Cleaning Up The Future

2034

Waste Pit, W.A.R.T.S

When she swivels her head to the left, and to the right, she realizes there are more and more of them surrounding her. Their grimy pale bodies squirm through the sand and over sc.u.m without any sign of exertion. They don't seem to be attacking her...yet, but the maggot she'd pushed off her back has been interested.

The limbless, segmented body felt damp and cool sliding against her side. At any moment they could all converge on her. She has to move.

"Oh god...oh god," Her elbows sink into the earth with the force she uses to drag herself forward. Her fingers dig into the soil, her stomach clenches, and with each bit of progress, it gets a bit easier to control her body.

Ahead of her appears to be clear of the creatures and she scrambles through the sc.u.m and dirt to get away from the enormous larvae.

'Wait...calm...down.'

"Get....out...of...my...head," She barely registers the sting of pain as something sticking out of the ground rubs up against her chin, its sharp edge grazes the skin, leaving another scratch upon her face.

'Wait.'

"Get out!"

'Sia....watch out!'

The area absent of maggots lacked land as well, and Sia tips forward off the edge face first. The fall is cushioned by the back of a dung beetle the size of a small automobile. Sia bounces off its shell and rolls into a pile of sun-dried human waste.

*********************

A small shed sits at the edge of the toilet pit. Several people wait outside the shed for a chance to use the bathroom. The toilet kids are late. Usually, they bring along the water buckets needed to flush waste down the tubes into the pit below.

Beside the shed, a shovel is stuck into the earth with half of its metal blade buried deep enough to keep the wooden handle standing at attention. Beside the shovel, stands four people squinting into the distance. One of the four is holding a hand to their crotch, shifting their weight from foot to foot while dancing to an unheard song of needed release.

"What the heck is that?" the dancer asks before knocking on the wooden shed door.

"Still occupied!" an annoyed woman shouts from within the shed. The dancer huffs and wiggles a step away from the door before continuing to shuffle in place.

The three other people waiting to use the bathroom ignore him. The sounds they can hear in the distance are coming from nearby, but the many masses within the other pit make it hard to pinpoint from where. Are the maggots feasting on an animal while it's still alive?

One of them becomes annoyed with the inefficiency of holding a hand to their brow. "Yo, you have a pair of binoculars?" the frustrated woman turns to the other two mercenaries.

One of the men beside her shakes his head, while the other man pauses to think then shrugs absentmindedly. "I think so," he brings up a hand to slide his backpack strap off of his shoulder. He refuses to take his eyes away from the other waste pit. The sounds stop for a moment then begin once again.

"No, wait," she places her hand on the strap to keep it on his shoulder. "I'll grab it."

The man nods and allows her to unzip his bag. Her tanned arm dives in and feels around for a few seconds before her fingers tap against the smooth, wide lenses of the binoculars. She wrenches her arm out of the backpack before placing the large, forest green binoculars against her face. At first, she is looking far off in the wrong direction, but with a step to the left and a turn of her head, she is zooming into the waste pit. Her mouth goes slack as she focuses on the distance, a finger rolls along the little dial on the side of the binoculars to zoom in further.

"Do you see anything? I bet it's a-," The man with the open backpack contemplates a scenario while taking a step closer to the edge of the toilet pit. " -a baby animal or something...something furry."

"That ain't the sounds of an animal. That's a person," the man wiggling interjects before knocking on the wooden shed door again. The shed door bursts open and he stumbles backward to get out of its way as a woman holding the hand of a small child exits the shed.

"We're out! My god, give us a second to zip up," The woman tugs the child along out of the way of the desperate man, who is tugging down his pants one-handed before the shed door swings closed. The slam of the door shakes the poorly built shed before the sounds of barely repressed groans are heard.

"What's the forecast, babe?" the mercenary with the backpack takes a step away from the edge to turn to the woman shaking her head while fiddling with the binocular's settings.

A deep frown is set across her face. "Get your radio. Someone's fallen into the pit. I can see..." she drops the binoculars to the side of her mouth while cupping the other side with her hand. "Hey! Wait!" The woman takes off to run around the toilet pit. Backpack chases after her and the other mercenary pulls out his radio. "Stop! You'll fall in!!"

**************

Sia lay face down in the human waste for only a moment before being shoved aside by a large beetle's leg. The thin, black appendage pokes at one of her many injuries and makes her m.o.a.n in pain. She rolls to the side and backpedals away until she hits a wall of dirt. The wall crumbles under the pressure of her hands and feet.

The dung beetle ignores her while skittering by another to reach the little pool of liquid that has formed beneath a long, half pipe that disappears up into a wooden shed. The beetle's armored body dips down to suck up the juices. Some of the dung beetle colony has been destroyed in the recent sandstorm, but a glance to the left, at the round mounds of solid waste that have remained intact, brings hope to the creatures' mind. The dung beetles young feast upon the mounds with instinctual skill. The colony will prosper if given time.

Sia's c.h.e.s.t rises and falls. Shallow puffs of air release out of her mouth, keeping her airways clear while she struggles not to pitch forward and vomit out all that's left in her body. Which isn't much at all. A hiccup forces its' way up her throat and her stomach clenches. She shuts her eyes against the tears that flood the bloodshot orbs.

'Sia...please, calm down. Calm down!' a deep male voice tries to convince her to return back to her senses. 'We're safe. They have no interest in us.'

Sia gasps. 'Stop...stop!' the echo of Dernel's voice within her mind makes her grasp on reality feel unsteady. 'Just stop...stop it!'

Dernel's voice falls silent, but another voice emerges...outside of her mind...above her. Sia opens her eyes into slits and peers up at the dirt edge she had fallen over. No one is there. Sweat rolls down the spaces between her eyes and her nose, she swiftly blinks and tries to ignore the stinging. Her eyes follow along the edge of the hole until she sees the shape of a person staring down at her with their head c.o.c.ked to the side.

"Hello?! Hello?! Are you okay?!" the woman kneeling beside the edge of the toilet pit yells down. The woman reaches down a hand at first, but another look at Sia's weak trembling form makes her retract it. She raises up from her knees and turns away from the toilet pit to call her companions over to help her.

The sound of an engine can be heard, Sia focuses on the oncoming vehicle, the woman's voice is secondary compared to the holy rumble of her rescuers' chariot. Tremors travel along the ground and Sia relaxes back against her wall of dirt. Tears clean paths down her cheeks as she loses her grip on the wall and her consciousness.

Two doors slam shut and two pairs of boots rush toward the woman standing at the edge of the toilet pit. "What the f*ck! Wasn't he dead?"

*******************

2034

Unknown, W.A.R.T.S

The first thing Sia notices when she awakens is the faint sound of whistling. The second thing Sia notices is the awful smell in the air. Next, is the pain, or the lack of the excruciating agony she'd endured since giving up control to the device. This is much more manageable.

The burning tightness around her wrists and ankles report to her that she is restrained, but the sick, suffocating nausea that has set in make her peel her crusty eyes open to reveal that she is hanging upside down.

The sun beats down on her form and casts a shadow on the decrepit, brick building her shoulder rests against. The heat radiating off the building is constant. The sun's unwavering attention on the building keeps her roasting at a steady pace.When she tilts her head up...down...down to see how high she is. "Oh god," she's at least four floors high...if not five. "Fuuu-" she chokes on her words.

The mess at the back of her throat forces itself out, and she tries to spit it away from her face, but she lacks the needed angle of being right side up. She lacks the strength to hold it back. She chokes... her head jerks back and collides with the dusty, crumbling wall while the warm substance flows down her face and into her hair. She sputters and shakes, turning her dangling body in a half circle before she taps the wall and teeters back the other direction.

The strain on her bound ankles forces a hoarse groan from her split lips. She grinds her teeth against the pain and struggles to stop her coughing fit. The rope is tight around her ankles, splitting the skin and wrapped in an intricate knot to keep her hanging tight while her captors figure out what they are to do with an enemy that won't die. When her body stops its' slow teetering, she continues to grind her teeth, but the pain is a bit more bearable.

She tries to focus...focus on the situation. How did she get here? Where is here? Why is she tied up like this? 'What the hell is going on?'