Story so far
Before calling himself Solo, Jimmy Parker was a sixteen-year-old student hoping to follow his father into IT. During the final great Louds, he became separated from his mother in the crowded stairwell and survived a fall onto the people below. His father took him into hidden rooms, gave him the silo key, and left him there for safety. Jimmy watched his father being shot on a monitor. Terrified and unable to give the men outside the door code, he heard another gunshot and collapsed in tears. He survived the shutdown, learned that his home was silo seventeen, and endured a year of confinement while groups outside fought and tried to enter. He taught himself to maintain and use a rifle, with reference books supplying further knowledge. When intruders finally opened the door, he shot three men and shut himself inside again.
Deteriorating supplies and the need for water, tools, and sanitation eventually drove him out. He visited his abandoned classroom and wrote a poem replacing his old name with Solo, although he knew its claim that solitude made him stronger was a lie. He gradually explored farther and rescued a cat from a flooded level. Naming it Shadow, he found companionship and a reason to venture out. Further intrusions brought more violence: he killed a man in his refuge and shot toward a second voice, discovering that the other person was a woman. Shadow's eventual death left him alone again. Solo buried the cat on a farm and continued scavenging, repairing what he could and barricading his home even after he believed no one remained.
When Juliette reached his hiding place, Solo struck at her with a knife before accepting her presence. He said he had been alone for thirty-four years and believed he would soon turn fifty. Their repair projects gave him company and purpose. He helped prepare her underwater work and tended her air equipment, but an attack left him bleeding and unable to answer when her air failed. Recovering, he recognized that he might never have been alone. He helped guide the surviving children to food, assisted Juliette with her return preparations, and made her a blanket from heat tape. With others now beside him, he chose to use Jimmy again.
Jimmy came to love Elise as his own child. He taught her to fish and helped choose useful reference pages for survival. He and the children moved to the lower farms and kept the pumps working for two weeks, maintaining dry conditions in Mechanical until the digger arrived. He carried Elise through part of the connecting tunnel and tried to appear brave during his medical examination. Crowds frightened him, and he worried that his own home lay unprotected. He told Walker he preferred to be called Jimmy and received a radio to keep at Juliette's request. Jimmy challenged the removal of equipment from his silo because she had promised to rebuild it, and he eventually took the children home.
As newcomers filled the silo, Elise's wandering became a source of renewed fear. While searching for her, Jimmy inadvertently told Terry Harlson that power came from level thirty-four. After Shaw told him church members were holding Elise, he retrieved a hidden rifle, interrupted their gathering with gunfire, and threatened Mr. Rash so she could escape. Still carrying the rifle afterward, he urged the group to secure the refuge and wait out the violence. He estimated his food could sustain him alone for three or four years and was disturbed by the prospect of sheltering two hundred people. Nevertheless, he opened cans for the group and raised his hand in support of Juliette's escape proposal. Her father later reported that Jimmy had no cavities and could not remember his last illness. Jimmy now works with Walker to assemble a fabric enclosure using poles.
At the outdoor camp, Jimmy draws on animal breeds learned from Legacy as the campers try to identify an unfamiliar animal sound. He shoots a deer with his rifle, providing meat for the camp. Juliette now regards him as a leader better prepared for survival outside than the other survivors.
Appearance
He has dark, shaggy hair and a thick, unkempt beard flecked with gray. His established clothing consists of baggy gray overalls and oversized boots; he described himself as approaching fifty when Juliette first knew him.
Role
A protector of the children and a practical provider for the outdoor camp, he brings reference-book knowledge and rifle skills to survival outside. Juliette regards him as a particularly well-prepared leader.
Relationships
Juliette — Juliette brought companionship and shared repair work into his isolated life. He challenged her assurances about rebuilding his home but supported her escape proposal.
Elise — He loves Elise as his own child, teaches her survival skills, and used a rifle to free her from a threatening gathering.
Walker — He told Walker he preferred the name Jimmy; they now work together to assemble a fabric enclosure.
Shadow — His rescued cat Shadow relieved his loneliness; its death and burial remain important losses.
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
Sources — 93 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 2
- Juliette worries about Solo remaining isolated with the children.
Chapter 3
- Juliette wants to radio Solo about the machine discovered beyond the wall.
Chapter 4
- Solo and the children are Juliette’s friends whom Fitz believes the apparent failure of the digger will hurt.
Chapter 5
- Juliette believes the man she wants to rescue is half mad from years of isolation.
Chapter 6
- Jimmy sits alone on lifeless soil in the grow pits remembering Shadow.
- Jimmy once dreamed of Shadow as a black-furred boy who could speak.
- Jimmy understands that Juliette intends his departure to be temporary.
- Jimmy fears returning to a crowded silo more than leaving or living in the Deep.
- Jimmy associates the silo’s depopulation with safety and remembers being attacked when people returned.
- Jimmy does not know how long Juliette’s rescue will take.
- Jimmy tells Elise that the rescuers must tunnel through solid rock.
- Jimmy expects hundreds or even thousands of people to come to the silo.
- Jimmy loves Elise as though she were his own child.
- Jimmy lets Elise cut pages from the books in the tin cans and helps her select pages useful for survival.
- Jimmy reluctantly urges Elise to adopt some of Rickson’s distrust of people.
- Jimmy hides his tears from Elise as they descend.
Chapter 7
- Jimmy agrees to move down to the lower farms with the children.
- Jimmy teaches Elise to catch fish in the receding floodwater.
- Jimmy salvages the plastic dome of Juliette’s helmet from the flood debris.
- Jimmy stops the nearly dry pump by cutting one of its electrical wires.
- Jimmy plans to take turns with the children operating the pump until Juliette returns.
Chapter 9
- Solo reports to Juliette that Mechanical is dry.
Chapter 11
- Juliette feels an unusually strong bond with Solo after the weeks they spent together under strain.
Chapter 19
- Jimmy and the others have spent two weeks keeping the pump running and Mechanical dry.
- Jimmy repeatedly orders the children back as the digger breaks into their silo.
- Jimmy fears the digger will keep boring through the silo without stopping.
- Jimmy runs toward the arriving visitors with Elise in his arms.
- Jimmy asks Courtnee where Juliette is.
Chapter 21
- Juliette remembers that Solo made the heat-tape blanket she used during her earlier return.
- Juliette is relieved for Solo and the children when she learns the dig has broken through.
Chapter 22
- Jimmy receives visiting workers who call him Solo and bring greetings from Jules.
- Jimmy feels defensive when Courtnee treats his home as unsafe.
- Jimmy finds walking straight along the tunnel more frightening than its darkness.
- Jimmy carries Elise through part of the tunnel when she becomes frightened.
- Jimmy worries that his silo is unprotected as people stream into it.
- Jimmy feels responsible for remaining strong for the frightened children.
- Jimmy fears the move to the other silo is a grave mistake.
Chapter 23
- Jimmy tries to show courage during his medical examination because the children are watching him.
- Jimmy asks to accompany Courtnee so that he can speak with Juliette.
- Jimmy tells Elise that they will live in the new silo at least until their old home is improved.
- Jimmy recognizes the new silo’s Mechanical layout as identical to the area he recently explored in his own silo.
- Jimmy initially mistakes a puppy for a giant rat and panics.
- Jimmy has seen adult dogs before but has never seen a puppy.
Chapter 24
- Jimmy tells Walker that he prefers to be called Jimmy.
- Jimmy knows that Juliette has been pursuing a project she would not discuss over the radio because of possible listeners.
- Jimmy urges Juliette to visit him soon.
- Jimmy panics when he cannot find Elise among the unfamiliar workshop surroundings.
- Jimmy receives a radio to keep with him at Juliette’s request.
Chapter 25
- Juliette has received news that Solo and the children are safe.
Chapter 28
- Jimmy goes looking for the missing Elise.
- Juliette’s father tells Jimmy to bring Elise back to Supply when he finds her.
Chapter 29
- Solo finds Elise in the bazaar and grabs Shaw, apparently believing Shaw has taken her property.
- Solo tells Elise they are heading home.
Chapter 30
- Solo confirms that Elise took Puppy from a box in Mechanical.
- Jimmy reports seeing people carry pipe and equipment from his silo into Juliette’s.
- Jimmy challenges the removal of equipment because Juliette promised to rebuild his home.
- Solo expresses dissatisfaction with Juliette’s repeated assurances that everything will be all right.
Chapter 35
- Solo previously told Juliette that his silo fell as people rushed upward and spilled into the open air.
Chapter 36
- Juliette remembers that Solo survived for decades on canned food.
Chapter 41
- Solo has taken the children away, saying he is taking them home.
Chapter 42
- Juliette says Solo remembers the destruction of his silo.
Chapter 43
- Solo told Elise to stay close to him.
Chapter 49
- Juliette expects Solo to be with the children at their old home in the lower farms.
Chapter 50
- Jimmy searches the stairs for Elise.
- Jimmy realizes he had not worried about Elise wandering when the silo was empty.
- Jimmy meets Terry Harlson at level one-twenty-two.
- Jimmy tells Terry that his name is Jimmy and most people call him Solo.
- Jimmy and Juliette had attached rubber hoses to the wall to drain floodwater.
- Jimmy acknowledges doing some of the electrical work, while some wiring already carried power.
- Jimmy inadvertently supplies level thirty-four when Terry prompts him about the source of power.
Chapter 51
- Solo became angry when he learned that Elise was removing pages from books.
- Solo subsequently taught Elise how to stitch pages in and out of books.
- Solo and Elise fished together.
Chapter 54
- Hank confirms seeing Solo’s group at the farms and says they left a few hours earlier.
Chapter 55
- Jimmy suspects he has passed Elise during his search and that she may already be back at the farms.
- Jimmy retrieves a hidden rifle after Shaw tells him Elise is being held by church members.
- Jimmy remembers teaching himself to shoot a rifle as a boy and using it against people.
- Solo interrupts the gathering with gunfire and demands to take Elise away.
- Solo threatens Mr. Rash with the rifle, allowing Elise to escape his grip.
Chapter 56
- Solo previously lived in a hiding place beneath the servers.
Chapter 59
- Solo carries a rifle and urges the group to secure the door and hide until the violence ends.
- Solo says his father hid him away and that he stayed there for a long time because it was safer.
- Solo estimates that his remaining food would feed him alone for three or four years.
- Solo is visibly disturbed by the idea of bringing two hundred people into the server room.
Chapter 60
- Solo opens the food cans with an electric can opener plugged into the floor.
- Solo raises his hand in support of Juliette’s escape proposal.
Chapter 61
- Juliette says Solo told her he discovered the bodies years earlier.
- Juliette’s father reports that Jimmy has no cavities and cannot remember his last illness.
Chapter 64
- Solo works with Walker to assemble a fabric enclosure using poles.
- Elise says Solo knows how to put worms on hooks.
Chapter 65
- Solo recounts animal breeds he learned about in the Legacy as the campers try to identify an unfamiliar animal sound.
- Solo shoots a deer with his rifle, supplying meat for the camp.
- Juliette regards Solo as a leader better prepared for survival outside than the other survivors.