Second Shift
by Hugh Howey
Contents
28
Overview
As Silo 1 shuts down for another cycle, Donald decides he cannot endure cryosleep again and resolves to escape instead. After one last night with Anna, he uses Victor’s clues and his own experiments to secretly board a hangar lift in a sealed suit before Thurman can put him under. The chapter marks Donald’s clearest act of rebellion yet, turning him from a passive prisoner of the system into an agent of change.
Summary
That afternoon, Donald and Anna dismantle the war room and store away its notes, computers, and wiring so Silo 1 can return to dormancy. Anna and Thurman are nearing the end of an unusually long waking period, while Donald has been awake for less than a week after nearly a century in cryosleep. As he prepares for his own return to the deep freeze, Donald reflects that this sleep feels worse than death, because it steals time, brings nightmares, and leaves him powerless while Helen grows farther away in the past.
Donald takes the required bitter preparation drink so no one will suspect him, but he privately decides he will not submit to sleep again. Guided by clues Victor left behind, Donald has reached the same conclusion Victor did: a more final escape is better than being stored away until disaster or manipulation brings him back. As Donald lies on his cot thinking of Helen, his anger toward her fades into guilt over the comfort he has found with Anna. When Anna comes to him after her shower, Donald gives in, and after she returns to her cot, he cries himself to sleep with his plan fixed in his mind.
When Donald wakes, Anna has already been taken away early to avoid being seen, and Donald realizes he has less than an hour before Thurman arrives for him. He uses that time to set his plan in motion. In the storeroom, Donald uncovers a drone, drags out a plastic bin, and props open the low hangar door with it. He then goes to the adjacent hallway, activates the lift switch he has previously tested, and hurries back before the moving platform seals him out.
Donald strips, puts on the sealed suit he has hidden in a bin, and carefully fastens the boots, zipper, gloves, flashlight, and helmet. He covers his preparations so he will leave almost no sign behind, unlike Victor. Then Donald crawls belly-first into the lift, kicks away the plastic tub that has been holding the door open, and barely gets fully inside before the door slams shut. As the lift begins rising and the cables rattle above him, Donald recognizes that for the first time in a long while he is not being carried by someone else’s plan: he has chosen his own dangerous course.