When Joe Kellogg came to, the first thing he thought of was his macaroni. Thinking of his macaroni led him to realize how hungry he was. God, he was so fucking hungry. If only Nickel hadn't stolen his macaroni - Nickel! The fight with Nickel! His escape! His entrapment! This all rushed back in a flood, and he suddenly felt dizzy. With these revelations came the return of his senses, and he realized he felt like shit. Joe Kellogg's kidnappers had trussed him up and placed in a completely dark room which smelt of mold. Ugh. Joe Kellogg hoped they would release him soon.

Wait! He could now hear something! This was exciting! It was also very sad to be excited about voices, Joe Kellogg realized, but anything was better than nothing. The voices sounded female... great. Joe Kellogg has nothing against girls, but the voices reminded him of Kendy, and that was a hell he never wanted to return to. The voices seemed to be getting closer... ack! All of a sudden a door opened across the room, and Joe Kellogg squinted to avoid being blinded. The female voices had evolved into female figures standing within the ray of light from the open door, although the voices themselves had stopped upon seeing Joe Kellogg.

"No way," one of them said. "We found him. I told you we would, but you didn't believe me."

"Shut up, Savannah," said the second. She was a bit taller and seemed more assertive. Suddenly, the first girl seemed to realize the door was still wide open and hastily shut it. She then felt around near the opening and seemed to have pressed a button on the wall because a slightly dimmer light illuminated the room. Joe Kellogg noticed how small his prison was for the first time, maybe 15x15x15. He then turned his attention to the girls, who were still looking at him in slight disbelief.

"Well?" the tall girl snapped. Joe Kellogg could now see that she had curly blond hair with red tips, which although it was simple looked a lot better than Kendy's curly plastic eyelashes and clown makeup. The first girl had blond hair as well, but this time with a little bit of blue at the ends. They had only bickered so far, but Joe Kellogg thought they seemed pretty friendly. At least, they hadn't tried to capture him in a net, so that was a start.

At the sound of the tall girl's voice, the shorter one (Savannah) jerked to attention. "Ack. Sorry." She turned to Joe Kellogg. "I'm sorry for my comrades' actions. Needless to say, I will not be working here anymore. What's your name?"

"Joe Kellogg," Joe Kellogg answered assertively, trying to show the girls he was confident and non-threatening at the same time. "I'm hungry." Whoops.

"We're sorry, Joe Kellogg," Savannah said. "Carly, could you get him something to eat? He's been in here a while. God, this is a mess."

Carly scowled but reached behind her head to the hood of her sweatshirt and tugged out two containers of yogurt, a chocolate bar, and a knife. She walked over to Joe Kellogg and set the food on the ground, then proceeded to cut at his ropes. All the while, Savannah paced nervously by the door. The girls couldn't have been more than 18, and Savannah in particular seemed very distressed. Hopefully they'd be able to help him get out.

"There you go," Carly announced as the pressure on Joe Kellogg's body was relieved. He stood up, a bit too quickly for he saw black spots for a few seconds, but he was standing.

"Thank you," Joe Kellogg told Carly. "Now can one of tell me what the hell is going on? One second I'm escaping my responsibilities and daydreaming about macaroni, and the next a fucking NET is blasted at me, and now I'm here. Who are you people?" He then sat down and began to furiously eat his yogurt, spattering it onto his nice work shirt.

"I'm a reporter at the Des Moines news station, and Carly's my boss," Savannah told him. "She's known something is weird about this place for a while now, and we've gotten together a few times recently to put together our theories. They were only theories until I watched them knock you from the sky. Now, I don't know what this is, but I want out of it."

"I do also," Carly finally spoke up again (Joe Kellogg had moved on to the chocolate). "That's why we're here. You seem like a pretty cool dude, and I don't think it's right that you've been trapped here. Now, this organization is called the Lollipop Guild. A deceitfully friendly cover for a subbranch of the mafia. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

"I agree," Joe Kellogg said dignifiedly, with his mouth full of chocolate. "But how?"

"Well, we'll have to sneak around for a bit before we can find an exit," Carly said. "But you'll need to act mean if we encounter someone. Act like you're meant to be here. Can you do that?"

"Yes, that will be fine. I myself am heartless and cold," said Joe Kellogg with a smile. He had finished the chocolate and his smile was all brown, but it was a happy brown, more like a puppy brown than a shit brown.

"Okay. Let's do this," Savannah said, and after yanking Joe Kellogg's tie and glasses off and turning off the light, flung open the door.