The narrator tells us that he's lost his sense of time. He doesn't know what to do with himself anymore. He's waiting for someone else to leave the town. The narrator thinks that they put a dead body outside of town to discourage people from leaving. He says that the people who left the town didn't have the guts to kill the dead man. He thinks they put him out there to make them think that maybe there are other people like him in the town, and that they shouldn't worry about leaving because they'll be back soon. He also says that it's hard to get into big cities now because the selection process is so strict. He and Annie are desperate, but they've decided not to kill Anzelmo, who was working in front of their house.