chunk: That evening, Burckhardt discovers that his cellar has seemingly been dismantled and 'rebuilt', in a way he doesn't recognise. And the next morning, again it's June 15th, although he knows it can't be. He mentions this when Swanson again tries to speak to him. 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 his theory that they have all been tampered with and that an invader has taken over the town for unknown reasons.
  But neither of them are correct. It transpires that the chemical plant exploded. All the inhabitants of Tylerton were killed by the explosion or the chemical fumes. Dorchin, a ruthless advertising executive, took over the whole ruins and rebuilt them in miniature. The people were rebuilt as minuscule robots, and are being used as captive subjects for testing high-pressure advertising campaigns.