Wool

Juliette pulls herself up by the empty air hose in the complete darkness, bumping into surfaces and feeling disoriented. She reaches the stairs and pulls herself up six flights through Mechanical. Still hundreds of feet underwater, she realizes she is out of air. She reaches the main silo stairwell and starts to cough and spasm in her helmet. Not thinking clearly and desperate to get away from the toxic air created by her own exhalations, Juliette starts to take it off. Cold water starts to enter her helmet and brings her to her senses. Fighting the urge to swallow water, she swims forward and spots trapped bubbles from her descent on the undersides of the steps. She sucks the air from the tiny bubbles and continues to do so for the rest of the way up.

Freezing cold, Juliette flings herself on the landing and yells at Solo, who is lying on the floor, to help her. Seeing caked blood on his face, Juliette realizes he is injured. Solo gasps with his dying breaths that his real name is Jimmy and that he doesn’t think he ever was alone in the silo.

In the bunkroom, Lukas and Bernard discuss what Lukas has just learned about the silo’s origins. Bernard reveals that Lukas has been sequestered in the bunkroom so that he would have enough time to accept the truth without telling anyone, and that Bernard himself was locked in it for over two months. Lukas thinks to himself that Bernard is wise. Bernard further reveals that it has been several hundred years since humans retreated into the silos, and that the leaders of Operation Fifty fear that there are “small pockets of survivors” remaining around the globe, which would render the operation “pointless” (432), as its goal is to have a homogenous population. Bernard expresses anger at those who made the world toxic and built the silos, saying he’d “kill them” if he could. His theory is that the people who did it were in charge of a “powerful country that was beginning to crumble” (433) and wanted to preserve its way of life. Over decades, they secretly built the silos and bombs to wipe out the rest of the world.

Despite Bernard’s anger at their ancestors, he tells Lukas that they cannot change the past. They must look forward, protect the silos, and kill if necessary to keep everyone from dying: “Breaking the rules means we all die, every single one of us” (434). As Bernard leaves, he tells Lukas he is proud of him and calls him “son.” Lukas wonders whether he see himself being “one of them” (435).

In the bunkroom, Lukas and Bernard discuss what Lukas has just learned about the silo’s origins. Bernard reveals that Lukas has been sequestered in the bunkroom so that he would have enough time to accept the truth without telling anyone, and that Bernard himself was locked in it for over two months. Lukas thinks to himself that Bernard is wise. Bernard further reveals that it has been several hundred years since humans retreated into the silos, and that the leaders of Operation Fifty fear that there are “small pockets of survivors” remaining around the globe, which would render the operation “pointless” (432), as its goal is to have a homogenous population. Bernard expresses anger at those who made the world toxic and built the silos, saying he’d “kill them” if he could. His theory is that the people who did it were in charge of a “powerful country that was beginning to crumble” (433) and wanted to preserve its way of life. Over decades, they secretly built the silos and bombs to wipe out the rest of the world.

Despite Bernard’s anger at their ancestors, he tells Lukas that they cannot change the past. They must look forward, protect the silos, and kill if necessary to keep everyone from dying: “Breaking the rules means we all die, every single one of us” (434). As Bernard leaves, he tells Lukas he is proud of him and calls him “son.” Lukas wonders whether he see himself being “one of them” (435).

Juliette, freezing from the cold water and air, cuts the suit off herself with difficulty. She tips over the gas can and, using a spark from a knife, lights the compressor on fire to warm herself. With sensation back in her fingers, she returns to Solo and finds that he has a pulse. She touches the cut on his head and he lurches awake. She figures he probably has a concussion. He tells her that the attacker was his age and that he wasn’t crazy after all to suspect that there was someone else in the abandoned silo.