Zoey & Zoe: a girl and her witch

Ch.1 universal divergence

Often writers have see there work and wonder, what if they had made the other choice.

Zoey leveled her rifle and set the scope on the head of the nearest zombie, with a muffled thump the zombie dropped with half it's head gone. Bill cursed loudly from the shack next to the light house that held the generator. "Shit, another motor that's out of gas. It's like someone drains them right before we turn up." he paused to pull the stub of a cigarette out of his mouth and chuck it into the woods. "What does this thing even do?" he shouted up to Francis who, in addition to listing yet more things he hated about there current situation, was check the guns and other equipment. "Hell if I know Bill but Louis told us to see if it works" he turned back to the pile of guns with a greasy rag "I hate cleaning out the guns." Louis jumped down the last three rungs of the ladder leaned on the house landing next to Francis. "I thought you loved guns and shooting" he said picking up a rag and one of the shotguns. "Louis I like SHOOTING guns not cleaning them." he said exasperatedly. "Louis" Bill called from the shack "What the hell does this motor even do?" Louis walked down to the shack and gave the motor a quick once over. "I think it turns the light but I can't be sure, I'm more of a computer guy then a machinery guy and all Francis knows about is motorcycles, trucks, and guns." he said. "And monster trucks, don't forget that." Francis called down. "Well that too but none of that really helps right now."

Bill took out another cigarette and turned it over in his hands before putting it in his mouth and lighting it, it was his last one and there wasn't another pack for miles. "Why do we even need the light to turn wouldn't it be enough to turn it on? I mean the second we turn on a motor out here zombies for miles around are gonna swarm this place. Even if rescue came right away one of us might die with that many of those bastards on us." Louis looked up from the shotgun slowly. "Well we need it because..." Louis sat bolt upright from his position hunched over the shotgun. "You know what, I never actually thought of that. We've had to turn on every generator, motor, and just about everything else noisy we've come across for one reason or another. I just kinda got used to everything being difficult and assumed we needed it."

Francis looked up bewildered "You mean to tell me something might actually be easy for once?" Louis looked up at the night sky for a minute before answering. "Well if it's connected to an emergency battery then we can turn on the light with just that and we wouldn't even need the generator. No generator means no noise, means no endless hoard of zombies, no fighting for our lives while we wait for a boat to come along and see our signal. So yeah if we're a little bit lucky this might actually be easy." Bill clambered up the hill from the shack. "Zoey, get down here, your gonna want to hear this." he shouted up to the collage girl. Zoey lifted her rifle off the railing of the light house, climb down the ladder to the roof of the house and jumped down to the ground. "What is it Bill?" she asked with a worn but happy smile on her face. "Tell her Louis." he said calmly. "Well, for the first time since this whole mess happened something might be completely simple and easy" Louis stated. Zoey didn't move and stared at him for several second before pouncing on him like a hunter and giving him a tight hug around the neck.

"So let me get this straight" she said about five minutes later "All we have to do is throw this switch, the light will turn on facing out to sea and wait for a boat. No hoard, no explosions, no nearly dieing?" Louis looked up from the large battery he was checking for damage. "Yeah that's it crazy right? We where just about to turn on the motor and bring every zombie for miles around here when Bill pointed it out." He pushed the large black plug on the battery cord into the receiver line that went up the tower to the light. The light blink twice before powering up into a brilliant beacon pointed out over the ocean and (luckily) not carrying out into the woods behind them. The few zombies that did come where staggering more then running and where quickly dispatched by a silenced sniper rifle. One bullet each they fell before they had even reached the road. With her hopes high and her aim steady Zoey became a fast precise and silent killing machine.

It wasn't very long before a boat reached the shore at the bottom of the cliff. Zoey, Francis, Louis, and Bill made there way quietly down the narrow stairs carved into the cliff face. When they reached the boat on the fog obscured beach they saw it was little more then a dingy big enough for 10 people and clearly incapable of long term travel. Inside was one haggard looking soldier. They all immediately leveled there gun barrels on his face which had turned ghostly pale. "soldier drop your weapon, put your hands over your head, and don't do anything stupid" Bill said giving him a hard look. They where all still quite sore over there last military encounter. The young man dropped his service rifle to the sand and quickly raised his arms. "Wait, please you where signaling for help right? The USS John F. Kennedy is offshore right now waiting for us to get back." said the soldier. "We had a hard enough time with the military last time we met them. We're the group who broke out of Millhaven, we're probably wanted for treason or some other horse-shit." said Bill. "Millhaven? But sir with all due respect that isn't possible that outpost has been out of radio contact for over a month. For all there communication equipment to have been damage they'd have to have been wiped off the face of the earth."

Bill looked over his shoulder at Louis and Francis. They both shrugged so he turned his attention to Zoey. She gave him a hard look then nodded. Bill lowered his weapon and everyone else fallowed suite. "Sorry about that, and so you know Millhaven was still there until about a week ago. The commander took the liberty to appoint himself commander and chief, cutoff communication with everyone, and make his own rules for the treatment of survivors." Bill said grasping the soldiers shoulder lightly and walking past him into the dingy. "Oh, that explains the... cautious greeting. So I take it that hes probably been dealt with?" asked the soldier. "Oh, yeah him and that whole fucking base are gone. The idiots set off an alarm and brought every vampire for at least ten miles down on us." said Francis as he stepped past the soldier and got into the dingy. "So what's you name anyway? I'm Louis, she's Zoey, the biker is Francis, and the veteran is Bill." Louis said. "Private James 12th regiment naval unit." said James as Louis stepped into the boat. "We'd better go now every infected for about 3 miles is gonna be on this place in a few minutes." said Zoey as she got into the dingy. "Why's that? Everything seems quite right now?" said James looking back up at the lighthouse. "This" said Zoey lifting a set of car keys above her head and pushing the unlock button. The house and shack attached to the lighthouse exploded in a ball of fire sending out a resounding boom that would quite obviously be heard for miles around. Private James gawked for a moment before slowly turning to the group in the boat as he stooped to pick up his rifle. "What, me and Louis had some spear time while we where waiting for someone to show up. Without the fighting for our lives we normally do we had a lot of spear gas cans and propane tanks." said Zoey calmly as though blowing up buildings with homemade bombs was the most normal thing in the world. Private James got into the boat and handed them each an oar.