubs, but she was warm, and that's all she really cared about at that point. The room was toasty as well as she flipped on the small T.V and climbed into bed.

The second her head hit the pillow she was out and felt her body drifting away.

Suddenly she was at the tree line of a huge grassy field. She looked around, 'well this is an unusual dream,' she surmised as she adapted her Liz-Logic to it.

She kept walking and was suddenly in a meadow, warm and bright from the sun, a figure stood a hundred feet away from her. She walked towards it, curious.

"Liz"

That voice.

"Liz, listen to me"

At the same time Isabel, Michael, Maria, Kyle, Alex and Max were gathered together in the desert. Isabel was touching Liz's picture and holding onto Max's hand. Beads of sweat were appearing on her forehead. "Max, she's fighting it; I can't do this much longer"

In the field Max tore after Liz finally catching up to and cornering her.

"Where are you?" he asked……

She stood staring at him evenly. She'd be damned if she would tell.

* "Max I'm losing my hold" * he heard Isabel exclaim

Max didn't like to lose control but he held Liz so that she could not move and used one hand to place on her forehead……..

Liz tried to resist, but he began accessing her memory…….

* "10 seconds Max, I'm closing the connection" *

He sped through the information in her head. Suddenly he was split apart and found he was lying on the floor of the desert 5 pairs of eyes on him.

"I know where she is," he started as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

Liz continued to slumber thinking the dream to be a nightmare………

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"So it's agreed?" Max finished. All 5 nodded. He'd explained to them that all 6 of them leaving would cast extreme suspicion, which they desperately didn't need. So Max alone was going to try to reason with Liz. Maria argued with him for nearly a half-hour before finally acquiescing to his plan. She lent him her Jetta and all 5 pooled their monies to get them there, in another half hour Max was already on 285 north. Headed to help the only girl on the planet who wanted nothing to do with him.

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Liz awoke to sun streaming into her eyes……blinking rapidly she remembered the past night's hectic activities and got up sleepily. She used the Inn's courtesy toiletries and brushed her teeth absently, wondering what to do. Looking at her body in a mirror the first thing she needed, she quickly realized, were a new pair of clothes and shoes. Hmm. After a phone call to the front desk Liz made her way out of the Inn and was headed to McMannan's, a small clothing store in the town. She tried to stay on the back streets to avoid any looks that might befall her from Main Street.

*Ding*

Liz opened the door and entered the small store; she quickly surveyed the goods and realized that there was no way she was going to be able to leave this place looking even remotely stylish. 'Well at least I'll blend in' she tried to think optimistically.

She picked out a pair of Levi's, generic sneakers, socks, underwear, t-shirt, a black sweater. She took all of it to the dressing room and put it all on, feeling refreshed to be able to get out of the scrubs. Walking brazenly up to the counter she met the eyes of the owner, "You never saw me."

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Max rubbed his eyes as he finally pulled the car over for a 30 minute nap, after swerving around for the last hour, he decided that his human physiology would not allow for such a drive without some amount of rest. He was almost to Salt Lake City, which meant almost to Liz. So close he could begin to feel her presence.

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At the exact time Liz rubbed her eyes, one mother of a migraine inching up on her. She'd had to use her power on the clothing store, for lunch, and now she had to use it again for another night's stay at the Inn. She fished around the room's toiletries and noticed for the first time the little package of Advil. 'Thank you God' she said as she downed the two and curled onto the bed….trying to recover.

She woke up to find pure darkness, 'God, how long have I been sleeping?'….she turned on the lamp beside her bed and shot up in total shock. Max was sitting on a chair directly at the foot of her bed.

"Max" she began

"Liz" he started softly…….

But both were interrupted by a bigger occurrence that made them look outside. A light flash that Max passed off as a lighting bolt, but which Liz was all too familiar with.

"He's back…" she looked in Max's eyes.

"Who?"

"You" she made out,  and she tried not to dissolve into insanity once more.

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