53 pages • 1 hour read
Hugh HoweyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Juliette stands in the airlock that will lead her to the poisoned outdoors and feels excited and relieved, particularly because she is going out with support instead of as an execution like before. She ventures out, takes several samples of dirt and a sample from the body of one of the fallen Cleaners (people sent to clean the sensors as an execution), and heads back inside.
At the silo, Nelson, the engineer who previously set people up for execution cleanings, scrubs the airlock meticulously; Lukas has concluded that the extreme sanitary precautions prescribed for this scenario likely are a necessity and not overexaggerated.
The decontamination protocol is complex. Juliette deposits her finds in a sealed container, enters a burn chamber to burn off any possible debris on her body, and then submerges herself in water to prevent being burned again. In a secondary chamber, Nelson, Lukas, and Sheriff Peter help Juliette scrub herself and the room. Peter tells her that the dig punched through to Silo 17 while she was outside. Juliette hopes the box she brought back full of samples is helpful.