Anna Thurman was an engineer on the silo project and Donald’s former lover. After her death, he comes to recognize her attempts to save people.
The daughter of Paul Thurman, Anna took leave from MIT to work as Donald’s lead engineer on the Atlanta project, handling mechanical spaces and piping. A former lover of Donald, she remained personally close to him as their work progressed. When the blasts came at the convention, she took his ATV key, tried to pull him back, and helped Charlotte get him into shelter. Donald later suspected that she had deliberately arranged their separation from Helen.
After preservation in a cryopod, Anna worked secretly through nearly a year of waking shifts. She asked for Donald to be awakened to help her and hoped he could persuade her father to save Silo Eighteen. Her expertise in wireless systems became central to the crisis involving Silo Forty and its neighbors. She reported containing their communications failure, doubted that their inhabitants survived, and gained control of their collapse mechanism. She and Donald worked closely and shared a cot before she was put back under. A note she left for her father eventually helped draw Donald back to her.
When Donald awakened her again, Anna apologized for what she and Mick Webb had done, said she and Donald were meant to be together, and warned that her father had made a pact. She asked Donald to help her escape, but grew sleepy after drinking the mixture he gave her and died in his arms. Her death was later confirmed, and her body was taken to Doctor Whitmore’s office. Donald now says her system access exposed the planned destruction of the silos and that she substituted him for her father in the records so he could help. Her claim to have destroyed the rebellious silos remains a claim; Donald suspects she instead rerouted the shutdown system to deliver healing machines, including to Silo Seventeen. He now recognizes that she saved him and tried to save others, and misses her as much as Helen.
Anna had auburn hair and freckles across her nose. During her waking work in the silo she had pale skin, dark rings beneath her eyes, and hair pinned into a bun with a pen.
A deceased engineer whose wireless expertise and access to silo systems shaped the rebellion and Donald’s role. Donald now regards her actions as attempts to save him and others.
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