Chapter Twelve.

Integra had decided the motor pool was the new command center. Should the compound be overrun, the survivors would be able to access the APC quicker.

Seras had placed a proper bandage on Integra's leg and made sure the others watched. They thought she was a freak, perhaps with good cause, and she hoped by showing them she could do things aside from murder monsters would put them at ease.

It seemed to work, but she got the impression Zoey suspected something. Integra's virgin blood had rejuvenated her completely and she wondered how many of the others she would have had to drain completely to achieve the same result. Assuming none of them are virgins, Seras thought, wondering how she would even work such a question into a conversation.

When Coach began to speak, Seras realized she hadn't been paying attention.

"There ain't no way I'm going back out there," Coach said.

"I'm gonna agree," Nick said. "We barely made it here and we're wounded." Seras had also bandaged his legs where the creature Zoey had dubbed the witch had cut him. He had changed into the basic uniform worn by Hellsing combat personnel while Coach had kept his clothes, mostly because they were fairly clean and nothing else fit.

Seras knew the plan had been to have some of the able bodied survivors help them look for more, but she couldn't blame anyone who didn't want to go back out into infested London.

"Come on," Zoey said. "At least come along in the tank to provide cover fire."

"Hey, lady, that thing's a tin can compared to what we ran into. Just ask Draculina here," Nick said, "She got torn in half by it."

A chill ran down her spine at the memory of being ripped in two. She had been trying to pull the creature's meaty head off as it plowed its way up to the roof. She thought she had it until the creature stopped, took hold of her legs and slammed her to the ground. The next thing she knew its hand was wrapped around her thin waist and her insides had spilled into the ground. For a moment, it felt like going down a slide until her spine came apart.

Things became blurry after that. She remembered not being sure if she had lost consciousness or was falling to the ground. As it happened, she had been thrown quite a distance, coincidentally landing near Nick and Coach.

Her body had reformed itself on its own volition. Normally she had to concentrate to dissolve her entire form, but out there facing the tank it had been automatic. She had always been amazed and more than a little scared of how her body sometimes went into combat autopilot, letting her come to her senses only when her enemies had been reduced to mush.

The tank, as Zoey had dubbed it in her dossiers, had been sighted before. Zoey said she had seen it and spoken to other survivors who had also encountered it. From the sounds of things, Seras had the creeping suspicion there was more than one, right along with the hunter, smoker, charger, and boomer. And if Integra's experience was any indication, the mutant infected had an easier time getting over walls, which meant even the compound wasn't completely safe.

"You won't let that happen again, will you Seras," Integra said, still looking pale. She had eaten a C ration since feeding Seras and had passed out briefly, but now seemed otherwise fine.

"No, ma'am," Seras said. "I was just going to go clean my Harkonnen cannon, actually."

"Your what?" Zoey asked.

"Seras's condition makes her strong enough to carry a small piece of artillery. It's come in handy in past encounters," Integra said.

"I didn't sign up for the draft," Nick said. "I think we should be gettin' outta' here ASAP before something bad happens."

Integra looked at Seras. Her face was a mask to most people, but Seras could tell Integra was reluctant to say her next words. "Our situation is a little more grim than I've let on," she said, looking at Zoey. "We haven't received any sort of communication since the late stages of the outbreak. Not from other agencies, not from other countries, not from pockets of resistance."

"Wait," Coach said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the capital of England. Don't the queen or some shit have an underground bunker with a radio?"

"She does, as a matter of fact," Integra said. "We've hailed them numerous times but heard nothing back. And not to boast, but I'm held in rather high regard with the Crown and would not be ignored, least of all in this type of situation."

"So what you're sayin' is we're the last people on earth," Nick said, beginning to pace. "Fantastic."

"I doubt that," Integra said. "Although the odds of those few who are immune to the infection also being capable of fighting off the infected for any real length of time are rather slim. I've got a vampire body guard and you lot seemed to have been rather fortunate to have isolated yourselves from the worst of it."

"No disrespect," Coach said, "But it seems to me you just made a good case for not going back out there to search."

"Where would we be if they hadn't come looking?" asked Zoey. "We'd be dead. Now that you're safe you want to just say to hell with everyone else?"

"I didn't mean..."

"What I think he meant was, it still makes sense to send me out on recon while you all hold the fort here," Seras interrupted. "I took a beating last time, but I won in the end and I always will. What I need is a fresh supply of blood."

Fear flashed in their eyes and she felt the urge to hide in the corner. "Which is why my next stop is a hospital to see if they've got a supply of blood on hand."

She had been thinking about this while bandaging Integra. There was bound to be a refrigerator filled with blood powered by a generator somewhere. She would take a cooler with her filled with ice and transfer it to the now empty freezer she kept for her personal use under normal circumstances. It might not last long, but she couldn't take more from Integra, at least not for a while, and none of the others were likely to be willing donors.

"As long as you're find gettin' it by yourself, that's a great idea," Nick said.

"Guess it's settled then," said Coach. "We'll hold out here while you go get what you need. In the meantime, I want to talk about what we're gonna do to get ourselves rescued."

"That will be a very long talk," Integra said. "It would be wise to get some sleep, I think. Zoey, you're on lookout. Seras, you're not going anywhere until this evening, so get some rest yourself."

Nick and Coach both nodded, while Zoey picked up an assault rifle. "Nighty night, boys," she said, casting a disdainful look at Nick and Coach before leaving the room.

Seras woke up to something thumping on her coffin. For a moment she thought the infected had broken into the compound and were pounding on the lid, but these were soft knocks. She opened the lid and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

Zoey was kneeling on the floor next to the coffin. There were dark rings under her eyes and Seras wondered how long it had been since she last slept. "What is it?" Seras asked, making ready to get up.

"I, uh, wanted to tell you something," Zoey said. "You need blood to live, right?"

Seras looked into the woman's face and tried to discern what she was asking. There was an eagerness to help behind her eyes, mixed with some fear and embarrassment. There was something else, too, but Seras couldn't tell what it was.

Not all of this was from the mere reading of facial expression. Lately she had found herself capable of limited mind-reading, which sadly was a power Alucard had never had an opportunity to help her develop.

"I need it to remain active," Seras said. "If I went without, I'd dry up like a corpse but I'd come back to life if I tasted blood." She shouldn't be spilling state secrets to American civilians, but she didn't think any of that would matter now.

"But you need it," Zoey said. "Otherwise you go berserk, right?"

Seras nodded, having figured out what Zoey was about to say.

"I wanted to let you know...I appreciate all you've done and I want to help."

"I can move quicker if I..."

"That's not what I mean," Zoey said. "Um...would I turn into a vampire if you bit me?"

"No," she said. "Only if I drained you and didn't put any of my blood back in you, then you'd become a ghoul."

It was clear Zoey wanted to ask what a ghoul was, but the conversation was making her uncomfortable. "I was going to say, if that's the case, you can drink from me if you really need to. I know you drank from Integra and she won't be able to donate again for a while."

Seras nodded by tilting her head up once, hoping it wouldn't be taken for an outright 'yes.'

"I'll keep that in mind if it comes to that," she said. "I've got no intention of being battered around like last time I was out, and there's bound to be blood on ice at the medical center."

Zoey's mouth flattened into a line and Seras saw her lie hadn't been bought. "Nobody intends to get thrashed by mutants," she said. "If it's as bad as Integra says, it will happen again and probably to all of us."

Seras was silent. She felt the pull of her grave and wanted to go back to sleep. "Alright, I'll keep the offer in mind. Is anyone else up who can pull a watch? You look terrible."

"I might wake up Coach," she said. "I think Nick is more hurt than he lets on, and Coach is having a hard time sleeping. He mentioned he was here with a bunch of kids or something."

"Alright, then," Seras said. "Good night."

"Don't you mean day?"

"Right." Jokes and puns about the life of a vampire had long been exhausted. She offered Zoey a weak smile and she helped her with the lid of her coffin.

She was lying comfortably about to let the void take her when a familiar voice echoed in her mind.

"That girl, I think she likes you," said Pip Bernadette, former captain of the Wild Geese, a band of mercenaries once hired by Hellsing.

Seras hadn't heard him speak for a long time, although she always felt his presence. "Stockholm Syndrome," Seras said in her thoughts.

"Perhaps," Bernadette said. "I overheard she's a fan of monster movies. Maybe she is your secret admirer."

She had mentioned that, hadn't she? Having Bernadette around, he sometimes noticed or recalled things she didn't. After the battle with Millennium had been over with and the shock of losing Alucard had dulled, she began to worry about having someone with her all of the time and never being alone. Soon she realized his presence was more like a sentient memory, something that came and went when it pleased but could be called up and banished more easily than any actual recollection.

"She hasn't seen me like the other two did," Seras said. "She still sees me as mostly human."

"Yet she offers you her blood. I think that's more than gratitude," Bernadette said. "In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I think she likes you, likes you, if you catch my drift."

"Pervert," Seras said, banishing Bernadette to the pits of her soul. Being absorbed by a vampire did little to change a person, she had noted.

Thinking about Zoey and what her blood might taste like, she went to sleep.

To be continued...