In a small pocket of the world the sickness has been in existence since the sixties. A disease so feral, it strikes eighty percent of all children under the age of fifteen. For decades it has pushed the boundaries into three countries. Those infected become mere shells, often in a state followed by violent tantrums. There is no hope, no treatment, and there is no cure. Little is known about the sickness called the Nodding Disease. Information regarding it is often buried deep.

When the news of an impending extinction-level meteor impact is made public, humanity struggles to find some way to survive. Violet journals her life in a notebook in the form of letters to her grandmother. They start out sarcastic and funny, as she shares entertaining and exaggerated tales of her teenage life. But when Violet finds out about the meteor, everything changes. Suddenly she is thrust into a grown-up world, and her survival isn't guaranteed.

When an outbreak of H7N2, or as the news calls it, Whitby Fever, begins striking cats and dogs, it is newsworthy but not panic-inducing, until it is confirmed that Whitby Fever has crossed the boundaries, spreading from domestic pets to humans at an astronomical rate. Mills Run, Ohio, is not much different from any other small town. The residents have a bond and kinship. The townspeople brag that Mills Run is isolated, and at times, cut off from the rest of the world. However, not even Mills Run is secluded enough for a global pandemic.

Before the sun rose over the town of Sisterville, everything went black. A natural disaster of unknown origins takes the lives of every living creature and decimates the small town. Disgraced NASA scientist and now Cleveland weatherman Hero Galanis knows he is more than a local celebrity on television. He recognizes the anomaly on the satellite image as a repeat of the event that cost him his career. Decades earlier, Hero made predictions about the devastation the anomaly would cause, but those predictions pale in comparison to the reality the world currently faces.

When Leah and Calvin found out they were expecting, they were over the moon. That day would be one to remember forever… but for more reasons than one. That was the day the world changed. That was the day joy turned to fear. A deadly virus broke out, with many of those infected becoming violent and uncontrollable. And it was spreading fast. Realizing they are no longer safe in their own home, they make a break out of the city to find sanctuary. But when Leah is bitten, Calvin faces the unimaginable struggle of having to take care of their newborn alone. Traveling with the baby and his dead wife in tow, he comes across Hannah, a young girl who lost her family to the virus. They make their way across country together, meeting others trying to find their own sanctuary. They eventually find safety but Calvin soon realizes all is not as it seems and he must make an agonizing choice.

Following a distress call from the state police, Dr. Edward Neil and his team from the Centers for Disease Control enter the small town of Hartworth, Montana. Immediately they encounter a man in a pickup truck holding a quarantine post, his body decimated by a disease like they have never seen. The entire town, population a little under 1000... dead. Men, women and children. The unknown germ hit so fast, the town did not stand a chance of survival.

What starts as an emergence of a new virus quickly turns into Mother Nature’s ultimate population control. While attending a seminar at the Ambassador Hotel, Ava Mason is unknowingly exposed to a carrier of a highly contagious virus. The next morning, she wakes to a steady pounding on her door. Within minutes, her home is stormed and she and her three children are apprehended, placed in a van and taken away. They are told nothing. No one is. Ava, her children, and others are brought to the Ambassador and sealed in.

In the time it takes to create a single beat of a heart, 75 percent of the population drops dead. Within hours, another 20 percent succumb, leaving only a speck of human life remaining. Believing they are victims of a preliminary act of war and eventual invasion, a group of survivors trek across a barren United States following a radio signal. The simple plan was to band with others to fight and defend their homeland. However, their journey not only brings them together with other survivors but also brings them a chilling truth.

One of the greatest threats to mankind's existence has become a reality. The Yellowstone Caldera erupts with a force of a thousand nuclear warheads, expelling seven hundred cubic miles of ash and rock all at once into the sky. And it's not finished . . .

In a bid to repair the relationship with her son, Audrey Fields plans a getaway for the two of them at a remote, off-the-grid campsite. No electricity, no phones, no distractions. When things don’t go as planned, Audrey begins her journey home, only to make the horrifying discovery that 90 percent of the population has suddenly died. Whatever happened sent cars spiraling out of control and planes falling from the sky. Alone and separated from her family, Audrey is soon joined by two other survivors. Their trek across Virginia is a nothing less than walking through a minefield.

It is a very rare occasion that Abby Miller travels into the city, but an errand that can only be done in town prompts her to make it a girls' day out with her two daughters. Unfortunately, the day is far from perfect and they are in the worst place possible when nuclear war strikes... ground zero.

Judd Bryant, a survivor who does not succumb to the horrendous death, is a talented man with a zest for living. He faces his darkest hour until he finds a purpose in the form of Dawson, an eight-year-old boy with an unusual gift.The unlikely pair set out to find others, only to realize that each passing day is increasingly more dangerous than the one before. Their road becomes an obstacle course filled with unimaginable disasters.

Since childhood Nila Carter has been made to spend every weekend at the family cabin. In her teenage years she believes it to be a prison; as an adult it becomes her sanctuary and means to survive. When a mysterious outbreak occurs in India, Nila's brother, Bobby, a virologist with the CDC, places the family on a precautionary alert to be ready to bug out. Unlike anything he's ever seen, the rabies-like virus is not just deadly; it causes extreme violent behavior in those infected.

The infection has begun, ravaging the American Southwest and leaving chaos in its wake. In this new world, there will be no last meal, no dying wish. The only reward left is to survive another day...The complete Contamination series - all in this one, special edition.

At the end of the world. Nick Peterson never expected to be stuck with a bunch of kids. A 17-year-old boy shouldn’t be responsible for keeping other people alive. But he didn’t have much choice in the matter. That’s what happens when everyone else dies.

If the power grid fails, how far will you go to survive?Madison spends her days tending plants as an agriculture student at the University of California, Davis. She plans to graduate and put those skills to work only a few hours from home in the Central Valley. The sun has always been her friend, until now.

In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son. Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.

Cities all around the world reported strange alien vessels descending. Some saw them as the heralds of a new age; others fired everything they had at them. All were taken as the beams lashed down and drew them into the sky. Dean was left behind, seemingly the last man on Earth. A trail of clues left by his dead wife guides Dean on a perilous journey across America and beyond to learn the truth behind the mysterious ships and save humanity from its doom.

Cassie Forrest isn't surprised to learn that the day she’s decided to get her life together is also the day the world ends. After all, she’s been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she’s stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents’ cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too.

Just a second. That was all it took. In that second Anita Sherwood sees the face of the young boy in the window of the bus as it stops at the curb...and she knows it is her son. The son who had been kidnapped two years before. The son who had never been found and who had been declared legally dead. But now her son is alive. Anita knows it in her heart. She is certain that the boy is her son, but how can she get anyone to believe her?

Keisha Lewis lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America. Alice isn't dead, and she is showing up at every major tragedy and accident in the country. Following a line of clues, Keisha takes a job as a long-haul truck driver and begins searching for Alice.

One woman's story as she blogs about - and fights back against - the zombie apocalypse.

Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop. It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison's blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures.

Alex Duncan is a mother, a sister - and the daughter of a doomsday prepper. She always thought her father was insane, raving about an apocalypse she never believed in, but when a plague hits the United States and the dead no longer stay dead, Alex discovers heeding her deceased father’s advice is what will keep her family alive. Before he died, Alex’s father created a compound in Montana just in case situations like this arose. The dead walk, hungry for human flesh. With little time to spare, Alex must make split-second decisions to prevent her family from being devoured.

Dr. Chris Alexander, a borderline sociopath and technological genius, has designed an advanced cybernetic life form from prototype decommissioned military drones and top-secret experimental DARPA technology. The HADroid was supposed to be a military grade robot with the transplanted heart and brain of a human donor that would transform it into a devastating state-of-the-art war machine when activated by its onboard human operator.

J. D. Jessup finds his line in the desert near Tucson, as far from his home as the moon. He’s traded his guitar and the songs in his head for the daily grind of an organic farm - a mind-numbing existence that dulls the pain of his memories. His boss has one rule: if J. D. sees an illegal, call Border Patrol. But when an early morning ride along the fence line leads him to Maria, a beautiful young woman near death, J. D.’s heart pushes him toward another choice.

If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel, this is the place to begin. It's 1990. A twenty-one-year-old named Jack has dropped out of college, leaving his old life behind to build a new one in New York City. Manhattan's rough edges are jagged enough to shred any unwary newcomer, but perhaps not one who is determined to stay off the grid, at any cost, in the busiest metropolis on earth. And to do so, he'll have to take jobs of a less than legal nature.

John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation. Dead bodies are normal to John. They don't demand or expect the empathy he's unable to offer. Perhaps that's what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there's something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat - and to appreciate what that difference means.

When the seven-year-old grandson of a US senator vanishes in the woods behind his home, the only witness is his older brother, who whispers, "The lights took him," and then never speaks again. As the FBI and National Guard launch a massive search, the boys' grandmother Lynn Roseworth fears only she knows the truth. But coming forward would ruin her family and her husband's political career.

When Liv Dugan ducks out of work for lunch, it's just an ordinary day. When she returns, she stumbles onto a massacre. All her colleagues at Zuma Software have been shot. Only luck has left Liv unscathed, and that might be running out....

The living dead are more alive than ever! Zombies have become more than an iconic monster for the 21st century: They are now a phenomenon constantly revealing as much about ourselves - and our fascination with death, resurrection, and survival - as our love for the supernatural or post-apocalyptic speculation. Our most imaginative literary minds have been devoured by these incredible creatures and produced exciting, insightful, and unflinching new works of zombie fiction.