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RAY WAS ROUSED FROM his sleep by the sound of rainfall spattering against leaves. The jolt of electricity made him piss himself and his teeth were chattering from the cold. Wherever he was, it was dirty and damp. He smelled rotting food. A single light was buried in the earth below him, recessed in the soil and covered in a piece of weather-resistant plastic.
He was on a small stained cot and shared the room with nothing but two buckets. One appeared to have clean water in it, the other smelled like the depository for the water once his body processed it. He took a small comfort in the first bucket being full and the second empty, rather than the other way around. But access to rudimentary restroom facilities gave him cause for panic. Whoever had buried him in the hole wasn’t expectin
