The last rubbish truck dumped its final load of the day and pulled away from the landfill. The towers of rubbish seemed to mock the towers of the nearby city, which had created this vast wasteland of rubbish.
Here and there rats scurried through the rubbish, in search of another titbit. Nobody saw them. As darkness fell, the crickets chirped hopefully. Nobody heard them.
Nobody saw Rose as she began her search for Shredder's body. She carefully dug through a particular mound of rubbish. That mound shifted, but not due to her actions. She watched, slightly startled, as orange peel and disposable nappies tumbled, at first slowly, then faster, helter-skelter. A rat paused, curious. The glint of a piece of shiny metal caught its eye. The metal moved. It sparkled in the sparse starlight. Frightened, the rat fled.
The metal moved again. It emerged from the heap of rubbish. It was a ninja spike, attached to a glove covering a hand. Rose grabbed the hand and pulled. The full hand, and then an arm, came up out of the heap of rubbish. Methodically, the arm and hand, and Rose, began to brush away bits of rubbish, eventually uncovering a whole person. He struggled against the forces of exhaustion and, with Rose's help, pulled himself clear of the heap that had nearly taken his life.
He was a large man. He was tall and strong. He was completely clothed in ninja armour, covered from head to toe with deadly spikes that were razor-sharp.
His name was Shredder and he was very much alive. Rose threw herself into his arms.