Apocalyptic Fiction

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.

A small survivor community in a dystopian America wages an internal war on itself when the residents disagree what is best for their future. In rural Kentucky, one hundred and sixty-one survivors of the apocalyptic Great Rains huddle inside a one-block, walled off section of town: a place they call Outpost. It has been two years since the toxic rains fell. The people of Outpost have managed to survive by working together, scavenging food from empty homes and businesses, guarding one another while they sleep. They have persevered through their worst nightmare--or so they believed. But now a ...

Efrem "Coleslaw" White is a video game tester and college student. He was on a tropical vacation with a diverse group of strangers, classmates, and friends when disaster struck. The next thing he knew, he was standing before a huge, floating man introducing himself as the god Dolos, and being given a second chance at life. There was a catch, though. There is always a catch.

All Nathan Grant wanted was solitude. After being baptized in the blood rite of combat and spending more than a decade knee deep in gore, two events that cost him his marriage, Nathan Grant wanted to be as far away from civilization as he could be. Then the world ended. Faced with the harsh reality of a world now populated with psychotic cannibals, Grant did what he does best – stay at his remote cabin and drink a few beers while watching the world melt down. His way of thinking was let it happen as long as it happened far away from him. However, fate had different plans. Dropped into ...

Water is commodified. The water train that serves the city increasingly at risk of sabotage. As news breaks that construction of a gigantic ice dock will displace more people than first thought, protestors take to the streets and the lives of several individuals begin to interlock. A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying. And her husband, a marksman: a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life.

Enter the deadlands. The SEALs of Shark Platoon accompanied by cadets from Macon-Hill push towards Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. Their mission: recover watercraft from that installation. The secondary objective is to make contact with other survivors and gauge the state of the east coast. Encountering a survivor group requesting their assistance, the joint unit agrees to help retake and secure the Radford Arsenal. However, the installation is already occupied and those occupants aren’t eager to leave. After a costly battle, the SEALs discover they’ve been misled. In northern ...

Riding her Soul Horse, Danny, Deirdre Buford relentlessly pursues the men who took her sister through an America wrecked by the Great Virus, endless civil war and a collapse of the global order called the Breakdown. She’s forced by circumstances to ally with a nomadic photographer. His gentle decency moves her to the core, but her mission leads her away from the man she’s falling in love with and toward a confrontation with the people who hold her sister. To defeat them, she’ll need the help of the powerful Nations, a league of indigenous tribes.

Science Fiction Stories 3 is a mesmerizing anthology of science fiction short stories that transport readers to extraordinary realms, exploring dystopian futures, post-apocalyptic landscapes, and thrilling adventures in space. Discover the Unexpected Delve into the surreal with "You'll Haunt My Dreams," where dreamscapes and reality blur for Shelton and Tevis. Navigate a treacherous political landscape in "Recount," as characters face mysterious census takers with ulterior motives. Unravel the enigma of "Recipe For Death," a story that blends culinary arts with lethal consequences. Confront...

The lights went out. The world fell apart. Now, survival is the only rule. When a devastating solar storm wipes out the power grid, civilization collapses nearly overnight. No power. No running water. No law. Panic ignites the streets as food disappears, cities burn, and violence spreads like wildfire. Retired Army Captain James “Hunter” Seaton always knew society was hanging by a thread—just nine missed meals from anarchy—but even he wasn’t prepared for how fast everything would unravel. In his quiet Tennessee neighborhood, fear turns neighbors into threats, and survival means ...

World War Three has been avoided for just over the last century, but the world was changed forever with The Rh Factor War in 2053. Global powers, including the United States of America, along with most of the world, were hit with newly manufactured and never-before-seen chemical weapon agents (CWAs). The devastating and surprise attacks reduced the United States’ population by 85%. Tragically, it was the same situation for most of the world, with a majority of the globe systematically and methodically attacked by these new CWAs. Logan Miller is a mechanic from Greeley, Colorado. He was on...

The greatest devastation in history. A secret that will alter humanity forever. Today, the true fight for survival begins. Deep within the remnants of the United States, Lyla Richards oversees a camp of 200 survivors. In a world where living is an everyday struggle and only through banding together can people survive, the arrival of the Unwelcome only made her job harder. Riley Quinn and Miles Jones have been raised by Lyla for the last five years. They are also one of the cursed: the children between the ages of 13 and 18 whom the Unwelcome kill on sight.

I thought volunteering to be put into cryostasis for three days would be a great way to make some extra cash. Apparently, the rest of the world thought it would be a great time for an all-out nuclear war. Destruction was unleashed on such an incredible scale they say the very laws of physics changed. Now, massive mutants roam the city, looking for something—or someone—to eat. Violent gangs fight for control of the city's remains. Strange, human-animal hybrids are now part of our struggling societies. And perhaps strangest of all, magic is now real. Yeah, I'm still trying to process that one.

Mark Fields has achieved his dreams—once a dishwasher, he’s now one of the empowered, with superhuman abilities that just keep building. He’s got friends, a place in the Engineering Corps, and a new mission. Joining the Black Mountain Battalion, Mark is part of the team heading into the wilderness to recover a lost mine. But the battalion is massively understaffed, the Exlian are voracious and myriad, corruption awaits back in New Emery, and the aliens aren’t even the only enemy out there …

Costume-masked killers have taken over downtown in such masses that they overwhelm the already weakened city and law enforcement. Anyone caught in their path is murdered without mercy. Caught unaware of the extreme danger, the city had their focus on the wildfires in the forest not far from them. Power is off, the banking system is shut down, and the nightmare begins. Ultimately, the violence and death lead to food shortages.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded. Among them are Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David, who are in Arizona when the disaster occurs. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway in the middle of the Nevada night, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won't tell them what happened.

“Dear God in heaven, thank you!” Adam’s relief however was short-lived, for when he glanced over at Janet, who was still searching through the ruins for Michelle’s body, he froze in terror. “Dear God, Janet, look behind you!” he yelled. She turned, and let out a piercing scream as she stared at a heap of rubbish that had started to shudder and crumble as something bubbled out from within. It was as if the earth itself had opened up and the huge mound seemed to explode, as bits of scum and liquid bubbled down the sides of it like brown feces oozing from an open sewer. From the ...

In 2025, the moon hatched and its child died. Things have since gotten worse. Some people have superpowers now, but so do the extradimensional invaders slowly wiping humanity out. By Julietta's eighteenth birthday, the war has been loss after loss for far longer than she's been alive, so she can't bring herself to be terribly shocked when the sky splits in half and weeps death. Surviving is the real surprise.

Michael Talbot, his squad, and followers have suffered hardship and loss along the way, but finally, after years of searching, they have reached their Colorado homestead and settled in. But the world hasn't finished with them yet. A ferocious and determined enemy draws them back into the war for Humankind, and this time, the battle will be final.

For Meredith Gale, ending her life seems like her only choice, and that choice is the reason she’s dangling by her fingertips from a bridge high above the freezing water of the San Francisco Bay. But someone or some thing has other plans for Meredith, and as her fingers slip from the cold steel of the bridge, a disembodied voice asks her a simple question: “Candidate 13: Do you wish to be saved?” Realizing her mistake too late, Meredith screams “Yes!” and instantly finds herself transported to a mysterious island, alongside hundreds of other Candidates like her.

Two years after Great Britain is devastated by an alien virus, a young girl and her ex-military guardian are drawn back to the mainland for reasons only known to the dark gift inside her head. It’s a gift neither she nor the old soldier trusts entirely, but their only hope is to obey its call into the wastelands.