Reborn 30Days Before the Zombie Apocalypse: My Men, My rules

The blood on Chloe Martin's hands was not her own, and the rain kept washing it down her wrists as she sprinted the last block toward the shelter. Her backpack was packed so tight with antibiotics, bandages and surgical needles that the zipper barely held.

She had fought through three blocks of undead to reach the pharmacy on Fifth and Harper. The shelter had once been her parents' house, and she had paid for every lock, tank and can of food inside it.

She wrapped both hands around the steel handle and pulled with all her strength, but the door did not move.

"Tyler!" Her scream tore her throat raw, and she slammed her shoulder into the metal. "Open up! I got the medicine, I got everything!"

The intercom clicked, and Tyler's voice came through, flat and cold.

"I can't let you in, Chloe."

Her mouth fell open, and the rain ran into it. He is joking. He has to be joking.

"A horde is coming from the east side! Open the door right now!"

"I told you I can't."

Chloe pressed her forehead to the cold steel and her voice cracked. "Whatever I did wrong, we can talk about it inside."

The intercom went silent for a moment, and then Amber's voice slid out of it, sweet as syrup.

"Oh sweetie, did you really think he loved you?"

Chloe's lungs locked, and her fingers curled against the glass. Not Amber. Not my best friend.

"Amber?"

"Tyler stayed because of your parents' money and this house. You paid his debts, his car and this whole shelter." Amber laughed like a girl at a birthday party. "You were useful, Chloe, like a pack mule that never asked where it was going."

"You're my best friend."

"I tolerated you, the way you tolerate a stray dog that follows you home for scraps." Amber stepped into the narrow window, her smile curling with delight.

A silver chain hung around her neck, and at the end of it swung a teardrop crystal. It was the Reed family necklace. Tyler had sworn it was lost before he proposed to her.

"He gave you that?"

Amber lifted it between two fingers and tilted her head. "Long before he ever proposed to you."

Tyler appeared behind her and slid an arm around her waist, his eyes as calm as a man looking at a stain on the carpet.

"Don't make this ugly, Chloe," he told her, his thumb stroking Amber's hip. "You gave us what we needed, so just let it end."

Amber pressed her thumb to the crystal, and the backpack on Chloe's shoulder went light. She tore it open and found it empty, every bandage and every pill gone.

"A drop of my blood woke up the storage space inside," Amber whispered happily. "Your medicine is in here now, and so is all the food in the basement. We can live for years."

The groaning grew louder behind Chloe, and dozens of zombies rounded the corner with their empty eyes locked on her warm body.

"Please." She pressed both palms to the glass, and her tears mixed with the rain. "I'll forgive everything. Just open the door."

Tyler looked at Amber, and Amber shook her head like she was refusing a second helping of dessert. Tyler reached out and switched off the intercom.

Chloe beat her fists on the glass until her knuckles split. The first zombie tore into her shoulder, and she saw Tyler kiss Amber's temple as the world turned red.

Chloe woke up gasping.

There was no blood and no torn flesh, only a soft bed and sunlight pouring through the curtains while a bird sang outside as if the world had never ended. She grabbed her phone with shaking hands and stared at the date until the numbers stopped swimming.

One month before the apocalypse. I really came back.

The sob that ripped out of her bent her in half. She cried for every dollar she had spent, for every meal she had skipped to keep Tyler's business alive, and for the foolish girl who had carried medicine through a street full of corpses for people who watched her die.

Then the tears stopped, and something cold settled where the grief had been.

The doorbell rang.

Chloe wiped her face and opened the front door. Tyler stood there with white roses and a small gift bag, the crystal necklace hanging at his throat.

"Surprise," he announced with the guilty grin she used to melt for. "I'm sorry about last night. I know I missed our anniversary dinner."

In her last life she had forgiven him before he finished the sentence, but now all she could see was his hand reaching for the intercom switch.

"You look terrible, babe," he added, wrinkling his nose. "Rough night?"

"I just didn't sleep well." Her smile was thin, and her nails dug into her palm. Smile, Chloe. Let him think you're still the fool.

She stepped aside, and he dropped onto her parents' couch like a king settling into a throne. He held out the gift bag, and inside was a pink designer purse.

Her phone buzzed with a notification from the supplementary card attached to her own account. Tyler had bought her apology gift with her own money.

"Do you like it?" he asked, spreading his arms along the couch cushions.

"It's beautiful," Chloe answered softly, stroking the leather while her stomach turned.

"I knew you would love it." He leaned forward with his eager salesman's face. "Listen, there's a chance to expand the business, but I need another twenty thousand to lock in the deal. Once it takes off, it all comes back to us."

Us. That word had cost her everything in her last life.

"What about the sixty thousand you already borrowed?" Chloe asked gently.

His smile stiffened. "That was an investment in our future."

"You called it a loan, and you promised to repay it in six months."

"Chloe, we've been together almost two years." He rubbed his temple like she was a headache he had to endure. "Why are you suddenly counting pennies like a cheap landlady?"

Because you counted every last dollar before you left me outside to die.

She could not say it, and she could not rip the necklace off his neck either. He would grow suspicious, and she needed him to hand it over with his own hands.

"I'm not counting," she whispered, letting her lip tremble. "I'm scared. You keep taking and never paying back, so how am I supposed to trust our future?"

At the word future, his face softened, and he reached for her hand. "You can trust me."

"Then sign a written acknowledgment for the sixty thousand." Chloe held his gaze with wide, wet eyes. "Pay that back before you ask for more, and I'll feel safe."

Anger flickered across his face like a snake testing the air. Then he glanced around the house her parents had left her, and the anger melted into a smile.

"Fine. If it makes my girl feel better."

Your girl. You greedy leech. She brought paper and a pen, and he scribbled the acknowledgment in his fast, ugly handwriting and signed the bottom with a flourish.

Chloe folded it carefully and slid it into her pocket. Tyler thought he had signed a meaningless scrap to calm a foolish woman, but he had just handed over the first thing he owed her.

Her eyes drifted to the crystal pendant resting against his throat. In her last life he had used it to swallow everything she bought and everything she bled for, and then he gave it to Amber to feast on her work.

This time Chloe would not steal it. She would make Tyler place it in her hands himself.