The compressed file 08092022.7z sat on Elias’s desktop like a digital time capsule. He had found it while migrating data from an old hard drive he hadn't touched in years. The name was a simple date—but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what happened that Tuesday. He double-clicked. A password prompt appeared.

He opened the text file first. It contained a single set of GPS coordinates pointing to a remote stretch of coastline in the Pacific Northwest. The PDF was a detailed plan for a solo trip he never took—or at least, a trip he had no memory of taking.

Elias leaned back, his mind racing through old passcodes. It wasn't his birthday, his dog’s name, or his old street address. He tried admin123 out of sheer desperation. Error. He tried summer22 . Error.