That evening, Burckhardt discovers that his cellar has seemingly been dismantled and "rebuilt", in a way he does not recognize. While investigating he abruptly falls to sleep, spending the entire night in the cellar. When he awakens, it's June 15 again, but this time he remembers the previous day. Swanson again speaks to Burckhardt at work, and Burckhardt asks why he keeps approaching him in this way. Swanson hustles him away to the empty halls of the chemical plant. Hiding in a room at the end of a long tunnel, he explains that everyone in town seems to lose the last day of their memory each night when they sleep, unless they sleep in a hidden location as Swanson has been doing. He theorises that an invader has taken over the town for unknown reasons.
