Apocalyptic Fiction

When the grain crop failed in Kansas it seemed like an isolated incident and no one took much notice. Except Ed Hardesty. Then the blight spread to California's fruit harvest, and from there, like wildfire, throughout the nation. Suddenly America woke up to the fact that her food supplies were almost wiped out. Her grain reserves lethally polluted. And botulism was multiplying at a horrifying rate.

The best-selling Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith first introduced listeners to a world ravaged by an engineered virus that turned men into monsters. Humanity's only hope was not a cure, but another bioweapon. When deployed it killed 90 percent of the infected, but the remaining 10 percent transformed into even more terrifying creatures called Variants. Here's a collection of Extinction Cycle short stories that explore the human spirit and the fight for survival in the face of overwhelming odds from some of the leading voices in the post-apocalyptic genre.

Liam Saunders-Chang is one of the last humans left on Mars. The son of two scientists who have been racing against time to create technology vital to humanity's survival, Liam, along with his friend Phoebe, will be on the last starliner to depart before Mars, like Earth before it, is destroyed. Or so he thinks. Because before this day is over, Liam and Phoebe will make a series of profound discoveries about the nature of time and space and find out that the human race is just one of many in our universe locked in a dangerous struggle for survival.

Brace yourself for the gripping sequel to the thrilling tale of survival and turmoil in the aftermath of the cataclysmic Broken Earth Event!Is humanity's fate sealed? Have we reached the end of our tenure on this planet? The Stone family and their friends survived the first 48 hours - barely, but planet-wide devastation and havoc continue, plunging the world into uncertainty and upheaval. Amidst this chaos, new alliances struggle to endure, with each of them doing all they can – and more – to persevere as the world falls into ruination. Embark on a thrilling journey through this tale of...

Two brothers learn of the apocalypse after being out of touch for a few days. Returning to town, they learn first-hand, the dead are coming back to life with a taste for flesh. With their parents in Nebraska they must embark on a journey to rescue them as they set into motion their zombie apocalypse plan. But they'll see not all is fun and games as they realize it is nothing like they imagined it would be. Can they make it in time to save their parents from a fate worse than death?

America faces a full-scale socioeconomic collapse—the stock market plummets, hyperinflation cripples commerce, and the mounting crisis passes the tipping point. Practically overnight, the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure fall, and wholesale rioting and looting grip every major city. As hordes of refugees and looters pour out of the cities, a small group of friends living in the Midwest desperately tries to make their way to a safe-haven ranch in Northern Idaho.

For 32 years archaeologist Julius Gabriel investigated the Mayan calendar, a 2,500-year-old enigma of time and space that predicts humanity will perish on December 21, 2012 (the winter solstice). Julius believes that certain mysterious sites represent pieces of a global puzzle linked to the salvation of our species. Ridiculed by his peers, Julius dies before he can solve the doomsday prophecy. Now only one person can prevent our annihilation: Julius' son, Michael, a patient locked up in a Miami mental asylum.

"John Returns" continues the story that tells how John Harris leads a group of survivors through the chaos of a country that has fallen apart. The US President and a coalition of third world leaders have launched a major nuclear and EMP attack on all of the major powers and killed over 100 million Americans. The Grid is down and most cars and trucks won’t run. All electronics were destroyed with the EMP blasts. The USA is in chaos with criminals and thugs attacking innocent citizens, while John and his team fight the corrupt Department of Homeland Security and the President. John Harris ...

A thrilling genre-bending saga about six extraordinary people whose fates become intertwined on an Earth far different from their own. Without warning, the world comes to an end for Hannah and Amanda Given. The sky looms frigid white. The electricity falters. Airplanes everywhere crash to the ground. But the Givens are saved by mysterious strangers, three fearsome and beautiful beings who force a plain silver bracelet onto each sister' s wrist. Within moments, the sky comes down in a crushing sheet of light and everything around them is gone.

Alien apocalyptic fiction, a hard fought survival journey with an unexpected romance. But keep the tissues handy… you’ll need them at the end. The alien apocalypse crashed his world to take human slaves. He was middle-aged, overweight and alone. The aliens didn’t care, they came to harvest the human slaves for market. Any humans they couldn’t sell, they fed to their animals. And, people were being harvested by the millions. His hard apocalyptic survival journey started a tough march to safety and ended with a journey to test his soul. William Theodore Benson worked his way West ...

Lennox used to live in a paradise on earth with his best friend, Jamie, in a place where visitors came and went, allowing their desires to run free. But everything changes when a deadly attack forces them to take up with Connor Mackenzie's band of Outlaws. Lennox knows that Jamie is hung up on someone else, but he's always believed that he's the man for her - and he won't let her go without a fight.

Unlike many of the people in their compound, Shane, Julianna, and Cole are still alive. However, their trial by fire is far from over. The replacement currency has failed and America is crumbling from within. Roving gangs scour the country, preying on small towns which are too weak and unprepared to fend off their carnivorous attacks. When one such band of ruffians show up in Sylva, NC, Shane and Julianna will have to strike a decisive blow before they are subjugated into slavery. A spark has found a bed of tinder. The inferno of chaos may never stop burning.

A mysterious outbreak has spread quickly, ravaging the globe. The illness is debilitating and deadly. Those who suffer from the virus succumb to a horrible death. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. The infection transforms them into an unstoppable force of mindless killing machines. At the onset of the epidemic, Nila Carter and her family retreated to her father's cabin in search of safety and seclusion from all that transpired around them. With supplies, fresh water and fertile ground, they were joined by a handful of strangers and positioned themselves for long-term survival.

Stories of the Trader and his convoy of war wagons endure in the badlands of post-holocaust America. A dealer in Deathlands' most precious commodities - weapons and fuel - Trader takes note of a young Ryan Cawdor. Surrounded in myth and rumor, Trader sets into motion the beginnings of legend at a place called Virtue Lake...At Spearpoint, the ultimate redoubt housing a valuable cache of predark technology, two opposing wills clash. Levi Shabazz intends to carve his own empire out of the vast wastelands, but the Trader intends to thwart him and end his bloody siege of power.

When does a 47-year-old woman became the hero in an apocalyptic world? After the world is shattered, Margaret finds herself forced out of her chosen role as a mother back to her former life as a military commander. Finding herself in charge of a surviving community desperate for order, she needs to rely on all the skills she learned in the military, and as a mother, to navigate the betrayal, resource wars, and shifting allegiances of the new world. As a soldier, she knows how to give orders and make sure they are obeyed. As a mother, she knows how to sacrifice for others and fight for the ...

The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. However, they happened to arrive after a mutated plague wiped out half the planet, turned the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroyed human civilization. You know - your standard apocalypse. The Krakau's first impulse was to turn around and go home. Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they're no longer trying to eat everyone. Mostly.

All that stands between rowdy long-haul trucker Jill MacLeod (aka Junkmouth) and her family back in Boston is two thousand miles of asphalt. Well, that and the monstrous game the System has had her playing ever since it descended on Earth. The reward: mana. Jill's goal: kill, score, drive—and stay alive. Behind the wheel of a turreted forty-ton semi named Bertha, Jill hammers east from Montana through a gauntlet of every kind of chomping, hissing, rabid creature imaginable. Barreling forward in her magical soulbound big rig and chalking up a bumper crop of roadkill, Jill isn't alone for long.

The struggle to get through the post-apocalyptic wasteland in an effort to find Allie’s dad in Pittsburgh and reunite with Joel’s brother and sister in Maryland tests Ben’s abilities as a former Army Ranger. But the teenagers have trials of their own, namely coming to terms with their lost youth as they are forced to grow up fast and make some tough decisions. As the group passes through one devastated town after another, it becomes apparent that only the strong and prepared will survive in these dangerous days.

When Jonah inherits leadership of the Elk Clan from his father, many in the old man's inner circle question his son's ability to lead the tribe to their winter shelter at the ruins of Eliz. A dark stranger, a journey over hundreds of miles of dangerous highway, and clashes with feral gangs will push Jonah to the edge.

Faced with an overwhelming infestation of living dead on the US mainland, the US Pacific Fleet manages a strategic withdrawal of civilians and supplies. Aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, Dr. Henry Damico advises the remnants of the civilian government and military leadership on how to survive in a world overrun with zombies.