In the wake of the cataclysmic events that reshaped our world in 2020, a sense of relief washed over us all. By late 2023, I think we were ready to just live life again. I know I was. It was a time to make new friends and put the past to rest. Rayne and I hadn’t known each other long, but we were building a solid friendship, nothing more. It was our common interests that sent us on vacation together to my remote cabin. What we didn’t, couldn’t know, was that we were on a collision course with the end of the world as we knew it.

Before the lights went out, Jack Warrant never considered himself a prepper. That was someone on the edge, a conspiracy theorist or a doomsday cultist who had a fatalistic view of the world. He was neither a theorist nor a cultist. He was an optimist. At least that was what he told himself when the darker thoughts creeped into his psyche as he stared at the ceiling in the middle of the night. Whenever he started down the rabbit hole, he always clawed his way back into the sunlight.

Bombs are dropping, and dead people are trying to eat him. But Weller just can’t seem to let go of the very human conspiracy that ruined his life before the world went to hell. Lucky for him, the zombie apocalypse has brought out some other undead fiends—the kind that have been living off of humanity’s scraps for centuries.

Lifelong best friends Max and Jesse are six stories high working a construction job, when the gates of Hell explode in downtown Cleveland. They bear witness to the furious beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse. Trapped in the middle of the city, the pair must fight their way back to the only thing that matters…their families.

A strange phenomenon enters Earth’s orbit. Those who see it become mesmerized. Cars surge out of control, planes fall from the sky. Casualties pile up and society’s resources are stretched thin to manage the fallout. This is only the first day. A nurse, a death row inmate, and an orphan cross paths as they try to understand the Eye of God. They realize the Eye’s grip on humanity is just a fleeting stage, and those affected are transforming into something more sinister.

Years after the outbreak of a mysterious pandemic, hardly any survivors are left in the quarantined wasteland of North America. Hunger and the menace of man-eaters are nothing compared to the ferals–those who were infected and mutated by the virus. The ferals have an unquenchable need to hunt and kill, and even a single bite will quickly transform human into a rabid beast. Two survivors, the pregnant Megan and her brother David, leave a deserted colony to seek a safer haven.

The end of the world usually signals the end of life. But for convicted murderer Frank Lee, it was only the beginning. With his newfound freedom, Frank suddenly has the world at his feet. The only downside: all the damn cannibals!

A virus released from the permafrost leaves humanity’s survival on a razor’s edge–and Hannah Aldeen’s family in the crosshairs of an unrelenting threat.

On a hot July day on the plains of Kansas, a US Army mechanized infantry company from the First Infantry Division gets a very vague warning order, and the young troopers saddle up on their steel beasts to go try to control "civil unrest".

This is ridiculous. I mean seriously. I work for years, since I was in high school for crap’s sake, to be prepared for any emergency, anytime. I study, I train, I keep up with the news. I look for new products, I scour the web for suggestions about things I should always have on hand. I took training courses.

These 31 stories are fiction. Short and scary. Delivered to you in small, terrifying bursts, much the way you’d experience each individual room in a haunted-house attraction. They were specifically written to be enjoyed by both the not-too-young and old alike. Inside, you’ll find horror, drama, even a few laughs - and zombies. Zombies by the ton. Gnawing, gnashing, stumbling, and staring... Right. At. You. Waiting…for a bite-sized offering.

Patrick and Clare wake up trapped in a basement, a thin wall separating their cells. Their captor is mysteriously absent, which at first seems like a blessing. As more time passes with no food or water, they begin to realize a clock is ticking for their survival. Combining their intelligence and determination, the two begin plotting an escape from their shared prison. Overcoming each obstacle only presents another obstacle standing in the way of their freedom. It will take all of their ingenuity and strength to find their way out of this mess.

It all starts with a single dead person coming back to life. Within three days, the undead have taken over most of town. Despite heroic efforts and swift initiatives from the government, disaster keeps spiraling. Soon, the infection reaches the nation's borders, threatening to become a worldwide pandemic.

BANGKOK, MARCH 2018. The world looked on in horror as millions of innocent lives were snuffed out in a matter of hours. Countless men, women and children slaughtered without mercy, torn apart by a violent mob that attacked without reason, motive or warning. Tom Freeman witnessed the aftermath. He reported on the tragedy and looked into the eyes of the sole survivor, an old friend, and what he saw looking back sent him running home to the United States. Back to safety. Back to a place where the world made sense, and the putrid stink of the dead didn't haunt his nightmares.

When two teenagers stumble upon a frozen corpse deep in the woods, they make the fateful decision to bring it back to town—unaware they’ve just unleashed the apocalypse. In the morgue beneath the hospital, the dead begin to stir, attacking the living and spreading a relentless infection. The once-quiet town quickly descends into chaos as the hospital becomes a battleground, its halls soaked in blood as survivors fight to escape the growing horde.

There's over a million people in the city of Waterloo. Today, most of them have died, and now they're hungry. Corporal Dan Williamson is caught in the middle of the outbreak, desperately trying to reach his wife who is somewhere amid the urban decay. There are other souls out there, other tales of survival among the horror. Dan will soon learn that the living may prove to be an even bigger threat than the dead.

When Savannah disappears soon after arguing with her mom's boyfriend, everyone assumes she's run away. The truth is much worse. She's been kidnapped by a man in a white van who locks her in an old trailer home, far from prying eyes. And worse yet, Savannah's not alone: 10 months earlier, Jenny met the same fate and nearly died trying to escape. Now as the two girls wonder if he will hold them captive forever or kill them, they must join forces to break out - even if it means they die trying.

In Drawn, a mysterious little boy has begun appearing in the paintings of an artist who can't remember ever actually seeing him. A partially blind, disfigured agoraphobic who suffers crippling panic attacks if he even tries to leave his apartment is forced out by an unseen entity. A lonely widower begins to suffer terrifying nightmares that his long-missing, presumed-dead son is still alive and in mortal danger. A young runaway realizes that a man he thought was his traveling companion is actually his captor...and a predator.

My name is Mara, and I want desperately to become a mother. All of my dreams were dashed when the world was promised hope but instead became a place of danger, death...and monsters. Nevermores, human but feral and lethal creatures with a thirst for flesh, have arisen from the ashes of human hope. Now co-inhabitants in this new world, I am gaining ground in my understanding of them just as I am forced to face a new threat from the local militia.

A breakthrough research project has detected an active gene present in all known psychopaths and developed a vaccine to make it completely dormant. Society has rejoiced the extinction of the sociopathic mind. There hasn’t been a serial killing in America in over 40 years. Sheriff MacArthur Gray resides in the future but lives in the past. His world views have chased him from a large metropolis to his home town, but there is no sanctuary to be found after he arrives. Because people are dying and only he can see the truth. A psychopath has somehow survived and is thriving.

A volcanic eruption on the other side of the globe is the beginning of the end of the world. Oblivious to the changes were Ron Ash and his small Texas town. Then a dam brakes and washes away nearly everything and everyone they knew, including Ron’s wife.

Tahoma - the Native tribal name for Mt. Rainier - wakes up after a devastating 9.0 earthquake shatters the Pacific Northwest. Entire counties are covered in mud, rock, and earth. Landslides and tsunamis add to the annihilation. Power and internet are knocked out to the entire American West. Hundreds of thousands die on the first day of the New World.

Even before becoming a husband and father, safety had been Shane McDonald’s priority for most of his 45 years. As a nuclear engineer, it’s his responsibility to keep the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant functioning at optimum levels to avoid what protesters fear most: a meltdown. But when a coronal mass ejection from the sun wipes out power across the globe, stopping a nuclear chain reaction is no longer his primary concern.

Lance was just trying to get through his terrible day when his world came crashing down. As the blazing sun dipped below the horizon, Lance's heart pounded in his chest, each beat pushing him closer to the edge of desperation. Racing against time and a cosmic cataclysm, he must navigate a ravaged world after a monstrous CME strikes the Earth, plunging it into darkness. But this harrowing journey is not solely to survive the aftermath; it's a race to reach his injured father in distant Kansas, where a lonely farmhouse stands as their last beacon of hope.

In the tumultuous life of Siena Lang, each passing day morphs into an arduous battle. A wretched job, a paltry salary, and the haunting void left by the loss of her parents converge into a catastrophe that defines her existence. The belief that things couldn't possibly worsen shatter when her younger brother, Max, calls her in a panic.

After a sudden mysterious disease is unleashed on the country, claiming millions of lives, including that of his family, Mark is left alone. The cities are in chaos with survivors killing for food and water. Knowing as supplies dwindle the insanity will spread to his neighborhood, he creates a fortress in the basement of his suburban home, stock piles food, water, weapons, and medical supplies, and stays out of sight during the day.

Navigating life was already no picnic for Riley, a young widowed surgeon with a teenage daughter. Now, it will take near superhuman courage to find safe harbor in a world gone mad. With the help of a brilliant but quirky cardiologist named Coop, she must conquer her fears, traverse hundreds of miles of frozen terrain, and survive hostile confrontations to get her daughter, Julia, to safety. Will she have the strength and determination to ensure they survive?

In a frozen wasteland where survival hangs by a thread, Simon Frost and his band of hardened warriors embark on a daring mission. With their lives on the line, they scour the treacherous landscape in search of vital resources to keep their camp alive. But when they encounter a ruthless adversary, they find themselves outnumbered and outmatched as a relentless battle erupts. Bullets tear through the air, and the stench of blood saturates the earth as they fight tooth and nail, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.

When two teenagers stumble upon a frozen corpse deep in the woods, they make the fateful decision to bring it back to town—unaware they’ve just unleashed the apocalypse. In the morgue beneath the hospital, the dead begin to stir, attacking the living and spreading a relentless infection. The once-quiet town quickly descends into chaos as the hospital becomes a battleground, its halls soaked in blood as survivors fight to escape the growing horde.

Stuck in Boston at a technology conference with his wife and children at their cabin in Tennessee, Jake Walton becomes trapped as multiple category five hurricanes devastate the east coast. As the situation worsens and an unknown foe begins to target key infrastructure points across the country, he will risk everything to get back to his family.

Special Forces Captain Cade Rearden struggles to control the whispers in his head. Plagued by multiple personality disorder, he nearly spirals into insanity after extremists kill his whole team and hold him captive. Defeated but not broken, he can hardly believe it when an artificial intelligence named Doris rescues him and then recruits him for an impossible mission.

Clint Redshaw walks into a port facility meeting expecting an ordinary day arguing about the budget. When the shaking starts, he keeps calm. But as the tremors stretch on and on, the ground rips apart, the dock disintegrates, and chunks of land fall into the Strait. When the quake finally ends, there's only one thing on his mind: his daughter. Mika's singing songs and laughing with a gaggle of other sixteen-year-olds as they climb into the Pacific Northwest mountains for a scout weekend. One minute, it's sunshine and good vibes, and the next, it's screaming and chaos.

When a viral apocalypse kills 97 percent of the people on the planet, the survivors' humanity is hanging by a thread. Amid the leftovers of civilization, ex-Army Ranger Jason Larsen is reminded of the meaning of hope, family, and loyalty by a dog and a young boy who are as alone as he is. The survivors he seems to collect become family, and that is very bad news for those who think they run the apocalypse.

When a killer comet hurtles toward Earth, 18-year-old Joanna Murphy is selected to wait out the apocalypse in an underground bunker. She enters cryosleep with her close-knit team, preparing to resettle the planet after the atmosphere clears in 200 years. Joanna is the only one who wakes up. Faced with a bunker full of bones and a blocked exit, Joanna must claw her way to the surface, figure out what happened to her team, and try not to panic - or die. That’s going to be tricky if she’s the only person left in the world.

What would you do if the world you knew disappeared in a flash? "Blood is Thicker Series Book 1: Family Reunion" invites you into an enthralling saga of determination, heartache, and the enduring strength of family ties in the face of dystopian chaos. In this masterful blend of post-apocalyptic fiction and disaster survival narrative, Joe Kelly must marshal his family's courage to traverse a once-familiar world transformed into an unforgiving wilderness by an EMP disaster.