"Liz!" he screamed. He knew something was wrong. He swore he heard her call out his name as the rumbles of the earthquake ceased. "God, please let her be okay." he whispered. Finally regaining his strength, Max slipped the cell phone in his pocket, and grabbed his jacket before rushing out the door. He had to get to Liz. Now!

The streets outside were littered with debris...fallen traffic lights, bricks and fallen walls. Cries from people who were hurt and frightened and the sound of fire trucks and ambulances filled the air as Max walked quickly down the road, trying to find the most important person in the world to him.

"Liz!" he called out, but got no answer. "Liz! Where are you?" he yelled again.

'If only I had the power to locate her. I have so many abilities but not that one. Not the one he really needed the most now.' he thought 'Come on Liz, call to me again. Tell me where you are.'

Liz could feel the men from the ambulance fighting to get into the car. 'Why don't they just open the door?' she thought, but when she tried to move, nothing happened. 'What's wrong with me?' 'Max, where are you? I need you.' she called out with her mind, but everything went black again.

"She looks bad." one of the officers on the scene remarked to another.

"Yea, this is the worst I've seen tonight. The truck driver said that he couldn't control the Mack with the vibrations of the earthquake, and by the time he saw the other car the brakes didn't have time to hold. They crashed."

"Hey, we got it open!" shouted one of the workers as they removed the crumpled door that was sawed off of the car. The two ambulance workers rushed up to Liz with the stretcher.

"Slowly now. Hold her head steady..."

Max heard the second call from Liz. She was close by. He broke into a run, and as he moved closer, he could almost feel her presence. 'This was it' he thought, 'just one more turn and I'll be by your side Liz.' But as Max turned the last corner, he stopped short, dumbfounded by what he saw. The trailer of the mack truck was disconnected from its base and flipped over to the side. The head cabin was smashed into a car. The front of the latter almost completely crumpled, like a sheet of paper. Policemen, construction workers and ambulance attendants were all over the scene. To one side, a policeman was talking to another disheveled man, who could have been the truck driver. Max turned his head back to the collision. The car,...it was Liz's. His movement quickened as this registered in his mind and he desperately tried to reach her.

"Liz!" he called out softly at first, then more loudly as he came closer to what remained of the car. Then, he saw her. Her badly bruised body, the blood dripping from her head...he had to reach her. He had to heal her. But before he could, he felt the force of something holding him back, or rather someone.

"Sir," the policeman called.

"Please..." Max tried to speak, but he could hardly get out what he wanted to say - 'She's my heart, my body, my soul. I have to get to her. To save her. To tell her how much I love her.' How he wished he could have said that, but instead, all that came out was, "Please..."

The policeman, seeing the deep concern in his voice, finally let him by. At once Max rushed to Liz's side. They had taken her out of the reck and laid her on the stretcher. Her neck was held in a white brace and her arms and legs were strapped down so she couldn't move. Just then, the ground shook again lightly below their feet. It was a reminder of what had caused all of this...had caused Liz to be lying her, unconscious and possibly dying.

"Liz," he called softly, bending down to kiss her lips. "It's going to be okay. I'm here now."

"Sir," a voice called out to him. Max looked up at the face of one of the ambulance attendants, "Sir, we have to get her to the hospital now." he continued "You can travel in the back if you know the lady."

"Yes." Max said, reluctantly moving back so they could get the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. Then he jumped in, taking Liz's limp hand into his.