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The Silo

Silo 18 · Silo Eighteen

Silo Eighteen is a buried community of thousands, scarred by recurring unrest and now led by Juliette amid challenges to outside control.

Story so far

The Silo is a cylindrical underground home containing apartments, workshops, hydroponic gardens, and purification rooms. Its three sections each span forty-eight floors, and thousands use the staircase in their daily routines. Apprenticeship is widespread. Even its highest floor lies underground despite the apparent surface view on its screens. According to Jahns, surviving records do not reach before the uprising; lost ancestral history causes unease, while priests teach that a caring God created a silo that has always existed. Wire messages are expensive, and Juliette explains that radio access is restricted to preserve the single channel for emergencies. Bernard Holland identifies the community as Silo Eighteen when contacting Silo One.

Eighteen has a history of violent generational revolt recurring every fifteen to twenty years, more severely than elsewhere. During an earlier crisis, Anna Thurman sought to save it from termination. Donald Keene believed surviving memories explained why its resets failed. A deliberately instigated reset involved bombings and fighting; Mission Jones witnessed armed deputies trying to quiet neighbors and regarded a Dispatch fire and explosion as a further escalation. Later, a cleaner passed beyond the hill and out of contact. An unsuccessful scheduled cleaning generated reports of lower-level unrest, and strict rationing accompanied the resistance. Donald reported the lowest-level barrier breached and relayed the head’s expectation that fighting would soon end.

After news of Juliette’s return, Lukas reported that more than half the silo had voted. Juliette proposed opposition to the informed leaders controlling the silos. Donald remembered that an earlier high ranking had motivated Victor to save Eighteen, but later regarded it as near the bottom. In his current call to its mayor, he claims to have saved the silo long ago.

Appearance

A buried cylindrical structure of 144 floors divided into three equal sections, with a heavily used staircase, residential and working spaces, hydroponic gardens, and purification rooms. Its roof lies beneath a circular surface depression.

Role

The home community identified as Silo Eighteen, subject to repeated unrest and outside intervention, and the silo whose mayor Donald is now calling.

Relationships

Juliette — She proposed that Eighteen oppose the informed leaders controlling the silos; Donald’s latest claim of having saved it is addressed to its mayor.
Silo One — Bernard contacted it to identify Eighteen, and its interventions form part of Eighteen’s history of threatened termination and resets.
Donald Keene — He attributed failed resets to surviving memories and now claims that he saved the silo long ago.
Victor — Donald recalls that Eighteen’s formerly high ranking motivated Victor’s efforts to save it.

Earlier in this series

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

Sources — 21 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 25
  • The men waking Troy report that Silo Eighteen is having problems.
Chapter 32
  • Anna fears Silo Eighteen is about to destroy itself.
  • Anna says problems in Eighteen prompted Victor to request Donald’s awakening months earlier.
Chapter 33
  • Anna wants to save Silo Eighteen from termination.
Chapter 41
  • Mission sees armed deputies trying to quiet fighting neighbors in Silo 18.
  • A shop on level forty-two has broken windows covered with plastic.
Chapter 44
  • Silo Eighteen experiences a fifteen-to-twenty-year cycle of violent generational revolt that is more severe than similar cycles elsewhere.
Chapter 47
  • Silo Eighteen faces a choice between another reset and extermination.
  • Donald believes surviving memories explain why Silo Eighteen’s resets fail.
Chapter 48
  • Mission sees the explosion and Dispatch fire as an escalation after months of growing violence.
Chapter 51
  • Eighteen is undergoing a deliberately instigated reset marked by bombings and fighting between groups.
Chapter 56
  • Mission hears rumors of a damaged shaft and the silo operating on backup power.
Chapter 59
  • Silo Eighteen has reported a cleaner who went beyond the hill and out of contact.
Chapter 63
  • Silo eighteen’s scheduled morning cleaning fails to take place.
Chapter 65
  • Eren reports lower-level unrest over the unsuccessful cleaning in Silo Eighteen and considers an uprising very probable.
Chapter 80
  • Donald wonders whether his earlier efforts to save Silo Eighteen contributed to the current trouble involving a wandering cleaner.
Chapter 86
  • Donald recalls that silo eighteen’s high ranking motivated Victor’s efforts to save it.
Chapter 92
  • Donald regards Silo Eighteen as ranked near the bottom.
Chapter 97
  • Donald reports that the barrier in eighteen’s lowest levels has been breached.
  • According to Donald, eighteen’s head expects the fighting to end within a day or two.
Chapter 103
  • Donald claims that he saved the mayor’s silo a long time ago.
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