After their successful attack on the officers' houses in Wirrawee and the discovery of the accidental death of their friend Chris, the group recuperates back in the safety of Hell.

The group has fallen into a depression and exhibit PTSD symptoms, due to their guerrilla war experience and guilt surrounding Chris’s death.

Unable to venture out to Wirrawee and the surrounding farmland due to increased colonialist presence and helicopter searches of the area, restlessness begin to set in.

Whilst surveying the enemy’s hold on Cobbler’s Bay, the group plans to make explosives using ammonium nitrate sourced from fertiliser and diesel in abandoned farm properties.

After travelling through bushland injured, famished and pursued by enemy forces, Ellie stumbles upon the rest of the group that had just been taken hostage by soldiers.

Taken to a maximum-security prison, the group is placed in separate cells and interrogated by an incredulous Major Harvey, who survived the attack in the previous book.

The day before their execution, the New Zealand air force bomb the prison and surrounding regional city, allowing the group to escape.

[6] In 2010, during post-production on Tomorrow, When the War Began director Stuart Beattie reportedly submitted outlines for two sequels, to be based on The Dead of Night and The Third Day, The Frost.