I had the need to open a window or a door, but there was no way to relieve the stuffiness of the room. Everything felt stiff and recycled, like it had been dug up and buried time and time again. I needed to breathe fresh air—I needed to get out. Of course Charlie didn’t have a clock anywhere, and I neglected to charge the laptop, so I didn’t have any sense of what time it was. However, by the sounds of silence in the hall, I guessed it was still night. I traded my soiled tank top for my clean t-shirt and put on the denim jacket Charlie had left behind. I wondered if he did it on purpose, but tried not to put too much thought into it. I decided I would only go out for a minute—just one minute, sixty seconds, then retreat to the safety of the cabin. I knelt in front of the plastic crate and looked around for something to cover my face. In the second drawer it was easy enough to find a couple of ball caps. I picked the cleanest one I could find, which seemed to be one that was never worn.
