Part 1 Holston
4
Present Time
Holston sat on the lone1 steel bench in the airlock, his brain numb2 from lack of sleep and the surety of
what lay before him. Nelson, the head of the cleaning lab, knelt in front of him and worked a leg of
the white hazard suit over Holston’s foot.
saying. “It should give you more time out there than anyone has had before.”
This registered with Holston, and he remembered watching his wife go about her cleaning. The
top floor of the silo with its great screens showing the outside world was usually empty for cleanings.
The people inside couldn’t bear to watch what they’d done—or maybe they wanted to come up and
enjoy a nice view without seeing what it took to get it. But Holston had watched; there was never any
doubt that he would. He couldn’t see Allison’s face through her silver-masked helmet, couldn’t see
her thin arms through the bulky suit as she scrubbed and scrubbed with her wool pads, but he knew
her walk, her mannerisms. He had watched her finish the job, taking her time and doing it well, and
then she had stepped back, looked in the camera one last time, waved at him, then turned to walk
trudging5 toward the dilapidated spires6 of that ancient and crumbling7 city just visible over the horizon.
Holston hadn’t moved the entire time. Even as she fell on the side of the hill, clutching her helmet,
writhing8 while the toxins9 first ate away the spray-on linings10, then the suit, and finally his wife, he
hadn’t moved.
“Other foot.”
Nelson slapped his ankle. Holston lifted his foot and allowed the tech to bunch the rest of the suit
around his shins. Looking at his hands, at the black carbon undersuit he wore against his skin,
Holston pictured it all dissolving off his body, sloughing11 away like flakes12 of dried grease from a
generator’s pipe while the blood burst from his pores and pooled up in his lifeless suit.
“If you’ll grab the bar and stand—”
been belligerent14 and hostile right up to the end, forcing him as sheriff to stand guard by the bench.
And once with his wife, whom he had watched get ready through the airlock’s small porthole.
Holston knew what to do from watching these others, but he still needed to be told. His thoughts were
elsewhere. Reaching up, he grabbed the trapezelike bar hanging above him and pulled himself
upright. Nelson grabbed the sides of the suit and yanked them up to Holston’s waist. Two empty
arms flapped at either side.
“Left hand here.”
Even Jack Brent had done what he was told, as foulmouthed and verbally abusive as he’d been.
Allison had done it quietly, just like this, Holston thought as he inserted one hand and then the other.
The suit came up, and Holston thought that maybe people went along with it because they couldn’t
believe it was happening. None of it was real enough to rebel against. The animal part of his mind
“Turn.”
He did.
tug, another zip. Two layers of futility20. The crunch21 of industrial Velcro over the top. Pats and double-
checks. Holston heard the hollow helmet slide off its shelf; he flexed22 his fingers inside the puffy
gloves while Nelson checked over the dome’s innards.
“Let’s go over the procedure one more time.”
“It’s not necessary,” Holston said quietly.
Nelson glanced toward the airlock door leading back to the silo. Holston didn’t need to look to
know someone was likely watching. “Bear with me,” Nelson said. “I have to do it by the book.”
Holston nodded, but he knew there wasn’t any “book.” Of all the mystic oral traditions passed
through silo generations, none matched the cultlike intensity23 of the suit makers24 and the cleaning
techs. Everyone gave them their space. The cleaners might perform the physical act, but the techs
were the people who made it possible. These were the men and women who maintained the view to
Nelson placed the helmet on the bench. “You got your scrubbers here.” He patted the wool pads
stuck to the front of the suit.
Holston pulled one off with a ripping sound, studied the whorls and curls of the rough material,
then stuck it back on.
“Two squirts from the cleaning bottle before you scrub with the wool, then dry with this towel,
then put the ablating films on last.” He patted the pockets in order, even though they were clearly
labeled and numbered—upside down so Holston could read them—and color-coded.
Holston nodded and met the tech’s eyes for the first time. He was surprised to see fear there, fear
he had learned well to notice in his profession. He almost asked Nelson what was wrong before it
occurred to him: the man was worried all these instructions were for naught26, that Holston would walk
out—like everyone in the silo feared all cleaners would—and not do his duty. Not clean up for the
worried that the expensive and laborious28 gear he and his colleagues had built, using those secrets and
techniques handed down from well before the uprising, would leave the silo and rot to no purpose?
“You okay?” Nelson asked. “Anything too tight?”
Holston glanced around the airlock. My life is too tight, he wanted to say. My skin is too tight. The
walls are too tight.
He just shook his head.
“I’m ready,” he whispered.
It was the truth. Holston was oddly and truly very much ready to go.
And he remembered, suddenly, how ready his wife had been as well.
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1
lone
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adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的 | |
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2
numb
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adj.麻木的,失去感觉的;v.使麻木 | |
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3
joint
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adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
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4
lumbered
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砍伐(lumber的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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5
trudging
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vt.& vi.跋涉,吃力地走(trudge的现在分词形式) | |
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6
spires
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n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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7
crumbling
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adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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writhing
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(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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toxins
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n.毒素( toxin的名词复数 ) | |
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10
linings
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n.衬里( lining的名词复数 );里子;衬料;组织 | |
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11
sloughing
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v.使蜕下或脱落( slough的现在分词 );舍弃;除掉;摒弃 | |
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12
flakes
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小薄片( flake的名词复数 ); (尤指)碎片; 雪花; 古怪的人 | |
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13
jack
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n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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14
belligerent
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adj.好战的,挑起战争的;n.交战国,交战者 | |
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15
numbly
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adv.失去知觉,麻木 | |
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condemned
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adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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ushered
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v.引,领,陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
perfectly
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adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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19
tug
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v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船 | |
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20
futility
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n.无用 | |
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21
crunch
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n.关键时刻;艰难局面;v.发出碎裂声 | |
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22
flexed
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adj.[医]曲折的,屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 );弯曲;(为准备大干而)显示实力;摩拳擦掌 | |
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23
intensity
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n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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24
makers
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n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式) | |
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25
stifling
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a.令人窒息的 | |
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26
naught
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n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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27
doomed
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命定的 | |
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28
laborious
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adj.吃力的,努力的,不流畅 | |
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