Story so far
As sheriff, Holston enforced rules he later admitted he no longer believed in. His wife Allison recovered deleted information and publicly demanded to leave despite his fears about her investigation. He confined her, served her last meal, and watched her clean and collapse. Over the next three years he studied her files, doubted what the screen showed, and alternated between hoping for her return and finding the courage to follow.
Holston finally left his badge, locked himself in the holding cell, and asked to go outside. Nelson fitted him for the cleaning. Seeing apparently green hills through his visor, Holston believed the silo’s view was false and cleaned from joy and pity. After collapsing with abdominal pain, he removed his helmet and discovered that the green landscape itself was the deception. He recognized Allison’s remains and died holding them.
His death left the sheriff’s office vacant. Juliette, whom he had treated sympathetically during the investigation of her lover’s death, later examined his computer records. Lukas subsequently found messages pressing him to close that earlier case. Nelson’s role fitting Holston is recalled during the current sample work.
Role
A deceased sheriff whose investigation and voluntary cleaning preceded Juliette’s pursuit of the silo’s secrets.
Relationships
Allison — His wife; he died holding her remains after following her outside.
Juliette — He met her during the investigation of her lover’s death and responded to her confession with sympathy.
Nelson — He fitted Holston for his fatal cleaning.
Sources — 98 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
- Holston is the silo’s sheriff.
- Holston decides to go outside.
- Holston has spent three years waiting for something that has not come.
- Holston suspects the silo’s staircase was intended for occasional emergency use by far fewer people.
- Holston still carries the lottery ticket he won with Allison in the year she died.
- Holston doubts that the indistinct form visible on the hill can be trusted to be his wife.
- Holston leaves his star on the desk before entering the holding cell.
- Holston locks himself in the holding cell and hands its key to Marnes.
- Holston asks Marnes to fetch the mayor and tell her he wants to go outside.
Chapter 2
- Holston voluntarily spends his final day in the silo in the holding cell.
- Holston served Allison her last meal in the holding cell three years earlier.
- Holston has left his copper ring on his dresser.
- Holston says he continued enforcing the silo’s rules after losing faith in them.
- Holston believes going outside will bring salvation even if he dies there.
- Holston has spent much of his life wondering why condemned people clean the sensors.
- Holston refuses to give Jahns a definite answer about whether he will clean.
- Holston considers the people responsible for Allison’s fate to have murdered her.
- Holston kept watch at the desk before Donna Parkins’s and Jack Brent’s cleanings.
- Holston spent the night before his wife’s cleaning clinging to the cell bars and lying on the floor.
- Holston tells Jahns that Marnes is now sheriff.
Chapter 3
- Three years before his confinement, Holston works on old files and new complaints in the couple’s bedroom.
- Holston is handling a water-theft case.
- Holston does not understand how Allison retrieves deleted data.
- Holston speculates that earlier revolts may have resulted from worsening views before organized sensor cleaning.
- Holston alternatively speculates that earlier revolts served as population control before the lottery.
- Holston points out that the difficulty of wiping the servers does not identify who did it.
- Holston considers whether the silo’s history was erased to stop uprisings from recurring.
- Holston urges Allison to stop recovering the old information.
- As sheriff, Holston feels pressure to find someone to send to cleaning because the outside view is deteriorating.
- Holston would condemn a man to relieve the silo’s mounting tension.
- Holston fears Allison’s investigations will provoke dangerous consequences amid the silo’s tension.
Chapter 4
- Holston is fitted for his cleaning in the airlock after losing sleep.
- Holston watched Allison perform her cleaning and collapse on a nearby hill.
- Holston previously stood guard while Jack Brent was prepared for cleaning.
- Holston suspects condemned cleaners comply because their situation does not feel real enough to resist.
- Holston notices fear in Nelson and wonders whether Nelson fears he will refuse to clean.
- Holston feels ready to go outside.
Chapter 5
- Holston runs up three flights of stairs to the cafeteria after hearing Marnes’s radio report about Allison.
- Holston realizes Allison has condemned herself by publicly demanding to leave.
- Holston orders Allison taken to his office and the holding cell.
- Holston enters Allison’s cell after visiting hours despite the risk of being sent to cleaning himself.
- Holston has heard that Allison ran directly from her lab toward the airlock.
- Holston was his parents’ only child.
- Holston proposes telling others about Allison’s discoveries on the drives as an alternative to her leaving.
- Holston says no one knows why the banished perform the cleaning.
Chapter 6
- Holston spent the first year after Allison’s death hoping she would return and doubting the sight of her on the hill.
- Holston marked the first anniversary of Allison’s death by cleaning the holding cell and airlock door while waiting for a sign of her return.
- Holston came to believe his world was a lie after studying Allison’s computer files.
- Holston nearly asked to go outside on the second anniversary of Allison’s departure but lost his nerve.
- Holston is sent outside one year after his aborted attempt to ask to leave.
- Holston had expected his remains to nourish the eighth-floor dirt farm like those of his parents.
- Holston had once hoped for children and a long marriage.
- Holston leaves through the airlock rather than face being burned with its plastic curtains.
- Holston is surprised that he must climb a ramp to reach ground level after leaving the airlock.
- Holston sees green hills and grass after reaching the top of the ramp.
- Holston waves toward the camera although he believes no one cares enough to watch him.
- Holston cleans out of pity and joy rather than anger at the silo residents.
- Holston concludes that the silo screens falsely depict a lifeless gray world.
- Holston wonders whether anyone in the silo knows about what he believes is the false outside view.
- Holston considers whether deceptive programs might have operated since before the last uprising without anyone knowing.
- Holston suspects the bleak outside view may be intended to stop people wanting to leave.
- Holston decides he must go find Allison rather than expect her to know he has come outside.
- Holston considers removing his helmet and suit to run toward the city.
- Holston continues cleaning partly because Allison and the previous cleaners followed the same routine.
- Holston finishes cleaning all four lenses and puts the supplies back in their pouches.
- Holston walks toward the hill along the route Allison took.
- Holston notices that a familiar boulder is absent and concludes it was a false screen image.
Chapter 7
- Holston collapses while climbing the hill after the cleaning, suffering severe abdominal pain.
- Holston suspects that his suit has run out of breathable air.
- Holston uses a jagged rock to release the latches of his helmet.
- Holston struggles to breathe the outside air after removing his helmet.
- Holston discovers that the green landscape he saw through his visor was false.
- Holston recognizes his wife’s remains in the object he stumbled into.
- Holston dies holding the remains of his wife.
Chapter 8
- Holston’s death leaves the sheriff’s position vacant.
- Holston’s body lies on the hill beside his wife.
Chapter 10
- Jahns had thought Holston might eventually succeed her as mayor.
Chapter 11
- Marnes recalls that Holston urgently wanted an arrest during the garden theft investigation.
- Marnes speculates that Holston sensed something was wrong with Allison before she cleaned.
- Marnes believes Holston wanted to investigate the garden thefts himself.
Chapter 14
- Marnes says Holston volunteered for cleaning.
- Juliette recalls Holston talking continually about his wife during the investigation of George’s death.
Chapter 16
- Jahns asks which open cases Holston and Marnes had that should receive attention first.
Chapter 19
- Holston’s recorded offense was reporting to the holding cell and expressing interest in the outside.
- Holston had won a lottery and spoken to Juliette about his wife.
- Holston responded to Juliette’s confession of her forbidden relationship with sympathy and an embrace.
Chapter 23
- Holston formerly responded to disturbances throughout the top forty-eight levels.
- Juliette finds blocks of strange text on Holston’s home computer dating back just over three years.
- Copies of the strange text occur in deeply nested directories on Holston’s home computer.
- Juliette concludes that Holston spent much of his computer time investigating his wife.
- The common explanation in the silo is that Holston chose cleaning because of grief.
Chapter 24
- Juliette wonders whether Holston delayed going outside because he needed time to understand the discovery or to summon courage.
Chapter 27
- Walker identifies Holston as the previous sheriff and most recent cleaner.
Chapter 29
- Juliette recognizes most of the computer material used against her as Holston’s data.
Chapter 34
- The visor conceals Holston’s body beneath the image of a rock.
Chapter 36
- Juliette imagines she might glimpse Holston searching the hallways for his wife’s ghost.
Chapter 76
- Lukas discovers numerous messages pressing Holston to conclude the investigation associated with George’s death.
Chapter 217
- Nelson fitted Holston for his cleaning.