Niki and Trevor found themselves in, what looked like, a mountain range of garbage.

     "Doesn't stink, though," Niki said. "That's interesting."

     "You think?" Trevor replied. He couldn't care less.

     Narrow pathways wound through the massive garbage piles.

     Trevor pointed up with his thumb. "Want to get the fuck out of here?"

     "Can't" Niki replied. "Look."

     Above them, say a thousand feet, was another kind of ceiling. 

     This ceiling, however, was not made of timber and cement but of red, crackling energy.

     "Force field?" Trevor asked.

     "Looks like it," Niki replied.

     And, through this energy field, bits of litter, garbage, fell to add to the already massive amounts of garbage on the ground.

     Trevor looked in every direction for at least a mile, and all he could see, overhead, was this crimson force field. 

     "See the people yet?" Niki asked.

     "No, I..."

     "Look."

     Okay, now he saw them.

     People in shadow, on the paths, especially where the paths intersected.

     Emaciated figures. 

     They came at Niki and Trevor until they had the two of them surrounded.

     Not out of anger. Not out of fear. Niki sensed none of that.

     What she sensed was desperation.

     No one said a word.

     "I wonder if any of them speak English?" Trevor asked.

     "Worth a try," Niki replied.

     "Hey!" Trevor yelled. "Any of you speak English out there? We're friendly! We mean no one any harm!"

     No reply from anyone...

     and they continued to converge.

     "On to Plan B," Niki said.

     "Which is?" Trevor asked, although he already knew what the answer was probably going to be.

     "Fight like Hell, of course." 

CONTINUE