Apocalyptic Short Stories

Fighting in the streets, corruption at the highest levels, collapsing infrastructure, brutal police, a daily threat of nuclear war: few of us thought we’d find ourselves here, so far into the 21st century. What’s next? Are we really going to be “great again,” however that’s meant? And if we are, what does that mean for those of us on the receiving end of the less-than-great? In this diverse and vigorous mix of stories by newcomers and luminaries, writers offer their takes on what life might hold for us in the next few years.

A military VR trainer, wanting to keep her relationship with a fellow scientist hidden, must pass a security inspection in her lab by the vicious Atlas Crusade that has swept to power. When the leader of the security team demands an unusual VR request in her lab, Prof. Meliss must decide between keeping her lover safe or secretly undertaking a consciousness swap that could end the Crusade’s five-year long relentless rule.

All zombies all the time. Included in The Bus Stops Here and Other Zombie Tales are five zombie short stories by Bryan Cassiday that are together for the first time in one anthology. "The Bus Stops Here" is a brand-new short story that has never before been published. The zombie action is nonstop and lethal. During a zombie apocalypse, everybody is caught up in a Hobbesian world where life is nasty, brutish, and short. Along with graphic zombie mayhem, these tales depict the lengths that individuals will go to to survive.

Waiting for Martin is set in a nebulous future-never in which catastrophic environmental change has returned ancient beings to Earth, as well as raining down a disastrous helping of new ones. A family of children try to make their way home to their older brother, who is their guardian, when a bit of environmental fallout gets in their way.

Monkeypox zombies infect the world with their deadly capability to eat brains and turn other humans into zombies. Johnny, the main character, must survive as he tries to get out of his high-rise office building filled with zombies. Later, Johnny is in a homeless hideout under the bridge and deals with the homeless political groups while barely surviving. Finally, he takes shelter with his ex-wife, Jennifer, her house stashed with guns and supplies. Herds of zombies break through into their home and they blast their way out by using grenades and guns.

Generations after a bloody nuclear civil war, the United States is not as we know it. The inhabitants of the Northern states live as normal, but the South, after being decimated during the Second Civil War, are a changed people. Nuclear fallout has stolen any vestige of humanity. When the aircraft carrying the President of the Northern United States takes an erroneous detour, it is shot down somewhere over the south.

A future America has become a horrific place, all in the name of creating the perfect society. Mass graves and interviewing for your life have become the norm, and one man is coming to grips with the implications of his silence in the face of evil.

In this short story, which takes place directly before The Change: Life, you will meet Jacob and Mia and get a tiny glimpse into how their very lives are tied in to the fate of the world - to the Changed themselves - and to the enigmatic creature that appears out of nowhere to destroy all that it sees, both humans and Changed alike.

Only Alpha can fix this. Alpha and Kyle have toiled all day to carefully construct the perfect dinner date for Tina, whose crippling depression has bedridden her for months. Why is Tina so miserable, and why does she place so much blame on Alpha, whose dominance of humanity has solved all of the world's problems? Throughout the course of the evening, logic clashes against depression. Rationalizations against uncompromising morality. Love against revenge.

In desperation, mankind constructs a rescue spaceship to escape a doomed planet. But will it save them? Or will they discover a secret that unravels everything they've ever believed to be true? A science fiction short story that will challenge you and have you thinking for days after you listen to it. Originally part of the anthology A Plague of Dreams, and it exists in a forest I call "Dreamwood Tales".

The city is bombed and the survivors escape on a military plane that lands on an aircraft carrier offshore. The ship runs out of food and supplies and they must dock at shore. A team of Navy seals is sent to search for food but they are killed by the largest horde of zombies ever encountered. Rochelle, Zac, Will, and James volunteer to leave the ship to search for food and supplies but escape the zombie onslaught and make it to a safe community for refuge. Except the leader of the refuge will not let them leave.

No declaration of war or acts of aggression have been made against our nation. Our military is on the highest alert. We will do everything in our power to protect our people.... What I say next is of the most importance. We must remain calm. I cannot express this enough. This is integral to our future and way of life. As we get more information, we will be in contact with broadcasts like this one. Let me assure you, your nation and this government has made prior arrangements for this awful circumstance we find ourselves in. All will be taken care of.

Don't believe everything the characters tell you. Recommended for fans of John Crowley, Paul Park, and Michael Swanwick.

Notions of the undead have fascinated and terrified humanity for centuries, and none more so than those tales revolving around zombies. From the very root of the zombie myth back in the Haitian slave days to a saturation through popular culture, zombies have crawled their way up out of their graves, refusing to stay interred. Now, as their hordes increase and their hungers grow, the undead plagues cannot be stopped. It isn't just a case of no room left on Earth. The apocalypse is here.

Perkus and Dardet scout the ruins left behind by nuclear war. Happening on a warehouse with little entry, they see an opportunity for salvage. But things hide in dark places in the wasteland.

One afternoon, young Thomas fails to return home for dinner and is soon reported as missing. His disappearance is told from the points of view of all involved, and what unfolds is a tale of ghosts, murder, grief, magic, and necromancy. It is always certain that Thomas will return...but the nature of his reappearance will haunt the minds of all protagonists involved, and each will be changed forever.

This is a short story about two people in love at the end of the world and the beginning of another. It was written on the last day of the year 2014.

An offshoot species of a parasite, normally only found in amphibians, has evolved to include humans in its bizarre, three-stage life cycle, which causes the host to grow extra limbs and other body parts. Is there a way to break the cycle and stop the decline of the human race, or will phobia, paranoia, and fear blind us and seal our fate?

A zombie apocalypse story set in the fantastical world of the North Pole. Two young elves rejected by their peers discover a terrible secret. Will the intrigue and power struggle of the North Pole condemn humanity or save it? A post-zombie-apocalypse Christmas tale with a twist.

Naaygi found them waiting for her - as she somehow knew they would be - as the cage doors opened, their forward-facing eyes glinting the same hue as the lights in the sky and their dark, storm-colored bodies held absolutely still (even as another animal joined them and brought their number to four). She even knew somehow what they were, that they were a breed of carnosaur the "evolved" humans had called nanotyrannosaurs, the "Pygmy Tyrants", and that one of them, the one with the brand upon its tail, the leader, even had a name - Napoleon.