Volume I - Episode 21 Where: Melbourne, Australia When: E-Day, 8:46 am "Still no answer?" Kim asked. Jessica shook her head and put her mobile phone back in her lap. "So she definitely wasn't at home?" "I knocked for ages," Kim explained. "But there was no answer. Then I remembered you hide a key under that plant in your back yard, so I let myself in. Your mum wasn't there. The lights were on, though. And the TV. Though it was only showing that test pattern thing." "And you looked everywhere? You checked every room?" "I checked every room." Jessica shifted in her seat and fell silent. Her mum - vanished along with the rest of them. She could barely believe it. Truth be told, she could barely believe any of it. How could everyone in Melbourne just have suddenly disappeared? It didn't make any sense. But the evidence was all around her. They had been driving through the central business district of Melbourne for ten minutes on a Friday morning and they had not seen a single living being. Cars, many of them wrecked, sat abandoned on every street corner. As they entered the Eastern Freeway, Kim had to negotiate her way through a veritable maze of discarded vehicles. "How did this happen?" Jessica asked, staring at a black four-wheel-drive that was impaled upon a pylon on the side of the road. A baby seat lay crushed on the back seat. "I mean...what did you see last night?" "So you didn't see anything at all?" Kim asked in return. Jessica shook her head. "Nothing. I was out of it, babe. All I saw was little birdies flying around my head." And monsters, she thought. "Okay, well," Kim began. "I can tell you what I saw. And...what I heard. But...it's going to sound pretty crazy, though." "Babe, at this point I think you could tell me you saw a swarm of flying Elvis impersonators kidnap everyone, and I would still believe you. Tell me." Kim swallowed hard. The memory of midnight on the 6th of August, 2010 would haunt her for the rest of her life. And the sound...oh my God, the sound... "Tell me, babe." So Kim told her. First published: Monday, 23 August 2010 Credits: Lorena by Rhiannon Melia Hair by 3Dream Leather Jacket Set by billy-t Jeanz by the3dwizard FR-Venus by Freja Grace Lion Hair by Quarker Retro Babe by mytilus Posed and rendered in Poser 7 Pro Background photography by me Composited and postwork in Photoshop CS5 Extended