Story so far
Elise is the youngest of the children living with Solo, Hannah, and Rickson. She has a missing tooth, and she tracked the retreating floodwater by counting stairs before joyfully reporting its fall to Solo. Although Rickson warned her about newcomers, she wanted to see good in people. She gathered favorite pages into Elise's Memory Book, carrying it with her belongings as the group prepared to move, and preferred catching fish to eating them.
Elise clung to Jimmy during the breakthrough and journey, disliked being housed apart from him, and wanted to return home. She found a puppy, protested when it was taken away, and subsequently carried a squirming, noisy bag. She said Hannah called her Lily but that she preferred Elise. When the dog disappeared, she followed reports upward into the bazaar, became lost, and found it at a stall selling dogs for meat. Shaw became her friend; she asked Solo to release him after he grabbed the boy. She recovered her book and left carrying the dog, privately determined to keep it despite objections. Learning that Marcus had fallen and died, she could not understand how he had gone over such high rails.
Back amid the newcomers, hunger led Elise to follow a bearded stranger. Seven years old and hoping to find her puppy, she was subjected to questioning and unwanted touch. She disclosed where the books were after Father Remmy tightened his grip on her hands and signed a paper because she hoped compliance would let her leave. Her captors replaced her coveralls with a scratchy sewn blanket and assigned her a new home. Watching a woman cut with a knife, she recognized a procedure performed on her own mother and Hannah’s mother and feared it would someday be done to her. Solo made Mr. Rash release her, and she escaped.
Elise then helped dismantle the servers, marked the proposed destination on Juliette’s map, and took Juliette’s hand as support grew for leaving. Juliette’s father said Elise had had a twin sister. Outside, she carried her dog in her suit, ran through the grass until her air hose stopped her, and released the animal before picking it up again. At the tower she found that her book described only a few of its seeds. Using a map and the sun, she showed the adults north, claimed to know how to catch wild fish, and proposed walking to the sea. Under the stars, Elise says she knows some of their names and proposes calling a puppy-shaped group Puppy. She invites Juliette to name another group shaped like a man.
Appearance
Elise is seven years old and has a missing tooth. She carried a heavy book in a shoulder bag and later carried her dog inside her protective suit.
Role
She is one of the surviving children and contributes knowledge from her collected pages, including directions and ideas for finding food outside.
Relationships
Juliette — Elise calls Juliette Jewel, seeks her protection, and supports the decision to leave.
Rickson — Rickson’s warnings influence Elise, though she increasingly questions his distrust of strangers.
Shaw — Elise calls Shaw her friend and asks Solo to release him during the escape from the bazaar.
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
Sources — 82 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 6
- Elise finds Jimmy in the grow pits and insists it is time to leave.
- Elise is the youngest of the group and settles more arguments than she starts.
- Elise carries her memory book in a shoulder satchel.
- Elise packs food, water, clothes, batteries, a doll, and a hairbrush for the move.
- Elise monitored the retreating water by counting steps.
- Elise wishes Rickson would see the good in people as she does.
- Elise has a missing tooth.
Chapter 7
- Elise admits that she enjoys catching fish more than eating them.
- Elise repeatedly drops caught fish back into the water.
Chapter 11
- Juliette imagines Elise running from the office the children made their home and clinging to her leg.
Chapter 14
- Elise has told Juliette over the radio that she is making a book from her favorite pages.
Chapter 19
- Elise clings to Jimmy while they wait for the digger to break through.
- Elise tightens her hold on Jimmy when Courtnee greets her.
Chapter 22
- Elise clings to Jimmy as miners, mechanics, and dogs enter her silo.
- Elise carries a heavy book in a bag around her neck during the journey.
Chapter 23
- Elise dislikes being assigned a room apart from Jimmy.
- Elise volunteers to be examined after Jimmy.
- Elise wants to return to the home she has left.
- Elise mistakes the puppy for a cat.
- Elise follows the puppies’ sounds into a room and picks one up.
- Elise protests when the puppy is taken from her and shut in a crate.
Chapter 24
- Elise says Hannah calls her Lily, but she prefers Elise.
- Elise steps into the hallway during the radio conversation and asks to return to Rickson because she is hungry.
- Elise carries her memory book in her arms as she leaves, while her shoulder bag kicks, squirms, and makes noises.
Chapter 28
- Elise is missing after the confrontation, and someone reportedly saw her heading upward.
Chapter 29
- Elise follows reports of a man with a dog ten levels upward to level one-hundred while searching for her missing puppy.
- Elise becomes lost and frightened in the crowded bazaar.
- Elise identifies a pig using the pictures in her book.
- Elise recalls Rickson and the twins sending her into the dark to fetch food when she was barely old enough to walk.
- Elise tells Shaw she comes from Silo 17.
- Elise explains that her silo lies west of the current one.
- Elise finds her puppy in a pen at a dog-meat stall.
- Elise recovers her bag, book, and loose pages after the stallholder falls.
- Elise tells Solo that Shaw is her friend and asks him to put Shaw down.
- Elise asks to go home after escaping the stallholders.
Chapter 30
- Elise leaves the bazaar carrying Puppy while Solo carries her bag and book.
- Elise notices Shaw following them but chooses not to tell Solo.
- Elise insists Puppy came from Mechanical and pleads not to return him to the bazaar.
- Elise learns from Juliette and Solo that Marcus fell and died.
- Elise cannot understand how Marcus went over rails so high.
- Elise privately resolves to keep Puppy regardless of what she tells Juliette.
Chapter 43
- Elise has no pill in her flesh and is uncertain whether one will grow there.
- Elise does not want babies; she wants Puppy to stay with her.
- Elise begins to question Rickson’s warnings about strangers after seeing newcomers in her home.
- Elise sometimes wants to eat as much as possible when she sees the twins eating, fearing the food will run out.
- Elise tells the bearded man that she does not go to church.
- Hunger leads Elise to follow the bearded stranger into the dark hall.
Chapter 50
- Jimmy describes Elise as seven years old and missing a tooth.
- Elise habitually wanders off by herself.
- Terry suggests Elise may be with the chanters at a chapel if she is not at the farms.
Chapter 51
- Elise says she is seven years old.
- Elise initially mistakes the word Pact for a pack of animals.
- Elise wants Solo to help her find Puppy.
- Elise recoils when Mr. Rash touches her cheek.
- Elise believes in God after being taught by Hannah and Rickson.
- Elise has taken illustrated and instructional pages from many books.
- Instructional pages taught Elise a better way to fish.
- Elise tells Father Remmy that the books are on level thirty-four after he tightens his grip on her hands.
- Elise can read better than Miles because Hannah has taught her.
- Elise signs the paper because she hopes complying will let her leave.
- Mr. Rash physically guides Elise’s wrist toward the signature line.
- Elise prints her name while distressed and hoping the onlookers will go away.
Chapter 55
- Elise’s captors replace her coveralls with a scratchy blanket sewn up the front because they object to the color of her clothes.
- Elise is assigned a room as her new home but wants to return to her home beyond the Wilds.
- Elise longs to return to Puppy, Hannah, and Solo.
- Elise watches a woman being cut with a knife and recognizes the procedure as something done to her own mother and Hannah’s mother.
- Elise fears that she will eventually be subjected to the same cutting procedure.
- Elise escapes down the hall after Solo makes Mr. Rash release her.
Chapter 59
- Elise helps clear the server room by climbing onto a server and cutting its wires.
Chapter 60
- Elise marks the proposed destination with her finger while Juliette demonstrates the diggers’ routes.
- Elise takes Juliette’s hand as others express support for leaving.
Chapter 61
- Elise had a twin sister, according to Juliette’s father.
Chapter 63
- Elise runs ahead through the grass until her air hose restrains her.
- Elise carries her dog against her chest inside her suit.
- Elise releases her dog into the grass and then picks him up again.
Chapter 64
- Elise’s book contains entries for only a few of the seeds found in the tower.
- Elise uses a map and the sun to show the survivors which way is north.
- Elise claims to know how to catch wild fish.
- Elise proposes that the survivors walk to the sea.
Chapter 65
- Elise says she knows the stars and that some have names.
- Elise proposes naming a puppy-shaped group of stars Puppy.
- Elise invites Juliette to name a man-shaped group of stars.