The inhabitants are made to believe that the world outside the silo is deadly and poisonous, which is true. When workers are sent out to clean the camera at the silo's surface, they are only able to survive for a few moments before ultimately suffocating and dying from the poisonous air.

Ultimately, Juliette is able to stay alive thanks to actually functional heat tape that keeps her suit airtight. And by getting over the hill she sees two very important things: The world up top is even more desolate and ruined than the cameras led them to believe, and there are many other silos.

The suit's visor had been masking reality with a computer-generated image. Holston dies near his wife's abandoned body. Following Holston's death, Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes embark on a trip to the Mechanical zone, the Silo's lowest level, to interview Juliette, their top candidate for sheriff.