The Stairwell

The Stairwell is the silo's spine: a single great spiral staircase winding down the center of the shaft, the only way to travel between the community's hundred and forty odd levels. There are no elevators. Every journey is made on foot, every load moves on a porter's back, and distance is counted in flights and days rather than miles. The stair's steel treads are worn shallow by generations of boots, its railing polished by generations of hands. Around its central post the silo organizes itself: up top, mids, and down deep are all measured by where they sit on the spiral. To climb it end to end is a feat; to live on it, as the porters do, is a trade.