Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing, nor do I make any profit from this. It's purely intended for enjoyment purposes.
A/N: This story takes place somewhere after the events of The Dawn - in which Alucard and Walter's exploits into Warsaw 1944 are explained. If you haven't read it, their characterizations might not make much sense, so I'd highly suggest it! (It's a good read, anyway.) This is my first endeavor into fanfiction, and am more than open-minded to criticisms and comments.
The rain had been steadily pouring for hours from a sky clouded by gray; sunset would have been blooming above by now, had the skies been clear. Walter rested his back against a tree, rummaging in his pocket for his cigarettes before placing one at his lip and fumbling with his lighter. Taking a long drag, dispassionate eyes scanned the horizon, exhaling a wisp of smoke into the frigid air.
The grassy plains outside a small village on the outskirts of English territory had fallen victim to a rather vicious sort of animal, one that walked on two feet instead of four. It had desolated the area, transforming it's victims into ghouls, or mutilating them so badly that their bodies were beyond recognition. Even Walter had been hard pressed to place some of the bloody remains as human.
The vampire had taken up lodging in the basement of the village physician, using the man's collection of medical instruments to create macabre mannequins out of human flesh, muscle and bone. Despite his training and experience in the area of what some labeled as gruesome, the Angel of Death himself had found the scene particularly brutal and cruel as he had descended the steps in search of the nasty vermin problem.
Things had gotten interesting when the mannequins had become animate. They were no more than dust, now, at any rate. Whatever strange occult knowledge the vampire possessed was obscure - not even Alucard could place the origin of the symbols painted in blood on the walls and floor of the basement, though they guessed it had something to do with whatever ritual was carried out to bring the lifeless mutations to their feet with killing intent.
Wiping a splattering of blood from his cheek with the back of a gloved hand, Walter resisted the urge to sigh. The smell of death, blood and rotting flesh permeated the air and made it rather unpleasant to breathe. As he exhaled another cloud of smoke, he let his eyes descend from the sky and fall upon the corpses and remains scattered over the vast stretch of field. The vampire had sent his forces of ghouls - nearly the entirety of the village's population - after the pair of Hellsing's finest in order to stall time to escape; however, the creature had not planned for his pursuers to be adept monster hunters. The team had split up, leaving Walter to deal with the ghouls and ghastly puppets, and Alucard to pursue the vampire.
To his dismay, the task had taken no more than a few minute's course; ghouls were of no consequence as far as Walter's monofilament wires were concerned, and the crowd of reanimated bodies soon became no more than a littering of dust and severed limbs, blood and rain flowing together to stain the grass beneath his feet.
Sliding damp tendrils of hair from his face, he pushed his weight off from the tree and casually began to weave through the labyrinth of strewn bodies and mud. Alucard was taking an exceptionally long time to kill one measly vermin. Tossing his cigarette butt among the carnage, Walter idly began to make his way back to the village.
It was strange to see a town so empty and barren, though the cause was quite obvious. There was not so much as a sound beyond the pattering of rain and his own footsteps, the gentle sway of the wind occasionally stirring the trees or bushes. Walter halted his pace before the residence of the physician - behind the windowpanes was an unmistakable faint crimson glow. Frowning minutely, he started up the porch and opened the rickety screen door, holding his breath and focusing his hearing for any sounds within the house. Hearing a sound like a faint voice coming from the basement, Walter mumbled a curse under his breath. What was Alucard doing, sitting down for tea with the vampire? Running his fingers through his soaked hair, he exhaled in a sigh and made his way to the stairwell leading down.
The crimson glow was vibrant and pulsing brighter as though in tune with a human heartbeat as Walter went on. He turned the corner, perplexity in his gray eyes as he searched the contents of the dank basement. When he and Alucard had searched the residence earlier, it had been abandoned, with only the lifeless puppets to greet him - now, however, everything was different. The puppets' remains had been cleared away, and the sigils scrolled on the walls and floor that were once dulled and neglected were now brilliantly luminous.
Walter did not notice until it was too late that the shadows of the room seemed unnaturally deep with the amount of light the seals were radiating; cursing under his breath, he turned to run, but was cut short as he nearly barreled right into the figure of a man standing tall at several heads over him, the glow of blood-red eyes mocking above a smile of insanity. With the full strength of a vampire, the man thrust Walter upward by his throat, dangling him in the air and slamming him back against the wall, the seal humming hypnotically with the disturbance.
"Just some scrawny boy? Where's the girl I saw?"
Just what I'd like bloody well like to know, Walter thought, lungs burning with the need to breathe beyond the choking grip of the nosferatu. He waited a moment longer, making sure the positioning was perfect, before his fingers twitched once in flawless form. A satisfying yelp of surprise was jolted from the lips of the man as he was unceremoniously cut in two, crumpling in half to the ground with a splatter of blood and gore.
Walter fell, choking, rubbing his throat with a bubble of anger as he cast his gaze about in search of his companion, who, naturally, was nowhere to be found. Getting to his feet, he stared down at the vampire who was attempting to piece his body back together, but Walter did not give him the chance. With one swift, merciless motion, the head of the creature was severed from it's neck, rolling away from it's crimson-stained body to lay several feet away.
Dusting himself off, he took a moment to regain his composure before stepping over the remnants of the rather short-lived confrontation, shaking his head over the pathetic effort the creature had fronted. And to think, he never got to see what those pretty glyphs on the walls were for. Once more withdrawing a cigarette from his pocket, he stopped to light it at the base of the stairs, glancing upward; he would've sworn he'd left the door open... Shrugging, he started up, tired of the musky smell of basement and blood.
He hadn't made it past the third step when something clutched his ankle, causing him to awkwardly lose his balance and fall forward, ungracefully colliding with the stairs as he was dragged roughly back. Letting out a strangled protest, he tilted his head backward to see what had gripped him; his eyes widened upon the sight they beheld. It was the vampire, very pieced together, very composed, and very angry. His towering frame leaned forward, grabbing Walter by the shirt with one fist and lugging him upward, pulling the boy inches from his face and staring at him with a wild, sadistic expression dwelling in his eyes. "That was pretty painful," the monster breathed, his tongue sliding between his lips to lick over the blood slowly dripping from Walter's injured nose.
"So is this," Walter managed, smiling cruelly before he jerked his hands upward and spread his fingers, ready to let the wires dance. Yet... nothing happened. His hands did not obey his command, hanging limply at his sides, utterly motionless. He tried again, and again, yet could do nothing; sensation was still there, but they simply would not move. A look of panic struck his face as the laughter of the vampire became mocking.
"Having trouble, lad?" He asked, dragging Walter from the stairwell and into the depths of the eerily aglow basement. "I don't think you know what you've gotten yourself into..."
The sound of screaming quickly filled the basement, drowning out even the sound of the rain.