It is 430 in the morning and I am dead tired.
Review for all my hard work. Or I will Die. Enjoy

A Soldier

Cat rolled over in the bed. She rubbed her eyes and tried to find her beeping alarm clock. She struggled to reach it on the bedside table but it seemed to be miles away. She smashed the pillow over her head and groaned.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" she called out through the pillow.

"Miss Cat? Are you still asleep?" Walter walked in with a bundle of clothes.

"No Walter I'm awake. What do you have there?" Cat slid out of the bed and smacked her alarm onto the floor. The battery popped out and flew under the bed. She would have to remember to find it later.

"This will be your Hellsing uniform," he held out the yellow bundle.

"Yellow? I'm going to look like a target Walter!" she took the clothes and unfolded them to look. "Walter…this is a skirt."

"Yes, Sir Hellsing thought you might feel that way so I brought these as well," he pulled another uniform out of a bag and handed it to her. This one was a dark blue color with the Hellsing logo on the sleeve and front pocket. She picked up the bottoms and was relieved to see they were shorts. Though a bit shorter than any she would ever wear they would do for now.

"Suit up and then come to Sir Integra's office. She will brief you on the situation and introduce you to Peter Ferguson," Cat looked at him with worry, "Don't worry you won't need to know that much about what's going on and you won't have to decide to act for yourself. You'll be with Ferguson the entire time and he will tell you when and what to shoot." Walter left Cat standing still in fear.

"This is way too much for me to handle," she thought as she stripped out of her clothes and into the crisp uniform. "At least this fits right." She looked in the mirror and admired the uniform. It made her look very professional and dangerous. If someone saw her on the streets dressed like this they would not dare touch her, especially if she had a sniper gun resting over her shoulder. She heard laughter and turned around but no one was there. She had learned by now not to assume she had imagined it and to assume instead that she had really heard it.

She pulled her hair back in a ponytail then pulled it halfway through the hair tie to make a loop out of her hair. She turned around to look at it in the mirror and laughed. It looked very similar to Alucard's funny red tie. After she was done giggling she left the room and went to Integra's office. She could hear them talking inside and knocked. No answer came so she decided to just go in.

"Since when do you not knock?" Integra looked at her suspiciously.

"I did knock but no one answered. It's not like I was trying to catch you saying something secret," Cat walked up to the desk and looked at her annoyed. She felt more comfortable talking to Integra than she had a month ago.

"Well let me introduce you to Peter Ferguson. He's commander of the Hellsing Special Forces. He'll take good care of you so you need not worry," Integra nodded at Ferguson who then nodded back.

Cat looked at him a moment then stuck out her hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Katherine Deschain."

Ferguson shook her hand and Cat tried not to flinch. His grip was bone crushing but she thought it must be important to have a good handshake when you were in the army. She squeezed back as hard as she could and Ferguson nodded his approval to Integra.

Cat sat down and waited for Integra to tell her about the situation.

Integra looked at Cat worried. She was not sure how she would react to what was going on and she was not sure Cat was even capable of killing something. Even though they were undead evil creatures they still looked like humans. She might even associate them with Alucard and hesitate because of that. After all, if Alucard was left alive for what he was why shouldn't other vampires be left alive? Integra hoped Cat would have better judgment than she was imagining her to.

"The situation is a usual one. A group of vampires is terrorizing families in their homes. They've been going at it quietly for the past couple nights but now they're acting more viciously and even pulling the people out of their beds and into the streets. We need them disposed of swiftly and discreetly," she nodded at Ferguson and he turned to leave.

"That's it? I don't need to know anything else?" Cat hesitated to stand. She felt too much like she was in the dark.

"Yes…that's it. Just follow Ferguson he'll tell you what to do," she got up to walk Cat to the door, "And please try not to worry. It will only make things worse." She gave Cat a small push and closed the door behind her. "God help that child to pay attention and remember what she's been taught. It would be impossible to explain to the Queen why I let a sixteen year old girl out to hunt vampires."

Cat followed Ferguson down the hallway and out the back door to the armory. Once inside he took a gun case out of one of the lockers and handed it to her. "This is the gun Pip has been training you with. The scope and all the ammo are inside," he turned back to the door and went out.

Cat followed him trying to think of something to say but her mind was blank. She just trotted after him like an obedient child and crawled into the back of the army truck with him. Five other soldiers were inside. She smiled when she saw that one of them was Lucian.

"Alright Cat?" he smiled back at her.

"Alright enough I suppose," she sat down on the bench next to Ferguson and hugged the gun case between her knees.

After they had been driving for a while she spoke up, "So is anyone else going or just us?"

"Just us for tonight, we should be able to take care of the problem quickly. Alucard will be there if things get out of hand," he looked at her and winked, "And we will be there if Alucard gets out of hand.

She laughed a little. She was glad to see that Ferguson had a sense of humor.

The truck rocked gently back and forth and Cat was tempted to fall asleep. Her long nap had only made her more tired and she slowly let her head droop onto the gun case. Just when she was slipping into unconsciousness she truck skidded to a stop and if it had not been for Ferguson sitting next to her she would have flown onto the floor.

"Alright boys keep your wits about you and don't turn your back for much more than a second. There are fifteen targets all together. Assume there are still fifteen targets left. There's no telling if Alucard has killed any yet," Ferguson waved the boys out of the truck and then hoped out himself. "Come on Katherine! Now is not the time to decide you are incapable of shooting monsters!"

Cat crawled out of the truck and looked at him, "Fifteen? There are FIFTEEN vampires here?! Why didn't anyone tell me there would be so many? I probably would have changed my mind about coming!"

"That is precisely why no one told you how many there were. Whether it is one or fifteen the situation is still the same. We must take each target out efficiently. Follow me, we are going to the roof of that building. You'll have a good view of the street from there," Ferguson walked quickly to the building and Cat jogged after him. Once they were on the roof he instructed her to set up the sniper facing down the middle of the street so she could aim quickly at any 'targets' that came out of the houses.

"Why do you keep calling them targets? Why don't you just call them vampires? That's what they are anyway," she snapped the scope onto the gun and started loading it with the shiny silver tipped bullets.

"Because that is all they deserve to be called. They have killed a dozen families for fun and games. When I tell you to shoot, Katherine, you must shoot. You must not hesitate because they look human or because they are like Alucard. They are murders and you must be the one to stop them. If you hesitate for even a second they will have the chance to escape and kill again," Ferguson looked down at her seriously.

She locked the bolt carrier and looked up at him, "I understand."

"Good. Now we wait," he sat down and leaned his back on the roofs little wall.

"We wait? What's everyone else doing?" she looked at him bewildered.

"They're looking for the targets. You didn't think they would just walk out of wherever they were hiding as soon as it got dark did you? They are most likely in one of the homes of the people they killed. We will know as soon as the screaming starts."

"Screaming! We're going to let things get as far as screaming?" Cat was shocked.

"It really can not be helped. There's so many of them one is bound to get away and try to kill someone else. Don't be alarmed it will be fine. They are unorganized and young. Very similar to you," he chuckled and lit a cigarette.

"I don't see why Alucard can't just use some crazy monster power and kill them all at once," she hunkered down and rested her chin on the wall peering down the street at all the houses.

"He probably could but it would be much too dangerous for everyone else," Ferguson threw a jacket behind his head and pulled his hat down over his eyes.

"Why didn't we evacuate the people from the houses? Wouldn't that be safer?" she waited for an answer but none came. "Ferguson?" she looked over at him but he had fallen asleep.

"Well that was fast," she flicked the burning cigarette out of his hand and rested her chin back on the wall.

"What am I supposed to do now? I thought everything was going to be constantly exciting but this is stupid. Alucard could probably take care of this on his own. All of us are just filler. Or maybe we're decoys! No, Integra wouldn't allow that…I hope," Cat continued talking to herself for a few more minutes then she started to doze off. She jumped when she heard a door slam. She looked at her watch and it was only 10 o'clock.

"Why did we go out so early," she rubbed her eyes and looked down the street. A man had walked out of one of the houses. He stood on the stoop and stretched his arms up to the sky and yawned. He stood for a moment then walked down the steps and stood in the street. He looked at his watch then looked around.

"It looks like he just woke up. But I just woke up so…maybe he was napping," she looked through the scope but could only see the back of his head. "Come on, turn around guy. Turn around," and as if he had heard her, the man abruptly turned around and she saw them. Two deep red eyes glowing and looking right at her.

"Shoot him."

Cat restrained from jumping at the voice and immediately pulled the trigger. The gun was already aimed between the man's eyes and as soon as the gun went off he turned to dust.

Ferguson jumped up yelling and pointing his gun all around. Cat just sat there looking at him. If he had not told her to shoot then who had?

"What in God's great name are you doing?!" he looked at her with wide eyes.

"That man came out of the house so I looked at him through the scope. Then I heard someone say 'shoot him' so I did. He had glowing red eyes and look! He's just turned into dust!" Cat pointed to where the man had been.

"You heard someone say shoot him?" Ferguson slowly sat down but kept his eyes on the street this time.

"Yeah, if it wasn't you my next guess would be Alucard. Who else could it be? I had just been in the middle of considering shooting him when I heard it. He must have decided to make my mind up for me. You had said not to hesitate for even a second but the thought crossed my mind what if I was just imagining red eyes and he was a person. You were sleeping and I didn't know what to do," Cat felt upset.

"No it's alright you did the right thing. I'm sure it was Alucard. He is probably near here watching everyone," Ferguson looked down at the street. The lights in the homes were going out. "Now that they've heard a gun shot they'll be coming to investigate," he picked up his radio and called to the other soldiers. "You boys alright?" the radio buzzed for a moment then they answered back, "Yeah we're fine. What was that gun fire?"

"Katherine took down her first vampire," they smiled at each other as they heard Lucian in the back ground cheering.

"Tell her congrats. She's officially a Special Forces officer now don't you think Ferguson?"

"Indeed she is. You boys sit tight now. Things are going to pick up now that they know something's going on," he turned the radio down and put it back in his belt.

"You don't think they know where we are, do you?" Cat looked behind her and then over the wall to be sure no one was sneaking up it.

"I think we're safe for now. They weren't expecting that shot and I don't think the others saw what happened. They may assume it was just a burglar or a misfire in someone's home," he pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked through them.

"What if one of them sneaks up behind us? Could you shoot it fast enough?" Cat again looked behind her. She was getting worried.

"Well one of us could," Ferguson continued staring through the binoculars.

"What do you mean one of us?" Cat looked at him suspiciously.

"Well they can only attack one person at a time. If it attacked you then I could shoot it, and if it attacked me then you could shoot it," he took his eyes away form the binoculars and looked at her.

Cat just stared at him and shook her head in defeat. She looked through the scope of her gun and scanned up and down the street. All the lights in the houses had gone out and Cat could see no movement. She and Ferguson waited for ten minutes with their eyes pressed against the glass of their scope and binoculars. Then Cat heard a scream.

She gasped and looked at Ferguson, "What do we do!"

"We quietly wait. That is the only thing we can do," he continued scanning the street for movement.

"Well we have to do something! It isn't fair that those people are just going to die. Alucard should be down there doing something not hiding!" she frantically looked on the roof tops to see if she could find him.

"Just calm down and keep ready. If any run into the street you'll need to shoot them, you can't do that if you're looking for that bloody vampire," he pulled Cat's sleeve so she would sit back down.

She tried calming down but more people were screaming and it was gut wrenching. She hoped one of the vampires would be careless soon and run out into the street. She wanted to shoot them all herself.

Alucard had been watching Cat from one of the roof tops on the neighboring street. He watched her get excited as the man came out of the house and he read her thoughts as she saw his red eyes. He waited a half a second for her to shoot the man herself but he could tell she would not without instructions so he planted the thought in her mind. He had been surprised at how quick she reacted even though she had not known where the voice had come from. It was unlike Ferguson to fall asleep but everyone had their nights. When the screams started he watched her panic and waited for her to settle down and put her eyes back on the street before he began making his way to the house where the screaming was coming from. He went through the side wall and followed the scent of the rouge vampire into the living room. It was a young boy and he was pointing a gun at a woman in a corner and laughing.

"Pathetic slime," the boy jumped and wheeled around.

"How did you get in here?!" he pointed his gun at Alucard.

Alucard scoffed at him, "You didn't even sense me coming did you." He took a step forward and the boy stumbled backwards. "You aren't even worth devouring, but you will make good target practice for the girl."

"What are you talking about! Get away from me!" the boy stumbled backwards more and unloaded his gun into Alucard's stomach.

Alucard only laughed, "You think that pathetic weapon of yours can harm me?" He pulled out his Casull, "This is a real gun you worthless piece of dirt. Now run! Run into the street and meet your death! Or stay here and meet a grimmer one."

The boy threw the gun at Alucard in a last feeble attempt to harm him then turned and ran out the door. Cat saw him as soon as he hit the street and she aimed her gun.

"He's so young!" Cat was surprised, "How do I tell if he's a civilian or a vampire?"

"Unless you see his face you can't," Ferguson picked up the radio to call for assistance.

"He is a low life being. Shoot him."

Cat obeyed and shot the boy in the head. He tumbled from his run into a pile of dust.

Ferguson put down the radio, "How did you know."

"Alucard again I guess. I mean who else could it be," Cat sat back from the gun and reloaded it. "So that's two down and thirteen to go huh."

"Yes, but now they will have sensed Alucard so things will get harder," Ferguson lifted the binoculars to his face again.

"So we just sit here and wait? It's like hunting game," Cat rested her head on her arm.

"That is exactly what it's like, but if this game spots you it will not run away. It will come to kill you."

"That's why we have Alucard down there. He can come to save us," Cat smiled thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't be so sure he would," Ferguson looked at her with pity.

"Of course he would! He would get in too much trouble if he didn't. Plus I think he would be sad if one of us died don't you?" Cat looked at him and smiled sincerely. She had already considered how Alucard would feel if any of the soldiers died. She decided he would be sadder if Walter died then if she died.

"No, I do not," Ferguson went back to his binoculars and Cat frowned.

In the course of an hour Alucard sent out seven more vampires for Cat to shoot. By this time she had learned to discern human from vampire by the way they ran out of the houses. When it was a human they stumbled out, often falling down the steps and looking behind them and around them constantly. They would also run to another house rather than try to escape from the area. When the vampires ran out they did not stumble or look back. They set to running straight down the street as fast as they could, but it was never fast enough. Cat locked onto them each time and turned them into dust.

The other vampires Alucard tortured, devoured, and shot. When he was finished he met up with the soldiers on the ground and told them to call Ferguson.

"Ferguson?" Ferguson picked up his radio and answered.

"Yes? Did you get them all?" he furrowed his brow in anticipation.

"Yes, Alucard says he took care of the other five that he didn't send out for Cat."

Cat thought for a minute then spoke up, "I only got nine."

"What?" Ferguson looked at her.

"Yeah, I shot that first guy before the screaming started. Then after Alucard went in I got eight more. That only makes fourteen," Ferguson held the radio up so the other soldiers could hear what she was saying.

"So do you think the count was wrong Chief?" the look of worry on Ferguson's face worried Cat.

She took the radio from him, "Alucard?"

"Yes?" his deep voice boomed out of the radio.

"Where is the other one?"

"Whatever do you mean, Sniper?"

"You know what I mean Alucard! You know where he is now tell us!" Cat was getting scared but she tried not to show it.

"He's headed for the roof, you'd better act fast," the radio went fuzzy and Ferguson looked at Cat.

"How did you know it wasn't a miscount?"

"Integra wouldn't send us in thinking there were fifteen if there weren't fifteen," she pulled the scope and tripod off her gun and sat with her back against the wall. "Should we stay here or go looking for it?"

"I think staying here might work. They haven't shown much intelligence so far so maybe it will just rush at us," Ferguson pulled out his hand gun and held it ready.

"I'm scared," Cat didn't take her eyes off the roof top door.

"That's alright. It happens to the best of us," he took a quick glance to the ground and back to the door again.

Cat sighed, "How long do you think this will take?"

"There's no telling. We just have to wait. Like hunters waiting for their prey," Ferguson squatted against the wall.

"What if we're the prey? Maybe it's already watching us," Cat looked around at the other roof tops but saw nothing.

Cat started to get tired of sitting and waiting for something to attack. It had only been three minutes but it felt like eons.

"Alucard," she kept her eyes on the door, "Alucard…," she still stared at the door. "Alucard!" as soon as she reached to grab the radio the vampire burst through the door. As hard as she tried she could not keep from screaming. Without thinking she shut her eyes and dove to the side away from Ferguson. She heard his gun go off and opened her eyes thinking he must have shot the vampire. Instead she watched as it dodged the bullets and threw Ferguson to the side. She tried to aim but she was shaking too much and she was still lying on the ground. She got up meaning to run further away so she would not hit Ferguson. The vampire turned around and looked at her. He did not speak. He only laughed before he rushed at her. She screamed again and fell backwards before he could grab her. If the situation had not been life threatening she would have laughed at how funny she looked falling straight onto her butt with her knees bent and her gun pointed in the air. She looked up as the vampire stared at her licking his lips. Her gun was pointed straight at him but he did not seem afraid of being shot. Cat's finger was already on the trigger. She looked him in the face and started to cry. She pleaded for him to not kill her, to let her live or at least take her with him. He laughed again and leaned down with his arms outstretched.

Cat abruptly stopped crying. The vampire paused for a split second at this change in her emotion. As soon as he did, Cat pulled the trigger. The blast seemed to echo over and over again into the night. He stumbled backwards clutching his stomach. The silver burned his flesh but he did not die. Cat stood up to face him.

"Please," he sputtered through a mouth full of blood.

Cat pushed the barrel of the gun into his eye, "It's too late." She pulled the trigger once more and the heathen man turned to ash.

Cat ran over to Ferguson, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. What about you," he clamored up and re-holstered his gun.

"I'm okay I guess," Cat looked herself up and down to be sure. "Can we leave please?" she looked up at Ferguson exhausted.

"Yes, we can leave. You've done brilliantly," he patted her on the shoulder.

Cat could not stop herself from hugging him, "I thought he was going to kill you, and then kill me!"

"It's alright, you've learned the first lesson of hunting vampires. You must kill them first. And you did," he picked up the radio and called the soldiers. "Get the truck ready, we're coming down."

"Are you two alright?"

"Yes, we're fine."

Cat picked up her scope and tripod and shakily put them and her gun back into the case. She picked it up and cradled it diagonally in her arms as she treaded down the stairs. She wondered if Alucard had already left and when she walked out of the building she saw he had.

"Where did Alucard go?" she looked at Lucian for an answer.

"He left after you called his name for the third time," she saw the pity he held for her in his eyes.

"I see," she walked towards the truck to get in.

Lucian took her gun case from her and got in after her. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah I'm sure. I just want to go to sleep and forget about all of this," she rested her head back on his arm and closed her eyes. All she could see was the vampire staring at her and laughing, and then the blood spewing from his mouth, blood that he had stolen from someone else for his own had dried up long ago. The truck started to move and Cat fell asleep to the gentle rocking.

Integra was waiting for the truck when it arrived back at Hellsing. Cat woke up, but kept her eyes closed. She was lying on the bench in the truck now and everyone had gone. She could hear Ferguson telling Integra all about what had happened. When he told her about what Alucard did she yelled. She called Alucard and asked him about it. Cat could not hear what they said after that. They were whispering too low, but she caught something about not waking her up. She cracked her eye opened just enough to see what was going on. She saw the canvas of the truck part and someone came in. She quickly closed her eyes again and pretended to be asleep. The person picked her up and stepped out of the truck. They carried her inside and down the hallways to her bedroom. She remained limp and tried to figure out who it was without opening her eyes. It certainly was not Integra. She thought it might be Lucian but she felt hirer up than he would have been. Maybe it was Ferguson, but he had been limping when they were walking to the truck. She again cracked open her right eye and then saw the flash of red. She sighed audibly; he would have known she was awake anyway. She opened her eyes the rest of the way and looked up at him angrily. He had left her there even after he knew they needed help.

"But you didn't need help," he spoke keeping his eyes forward.

"You didn't know that! Both Ferguson and I could have been killed," she balled her fists up and looked at him. It was so indignant to fight with someone while being carried.

"But you were not killed. You faired well," he still did not look at her which only angered her more.

"It doesn't matter if I did fine! What if I hadn't! What if he had killed Ferguson instead of just tossing him away! What if he had attacked me right away instead of just toying with me! Why don't you look at me!" she was yelling now and did not care who heard her.

They were in front of her door now and he roughly put her down, "Stop your childish yelling. Did I not tell you I would send you to Pip who would teach you to defend yourself. He taught you did he not? And now you do not need to be protected."

"It doesn't matter if I learned to defend myself! That situation was different! I didn't know what I was doing! You're supposed to know when to help someone! You don't just leave when they need you!" Cat could not contain herself anymore. She was so upset about what had happened she started to cry.

Alucard grabbed her by her shoulders giving her a shake and bringing himself down to her level, "Do not reprimand me child. You do not know the rules of living in this world. You are a soldier now; your life of lazing about is over. Learn to protect your self or you will die. War is cruelty and none can make it gentle. Take what the battle gives you and run with it."

Cat did not know what to say, she could only stare at him with wide eyes and bite her lip.

Alucard waited to see if she would make a retort but she only stood shaking under his hands. He lightly squeezed her shoulders and stood back up again. He let his hands fall back to his sides and he left down the hall. He watched behind him as she stood staring at the spot he had been then at the last moment before he turned the corner she moved to watch him go. She was a difficult thing, but a fair soldier none the less.

Cat turned around and went into her room. She was shocked and slightly dazed. She could not manage to get undressed or pull the covers back so she fell onto the bed as she was and fell into a deep sleep. When she awoke the next morning she would remember everything that had happened the night before. She would discuss the short battle with the other soldiers and she would tell Pip all about what happened. She would even complain to the men about how Alucard had simply left her and Ferguson there to die and they would agree with her and pat her on the back for being brave.

She would complain about it, but inside she would always remember what he had said to her in the hallway and she would cherish it more than anything anyone told her ever again.