Troy is awakened and told that Silo 18 is collapsing. He recognizes one of the men among the medical personnel and calls him the “Thaw Man.” Troy asks if it’s over, but the Thaw Man tells him it’s just beginning.

Mission Jones is a porter in Silo 18 who will turn 17 the following day. Mission reflects on how death balances life: His mother was sentenced to cleaning the day he was born because her pregnancy wasn’t sanctioned and she hid it until it couldn’t be terminated. Mission’s father is a farmer like his father before him, but Mission decided to leave the farms, like most of his childhood friends, and find his own destiny. Today, he’s moving a body to the coroner’s office with his friend Cam. As they make their way up the central shaft, they see graffiti on the walls. It’s a sign of the unrest that has been building in the silo.

Mission and Cam earn a big tip from the coroner, and Cam immediately heads out for another load. Mission accepts the assignment to transport a pump destined for the farms because it provides an excuse to visit his father. Outside the farms are booths where farmers sell their goods directly to the public, something they aren’t supposed to do, just like the corn being grown in the cafeteria and the beans that Mission’s boss, Roker, grows down in Lower Dispatch.