[ WP ] The world is covered in sprawling skyscrapers with the richest living at the top and the poorest towards the bottom . One day the poor attack and take refuge higher up , claiming to be fleeing an unknown threat located on the ground and slowly moving up

The towers were self-contained enclaves, shining monuments of man's brutalist urban designs, and vertical reminders/enforcers of man's self-destructive need to socially stratify. 
 
 James had grown up on the 22nd floor. It was a good middle class floor. A floor where teachers, police officers, fire fighters and middle managers were able to raise their kids in comfort and safety, 10 floors above the silter rabble ( as Jame's father called the denizens of the lower floors ) but almost 30 floors below the ostentatious `` creamers'' who lived isolated in the highest reaches of the tower. 
 
 James, secure in the safety of his middle class banality, was employed as a system's analyst for the combined businesses housed in floors 20-33. He lived in a spacious apartment on 40, far above where his parents had raised him. He was headed down to 20 that morning to fix the systems at a bail-bond office. He hated going down to 20. It was a mixed use floor, part commerce, part business, and the highest floor that the `` silters'' from the lower floors were allowed reach. The floor had the feeling of a market on the edge of a slum, with peddlers selling legal and illegal wares with little concern. 
 
 The tower news-feed was showing on the elevator's view panel walls as the elevator descended, the perfect faces of the digitally enhanced news anchors emitting Cheshire smiles while reading the dull daily news. The elevator stopped, the doors opened and James stepped out just as the anchors were warning residents about spreading silter unrest in the lowest floors. James, far above the rabble, paid no attention. 
 
 The smell hit him at once, the intense mixture of openly cooked street food, human sweat, and various perfumes and colognes. The air seemed thicker than usual, and a terse tension hung in the recycled breeze. James fought his way though the midday shopping crowd to reach the bond office, but before he could reach his destination a shrill blast of noise boiled from the PA system. 
 
 `` ALERT! Civil Unrest in the lower levels has intensified. All residents below 18 please report to your apartments immediately, a mandatory 23 hour curfew is now in place. All residents of floors 20 and above, please report to your local peace office as soon as possible. Schools, businesses and government offices on floors 1-45 are now closed.'' 
 
 The crowd on 20 roiled and churned in response to the announcement. James fought his way through the crowd to the up elevator, finding himself in a large group of agitated and confused middle-floorers. There were well equipped guards by the up elevators, checking credentials to make sure no silters were going above their level. 
 
 James made his way though the crowd, and faced no static from the guards when he handed them his ID and work-order. Stepping into the elevator, James found a place to stand and waited, watching the guards interrogating a shabbily dressed family who seemed very out of place. The patriarch, becoming frantically animated, was shouting and raving. James heard some of what the man was saying, but it made little sense. From what James put together, there was something big and violent happening in the lower floors and people were trying to flee up. 
 
 James was n't too worried, he'd lived through at least 3 different attempted coups from the silters, and about 10 years ago a very organized gang had taken over all of the lower levels, until the full might of tower security was brought down on them anyway. 
 
 Now filled with passengers, the elevator doors began to close. As they did, James heard a shout and saw the family arguing with the guards sprinting for the door. 3 kids made it in before the guards opened fire, bullets flying into and nearly ripping apart the rest of the family, some of the crowd, and a couple of unlucky elevator passengers. The doors closed with a clang, and the elevator began to rise, with the cries of the injured filling the small square space. 
 
 James felt relief, the silter rabble wo n't make it to 40, there's no way they could get that far he thought. His optimistic daydream was stopped mid thought, as the elevator shuttered to a stop somewhere between 28 and 29. The lights suddenly flashed out, igniting fresh screams from the occupants of the elevator. Seconds later the red emergency lights turned on, and shortly after the vid screens flashed to life. 
 
.... To be continued?
