Summary
Three years before Holston volunteers for "the cleaning," Allison, who specialized in computer science, uncovered and published sensitive information about the silo's history. According to her findings, uprisings occur in the silo approximately every twenty years. However, someone intentionally destroyed these documents, and since then, the silo hasn't endured an uprising.
Allison shares her findings with Holston, who initially dismisses her. Fearful of being overheard, Holston suggests an "accident," "fire," or "power outage" might have destroyed the records. Allison, by contrast, believes it was the silo leaders who destroyed vital records, not the rebels, as she and Holston had been taught growing up. She also suspects that the people rebelled because they wanted to see what was outside.
Holston warns Allison to keep the information to herself, as her theory is "traitorous" and, since five years had passed since the last "cleaning," the silo's residents are desperate to send someone outside to restore the view. To Holston's horror, Allison discloses that she published a paper explaining her methods for recovering overwritten files. Allison insists that "knowing the truth is always good," indicating that she intends to uncover and share even more data.
One day, Holston receives a distress call about Allison. Holston arrives on the scene near the airlock, where he sees Allison restrained by several staff members. Appearing out of control, Allison repeats that she wants "to go out," a longing that the silo considers "the great offense." Expressing a desire to go outside is the most severe crime, the punishment for which is "you get what you ask for." Holston quickly realizes that Allison intentionally made her attempt to escape the silo public, an act equivalent to signing her "death certificate."
Though distraught and planning a way to clear his wife's name, Holston, as sheriff, forces himself to lock her in the prison cell. Allison immediately calms when placed in the cell and quietly accepts her fate; Holston, by contrast, weepingly pleads with Allison to explain her behavior and help him exonerate her. She refuses to talk for the entire day as officials and technicians prepare her for execution; rumors spread through the silo about Allison's odd behavior.
However, once she and Holston are alone, Allison drops her facade of insanity and lucidly explains her motivations to Holston. She argues the image on the screen is "not real," but rather, a computer-generated illusion that doesn't represent the earth's surface. Allison reveals that finding computer programs used to create false images cemented her decision to go outside.
Allison explains her belief that the "uprisings" were started by people who desired to leave the silo. She believes those sentenced to death "do the cleanings" because they can survive on the earth's surface and don't want to return to the silo, which betrays everyone by covering up the truth. Finally, Allison promises that "if that hill is there and it's green," she will return for Holston, and they will "go over it together."
Analysis
The events leading up to Allison's execution demonstrate the theme of "Distorted Reality." The silo's leadership proliferates misinformation and destroys sensitive documents to create a false narrative about the uprisings and leadership's role in silencing them. This false information breeds a sense of fear and mistrust within the silo, as citizens like Holston hesitate to question who are "the good guys" for fear of being sent to cleaning. As Allison slowly uncovers fragments of truth, she grows increasingly suspicious of all information presented to her—even accurate information. Thus, the silo's distorted reality ultimately leads to Allision's death, as the only way to prove or disprove her theories about the outside world is to perform the cleaning herself.
Allison's character embodies the theme of the lure of the beyond. An inquisitive, intelligent computer technician, Allison devotes her time to carefully uncovering as much information as possible to understand the truth of her reality. Allison is lured by the "beyond" of the outside world and the past. First, she dives deeper into the history of the silo's uprisings, unwilling to accept the silo's patchy narrative of events. In this sense, the "beyond" is history. After discovering that the IT department uses computer-generated images, Allison is lured by the "beyond" of the outside world, and commits the "great offense" so she can see it for herself.
According to Allison's hypothesis, these two "beyonds" are interrelated. Though her data is limited, Allison suspects that the previous uprisings occurred because their predecessors in the silo became "stir crazy" and wanted to "go outside" to see the truth for themselves. To prevent future uprisings, the silo's leadership erased any information that would encourage people to wonder about the outside world, including historical records and books.
Because they hold high-ranking positions, Allison and Holston enjoy a level of privilege denied to most members of the silo. For example, they live in "one of the silo condos that had only been subdivided twice," which had "desks and wide non-bunk beds," which are luxuries within the silo. However, Holston and Allison's privilege cannot save them from the silo's legalistic adherence to its rules. Allison, knowing this, uses the silo's legalism to her advantage. To see the truth of the outside world, she commits "the great offense," knowing that even Holston's position as sheriff will not exonerate her.
Allison references "the hill" while entreating Holston to follow her. The hill functions both literally and symbolically, as it is visible in all views of the outside world, looming beyond the silo and obscuring everything beyond it. To Allison, the hill symbolizes freedom and truth—finding the answers to her questions. By going "over the hill," Allison will literally see what is beyond the silo and uncover whether or not the image on the screen accurately reflects reality. Allison believes that if the hill is "green," meaning flourishing with plant life, it will be evidence that the IT department distorts reality to keep people inside the silo and complacent with incomplete answers.
Allison's statement about "going over" the hill "together" foreshadows her and Holston's deaths. Motivated by the hill's symbolic value, Holston and Allison literally climb the hill after performing the cleaning. Both of them die on the hill, "going over" it "together" in the sense that they leave the living world on the hill, pursuing the truth.
