The shot heard 'round the world at Lexington and Concord in 1775 birthed a nation. Less than a century later, cannons firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina thrust that same nation into a civil war. The assassination of an obscure archduke sparked a chain of events leading to World War I. The dastardly bombing of Pearl Harbor led America into the Second World War.Akart's new novel, Nuclear Winter First Strike, depicts a world on the edge of nuclear Armageddon. Will history repeat itself as warring nations take their battles to the highest level of destruction? Can America avoid being drawn into these conflicts beyond her borders?Nuclear Armageddon hangs over us like a mighty sword and ordinary Americans will be caught in the crosshairs.This is more than the story of nuclear conflict. It's about the devastating effects wrought by Nuclear Winter. Our possible future is seen through the eyes of the Albright family whose roots stretch back to the early settlement of the Florida Keys.Hank Albright, a widower and proprietor of the Driftwood Key Inn, is the epitome of the laid-back islander inhabiting the Keys. His brother, Mike, is a homicide detective for the Monroe County Sheriff's department. Along with his wife Jessica, a paramedic and member of the Sheriff's department water emergency team, they become involved in the investigation of a sadistic serial killer.Hank's son, Peter Albright, is a Washington, DC reporter covering the State Department. He's unknowingly thrust into the middle of the conflict in the Middle East. Upon his return home, he begins to unravel a conspiracy leading to an unexpected dynamic between the President, the Secretary of State, and North Korea.As the drumbeats of war beat louder, Hank's oldest child, Lacey McDowell, begins to sense the warning signs. Along with her husband, Owen, and teenage son, Tucker, she begins to prepare for a hasty exit from their San Francisco Bay Area home.Will America become embroiled in the nuclear conflict? Will the President cross the Rubicon, that point of no return after which lives and cities may be destroyed? For the Albrights, like their fellow Americans, their lives are about to change forever.It was not our fight, but it became our problem.

     “My name is Anne Mathews. I'm a prepper. But I haven't always been. This is how it started.”

    After Jeremy Breckinridge’s wife dies, he’ll do anything he can to care for his two girls. He resigns from the Army and settles into a quiet Tennessee county to raise his family and help run the family businesses. However, the Breckinridge’s have a well-concealed secret. They are survivalists focused on protecting their family and allies from any large-scale disruption. When the SHTF, they learn no plan survives contact with reality. While they have prepared more extensively than their neighbors, even they find themselves stretched to provide for Breckinridge Valley’s growing population. Jeremy is shocked by how quickly societal norms break down outside the relative oasis of Breckinridge Valley. When a local militia and then a depraved deputy threaten to take over the area, Breckinridge Valley must act to preserve its future. This electrifying novel of persistence demonstrates the expanding versatility of new author Zack Finley. This dystopian novel features well-researched survival tips and ideas against the backdrop of rural America. The Surviving the Black series presents one version of a possible future, should American society continue its increasing dependence on a poorly managed electrical grid and food supplies coming from half a continent away. Mature themes, not suitable for persons under 18.

    AN EXPLOSIVE DISASTER. A DESPERATE STRUGGLE TO GET HOME. PILGRIMAGE is a stand-alone post-apocalyptic story of survival. It was previously published as three separate novellas: Crossing, Refuge, and Advent. High School teacher James Rockwell is vacationing in Maine with his family, when an earth-changing explosion sends them on a race for their lives. Their first step is escaping an island in the midst of a tsunami, and it only gets more dangerous from there. Can they find their way home as civilization crumbles around them? And if they do, what horrors will they find? It's a bullet-train of a thriller riding on the edge of the rails to the last page.

    The United States, already weakened by internal strife, becomes the target of an international terror plot. A series of attacks results in thousands of casualties and disables the country's core infrastructure. The combination of economic hardship and the staggering blow of the terror attacks results in a collapse of the government.This is a realistic story of how an average, middle class couple survives the cascading events brought on by international politics, high tech military actions and the eventual downfall of society. All of their survival skills are tested during the action packed expedition in a world that resembles the American West of 200 years past.Holding Their Own II: The IndependentsHolding Their Own III: Pedestals of Ash

    With the American people deep in The Second Great Depression and two of the most powerful hurricanes on record to contend with, the United States is in no condition to deal with hidden terrorists on its soil, maniacal politicians, and the most formidable military threat the world has seen since the Third Reich. This is the story of three men from three very different walks of life: Howard Beck, the world's richest man, also diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome; Richard Dupree, ex-Navy SEAL turned escaped convict; and Maxwell Harris, a crippled, burned-out chief of police of a small Texas town. At first, they must overcome their own struggles and fight for their survival against impossible odds. In the end, the unlikely trio must band together to save their beloved country from COLLAPSE. Empires topple. Nations crumble. Civilization is fragile. In 2027, America will fall.

    One family's struggle to survive as a deadly pandemic sweeps the nation. This book both entertains and prepares at the same time. Reading this book might save your life if the Ebola virus or Avian flu turns into a pandemic." Preparedness consultant-2014  The Jakarta Pandemic: The People's Republic of China announces strict travel restrictions...  Indonesia goes dark...  Cases of an uncategorized influenza virus appear in major cities around the globe...  Department of Health and Human Services officials claim that measures have been taken to safeguard the American public...  Most ignore the warnings...  Alex Fletcher, Iraq War veteran, has read the signs for years. A seasoned sales representative for Biosphere Pharmaceuticals, he understands the unique dangers of a pandemic flu and has taken the necessary steps to prepare. With his family and home mobilized to endure an extended period of seclusion, Alex thinks he's ready for the pandemic. He's not even close.  The lethal H16N1 virus rapidly spreads across the nation, stretching the fragile bonds of society to the breaking point. Schools close, grocery stores empty, fuel deliveries stop, hospitals start turning away the sick...riots engulf the cities.  As hostility and mistrust engulfs his idyllic Maine neighborhood, Alex quickly realizes that the H16N1 virus will be the least of his problems.  The Jakarta Pandemic  is a terrifying, cautionary tale that explores the depths of human desperation and its unremitting influence on our decisions. - The sequel, The Perseid Collapse, is now available -  "It delivers a vicious punch of violence and heroism for the reader to endure and admire. I could hardly put The Jakarta Pandemic down until I finished it." - Amazon Reviewer (2012) "The tension builds as difficult choices are made, when no good options seem to be available. I found certain segments to be uncomfortably realistic, at times creepy in the way you could feel things closing in around the family." - Amazon Reviewer (2013) "It makes you think just how prepared you really are for any kind of emergency. It makes you question your resolve in a potential crisis. How far are you willing to go to protect your loved ones? Every day that goes by, these characters have to question what is right and what is wrong. Take the trip thru this book. You won't be disappointed." - Amazon Reviewer (2013) "Pay attention as you may learn a few things in this book that could help you make the best of an emergency situation. For that matter some of the info in this book may very well save your life." - Amazon Reviewer (2013) "Anyone who has relished running to the hardware store before a big storm to stock up on essentials will be drawn to Steve Konkoly's intricately-researched and drawn breakdown of our supply systems, and transfixed by his description of what it takes to survive six months of enforced isolation behind the locked(booby-trapped, draped and shuttered) doors of one's own home.

    Living on the outskirts of a city and scavenging for whatever supplies remain after civilization died two years ago, Gus knows that every time he goes down into undead suburbia could be his last.A novel of the zombie apocalypse. *First book of a completed 4-book series.* Contains graphic language and scenes of violence. Complete series order:Book 1: Mountain ManBook 2: SafariBook 3: HellifaxBook 4: Well FedAlso :The Hospital (a single short story, also part of the collection "CauldronGristle." This story happens six months before the events of "MountainMan." )

    With no food deliveries, no vehicles working, society begins to unravel.Starvation and death begin to reign and panic leads to violence. Marauding gangs roam the countryside, stealing, killing or worse and cities begin to wall themselves off from the danger outside.As society breaks down, Jason heads to the Appalachian Mountains to avoid the growing anarchy, hoping to wait out the chaos. The gangs threaten but loneliness becomes his biggest enemy as the solitude envelopes him.In a secluded mountain valley he finds a woman, Anne, and her two daughters struggling to survive. They are near starvation when Jason shows up.Violence soon follows him. Survival will mean fighting...and killing. The power hasn't returned, the country is still shattered and Jason and Anne must struggle for a new life in a dangerous world.If you like "One Second After" and other survival/post-apocalyptic stories, you will enjoy this personal story of trying to survive and thrive after an EMP attack.

    All that changes the day the red rain falls from a cloudless sky. Just hours after the first reports from Europe, humanity is on the brink of extinction, wiped from the face of the earth in a few bloody moments, leaving Emily alone in an empty city. As she struggles to grasp the magnitude of her situation, Emily becomes the final witness to the end of our world… and the birth of a terrifying new one. The world she knew and loved is dead and gone. Now Emily must try to find a way out of New York as the truth behind the red rain is revealed: the earth no longer belongs to humanity.

    In Paris, a covert agent, a woman who inhabits a twilight of lies and death, is close to cracking a terrorist cell. And just north of the equator, a forty-foot wood-hulled sailboat, manned by a drug runner, a pirate, and two gun-slinging beauties, is witness to the unspeakable. In one instant, all around the world, for politicians and peasants, from Gaza to Geneva, things will never be the same. A wave of inexplicable energy has slammed into the continental United States. America, as we know it, is gone. . . . WITHOUT WARNING Now U.S. soldiers are fighting a war without command or control. A correspondent records horrors for no one. Washington is gone and the line of succession is in tatters; the functioning remnants of government are in Pearl Harbor, Guantánamo Bay, and one desperate, isolated corner of the Northwest. For the jihadists, it’s Allah’s miracle. For Saddam, it’s a chance to attack. Iran declares war on an America that doesn’t exist–except in the hearts and souls of the men and women who want it to.In this astounding work of alternate fiction, John Birmingham hurtles us into a scenario that is unimaginable but shatteringly real: a world of financial ruin where a cloud of noxious waste–from America’s burning cities–darkens Europe, while men and women in offices around the globe struggle to make decisions that cannot hold and opportunists unleash their secret demons.From a slick Texas lawyer who happens to be in the right place at the right time to a hard-working city engineer in Seattle who becomes his terrified city’s only hope, from the cancer-stricken secret agent to a drug runner off the Mexican coast and a U.S. general in Cuba, Without Warning tells a fast, furious story of survival, violence, and a new, soul-shattering reality.

    Can you imagine a world with no phones, no TV, no internet, and no way to access your bank account? Without the electric grid, there would be no lights, no heating or air conditioning in your house, no public water, and the sewer would likely back up into your home. Without modern vehicles or interstate trucking, the supermarkets would quickly run out of food and supplies. Unprepared, the government would be helpless to feed the masses and maintain order. Our humanity is questioned when survival of the fittest becomes reality. Jonathan Hollerman paints a vivid and disturbing picture of society falling apart after an Electromagnetic Pulse attack against our nation. This is not only a thrilling story, but offers practical life-saving advice for an imminent threat. If you enjoyed "Patriots" by James Wesley Rawles or "One Second After" by William Forstchen, then you will enjoy this story of survival.2nd Edition (Jan 8th, 2014) has been professionally edited.

    She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them--and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them--the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart--or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

    For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it’s the end she’d always been told was coming.When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life—until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there’s something far more sinister at play and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.

    She never imagined it would go this far. It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it human-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game. Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes. But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing. Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.