Volume I - Episode 136 Where: Melbourne, Australia When: 1 month after E-Day, 8:06 am Nikki was startled out of her sleep by the sound of a truck horn. She lay in her cot, staring up at the ceiling of her office. A truck? I must have been dreaming. It had been a hellish night. Daniel had talked in his sleep the whole night through, delirious from the fever that now racked his body. Nikki had absolutely no idea how to make him better. In fact, she wasn't even sure if she really wanted to. She had lost her gang - her Wolves - did she really need a cripple in her life, utterly dependent on her for every meal and bowel motion? She jumped as the truck horn sounded again. It came from the car park right outside her window. It blew for almost fifteen seconds. A long, bleating, urgent call, demanding her attention. She climbed off the cot and checked on Daniel. He was awake, staring into space with wide, terrified eyes. His entire body was drenched with sweat. And judging from the smell, he had soiled himself as well. Nikki pinched her nose and tip-toed across the room, hunched beneath the level of the window so whoever was outside wouldn't see. She checked her office door. Still locked. She had been right on the very cusp of sleep last night when she'd heard angry voices coming from the food court downstairs. The voices were quickly followed by screams. In the eerie silence that followed, Nikki had snuck out to see what was going on. She'd found Abby on the floor of the food court, hacked to pieces. Rodney was nowhere to be found. Probably gone to the lunch room to hack up his slut ex-wife as well. Nikki hadn't hung around to find out. She'd tip-toed back into her office and locked the door securely behind her. No Wolves, no Dan, and Rodney was on a murderous rampage. Perfect. She crept over to the wall and peered out the window. Her eyes took a few moments to adjust to the sunlight... And then she saw it. She ducked beneath the windowsill. Sitting in the middle of the car park, right outside her office, was a large, black four-wheel-drive. Her mind echoed with the sound of Ben's panicked voice over the CB radio: "There's a car chasing us!" he'd said. "It's a black four-wheel-drive!" Ben and Nick had been missing ever since. Three days later, Daryl had vanished while trying to return The Blonde Bitch to her teenage gang bangers. His final words, spoken over the CB radio in his rumbling, fat man's voice, were eerily similar to Ben's: "It's here! It's here! The black four-wheel-drive just rammed me! Oh my God, they're shooting at us!" And now the vehicle was right outside Nikki's window. Whoever had taken her Wolves had come for her. Another long blast of a truck's horn. Nikki put her head in her hands and began to sob. Her body shook, consumed with terror. She couldn't remember having ever felt so scared. Another blast from the horn. Then another. And another. Whoever it was, they wanted her attention. She resisted the urge to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over her head until it was all over. Slowly, gradually, she found her courage. She placed two wildly trembling hands on the windowsill and pulled herself up. There it was again - the black four-wheel-drive. And beside it, a gigantic black 18-wheeler. The truck was parked at an angle which allowed her a clear view of its trailer. Bolted to the flatbed were six three-metre-tall steel posts, each set a couple of metres apart. Chained to the posts, dressed in the same black suits they'd been wearing when they vanished, were Christian, Ben, Zach, Nick, Daryl and Cameron. Some carried bruises, most likely picked up during their capture, and Nick had his arm in a sling, but they all seemed to have been well taken care of. Whoever had captured them had given them skilled medical care. [CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT BELOW]