The metallic boat was slowly docking on the opposite side of the Yacht.
Nicolas who was still holding his firearms, climbed into the boat to welcome his Friends and Stacy.
"Hey! How was the trip?" Nicolas was smiling seeing Baptiste and Jesper in good health.
"Not too bad," Baptiste smiled back, "but we lost Jimmy and Terry…" a trace of guilt flashed in his eyes.
"Oh…" Nicolas was half surprised, half expecting this. "Was it that difficult to come here?" he was truly curious about how things have been going.
"Not that much, they were just… unlucky." As soon as Baptiste answered, Stacy went out of the cabin, she looked very tired.
"Hey! Where did you go?" she could feel the anger coming up deep down as she thought about all the worries she had for the 30-year-old men in front of her.
"I… though about a few things, and needed to come back, and on the way, I met with some friends."
Nobody missed the elusive answer as all were curious about why Nicolas left.
But Baptiste understood it was not in their group interest to lay it in front of her. "Since you have found our friends, it is good!" He tried to keep the focus on the unimportant part of the conversation.
Stacy lifted her head and saw a dozen or so of persons on the yacht in front of her. She started to understand that the foreigners in front of her were not doing things randomly at all. To be this organized in this time of chaos, they must have planned it somehow.
"Good! So Tracy, do you want to come with us? We're moving to Europe." Nicolas did not want to bring Stacy with her, he just tried to bring the conversation somewhere else.
"Europe!" she was stunned.
"Mhn," Nicolas nodded.
"Can't! I have my family and friends here." She could not help but answer truthfully.
At this moment Nicolas had a hard time to hide his smile. "I was thinking, since we are going to have a very dangerous journey, you would not mind if we take those weapons?" He made a gesture toward the bags full of firearms and munitions.
Stacy started to tense herself, Nicolas was asking politely for the military property, but she knew she was alone here, and a lot of people were holding guns and automatic rifles. If they wanted to take the gun, they could just take it without asking and the only difference between her agreeing or refusing would be that in the latter situation she would probably suffer a lot!
With an awkward smile, she answered, "Your journey will be very dangerous lah! Of course, you will need to protect yourself! Don't worry lah, most of those weapons were brought by you, just take it!" she was waving her hand in front of her face, trying to show she did not care at all.
"You're so great and generous! Why don't we have a drink before we part our ways?" Nicolas invited her not only because he wanted to be nice, but because they were not yet ready to leave the marina, and he wanted to make sure she would not have a second thought and contact her colleagues before they left Singapore.
Stacy started to feel very bad and wondering if he had an ulterior motive.
Jesper, very enthusiastic patted the shoulder of Stacy
"Ah!" she was slightly startled.
"Haha! Don't worry, we will just have a small party before leaving! Don't be so tense it is bad for blood pressure!! Hahaha," Jesper started to laugh at his lame joke.
Baptiste continued while taking the first bag, "yeah! It is a good idea to have a small party before leaving! But do we have alcohol?"
At this moment, Jiajin, who was on the pontoon waiting for them to come over, said loudly, "Yes we have a lot! We have already cooked dinner! Come quickly!" She could not wait to be reunited with Baptiste as she experienced way too many scary things until now.
After a while, all the bags were transferred and the whole group was on the yacht on the upper deck ready to enjoy a nice meal.
The group was now huge, with 18 persons who were about to leave Singapore and the policewoman. Even if they were a lot, the boat was still big enough to host them all.
As the party progressed, Stacy began to relax as she could see that even if they were bold, determined in their actions and insisted on her not leaving, the group of foreigners was still nice and warm with her.
Besides being a good way to stall for time, the other purpose of this party was for people to get to know each other. If Baptiste and Nicolas were familiar with most people here, it did not mean the others knew each other.
Miguel and Alfred with dexterity were moving around, explaining a few things about the boat, enjoying the rum and greeting the group members one by one.
They were very easygoing and after a while, it was obvious they felt grateful to have met the group. Little did they know that they would have to face a difficult choice later in the night.
Indeed, in their mind, it was their luck! A group of people, armed to the teeth, very determined to go to Europe. This was a great opportunity for them!
One must know that sailing was not easy, even with a luxurious and modern yacht, they needed to keep an eye on the boat 24/7, and even more problematic, they will need to stop and refill supply and fuel regularly. Considering the meteors have changed the earth into something terrifying, stopping in a harbour was not as easy as before. If it was yesterday, you just needed to have money and you could have everything easily. But with the worldwide tragedy happening, it would definitely be more troublesome!
The party lasted for a bit less than 3 hours. Under the occasional management of Miguel and Alfred and the planning of Nicolas and Baptiste who choose to take responsibility for the group, they were slowly getting ready to leave while enjoying themselves.
As they were about to stop the party, Nicolas and Baptiste approached Alfred and Miguel and told them about the choice they needed to make. Getting exposed to the meteorite, or leaving the boat.
They felt a great shock as they already knew a bit about the meteorite.
However, Nicolas and Baptiste knew they would need the two sailors to handle the boat. This is why, to motivate them to get exposed to the meteorite, Nicolas went through a lot of effort to promote the positive points. He gave them all information and hypotheses they understood about it so far, almost all… about owning a second meteorite, he did not tell anyone about it.
Also, he was still speculating about how great he felt after spending so much energy with his escape, or the injuries that healed at a faster pace than usual. So he only mentioned a few hints about it.
After a while, the two ex-crew members understood the pro and cons, but moreover, they understood why the group was forcing them to be exposed to the meteorite. It was not easy at first, but after a while and as experienced sailors, they considered that adapting to this new environment was very important, so they agreed.
And in the quiet of the night, at the forefront of the boat, they were both cuffed separated by 2 metres. Baptiste opened the container, and without suspense, the two middle-aged men fainted. A moment later, they woke up, both saying they were fine as soon as they awakened.
After some congratulations and happy exchanged, they came back to the party, ready to move out of Singapore.
"I guess this is farewell," Nicolas said to Stacy, smiling.
"Correct, it is time to split. I still need to report to my company!"
"Haha, true, they must be worried about you, I guess you don't need to tell them about us," he winked at her.
"Haha," she made an awkward laugh.
Nicolas was very worried that the Singaporean Coast guards or the army would try to look for them. Little did they know that the Singaporeans authorities did not care at all about the destiny of this little group as they had a bigger problem on their plate. Indeed, in the past few hours, things have escalated in some part of the island as some very crowded neighbourhoods have been infested by zombies.
On top of that, the people living in the north of the island, in panic, were trying to thru Woodland checkpoint, leading them to Johor in Malaysia. This caused massive headache to the authority, and they were already organizing blockade to prevent people from swarming the other bridge that goes to Malaysia, Tuas link. The same bridge that was 300 metres from the marina.
Ten minutes later the luxury Benetti yacht of the Mediterraneo 116 was leaving the marina, taking the direction of the West as they were about to travel in between Indonesia and Malaysia, toward the Nicobar Islands.
The water and fuel tanks were both full to the brim, the fridge, closets and even part of the decks were full of food. The boat was now ready to face its long journey toward Europe.
Since the full autonomy of the boat was 3200 nautical miles, about the distance between Paris and New York in a straight line, or Shanghai and Cairns in Australia. With this range of operation, their options were numerous and the route to Europe would be more flexible.
After a bit more than half an hour of travel, they were almost leaving the Johor Straits and reaching the Straits of Malacca. The group could finally rest.
The allocation of the room had been random. They decided to switch every week to make sure it would be somehow fair as the different accommodations had a very different level of comfort.
Every allocation was random besides the main room, for this luxurious and stunning room, it was decided that the three main contributors would enjoy it in turn. Looting the weapons and the meteorite have guaranteed Baptiste, Nicolas and Jesper, with their partner of course, a week or pure luxury every 3 weeks!
It was the middle of the night and most were almost sleeping, Nicolas was still sitting on a couch of the upper deck. He was fiddling with his tablet and smartphone, Baptiste was by his side, they were discussing in French with their friends in France planning the next steps while gathering as much information and data as possible.
Emma, Fred and Stephanie were sitting at the table behind, using the laptops that Nicolas took at the mall, they were downloading resources in case the different internet servers would stop working. Information was one of the keys to prosperity, and they wanted to make sure to hold as many books and files as possible.