Wool

Juliette and Solo, nervous about encountering Solo’s assailant again, struggle to climb up the stairs. She is freezing and hungry, and he is injured and thirsty. They aim for the deputy station first, and then for the lower farm. They take a break on a landing, and Solo tells her to leave him behind before she convinces him to go on. Juliette regrets the mission, thinking “she’d been so damned stupid” (453).

Juliette goes into the lower farm to look for food, water, and dry clothing while Solo holds the door open to provide her with some light from the staircase. Inside, she hears a squeal and decides to follow the noise, deciding it would be better to confront the other survivor than live in fear. She finds a particularly overgrown patch and pushes through it to a groomed patch.

She continues until she encounters a closed door. She is listening at the door when it flies open, yanking her forward. A boy of about 15 named Rickson hits her with a wrench. She fights him off with the knife and notices a group of kids huddled behind him. There are two younger boys and two girls, one of whom, Juliette is horrified to see, has a baby. Juliette figures that these are the children of the last people fighting in the silo. She realizes that Solo said that his attacker was the same age as him because he still views himself as a teenager. Juliette orders the kids to pack their things and go upstairs with her and Solo. Suddenly, Juliette hears Walker calling her name on the radio the children stole from her.

Walker, Courtnee, and Shirly talk to Juliette from the control room as Mechanical loses the battle outside. Juliette tells them that she is in another silo. Shirly asks Juliette what she thinks about Mechanical’s plan to route noxious fumes to IT’s server room and Juliette, knowing this will harm only Lukas, begs them to call off the plan. Juliette begs them to stop fighting, “whatever it takes” (467).

The conversation ends as the fighting comes closer to the control room. Courtnee and Shirly helplessly clutch each other while Walker cries.

Lukas is sniffing suspiciously at the AC vent of the server room when Bernard walks in, dismissing his fears about the vent. Lukas wants to ask Bernard to be let out of the bunkroom but restrains himself, knowing “that wasn’t the way out of here” (470). Lukas asks Bernard whether he could see the file of George Wilkins, Juliette’s former lover. Bernard becomes furious, and Lukas can see by his reaction that he was responsible for George’s murder. To his surprise, Bernard does not try to hide this. He tells Lukas that he had to kill George, who had dangerous ideas about digging to widen the silo, and that Lukas will one day likewise have to kill such people for the safety of the silo.

When Lukas persists, asking Bernard if he personally killed George, Bernard turns angrier, asking Lukas if he’s having second thoughts about shadowing for head of IT. Asking Lukas if he wants to be let out of the server room, he tricks Lukas into admitting he wants “out” (475). Bernard alerts Peter Billings, who has been eavesdropping on Bernard’s radio, that Lukas is to be sent to cleaning.

Going up the stairs with Solo and the children, Juliette realizes that her life from now on will consist of caring for them. She desperately wants to talk to Lukas and her friends in Silo 18. Remembering suddenly that there is a radio behind a locked grate in the IT bunkroom, she uses her last remaining strength to run to IT, leaving the others to catch up with her.

As she runs up, she considers the lives of the children and baby from Silo 17. She thinks of the birth control implanted in her at an early age and realizes “so much about her previous life made sense” (479), and that the oppressive rules of the silo have an important purpose.

She breaks open the grate with the radio. Exhausted, she dials Silo 18 and reaches Bernard, who tells her that her friends are being sent to cleaning, starting with Lukas, on whose person Bernard has found Juliette’s things.