Chapter Ten.
Author's note: While I'm aware that Crossfire and Hellsing are not connected in canon, for the purposes of this story I'm making it so they are. My German is also non-existent, so ignore what little of it appears.
Heinkel Wolfe frowned on the scene bellow as the helicopter circled Rockfort Island. Anderson's report had said that an air raid had destroyed some of the facility, but from what she was seeing, it looked as though the bombs had gone off from within.
"I wonder where he is? I don't see him, do you?" Heinkel said, her German accent making wonder and where into vonder and vhere.
Yumie Takagi peered down, her eyes frantically scanning the ground, more likely searching for targets than Anderson, Heinkel thought. "I don't see him," Yumie said. "Looks like we'll have to land and take a look."
Heinkel bit her lip, not liking the idea much. She had heard plenty of stories and reports from people who had come out on the breathing end of Umbrella's industrial "accidents." There weren't many people telling such tales, and those that did were lucky to be alive. "Take us down," Heinkel shouted above the chopper's roar to the pilot.
There weren't many good places to land. Finally, the pilot picked a spot just outside the prison compound. The bridge leading from the prison yard to the main facility was badly damaged, but Heinkel thought it looked traversable.
They touched down and jumped off the chopper. As it rose into the air, Heinkel felt her senses and body come alive. She was on the ground and in hostile territory. The trepidation she had felt before had become a kind of anticipation, as she was now in her element.
"So what, we just look around for Father Anderson?" Yumie asked.
Scratching her head, Heinkel pulled a map from her pocket using her free hand and unfolded it. "Let's see here…" she said, finding their location on the map they had gotten from a spy satellite. It had been taken before the base had been blown up, but Heinkel imagined the layout would be the same. "Yeah, lets just wander over that way."
Heinkel walked out onto the creaking bridge, followed by Yumie. According to the map, they were off to the meat and potatoes of the base, i.e. the mansion and the military facility. Intelligence suggested there was an airport as well as a dock on that side of the island. That's where Anderson was likely to be, unless he had become carried away with himself and gone off to fight horrible monsters in some dank corner of the island.
Crossing the bridge was no trouble and neither was scaling the cliff on the far side, as there was a set of metal stairs that had only come a little loose from the explosions that had rocked the island recently.
Up top, there was evidence of Anderson-authored carnage. Decaying corpses were lying all over the place, most with wounds in their heads—the ones that still had heads at least—that looked to have been caused by a blade.
"Look at these things, Yumie," Heinkel said. "Anderson killed them, yet they're rotten like they've been dead for days. Unless he's taken to mutilating innocent corpses, these things were walking around not long ago."
"As if the vampires and their ghouls weren't bad enough," Yumie said, looking about angrily. "Sinners have to manufacture the undead as well…"
"Remember, we need to be careful," Heinkel said. "These people were infected with a virus. If we're bitten by one of these things, we'll become one of them."
"I've never been bitten, not even by a ghoul," Yumie said. "But I'll be sure to clean my sword after I'm done."
Heinkel frowned. Being a gun person, she had less to fear from the viral zombies than Yumie with her sword. Still, Yumie was right. As far as Heinkel knew, no ghoul had ever taken a bite out of her.
We usually fight people, though, Heinkel thought. It's not often we get sent to kill vampires and ghouls…that's what Anderson is for.
She shook her head and went though the half-falling-off door that lead into the military facility's front yard. Worrying was what got people killed. It took their mind off the moment and made them blind to dangers they should have seen. Worrying about one's self was bad enough, but worrying about someone else was a mistake.
Smoke was rising from the back of the facility and Heinkel wondered if it might not be prudent to simply stick to open areas and wait for Anderson to show himself. Yumie had already walked ahead of her towards the building's front door. There was another door across the yard at the other end that looked like it led to a garage or a motor pool perhaps.
"I'll check down there," Heinkel said. "Don't go too far inside without me."
"I won't," Yumie said, entering the building as Heinkel made her way down to the other end. Yumie was a berserker, someone who put her own safety bellow that of killing her opponents. It said something that her usual bravado wasn't present here on Rockfort Island. They were dealing with something new in fighting Umbrella, and Heinkel got the distinct impression from the bombarded island that it still had some horrors left to serve up.
Beyond the door of the far end was a tank. A severely out-dated tank by the look of it. Moving around back, Heinkel saw that it had been parked over a manhole and moved forward by someone to allow access.
Before she could wonder too much about what was down there, the sound of wet paws on dirt made her look up. In front of her was a Doberman. The sheen from its fur suggested that it had been soaked in something. Growling, it padded forward and as it did, the smell hit Heinkel's nose, making it wrinkle.
The dog reeked of week-old hamburger; the stench also seemed to trigger the realization that the dog wasn't in fact wet, but skinless and decomposing. "Mein Got en Himmel," she said, raising one of her two pistols to shoot the dog.
As her finger squeezed the trigger, something hit her in the back, knocking her forward. The bullet went wide and missed the dog she had been shooting at. Realizing she had been ambushed, she hooked her arm and shot above her back where she prayed the dog's head was. She was rewarded with a yelp and the weight being taken off her shoulders as the rotting animal slumped sideways.
Her other pistol fired once again at the dog in front as it charged at her with the intent of ripping her face off as she lie prone. The bullet hit the animal in the snout, driving through bone and meat to take the brain out the back end.
Getting to her feet, she scrambled up onto the tank and looked around for more rotting Dobermans. Seeing none, she breathed a sigh of relief and once again reminded herself that it was Heinkel Wolfe she needed to concern herself with, not Yumie Takagi.
The door to the small yard was kicked open, making Heinkel aim her pistols at it. She lowered them as the katana-wielding nun entered, her blade drawn and dripping blood. "Did you shoot something?" she asked.
"Zombie dogs," Heinkel replied. "Did you stab something?"
Yumie raised the blade up and smiled. "You wouldn't believe it, mutated yellow men with extendible arms. Three tried to clobber me to death from across the room, but I cut them to pieces, arms and all."
Heinkel decided not to mention that she had come dangerously close to being mauled and wondered if it was as easy for Yumie as she made it sound. "Any sign of Anderson?"
Yumie shook her head, her long black hair falling out from the tie Yumie had been keeping it in. "That end is locked down. There's an alarm blaring inside and it was driving me insane. I barely heard your shots."
Heinkel tried not to smile at Yumie's comment about being insane. Her birth name was actually Yumiko Takagi, not Yumie. Yumie was the name of Yumiko's berserker personality, the one that had been awakened for this mission. It was a bit like having two partners in one.
"There's a passage leading down behind this tank," Heinkel said. "I think we should take it and see where it leads us. Maybe Anderson opened it up and went down."
"Lead the way," Yumie said, walking around the tank as Heinkel jumped off. "Aw, gross," she said, smelling the two dead dogs. "At least the yellow men didn't stink."
Heinkel rolled her eyes as she descended the ladder. Her only hope was that Yumie didn't notice the smelly dog prints on her back, and that the smell would wash out.
To be continued…