Place: a small artificially created island just off the coast of France.

Time: unknown

Date: long forgotten

The silent war between the government and the Mafia has ended, everyone lost. The streets run red with blood and everywhere is a warzone. Nowhere is safe.

###

As I duck behind a jeep, clutching my brown paper bag tight, all I can hear is gunfire until "Meow" a cat is on the wheel of the jeep, injured and in pain. I pull a bandage off the head of a nearby corpse and tie kitty to my stomach before legging it to the end of the street and hiding behind a wheelie bin.

"IT'S THE CLEANERS" a large man shouted as a dust bin lorry with soldiers stood on top grumbled down the road. Everyone stopped and ran except for me, I stayed hidden. The huge men jump down off the truck with even larger guns. They throw random corpses, fresh and old, into the back of the truck. They are the cleaners, they clean up the dead and shoot anyone who tries to attack them, no one messes with the cleaners. They have respect and are the only people on the planet with it, most would die to be a cleaner and a lot do.

"Girl what are you doing here?" one of them said to me. His orange tinted mask covered his face so there was no way to see if he was angry.

"I had to get milk" I stood up and showed him the large 1L bottle of milk.

"Why is that cat bleeding, what did you do" he moved toward me.

"Oh no the bandage was bloody before I found it, the cat is fine".

"Good, how are you getting home"?

"I was gonna cut across the park".

"You can't it's become a level 7 facility, it would be suicide" level 0 is before the war, level 3 is a quiet place nowadays and level 7 is unthinkably high. "Give me your name and address, I'm gonna check up on you later" he pulled out a note pad.

"I'm Sue and I live in block 3896 room 13" some people are nice, just not enough.

"Okay, stay safe, don't get into trouble" he grabbed the back of the truck as it sped off and just held on while balancing on a 2inch ledge made for people to stand on. I run across the road and stay close to the wall as I get to an alley that seems clear I begin to run as fast as I can but some thugs jump out in front of me so I turn around, they get there too fast.

"Hey little girl, where do you think you're going" the head thug asks.

"I don't want trouble just please let me go, I'll give you all the money I have just please".

"We don't want your money" they close in very slowly.

"NOOOOOOOOOO" I scream as they grab me and hold me down to the floor. A bullet flew into someone's head and he falls to the ground, the leader looks around to see the person holding the gun but the rest don't bother.

"Let her go" the culprit was sat on a wall and he looked like a girl, he wore skin tight clothes that fit his well sculpted body perfectly and rather low trousers so the belt wasn't very necessary. He couldn't win against the thugs, they were twice his size and definitely male unlike him.

"Who the fuck are you" thug number 1 asked.

"I said let her go" he repeated.

"Or what you little puff? You gonna tickle us to death"?

"I'm not gonna do anything" a dark figure jumped out from behind him and landed on one of their heads, stood like it was second nature, he then raised his blade and chopped off the head before jumping to the floor and one by one killing all of them and using no energy or making a single noise. The one with the gun stayed on the wall but he pulled out a chocolate bar and just sat there normally, as if nothing was happening. I lay here cover in blood, surrounded by bodies with a tall thin man stood in the centre holding his sword and just standing there. "You okay down there?" gun guy jumped down, put his gun in the front of his trousers and held his hand out to me "You gonna stay there all day?" I took his hand and stood up. "So Sue can we walk you home?"

"How do you know my name"?

"We saw you talking to that Cleaner and by the way you might want to do up your top" I did as he suggested and buttoned up my shirt then I tied my cat back on. "So let's go, move it Matt" the person he referred to as Matt lit a cigarette and put his sword in its holder on his back. "My name is Mello" Mello lead the way and Matt walked slowly next to me, he word orange tinted goggles that once he was done he put up on his forehead, he had a black and white striped shirt and knee high black boots over his jeans, he seemed like he didn't really care what he looked like unlike Mello who obviously took pride in his platinum blond hair and leather. We walked in silence but I didn't want to so I came up with something to say.

"Is your hair naturally red"? Bad idea.

"Hahaha" he laughed and it was the first time he'd changed his expression or spoken "Yes it is actually this colour. What did you think it was just covered in blood "?

"Yes" he was still laughing.

"Matt, why are you laughing?" Mello always sounded pissed.

"She asked if my hair was actually red, she thought it was just blood soaked" Matt pulled out his sword once again and sliced off the head of a man sneaking up behind us but they both carried on laughing like the arm holding the sword wasn't his and that wasn't happening. He put the sword away and we went up some stair to my apartment door.

"Umm... do you want some tea" they followed me in and I put the kettle on, Matt leant against the fridge and Mello sat at the table. We sat around quietly for a while and the cat seemed to like it here, she lay on a cushion liking some milk from a dish

"SUE"! A voice yelled from the other room.

"Coming" I yelled back. I grabbed a tray with some tea and porridge on it then I ran into the other room, Matt and Mello peered in at me sat on a chair handing my mother her tea. She fell back to sleep and I left the tray on her bedside table and went into the living room. "That's my mother, she's ill and I take care of her, if she finds out your here she won't be happy so don't go in there or make too much noise. Now what do you guys want".

"What do you mean" Mello replied, he's bad at acting.

"I mean I can tell you two want something so what is it"?

"If we protect you, pay for our own food and pay you as much money as we can, can we stay here"?

"..."