Story so far
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.
Appearance
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.
Role
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.
Relationships
Paul Thurman — Her father appointed her to the project; Donald says she later used her access to replace Paul Thurman with him in the records.
Sources — 117 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 89
- Anna is Senator Thurman’s daughter.
- Thurman says Anna is taking leave from MIT to help with the project.
- Thurman appoints Anna as Donald’s lead engineer.
Chapter 91
- Anna installs an extra monitor in Donald’s office at her father’s suggestion.
- Anna has auburn hair.
- Anna says she arrived in town the previous week and has been settling into an apartment.
- Anna says her father wants her to handle the mechanical spaces in the plans.
- Anna is taking a sabbatical from the Institute for the Atlanta project.
- Anna proposes meeting Donald weekly to review their work.
- Anna warns Donald that dust could ruin his computer.
Chapter 93
- Anna is collaborating on the Atlanta project.
- Donald has left whole floors and mechanical spaces empty for Anna to design.
Chapter 95
- Thurman reports that Anna is confident Donald can stay ahead of schedule and says they make a great team.
Chapter 99
- Donald says he and Anna exchange plans instead of meeting regularly.
- Donald tells Helen that Anna was not at the job site with him that day.
Chapter 105
- Anna has auburn hair and freckles across her nose.
- Anna wants approval for the bottom third of the design so construction can proceed to more floors.
- Anna describes herself as a consultant paid to lay out the pipes.
- Anna says her mother was almost forty when she was born.
- Anna theorizes that hopes of extreme longevity are leading people to postpone children.
- Anna claims that people practice cloning despite its illegality.
- Anna believes repairing freezing damage at the cellular level could make cryonic preservation feasible.
- Anna hugs Donald and kisses his cheek when her car arrives.
Chapter 106
- A woman in the frozen pod Troy examines has a face he recognizes, but she is not his wife.
Chapter 107
- Mick says Anna told him Donald had skipped the facility tour.
Chapter 109
- Anna helped Donald design the underground space beneath the Tennessee delegation.
- Anna says she also tried to see the competing bunker designs.
- Anna thinks the facility will attract worldwide scrutiny.
Chapter 110
- The woman Troy recognizes in a cryopod has auburn hair that she sometimes wears in a bun.
- Troy believes the sleeping auburn-haired woman wanted to be his wife.
Chapter 111
- Anna removes Donald’s ATV key to prevent him from leaving for the Tennessee delegation.
- Anna follows Donald uphill during the anthem and tries to pull him back down.
- Anna remains composed enough to direct Donald during the evacuation.
- Anna and Charlotte pull Donald past the Senator and into a tent after the blasts.
Chapter 119
- Anna has been awake for almost a year.
- Anna embraces Donald when they are reunited.
- Anna has pale skin, dark rings under her eyes and hair pinned into a bun with a pen.
- Anna says wireless networks are her specialty.
- Anna says Thurman, Erskine, Dr. Sneed and the assistants who awakened her know she is awake.
- Anna reports that contact has been lost with eleven silos.
- Anna believes she has contained the loss of communications, but its cause and the survival of residents remain uncertain.
- Anna personally doubts that anyone remains alive in the silent silos.
- Anna warns that Eighteen appears headed for self-destruction.
- Anna says the system was built to run itself rather than depend on one person being in charge.
Chapter 120
- Anna tells Donald that she requested his awakening because she needs his help.
- Anna rejects Donald’s suggestion that the silo project was a mistake.
- Anna hopes Donald can persuade Thurman that Silo Eighteen is worth saving.
- Anna says she knew Victor and insists that he was not crazy.
- Anna proposes that Donald work with her downstairs until they make progress.
- Anna asks Thurman to bring another computer so she can set it up.
- Anna also requests a second cot.
Chapter 124
- Anna prepares to attend Victor’s funeral with Donald.
- Anna recognizes Mick when Donald opens the records of Helen’s husband.
- Anna urges Donald to stop looking through Helen’s family records.
Chapter 125
- Anna comforts Donald while he cries in the lift.
- Anna’s waking is known only to her father, Dr. Sneed, Erskine, Donald and herself.
- Anna considers Erskine a friend.
- Anna argues with her father after Victor’s ceremony.
Chapter 126
- Erskine says Anna’s awakening made him wish to wake his own daughter.
Chapter 127
- Anna sets up a computer and folders of notes for Donald.
- Anna is a former lover of Donald.
- Anna holds Donald as he weeps.
- Anna reassures Donald that everything will be all right.
Chapter 131
- Anna monitors the radio in hopes that Silo Forty and its neighbors remain silent.
- Anna researched wireless harmonics, remote charging, and radio control of electronics at MIT.
- Anna gained control of the affected silos’ collapse mechanism.
Chapter 132
- Donald is developing mixed feelings for Anna.
Chapter 134
- Anna reports that her work jamming radio towers will soon be finished.
- Anna asks what would happen after they identified people with surviving memories.
Chapter 139
- Anna has been awake for almost a year across two full shifts.
- Anna is put under early in the morning to avoid being seen.
Chapter 140
- Anna has told Donald that the airborne machines are designed to attack only particular materials.
Chapter 152
- Anna sent her father a message asking him to wake her when he received it.
Chapter 156
- Anna wrote her father an urgent note about a locket with a date.
Chapter 161
- Anna is asleep below and has left a note asking Thurman to wake her.
- Anna previously said Silo Forty had hacked the master system.
Chapter 166
- Anna’s note contains a number that Donald now interprets as a locker reference rather than a date.
Chapter 167
- Donald remembers Anna’s expertise in wireless systems and hacking.
- Donald recalls that Anna took the ATV keys from him before he entered the silo.
- Donald suspects Anna deliberately arranged for the two of them to be left together in this silo.
Chapter 168
- Anna recognizes Donald after waking and says she knew he would come for her.
- Anna says her father never intended to wake them from the deep freeze.
- Anna apologizes for what she and Mick did, saying it seemed right at the time.
- Anna says her father woke her for another shift while Donald remained in the deep freeze.
- Anna says she discovered something during that additional shift.
- Anna says she and Donald were meant to be together in the place they built.
- Anna says she could not bear the thought of Donald dying alone elsewhere.
- Anna asks Donald to help her escape, warning that her father made a pact.
- Anna becomes unexpectedly sleepy after drinking the mixture Donald gives her.
- Anna dies in Donald’s arms.
- Donald remembers Anna giving him their first kiss after he spent a night supporting her as she slept on a fraternity-house sofa.
- Donald remembers sharing a cot with Anna during their last shift.
Chapter 173
- Donald believes Anna used her influence with her father to manipulate a last-minute switch involving Mick and Thurman.
Chapter 178
- Donald concludes that Anna left the note in Thurman’s account for him.
- Donald imagines that Anna discovered the truth alone and became afraid of her father.
- Donald concludes that Anna removed her father from power by switching Donald with another man and leaving instructions to wake her.
Chapter 183
- Donald regards Anna as having subjected him to the misery of waking into silo life.
Chapter 188
- Anna is dead, but Donald chooses not to tell Thurman during their confrontation.
- Thurman believes Anna told Donald about the plan to kill the other silo populations.
Chapter 210
- A medical assistant confirms that the woman in the cryopod labeled Anna is dead.
Chapter 218
- Donald remembers Anna helping pull him along during the evacuation as white gas billowed around them.
Chapter 224
- Donald says Anna feared she would never awaken after Thurman put her back under.
- Donald says Thurman gave Anna system access to deal with silo forty.
- Donald says Anna arranged for him to take Thurman’s place.
- Donald believes Anna wanted to ruin Thurman and end the project.
- Donald speculates that Anna may have helped silo forty and hoped it could save everyone.
Chapter 237
- Thurman suspects Anna in connection with sabotage of the gas feeds between Medical and Population Control.
Chapter 238
- Anna was found dead the previous day, and her body is in Dr. Whitmore’s office.
Chapter 245
- Donald says Anna worked on the Silo Forty problem for most of a year.
- Donald says Anna believed Silo Forty had found its demolition charges and blocked their frequency.
- According to Donald, Anna claimed she had hacked the detonators and brought the rebellious silos down.
- Donald says Anna used her broad system access to discover the planned destruction of the silos.
- Donald says Anna substituted him for her father in the records so he could help.
- Donald suspects Anna rerouted the shutdown system to supply healing machines instead of lethal ones.
- Donald suspects Anna sent healing machines into Silo Seventeen.
Chapter 249
- Donald recognizes that Anna saved him and tried to save others, actions he had misunderstood.
- Donald now misses Anna as much as he misses Helen.