Chapter Eight.

She woke up to the sound of thunder. Sitting up, there was a sensation in her chest. Not pain exactly, but she rubbed between her breasts and looked around. It was nighttime, and without the horrid sun beaming down, even through the clouds, she felt much better.

"Glad you finally woke up," came a smooth, deep, male voice from behind her.

She spun, drawing her gun and pointing it at a handsome man sitting on a desk behind her. His hair was cut a little like a bowl was put over his head, but it had grown out some. "Who are you?" she asked, not fooled by his casual demeanor.

Holding his hands up, he smiled. "Relax, my name's Leon. Leon Scott Kennedy."

"Where am I? What happened?"

"I found you out cold by the beach. I dragged you into the building nearby. You haven't gone far."

"H-how long have I been unconscious?" she asked, looking at the dark sky through the rain spattered window.

"I'd say about six hours," Leon said, checking his wristwatch. "Your boss radioed you, so I took the call. I hope that was okay."

She didn't answer, as whether it was okay or not depended on a great deal of things. "Stop playing games," she said sternly. "I'm in no mood."

"You're right, we don't have time," Leon said, looking at her up and down, only more discretely than Luis Sera had done. "I'm the American agent. You and I have the same mission. I also know you're some kind of vampire and you're from Hellsing."

Her jaw dropped. "W-what? How do you know all of that?"

Leon shrugged. "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." His face had gone blank and serious. "Actually, I'm just as secret an agent as you are, and I guess the way our bosses see it, we're so secret that it doesn't really matter if we know each other…stupid, I know."

She nodded, thinking it was very stupid indeed. She was no mind reader, but nothing about his demeanor suggested he was a liar. He seemed a little nervous, but after all, she was a vampire and had a gun pointed at him. Lowering her weapon, she looked around for her machete and found it leaning against the door.

"Ashley Graham is being held in the church. I need to find a way to get there, but I took out part of the bridge on my way over."

"I saw," Leon said. "Up ahead, there's a waterfall. I found a memo that said the key to the church was hidden in a tunnel under the falls. The tunnel also loops back around to that weird gladiator-looking place. I think there's a way back to the church from there that doesn't use the bridge."

Seras's shoulders slumped. "A waterfall? Oh…uh…"

"Running water, right? You're boss, Integra, said you might have some trouble with that. There's a sluice gate that controls the flow. If you cover me, I can shut it off for you."

"I wish she'd tell me these things," Seras said. "We should go."

"Yeah," Leon said, moving over to a shadowy corner and picking up a scoped rifle. "Look what I found."

He handed it to Seras; her love of guns took over and she examined it, unable to hold back a slight smile. It was a bolt-action .308 Savage, the wood stock was a little scratched but the barrel was black and smooth. "Where…"

"Lying around, pretty much. There aren't many guns out in these parts, lucky us, so they keep them for special occasions I guess."

"I can cover you with this," she said, admiring the weapon. "Oh, and it's even got a shoulder strap."

"Glad to meet a woman who appreciates the finer things in life," Leon said. "Say, I, uh, wanted to ask you something."

Her eyebrow raised. He was about to ask if she was single, she just knew it. "What?"

"Raccoon City…you were there, right?"

She sighed, half relieved he wasn't hitting on her and half annoyed he'd brought that sore subject up. "Yes, I was there. It was awful and I'd rather not talk about it."

"That's just it," Leon said. "I was there too."

She nearly dropped the gun while she slung it over her back. "W-what? How could you…?"

Shaking his head, Leon waved her off. "Sorry, I know. There's no way you should believe that…too much of a coincidence."

He was right. She guessed there might have been a few survivors of Raccoon, but she had never heard of any aside from those she herself had escaped with. Still, unless it was to get her to trust him, there was no reason to lie about it. "It wouldn't be the strangest thing I'd ever seen," she said. "How did you get out?"

"A train in Umbrella's lab. I escaped with a woman by the name of Claire. We nearly got blown up on the way out."

Her mind flashed back to moment six years prior when she rounded the corner deep within the Umbrella labs and found the tunnel to the train caved in. Had she been faster, Sherry and her might have ridden out with Leon and this Claire person.

Nodding slowly, her teeth grinding, she smiled. "I must've just missed you…I left in an Umbrella helicopter, as you probably well know."

"Yeah, it's too bad we didn't meet up in the station or the sewers. We saw a lot of your handiwork though…could've used you."

"I promise, Leon, we'll talk about Raccoon later."

Leon nodded. "Yeah, no time for the good 'ol days just yet. Let's go."

They walked out of the building together with Leon taking the lead. He fished a small flashlight out of his pocket and clipped it to his brown leather coat. As thunder rolled over the lake and the wind blew hard, Seras was glad the rain was at least light. Unsure of how much the flashlight was helping Leon, her own eyes had no trouble seeing in the dark.

He led her through a cleft in the rocks and she could hear the roar of water as they drew close to the lake's source. The familiar and unwelcome sight of two villagers standing on the path made Seras take the safety off the rifle. "Looks like trouble," Leon said.

One of the men walked forward, unarmed, with his arms stiff at his sides. His eyes glowed red in the darkness, reflecting Leon's flashlight. Behind the old man was another, younger one, holding a torch.

As Leon aimed, the red dot his laser sight falling on the man's forehead, the man began to twitch. Suddenly, something erupted from the top of the man's skull and burst upward, obliterating his head completely.

It looked a bit like a squid was protruding from the man's neck. Pulsing organ-like structures surrounded by tentacles waved in the air, while in the center a long, whip-like appendage with a sharp bone-blade swing around viciously. "Watch out!" Seras shouted as the blade struck at Leon with blinding speed.

Leon ducked and jumped backward, narrowly avoiding having his skull cleaved. The situation was eerily reminiscent of another creature she had once encountered that attacked with its tongue. Seras wondered if Leon had seen the same creature, back in Raccoon City.

He put three bullets directly into the meaty part of the creature, right where it connected with the neck of the man it was infesting. There was a pop and wash of bloody fluid as the creature seemed to deflate. The man fell to his knees and disintegrated along with the parasite.

Leon didn't miss a beat in shooting the torch wielder in the head, killing him. He too melted as Leon continued forward as though nothing had happened. "Since when can they do that?" Seras said, walking fast to keep up.

"Since it got dark," Leon said. "Don't quote me, but I think the parasite itself is sensitive to light."

She looked down at her chest and felt intense revulsion that a creature like what she had just seen pop a man's head off was growing inside her. She didn't think she could heal having her head torn to pieces. "What do you know about the parasite?" she asked.

"Aside from the fact that you've got one growing inside you, not much," Leon said.

"How do you kno…is there a way to get it out?"

"Probably," Leon said. "From what that Luis guy said, it can be removed with surgery if it's young enough. Once it's an adult, you can't get it out without killing the host…the human host, that is. I've got no clue how it works for vampires…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she said, running to walk next to him.

He looked at Seras with a slight squint. "No offense, Seras, but vampires? Wow."

Casting a glance back at the melted villagers who had been infested with mind controlling parasites, she gave Leon a dirty look. "W-what? You…you think I'm a freak don't you…"

Leon shrugged and opened his mouth, making no sound as he thought of what to say. "No, not…really. You're fairly normal."

Here it was again, Seras thought. She was standing right next to the man, but she felt miles away. It had been the same with nearly everyone she had met outside Hellsing. Jill, Carlos, Sherry, she had fought monsters alongside them all, but it always felt as though she were a third party. Something other than human, standing between man and monster.

"Here we are," Leon said as they came to the river. It was pouring out from a tunnel in the hill where it flowed down and over a fall. Leon and Seras walked along the bank until they came to pulley fashioned from wood at the cliff's edge.

Looking down, Seras could see an intricate setup of towers, pulleys and levers. It looked as though the villagers used the river to not only control the level of the lake, but to transport cargo and small boats.

"Alright," Leon said. "I'll go down the rope and stop the water. You cover me with the rifle and come down when the flow has stopped."

Seras lay prone on the ground overlooking the edge as Leon repelled down the side using the rope. Once he was on the ground, Seras waited to see if he would attract the attention of any villagers.

As he made his way towards the open sluice gate, where a small footbridge was built over the river, a villager that had been crouched in one of the towers shouted a warning. Seras shot him through the head, but the damage was done. Out of the dark places near the falls came roughly fifteen villagers, all bearing their trademark farming tools.

She began firing into the crowd, trying for lethal headshots, but taking what she could get. The .308 shells, when they didn't blow a villager's parasite infested brain out, caused serious, debilitating wounds, making it easy for Leon to finish them off with his pistol.

She ran out of bullets, but had killed enough to make things easy for someone with Leon's skill. As she ejected the last empty shell, pain fired through her back, just off her spinal column, making her scream and convulse. She felt a foot come down on her back, and something slide roughly out of her back.

Rolling over and in massive pain, she saw a chubby faced, bearded villager getting ready to bring his axe down on her again. He swung, Seras brought her knee up to protect her abdomen and caught the blade in the shin. The axe sunk deep into her shin, sending blood and bone chips spattering.

Screaming with pain and rage, she grabbed the rifle by the barrel and hurled it at the villager. The stock struck him in the jaw, knocking him backward. She grabbed the axe, which had fallen out of her, and used it to prop herself up on her good leg. The damaged support muscles in her back sent pain through her entire body, making her want to collapse and not move.

Her anger took over and vetoed all other desires. As the villager turned his head back towards her, his jaw broken, she buried the axe into the side of his head. He fell and began to twitch as Seras backed away, using the axe to balance herself. His head exploded, revealing the lethal parasite beneath.

Seras brought the axe down on it, falling at the same time. It flailed for a bit, nearly slashing her face, but died and melted like the others.

She drew her gun and kept an eye on the pathway to the lake in case any more surprises came wander up to try and kill her. Wet, dirty, bleeding, and miserable, she waited for the sound of the sluice gate to close. With a loud, high pitched screech, the sound of flowing water stopped.

The sharp pain in her back and leg slowly began to dull as he blood worked to close the wounds. Moving about too much would slow the process, so she relaxed and let her body work.

"Seras!" Leon shouted from bellow. "Seras!"

"I'm alright!" she yelled back, making her wince in pain. "Just a moment."

She could hear him huff and puff as his feet scraped against the rock while he climbed up the side. "Seras!" he shouted, running over to her once he'd gained the ledge. "What happened?"

"Some bloke with an axe," she said. "I'll be fine, just give me a minute."

Leon inspected her wounds, amazed at how quickly they were healing. "I take back what I said earlier," he said.

"Really?" she said, feeling a little better.

"Yeah. You're not normal at all," he said, not unkindly. Joke or not, Seras's spirits dipped back down. "I'm kidding," he said, gently patting her shoulder.

"Whatever," she said, closing her eyes and sighing.

To be continued…