Part 1My Pet Zombie King

In the middle of the zombie apocalypse, I found myself a massive, dim witted bodyguard.

He possessed the strength of a god and the obedience of a golden retriever.

He spoiled me rotten, letting me play the absolute worst kind of pampered princess.

Just as I threw away the dry ration bar he had risked his life to find, whining that I wanted a strawberry shortcake instead, a stream of floating text suddenly materialized in my vision.

[Look at this chick treating the future Zombie King like a stray dog.]

[Benjamin is just in his evolutionary phase. His mind is foggy, and he’s mistaking this toxic girl for the sweet kid who lived next door to him growing up.]

[Joke’s on her. Benjamin has been secretly in love with the actual female lead for years. Once he finishes mutating tonight and gets his sanity back, he is absolutely going to tear this fake to pieces and feed her to the horde!]

I stared at the floating text, my jaw practically hitting the floor.

Right at that moment, Benjamin walked back in.

He looked like he had taken a nasty fall. Crimson tracked down his forehead, and his jacket was shredded.

Yet, his hands were carefully cupping a horribly smashed strawberry shortcake, offering it to me like a sacred relic.

"Luna... eat the cake."

The catch? The campus beauty, my beloved sister, was the one named Luna.

* * *

I stiffly lowered my gaze to the hulking guy crouching in front of me.

He was still holding out his prized possession.

Because I was taking too long to react, a flicker of panic crossed his dark eyes.

"Luna... you don't like cake anymore?"

"Tell me what you want... I will go find it."

My brain violently rebooted.

The floating comments just said Benjamin was the Zombie King.

And that he was getting his sanity back tonight.

Thinking about how I had been acting like a total brat these past few days, demanding the impossible and treating him like dirt, a cold shiver crawled up my spine.

I was a dead woman walking.

My eyes slowly drifted down to the pulverized strawberry cake.

I forced the corners of my mouth up into the most painful smile of my life.

"I love it."

I reached out and took the cake, my voice coming out so sickly sweet it gave me goosebumps.

"Benjamin, you are so good to me."

Survival rule number one. Stop the abuse immediately and start sucking up.

Maybe if I buttered him up enough, he would be slightly less inclined to rip my head off when he woke up tomorrow.

Benjamin lowered his head, the tips of his ears turning a bright, burning red.

Even smeared with blood and grime, his face was absurdly handsome. Strong brow bone, straight nose.

His cognitive fog usually made him look a bit slow, but right now, with his dark hair falling over his eyes, there was something wildly magnetic about him.

I swallowed hard.

But I snapped out of it a second later. Now was not the time to be thirsty.

The man kneeling in front of me was the future ruler of the undead, and I was apparently on his menu.

The text was still scrolling in front of my eyes.

[Oh, now she's scared? Too late.]

[She’s been bossing him around all week!]

[She made the literal Zombie King fetch water, wash her dirty laundry, make her bed, and she even uses his abs as a personal heater at night!]

[Treating the apex predator of the apocalypse like a pool boy. Bold move.]

I was speechless.

Suddenly, the cake in my hands lost all its appeal.

Seeing my hesitation, Benjamin asked cautiously, "Luna... is it too dirty? The blood didn't touch the frosting."

That was when I noticed the back of his head. It was completely coated in blood, with thick red trails running down his neck.

I set the cake down and immediately grabbed his wrist.

"How did you get hurt this badly?"

Benjamin stared at me blankly.

He really wasn't used to me showing actual concern.

And to be fair, I had been awful to him.

If I didn't like the crackers he found, I tossed them on the floor and told him to try again.

If I thought the tap water tasted weird, I made him risk his life navigating the infested administration building just to get me bottled water.

Whenever I got cold, I ordered him to get into my sleeping bag and warm it up with his body.

Sometimes I complained that his jacket smelled and forced him to take it off entirely.

And Benjamin always listened.

He would just blush, pull his shirt up, and let me press my freezing hands against his stomach.

Looking back at my endless list of crimes, my vision actually swam.

But this was my chance for redemption.

I scrambled to find my meager stash of medical supplies and pushed him down into a chair.

"Don't move."

"I am going to patch you up."

Benjamin sat obediently.

His massive frame hunched forward slightly, making him look like a very well trained mastiff.

I soaked a cotton swab in iodine and gently cleaned the blood from his scalp.

The terrifying part was that the wound was already closing. A thin, pale scab had already formed over what should have been a fatal gash.

My eyes darkened.

The floating comments were right. He wasn't human anymore.