Juliette leads Solo, Rickson, Helena, the baby, and the other children upward through Silo 17 while repeatedly calling for Walker and Shirly on the portable radio. No one answers, and the silence makes Juliette fear that her plan has failed and that she cannot save her friends in Silo 18. As she watches the children follow her, Juliette begins to accept that her future may now be tied to protecting these survivors, with Solo more like another dependent than a reliable partner.

The group climbs slowly because Solo is weak and the children need stops for water and bathroom breaks. Juliette tries to keep them moving toward the hydroponics on level fifty-six, where there is food for the rest of the trip. During the climb, she reflects on how much of silo life now looks deliberately engineered to control people: the layout, divisions, colors, restrictions, and even reproduction policies. These thoughts deepen her sense that the silos were designed around fear and management, not merely survival.

While climbing, Juliette remembers the large locked radio in Solo's hidden room beneath the servers and realizes it may be the kind of system Lukas used from IT. Believing it may allow direct contact with other silos, she decides to leave the group and return alone. She tells Solo and Rickson to continue upward to level fifty-six and promises to come back. Then she pushes herself up to level thirty-four, nearly collapsing from exhaustion, cold sweat, ragged breathing, and numb legs.

Once back in the powered section, Juliette goes to the Suit Lab, takes bolt cutters and a small sledge, enters the server room, and descends to Solo's hidden space. She cuts the hinges on the steel cage protecting the large radio and bends the metal away by force. After turning the unit on, she finds a selector marked with silo numbers, sets it to 18, and calls for Walker and Shirly, hoping to stop the violence and learn what happened.

A voice answers, and Juliette gradually realizes it is Bernard, not one of her allies. Bernard orders radio silence and mocks her for using the forbidden frequency. Drained and desperate, Juliette only begs for an end to the fighting. Bernard responds with cruelty: he says there will be more cleanings, that Juliette's friends are lined up, and that he has found Juliette's personal belongings on Lukas, proving Lukas has been in contact with her.

Bernard then reveals the chapter's worst blow. He says he is sending Lukas out to Juliette and that, unlike Juliette's own cleaning, Lukas will receive no secret help from Supply. Bernard intends to build Lukas's suit himself so he can ensure Lukas dies before reaching the hills. Juliette, physically spent and emotionally shattered, can only curse Bernard as the call leaves her facing the imminent loss of Lukas and the collapse of what remained of her hopes for Silo 18.