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Generic location illustration for Neighboring Silo Staircase
location

Neighboring Silo Staircase

The silo’s staircase bears the history of a deadly stampede and persistent flooding; Jimmy now fishes its dwindling population of fish.

Story so far

The staircase has green emergency lighting and an upward current of cold air. Its lower reaches flood with foul water coated in oil and gas. In the account of Juliette’s work, two weeks of pumping lower the flood by less than a foot; Solo secures a rope for her descent, and air collects beneath submerged stair treads. Their exhausting return includes a rest on landing one-thirty-two. Later, Solo stands by an old bloodstain above the receding water.

The account of Jimmy’s youth returns to the stampede that shook the spiral staircase. People were already scrambling when his mother removed him from school; a man lay dead on level thirty-one and the crowd trampled a fallen woman. When Jimmy later emerged from his refuge, green emergency lights alone illuminated the landing.

In his present fishing expeditions, the water has completely submerged the level where he rescued Shadow. Only about a dozen fish remain in the flooded stairwell, because Jimmy catches them faster than they breed.

Appearance

A spiral staircase with green emergency lights, cold circulating air and flooded lower reaches. The submerged stairs have hollow undersides that can trap air.

Role

The staircase is both the silo’s vertical route and, in its flooded lower reaches, Jimmy’s fishing ground.

Relationships

Juliette — Juliette descended through the flooded stairs to reach the pumps and struggled back up them.
Shadow — The flood has submerged the level from which Jimmy rescued Shadow.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 7 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 60
  • People are already scrambling on the stairwell when Jimmy’s mother removes him from school.
Chapter 61
  • The spiral staircase shakes under the upward stampede.
  • A dead man lies on the landing of level thirty-one with a severe head wound.
  • The crowd tramples a woman who falls on the stairs.
Chapter 83
  • Only the green emergency lights illuminate the landing Jimmy reaches.
Chapter 95
  • The flood has completely submerged the level where Jimmy rescued Shadow.
  • Only about a dozen fish remain in the flooded stairwell because Jimmy catches them faster than they breed.
Character portrait