Going into the Drink

It was still raining. Through the gloom out over the bay she could just make out the large yacht in the harbor. “Everyone, get ready”, Utah said as he clicked on the instrument panel and the big puma came to life. “This will be a very short flight.” Maria sat in the back of helicopter with the princes who looked nervous. Maria understood her feelings as her hands slid up to double check her shoulder strap that held the MP-5 to make sure for the tenth time that is was secure. She was nervous too. They would be assaulting the “Kristina O” less than 2 minutes.
The Puma left the ground. The combination of relatively slow speeds compared to a plane, and proximity to the earth and sea offered her the familiar feeling of unparalleled intimacy with flight that only helicopter pilots knew so well.
The helicopter rose slowly, going up vertically for several meters and for a second or two Maria felt and odd sensation as if the machine was going to slip backwards into the buildings behind them. Then Utah tipped the craft forward slightly and instantly they were over the water of Jelsa bay. They began to accelerate and head out toward the waiting yacht.
Maria focused her eyes on the yacht through the darkness of the night and rain. She could make out some movement on the deck and she became acutely aware that things were not going according to plan. They had waited too long to fly out and her fears that Roman would become suspicious were being realized. From the deck of the “Kristina O” about 300 yards out, a small but intense light on the deck flared to life. “Look out!” She screamed as she suddenly recognized what she was seeing. They had just fired a rocket propelled grenade at them.
But Utah has seen it too and he was already taking evasive maneuvers.
The helicopter swung hard and rolled to the left. But they weren’t high off the surface of the water. Maria grabbed in vain for something to hold onto but the sudden turning threw her clear out the open side door and she fell backwards into space, falling and watching the helicopter attempt to dodge the incoming rocket as the water level rose up. A second before she hit she saw the rocket collide in a violent explosion into the tail of the puma.

Suicide Mission: Attacking the Cristina O' in Port

Utah didn't like the quiet, it was a bad sign. Sitting in the dark, the metal cooling and clicking in the background, while they sat staring at each other. Everyone was thinking the same thing, there was a good chance they would all die, and the E.o.H would get its minerals back.
Finally Barett spoke up.
" Look our best chance is with the element of surprise and a method of non-restraint. I understand that Roman is very important, but the Minerals are probably the most important thing to save and remove from anyone but us using, so I suggest we slap on these dead dudes uniforms and armor, fly this bad boy helicopter back to the ship while two of us launch a small attack on the ship. That should create enough confusion that we could lure out the biggest players. We plan on killing everyone but Roman and save all the documents we can. It is a little harsh, but should save a few of us from dying, maybe."
Barett defered back to Utah, hopeful that he had a better idea.
Utah scratched at his scabbed up forehead wound and scowled, it was his thinking face Barett and Rick recognized. Finally he spoke up.
"Alright, we go with Roach's plan, with this modification. Save anyone you can that is not, I repeat not shooting at you or trying to kill you. I will not be party to another civilian massacre. Rooster and Roach you plan the attack on the ship, you have ten minutes before I fly this helicopter back to the ship. Lets try to keep the boat afloat and sea worthy. I want to move her to a safer location when this is all mopped up. The rest of you gun up and suit up, every rider a gunner, no exceptions."
The princess went to make a protest about shooting at the ship, but stopped herself, knowing there was no sense in it. It was it was and there was nothing she could do, but leave, walk into the darkness of the town and hope not to be killed by the zombies, or ride with them to the ship and hope not to be shot.
Barett and Rick tossed some gear into their packs and trotted off into the dark towards the dock and ship, disappearing quickly into the darkness of the old city.
Utah once again started through the series of checks to get the Puma warmed up again while Maria helped the others put on bloodied gear and uniforms securing weapons and gear to the deck.
Bianca slid into the co-pilots seat across from Utah, and tapped on the log book.
" Don't you think one of us should stay behind with the evidence and secure it, in case something happens. At least that way we could hedge our bet and reduce our damages if this mad run fails ?"

Jelsa: Time to Lighten the load

Cresting a small rise the Town of Jelsa spread out to the right and left of them, the Harbor straight ahead. Even with the darkened sky, and rain smeared windshield Utah could tell it was a beatiful city.
The argument in the back seat subsided as each one tried to get a better view of the town.

"Ok, looks like we made it to Jelsa. First things first, we secure a safehouse, get dry and wait for dark to move to the harbor and do some recon. We have lots to do and I need everyone rested for tonight. This will be a full 48hrs into the conflict which means we should have friendlies showing up soon, I don't want to shoot any of them. Rooster will find us a good spot and we can get out of this sardine can."

The Port of Zavala on Hvar Island

The hills rose up dramatically from the sea at this small town of Zavalal, the white sands of the beaches were inviting and Utah wished he could spend some down time here, just laying about for a few days. Several large three story homes, white washed with red tile roofs poked out of the green trees and bushes, it was a larger town than the map indicated, but held a direct road to Stari Grad and Hvar. He eased the motor down and found a shallow bay that the anchor would hold the smaller Yacht steady on. Grabbing his Rifle from the floor, he dialed up the scope setting on the big .50 cal and started scanning the beach and then each house close to them. He checked his watch, 4:30 pm local time, no one was moving from what he could tell, to early for dinner, to late for lunch, something was wrong.

" Anyone see anything, Good, bad, out of place ?" Utah spoke out loudly, just short of a yell.

The girls all nodded in the negative, but Barett and Rick just stepped into the bridge with him. With the girls all standing on the front deck of the boat, eyes glued to various scopes or binos, Rick spoke up, low and serious.

"Its way to quiet, nothing is moving, granted we have a limited view, but all the boats at the dock are still tied up, none of the local fisherman are out on the water, no one is on the beachs. It's a literal ghost town, nothing moving." Rick nodded towards the four white fishing boats still tied to the end of a private dock.

" I'm with Rick on this one, the town got hit, and good. There is that one new power boat tied up with the other older fishing boats that looks out of place a good place to begin our search for answers. But I think we are safe to say they saw what we saw last night. We sure could use a Helo right now, I say if we find some sort of air transport we take it, never know when it will come in handy. Are there any good airports on this island ?" Barett pointed to another dock that held a long nosed red and white speed boat, next to some old wooden fishing boats.

Safe at Sea with the girls

Utah looked at Barett then back to the main salon sitting area behind the bridge. The girls had all gathered there, having scavenged clothes from the various cabins former occupants. They were reliving the harrowing escapes and strangeness of the evening. The brothers knew that this was all part of dealing with combat and the letdown of adrenalin. Somehow your body wanted more of the drug, and retelling the events kept some flowing in your blood, it made the letdown easier.
Rick came up from the lower level and gazed at the girls then over to his brothers, smiling at the women he slide into the bridge and closed the door behind him.
"Looks like everyone fared ok, but I am almost dying for lack of good food." Rick joked and nudged Utah who had been eyeing the kitchen since they acquired the yacht.
"Yeah I was thinking of putting something together. I'm sure we could all use a little snack, perhaps a little food would do us good."
Utah nodded to Barett to take the wheel and he headed back into the salon. Barett looked over to Rick and pointed to the signal Jammer he had stolen.
"I think we can use this to hook into the main antennas and get some signal coming in; find out what the latest intel is."
Rick nodded and was soon fast at work pulling out wires and attaching various cables from the high tech media array on the boat to the jammer and radio equipment Barett had brought up. It wasn't long before they found a BBC news broadcast but the program only spoke of more bombs and bad news.

Barett and Bianca....In the Bay of Hvar

Barett sat on the Vintage looking motorcycle in deep thought, staring at the carnage left in the old churches parking lot. Based on the shell casings that littered the area around the bodies and overturned van, Utah and Rick had a small pitched battle right below him. Since they were gone and so was the car, he imagined that they were still alive. The large dead Elephant zombie chopped into pieces and laying in the crushed frame of the van was leading Barett to believe this was less of a "Outbreak" and more of a attack. Following that line of thought, if this was an attack, and they were the targets, who knew where to find them, and how to find them. All fingers pointed back to Roman and Carla, the two were intimately connected somehow. He started to question her escape story, and motives. But with the attack in the E.U and others planned he could only imagine what was really at play here, but the two of them were connected and held secrets that would explain all of this somehow to him.

If these were planned attacks, and these were the medically altered zombies, like the ones Rick had a run in with, in Paris, this indicated a vast resource and planning that was detailed and methodical. He found the idea that someone would go to this kind of effort to kill them, well, kind of impressive that they had reached that level of threat.

All of this spoke of the E.o.H, it was expensive, and required some sort of diabolical mind. In their past dealings this was right at their level.

He decided to check out the surrounding area, the zombies just didn't wake up and wander our from the sea below, and across the lavander fields and farmers dirt roads. Someone had to bring them here, someone who was able to take directions. The Girls were up waiting in the Mini-cooper wide-eyed staring at the amount of bodies strewn across the parking lot.

Barett had made his mind up, he was going hunting for someone to interrogate, old school style.

Zombie Apocalypse on the Island

They stared down the hill towards the bay. It was dark, but the 3/4 moon and lack of lights on the city helped illuminate the scene. The three women stared at the unnaturally dark city, they each looked at the other. Carla spoke up first.

" I say we wait for "Roach" here, something is wrong with the town, better if we stay in a place we can exit faster from here, than the narrow roads of the city."

The others nodded their heads in agreement, it seemed like the best thing to do, for now.

" Who's Roach? "
Bianca asked nervously from the drivers seat.

" He's the guy that just saved your ass, he should be along soon. "
Maria chipped in.

" Oh, so are you like his Girlfriend or something, he seemed very interested in your safty. He told me yesterday his name was Brad something ?"

Maria looked annoyed, then softened, then her and Carla started laughing, it was a tension breaker, and Bianca started laughing to.

" I'm not his girlfriend and neither is she, Roach is his nickname." Maria got out between bouts of laughing with Carla.

"So, how do you know Brad "

" He flirted with me the other day at a little cafe during lunch in Split, so I was surprised to see him here, but Hvar does have all the best clubs. I gave him my number, hoping to hook up again with him, he's cute and charming in a bad boy kind of way. So why do you call him Roach ?"
Bianca was trying to get any info she could from these two beautiful women, neither of whom seemed to be romantically tied to Barett, which she did find confusing.

"Just a nickname his brother gave him, don't really know much more than that. But you need not worry about him, he's a nice guy."

Maria and Carla exchanged glances, and this was not lost on Bianca.