Juliette fights through the flooded corridors and stairs of Silo 17 in total darkness, following the empty air hose after losing her sense of direction underwater. She crashes repeatedly into walls and steps, reaches the upper corridor, and realizes the air in her suit is gone. With no time to search for oxygen and too much water still above her, Juliette forces herself toward the stairwell, trying not to panic as her body begins to spasm from lack of air.

At the stairwell, Juliette finds that the rope she expected to use for a fast rise has come loose. As she drifts upward too slowly and begins to black out, Juliette opens her helmet underwater in desperation. The freezing water shocks her back to awareness, but it also floods her suit and makes her sink. Grabbing the hose to stop her fall, Juliette then notices small air pockets trapped beneath the metal stair treads.

Juliette uses those trapped bubbles as a series of tiny breaths, climbing step by step through the flooded stairwell. She inhales what little air she can from each underside, coughing up water and fighting the drag of her soaked suit and tools. Eventually she reaches the top, breaks through a foul layer of oil and gas on the surface, and hauls herself onto the stairs. Exhausted, freezing, and expecting help, Juliette calls for Solo but hears nothing.

On the landing, Juliette finds Solo lying unconscious and bleeding badly from the head. She tries to wake him while struggling with her own numb body and shivering suit. Solo revives just enough to correct her: Solo is not his real name, and his name is Jimmy. In his weakened, broken speech, Jimmy also says he does not think he ever was alone, leaving Juliette with a startling hint about his past as he fades again.