The Earth is no longer capable of sustaining life. Humanity clings onto survival in a giant silo hundreds of stories deep underground. People live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sensors outside are their only means of seeing the outside world and, because of the constant clouds of filth beating down on these sensors, a selected cleaner is sent to scrub away the grime. But the suit the cleaner is sent out in is not capable of returning the user and the cleaner is left to die.
Holston, the loyal sheriff of the silo has committed the greatest taboo of them all. He asks to go outside. This results in an impactful series of events.
Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, has been chosen to replace Holston. She is to be entrusted with fixing this silo, but she soon learns how corrupted her world is.
Holston, the loyal sheriff of the silo has committed the greatest taboo of them all. He asks to go outside. This results in an impactful series of events.
Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, has been chosen to replace Holston. She is to be entrusted with fixing this silo, but she soon learns how corrupted her world is.
Characters
Juliette- The main protagonist in Wool. Before the death of Holston, she worked in Mechanical all her life which provided much of the knowledge and experience she used to survive throughout the book. She discovers the lies hidden in the silo and is punished because of it. When she is sent outside, this causes an uprising. Bernard- The leader of Information Technology in the silo. Acts as the main antagonist in this story as he disapproves and constantly resists against Juliette and the former Mayor's decisions. He hides many secrets that Juliette is able to discover and eventually expose. Holston- Sent to cleaning for breaking the greatest taboo, asking to go outside. His wife, Allison, was sent to cleaning on the same charge a few years earlier after finding some classified information that made her act strangely. Distraught and curious, Holston hoped to see what she did. Jahns- A long-time mayor of the silo. Gave a sense of comfort and ease to the people. Canteen of water was poisoned in IT. She drank what was supposed to be Marnes' and died instead. Marnes- The deputy of the silo. Suggests Juliette as the new sheriff. Is old friends with Jahns and Holston and is the last alive among them. Commits suicide in apartment room from depression and Jules is left alone with Bernard. Solo/Jimmy- A 50-year old survivor of his silo's last uprising that ruined them. Juliette finds him whole walking down into silo 17. Has lived on his own for 34 years and has been mentally affected. Still thinks of himself as 16, the age he was when his silo died. Walker- Old mentor of Juliette while she was job shadowing. A talented electrician. Switched the heat tape used on the cleaning suit and contacted Juliette through radio while she was in silo 17. |
Simplified layout of a silo. Divided into levels and tasks; residential, agriculture, mechanical, supply, etc. The spiralling stairwell is centralized and connects all the way from the bottom to the top. The top floor holds the view to the outside as well as seats for speculation. This is just a model representing the 144 floors and divisions into a rough scale. For a larger view, click here.
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In order to maintain and restore stability, a new sheriff must be chosen immediately. Juliette, a woman that helped Marnes and Holston on an investigation in the past was the first choice. Marnes set his mind on making her sheriff already seeing it as a good opportunity to diverse the people chosen in office as she was a mechanic in the down-deep. Bernard, the leader of IT, was opposed to this idea and chose a different candidate instead.
With the good intention of 'seeing the people' and opening boundaries past the top floors, Jahns, the mayor, and Marnes, the deputy, went downwards, to the bottom of the silo. Upon arrival, Jahns and Marnes take a quick tour of Mechanical and wait for Juliette. The relationships and connections are very different in Mechanical. Everyone is very close are practically family, which keep communication and participation up. Juliette seems reluctant at first, to suddenly become involved in political business, but eventually agrees, encouraged by her friends to have finally have a voice in power. On the way up, Jahns and Marnes meet up again with Bernard in IT to inform Bernard of their choice. Bernard is flustered but maintains calm. He offers food and refills for their canteens. Jahns and Marnes want to keep moving so they accept the offer on water and proceed. Finding it easier to reach for each other's pack, Jahns drinks from Marnes' canteen and Marnes' from Jahns'. Bernard, with the intent to kill Marnes, poisoned his canteen which was mistakenly given to Jahns. This resulted in her death which shook the silo again. With Marnes dealing with depression and Juliette, with little experience, productivity was very low and work was stressful. Marnes did not show up to work one day and Juliette decided to investigate only to find him dead in his apartment room, hanged with a belt. |
Juliette, left with Bernard as acting mayor and his promoted candidate, Peter Bilings, was left with many mysteries and unanswered questions. The main question was Holston's death and why he willingly accepted it. With research and help from Scottie, a friend in IT formerly from Mechanical, she was able to find exceedingly large pixel dimensions for a small screen that shed light on the case. The possession of this information terrifies young Scottie and he requests to be sent back to Mechanical. Later, Scottie sends up a flash drive full of information on Holston. Before Scottie could be transferred to Mechanical, he is found dead, supposedly to suicide, in his office. It is clear that he was murdered and framed by IT.
With another death of a friend, Juliette is left against a wall fending for herself a hundred floors away from her real home. But before the situation could get worse, her data is found and she is sentenced to cleaning for conspiracies. Walker, a frail old man who shadowed Juliette when she was a child was informed of her findings before this happened. He cleverly set up a switch in materials. IT's materials were designed to fail once an amount of time has passed to allow the cleaner to die. But Mechanical's supply was made to last. Before Juliette's cleaning, Walker switched the heat tape necessary in making a cleaning suit and Juliette was given a suit that would last her longer than anyone else's. Once outside, Juliette was able to walk to and over the hill while discovering the pixels were made to create the image of a perfect world through the visor of her helmet. Once she was past the hill, the limits of the programming were exceeded and her vision was true again. Over the hill was another silo, surrounded by mounds of corpses. After struggling, Juliette was able to get in and get out of her suit that was running low on oxygen. In her ventures downwards looking for food and supplies, she met a slightly crazed man who told exposed all the secrets of the silos. The man, who had been named Solo by Juliette, told her of there were multiple silos, 50 in total, of varying conditions. He took her to a room hidden under a server in IT that held radio connections to all the silos and a small bookshelf with the history and manuals to the silos, and, since all the silos were built similarly, Bernard has a room exactly like the one in the silo Juliette is in. |
Juliette is now determined to return to her home and tell all the secrets Benard and IT has been hiding, but the high-strung tension she left has broken into an all-out war. Lukas, a man Juliette met star gazing on the top floors, has been selected by Bernard to become the next leader of IT. He is left to study their history and how to lead the silo from the shadows in the hidden room under the servers. But Lukas has fallen in love with Juliette and is still on her side. When Juliette contacts from the silo she has discovered, Silo 17, Lukas answers and shares status updates on their home silo, Silo 18.
Mechanical, who has had their suspicions for a while, has been informed of IT's wrongdoings by Walker and other sources. With a moving speech, Knox, a respected man in Mechanical, is able to draw Supply, the division above Mechanical, into participating in the war. But IT is aware of what is about to occur. Bernard has the knowledge and experiences of centuries of leaders in his hidden room and a situation like this has already occurred. He prepares IT for war and arms his men. When the fighting breaks out, it turns out to be completely one-sided in IT's favor. Mechanical and Supply are forced to retreat with dozens dead. Pursuers press on with guns chasing the attackers back down. Juliette begins to prepare a suit that can survive the harsh conditions outside. She modifies parts of the suit to fit her and last. Bernard has become aware of the connection between Juliette and Lukas and has decided he is not fit to take his place. He is sent to cleaning. Now rushed, Juliette hurries to complete her suit and save Lukas. On the hour of Lukas' cleaning, Juliette sets off and walks through the doors to Silo 18 once they open. She is shocked to find that Bernard is in Lukas' place in the cleaning suit and she is let back in her silo. Lukas explains that he convinced Peter who the real culprit is and he impeached Bernard. |