Book picks similar to
Darkness Begins by Harley Tate
post-apocalyptic
fiction
survival
apocalypse
Hollowland
Amanda Hocking - 2010
This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door.Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.
After the Ending
Lindsey Sparks (Fairleigh) - 2013
They may have survived the apocalypse, but the Virus changed them... Grad student Dani O'Connor won't let a cross-country move end her closest friendship. But when a mysterious virus consumes the world and Dani, herself, falls violently ill, she fears she'll never see her loved ones again. After her fever finally breaks, she barely recognizes the devastated world around her. Everyone is dead. Dani is all alone. Or so she thinks... As a bartender, Zoe is used to dealing with hotheads and dirtbags, but nothing could have prepared her for the twisted thoughts of her fellow survivors. Her family is gone, and anyone left alive in the world is either sick, crazy, or changed...like her. As her newfound super senses gain strength, Zoe must learn to control them before she loses herself to madness completely. Perilous terrain spans the distance between them, and deranged survivors lurk in dark corners everywhere. Can Dani and Zoe overcome deadly attacks and unseen dangers in order to find each other? Or will they lose their way--and their lives--along the journey? After The Ending is the first book in the evocative, superpowered post-apocalyptic adventure, The Ending Series. If you like unbreakable friendships, gritty dystopian settings, and a touch of romance, then you'll love Lindsey Pogue and Lindsey Fairleigh's heart-wrenching tale. Buy After The Ending to embark on a supernatural survival story today! THE ENDING SERIES After The Ending Into The Fire Out Of The Ashes Before The Dawn The Ending Beginnings: A Collection of Stories World Before: A Collection of Stories
Love and Decay, Episode One
Rachel Higginson - 2013
Now, two years later, and in need of a serious shower, she’s just over the entire concept of a soul mate- or really, any kind of mate.Well, mostly anyway. When she runs- literally- into a group of boys holed up in a relative utopia of peanut butter and bottled water, maybe all hope in the love department is not lost.But at the end of the world, nothing can be simple. And with a horde of Zombies after her, Reagan is going to have to schedule falling in love between hunting and surviving. Hopefully she can last long enough find out if true love can still exist when everything else has started to fall apart.Love and Decay, Episode One, the first in a novella series in a Dystopian Romance about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with.This story takes place over multiple episodes, with a release date every two weeks. Approximately 20,000 words.
The Defiant: Grid Down
John W. Vance - 2015
Then that day came… When Nicholas McNeil, a father and dedicated husband, turned out the lights in his suburban home Sunday night, they would never turn on again. During the early Monday morning hours, a spectacular and well coordinated attack destroys the grid and brings the United States to its knees. Nicholas was a man who had heeded the warnings to a degree, but most did not. With a society unprepared and a government overwhelmed, panic turns to chaos and soon violence. Fighting for what resources are still available, Nicholas and his family also find themselves fighting to survive as society turns on itself.
Summer
V.L. Dreyer - 2013
Within a year, it had decimated our world. Our species is on the verge of extinction. Only a few of us have survived; those of us lucky enough to be born with a natural immunity to the plague. We scavenge amongst the ruins of our old civilizations, picking out a living from the devastation.Ten years ago, I watched my family die one by one. Now, I am alone. The year is 2024; it has been a decade since the virus reduced humanity to a scattering of survivors strewn out across the world.The rules that governed our society are gone.Without laws to protect the innocent, I have seen the worst of humanity throughout the years. Now, I have found a new family who are determined to show me the best. But a fresh mutation of the virus has started turning the harmless, pathetic infected into monstrous predatory creatures bent on our destruction; even the wildlife is turning against us.We are forced to leave our home and flee for our lives. It is only through unity that we stand any chance of survival. Enemies wait around every turn. For the sake of our children and our children’s children, we must find some way to survive and flourish again. If we fail, then the human species will cease to exist.My name is Sandy McDermott, and I am a survivor. This is my story.
Without
E.E. Borton - 2012
Mother Nature had been sending signs for three years, but most didn’t pay attention until she pulled the plug on everything. Nobody will forget where they were and what they were doing at 8:13 on that morning. They’re all still waiting for 8:14. Well, at least the ones that have made it so far. He was stuck in Atlanta traffic, making his way to work, when the world fell silent. His car, his radio, his phone, his watch, anything that needed a spark, a battery, or an outlet died. The silence didn’t last long and neither did she. He didn’t know if the yellow sundress was the first to die, but he does know that she wasn’t the last. Not even close. As aircraft fell out of the sky, panicked drivers lost control in the fast lane, and pace makers stopped keeping their rhythms, he got out of his car and popped the trunk. Most didn’t pay attention, but he did. And he knew what was coming. Three years earlier during the first city-wide blackout in Atlanta, he lost his Samantha to cowards who were never caught. Those looking to take advantage didn’t hesitate, wreaking havoc at every opportunity. It took less than an hour after the event for society to start its disintegration. He made a promise to himself never to feel that helpless again. He wasn’t a soldier or a cop, but he was one of the few that did have a plan. Get out of the city, get away from people, and don’t hesitate. May God have mercy on their souls, because he won’t.
The 5th Wave
Rick Yancey - 2013
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother-or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
Hunger
Keith Taylor - 2016
The world looked on as millions of innocent lives were snuffed out in a matter of hours. Millions of men, women and children slaughtered without mercy, killed by a violent mob that attacked without reason, motive or warning.Tom Freeman saw the aftermath. He reported on the tragedy and looked into the eyes of the sole survivor, and what he saw looking back sent him running home to the United States. Back to safety. Back to a place where the world makes sense, and the putrid stink of the dead doesn't haunt his nightmares.He didn't run quickly enough. They're coming.Remain indoors...Gather supplies...Find a weapon...They're here. HUNGER is the opening book of the terrifying post-apocalyptic LAST MAN STANDING series.
Fortress Britain
Glynn James - 2012
Now Fortress Britain is the last bastion of the living - with 50 million beleaguered survivors facing down a world of 7 billion animated corpses.And when civilization fell, one international team of supremely elite special operators was being assembled for a nearly impossible mission, deployed out of the SAS barracks at Hereford. Supremely trained and armed, always the most skilled, resolved, and unstoppable amongst us, now the commandos of Alpha team are humanity's last best hope for survival. Searching through the detritus of fallen Europe, scavenging pharmaceutical labs for clues to a vaccine that might bring humanity back from the brink, now they are tasked with one last desperate operation.They must cross the Atlantic aboard the world's only remaining supercarrier, insert by air into the very middle of a dead continent, and then fight their way on foot through a city of 3 million ravening dead guys. But these Zulus will not be like any zombies they have ever fought before...
Outland
Dennis E. Taylor - 2015
"When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Richard and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. They go panning for gold and become millionaires overnight, while fantasizing about Nobel Prizes and patents. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts on Earth in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet. Richard and his friends have less than an afternoon to get as many people as possible across to Outland before Nebraska is covered in a lethal cloud of ash. Now Richard finds himself in charge of a disorganized and frightened band of reluctant pioneers, on a world with none of the modern infrastructure that people have come to depend on. Richard has been a loner all his life, and has always wanted to be part of something bigger– but this is far more than he bargained for. If he doesn’t get this right, it’s not just the lives of the people in his care that could be lost– it may very well be the end of human civilization.
Unprepared
Tom Abrahams - 2020
And Mike Crenshaw is totally unprepared.
From the world of The Traveler Series comes a new cast of characters, new obstacles, and the same devastating, world-altering virus which plunges society into the depth of a dystopian hell.UNPREPARED begins in the hours before The Scourge takes hold. As if ripped from today's headlines, governments react too slowly and the disease spreads too fast. Quarantines don't work. Infrastructure fails. People die.Follow Mike and his friends as they try to survive this new landscape and find out how the world in which The Traveler Series was set came into being. It's a thrill ride that will keep you up at night with the lights on and the doors locked.
The Long Fall
Logan Keys - 2018
A soldier in Poland dies in a mysterious accident. A reporter in Manhattan stumbles across a conspiracy that has global consequences. As millions succumb to the strange attack across the globe, a handful of brave souls must step forward and fight not just for their own survival but that of the entire human race. The Long Fall is a thrilling post-apocalyptic episodic series that follows the survivors of a global catastrophie that threatens the survival of the entire world. As each survivor learns more about the reasons and sources behind the apocalypse, they must work to save themselves and their families as they seek a way to reverse the disaster before it's too late. Written as a collaboration between Logan Keys and #1 bestselling post-apocalyptic author Mike Kraus, The Long Fall is a gripping and unique take on the post-apocalyptic genre, and one that will leave you breathless with every turn of the page. The Long Fall will feature approximately ten episodic (25k-35k words in length) books that are full of action, suspense, emotion and drama as the survivors of a global disaster struggle to survive the end of days. Episodes will be published once per month.
Rain
Shaun Harbinger - 2014
Trapped in a dead end job and spending his weekends gaming, Alex is coasting through life at his own pace. But one fateful weekend, he agrees to go hiking with his pal Mike. Mike’s girlfriend, Elena, is bringing her friend Lucy along and that is good enough reason for Alex to endure gruelling hikes along a mountain range in Wales. The day the four friends hit the mountains, the outbreak begins. Day Z has arrived. Alex’s radio receives mysterious reports of savage attacks in London before switching to the Emergency Broadcast System. The dead are rising, and the living must fight for survival. Fighting hordes of zombies and avoiding army patrols, Alex and his friends must reach the coast, and the safety of the sea. But then their problems will just begin…
Pandemic
A.G. Riddle - 2017
It may be the start of a scientific experiment that could alter the human race forever--and reveal a shocking truth about our future.Experience the groundbreaking novel that will change everything you think you know about pandemics--and how to survive one.“Reads like a superior collaboration between Dan Brown and Michael Crichton.”—The GuardianNow an Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.A hundred miles north of Alaska, a US Coast Guard vessel discovers a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. It has no national identification and doesn’t match the records of any known vessel. Deep within, researchers find evidence of a scientific experiment that will rewrite our basic understanding of the human race.In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC’s leading epidemiologist, she’s among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It’s a lonely and dangerous job, but it’s her life—and she’s good at it. This time, she may have met her match.In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death’s door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO. What they find in the remote village is beyond their worst fears. As she traces the origin of the pathogen, Peyton begins to believe that there is more to this outbreak—that it may be merely the opening act in a conspiracy with far reaching consequences.In Berlin, Desmond Hughes awakens in a hotel room with no memory of how he got there or who he is. On the floor, he finds a dead security guard from an international pharmaceutical company. His only clue leads him to Peyton Shaw—a woman who seems to know him, but refuses to tell him how. With the police searching the city for him, Desmond desperately tries to piece together what happened to him. To his shock and horror, he learns that he may be involved in causing the outbreak—and could hold the only key to stopping it.As the pathogen spreads around the world, Peyton and Desmond race to unravel the conspiracy behind the pandemic—and uncover secrets some want to keep buried. With time running out, they face an unimaginable decision.Buy now and begin the journey (or read for free in Kindle Unlimited).Selected Praise and Published Reviews“I finished the book fast because I just couldn’t wait...”—WIRED GeekDad on Departure“Riddle makes an effort to keep the focus on how his characters react to each other (including to their future selves) rather than to the technological marvels that reshaped their world.”—Publisher’s Weekly on Departure“Well-constructed and tightly-wound as a fine Swiss watch—Departure has non-stop action, an engaging plot and, of course, wheels within wheels.”—Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander on Departure About Pandemic