Book picks similar to
Instant Darkness by Mark J. Russell


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The Last Town


Stephen Knight - 2017
    A flu-like plague that infected thousands and killed roughly ten percent of its victims. Those who died awoke once again, but they were no longer among the living--they came back as soulless carnivorous corpses who desired only one thing: to feed on living human flesh. As the infection spread, across Europe and the rest of the globe, cities were overwhelmed. Nations fell. Humanity flickered like a candle flame in the wind. In the United States: the nation's great cities are becoming hunting grounds. New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles...all are falling victim to hordes of shambling dead who want only one thing: to devour the living. Single Tree, California is a small resort town in Inyo County. Between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, it's easy to overlook. And that's exactly what the citizens of Single Tree want, for the stenches and those fleeing them to ignore the town long enough for it to be transformed into a desert fortress at the foot of Mount Whitney. But time is not on their side. Not only do they have to worry about the dead... they have to fear the living.

The Unraveling: Book 1 of the Bound to Survive Series


Charley Hogwood - 2019
    “On day 16, the symptoms either begin to subside, or the patient suffers a massive seizure and expires.”– CDC Outbreak Update When Cal Bohannon went to work on Friday morning, he felt the world was teetering on a knife’s edge but what he didn’t expect was a microscopic enemy rapidly spreading south of the border.New to preparing for disasters, Cal’s family, along with a small band of friends, will have their survival plans tested as the fragile threads of society quickly unravel around them.Can the fledgling group come together in time as the authorities scramble to gain control over the sudden contagion and hysteria?What if the virus isn’t their biggest problem but just the beginning of something much worse?

Apocalypse Coming- (Revised Edition) A Novel of Tribulation and Survival (The Tears of Ephraim: Book One)


Cindy Dunaway - 2018
    Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."After a political protest is hijacked by anarchists, mob mentality takes over and violent riots start breaking out in many of our major cities.At the same time, part of the west coast is trying to recover from a series of devastating earthquakes, severe drought, and widespread wildfires.These, nearly simultaneous events, cause a record drop in our modern-day stock market, and due to a national debt of over $28 trillion, the value of the dollar is on the edge of collapsing causing massive layoffs to start taking place across the country. Our enemies see our weakness and know it's time to try and take their place as world leaders, but they know they must find a way to neutralize our military strength. Two countries have come up with a way to do just that and have set everything into motion. Vince and Kim Johnson live on a farm 40 miles to the southeast of Kansas City, Missouri.After serving 17 years in the Army, due to an injury, Vince had to take early medical retirement. Now, the most he thinks he must fight is his ongoing pain. Little does he know that a chain of events is about to take place that will test all his training and leadership skills.They are reunited with family, inexperienced friends, plus four of the men Vince served with while in the Army, to prepare and try to survive what might be the start of the actual apocalypse.*ADVISORY: Our three-book series isn't for everyone as it's intentionally written to be a bit provocative, and contains some adult language.

The Journey Home


John Winchester - 2017
    Separated by half a continent after an EMP attack sends the United States back to the Stone Age, the Millers are desperate to reunite as they struggle to survive. Jack Miller isn’t too worried about the apocalypse. He has been prepping for a few years and has a basement stocked with the food and supplies his family needs to ride out a disaster. Today though, he is out of town on a business trip. An EMP strike delivered by a rogue nation leaves him stranded over a thousand miles away from his home. This is the last place he expected to be during a disaster. He sets out on an epic journey home armed only with his know how and survival skills. What he encounters leaves him questioning how prepared any lone man can be. Amy Miller is all set to enjoy a well deserved vacation day. She’s a hard working mother of two with a full time career and rarely has a quiet moment to herself. The EMP throws a wrench in the works and leaves her unprepared for the chaos to follow. With the city falling down around her ears, she is pushed to the limit. Her suburban home is well stocked with supplies, but she clings to the hope that order will be restored. Faced with the darker side of humanity, will she overcome her inhibitions and do whatever it takes to protect her family?

Surviving the Collapse: A Tale Of Survival In A Powerless World- Book 1


James Hunt - 2017
    What happens when all means of transportation and communication suddenly vanish? What happens when you can’t call for help? What happens when the only person you can rely on is yourself? Captain Kate Hillman is about to discover those answers after an EMP sends New York City, and it’s nine million residents, back into the stone age.

American Survivor


A.J. Newman - 2018
    The North Koreans launch a surprise Nuclear EMP attack on the USA. Our hero, Joe doesn’t care about politics or what happened, he just knows his world went to Hell. Planes fell out of the sky, people went nuts looting and killing as he scrambled to hide from all of the craziness. Joe had a cabin and land in Southern Oregon when TSHTF and retreated to the cabin to survive the massive die-off that was always predicted for an apocalypse. The weeks before the Grid went down weren’t much better for Joe because his best friend, his fiance, and his beloved Grandma all died during the weeks leading up to lights out. Joe was a young auto mechanic whose only stress in life was from a domineering girlfriend, and now he has to learn how to survive in a Post-Apocalyptic world without military or survival training. To make matters, worse others look to him for support and guidance. Read American Survivor to find out how a regular guy survives in a Post-Apocalyptic world. AJ Newman

Caldwell's Homestead


Millie Copper - 2019
    They have tried to plan for everything, but they never imagined this would happen. Recently, personal tragedy nearly devastated Mollie and Jake, leaving them struggling to rebuild their relationship while they consider selling the farm.  Now, as disaster strikes, Mollie is away on business, leaving Jake and ten-year-old Malcolm to prepare for the worst. Daughter Katie, soon to start her final year of college and planning a mission trip afterward, is over a thousand miles from home. The older children, and their spouses, live within an easy drive—under normal times. In this first installment of the Havoc in Wyoming series, they'll soon find themselves in a chaotic new world, where nothing is normal or easy, it's downright dangerous. Will the Caldwells’ planning, provisions, and faith be enough? Or have the recent changes in their relationship been detrimental to the family's survival? The Havoc in Wyoming series has been described as “Cozy Apocalypse” and contains no profanity; gratuitous sex scenes; or gruesome, overly detailed death scenes. While set in an imagined future, the people of Bakerville face real-life obstacles, created by this new world and brought with them from their old world.

Ice Fall


Michael Edelson - 2016
    Just as he is convinced he is the only survivor of a mysterious global cataclysm, he meets a woman seeking refuge from a past she won’t reveal. Her arrival rescues him from unbearable isolation, but when the snow finally stops and her secret catches up with her, Peter is forced to choose between saving her life and following his conscience. His decision sends them running for their lives and searching for answers as the melting snow reveals a world unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Together they will learn not only what caused the greatest disaster in the planet’s history, but that the worst may be yet to come.

First Strike


Bobby Akart - 2021
    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.

Stranded No Where


E.A. Lake - 2016
    How am I going to survive?” The 21st-century world has been dropped back into the early 1800s. No one knew it was coming, no one was prepared, and still TEOTWAWKI happens. By himself on vacation in northern Michigan, Bob Reiniger determines he must survive. Even with no such survival skills. He will make new and strange friends, and protect his property and life. Even though he's not ready for it, he will do battle with those who want to take what's his away. Against all odds, Bob must survive the apocalypse. Even alone, in the middle of No Where. Stranded No Where is the first book in e a lake's newest series - The No Where Apocalypse. Read this book now, before the final Apocalypse arrives.

The Dust of Dawn


Eloise J. Knapp - 2018
    Then a solar flare nudges it hurtling toward Earth. Humanity crumbles during the countdown to Doomsday. But Zabat is more than just a comet. The impact brings not swift extinction but a massive cloud of dust that appears to have a mind of its own. A sinister intelligence. A force that threatens to change what's left of humanity. Jack, Colleen, Lara, and Dan survived the violent chaos of the countdown. They survived the threat of extinction. Now they're about to find out that after Doomsday, there are horrors even worse than death.

What's Left of My World


C.A. Rudolph - 2016
    Ever since she was little, she had been taught how to live and survive outdoors, and how to use firearms to protect herself and those around her. Some of the training had been a bit extreme. Or had it been? Many of her questions were answered the day the world as she knew it ended. Now, the skills she had been taught serve an essential purpose. They keep her and those she cares about alive. Even in the sparsely-populated mountains of West Virginia, where she and her family have been forced to relocate for their safety after the collapse, peril lurks around every corner. Normal life has taken on a whole new meaning for Lauren, her family, and the community they have become a part of. In this different world, the new status quo is self-preservation. There is no more middle ground. People either live, or they die. Lauren’s father didn’t make it home on the day the world changed forever, and she misses him more than anything. Now, in What’s Left of My World, she and her family must learn to endure life’s horrors—without him.

Allison's Secret


D. Stalter - 2018
    Like any farm wife, she is prepared for bad storms, bad times, and bad luck. But, even her husband is unaware that she is more prepared than the average farm wife. (But don't ever call Allison a prepper!) Riley and Will are motorcycle buddies on a mission to rescue Riley's nephew who's been kidnapped by his father. When a solar flare throws them all together, there's going to be problems. Allison's Secret offers a different approach to the post apocalyptic fiction genre. Follow a woman who has a will to survive as she works to build a community that offers hope for a new future.

Journey


D. Gideon - 2016
    Ripley Miller's a tomboy at heart who has never met a stranger. Her plans were to finish her veterinary studies and take her family to the country, where life wouldn't be such a struggle. She thought the worst she'd have to deal with at the University of Maryland were the unwelcome advances and attitudes of affluent students, and the occasional East Coast hurricane.She never expected the sun to fall down.Now Ripley has no communication with her family at home and--thanks to the University's zero-tolerance policy--no weapons to protect herself. Society is becoming increasingly panicked and desperate, and the government seems slow to respond.The world, as she knew it, has ended. A new world of lawlessness, betrayal, and scarcity is beginning.Can she become the woman she needs to be so that she and her friends can make it home?With the thin veneer of a civilized society collapsing, can she even survive?

The Shepherd


Steven C. Bird - 2015
     The Shepherd is the first installment of the post-apocalyptic and dystopian thrill ride of the Society Lost Series! If you like SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, vigilante justice, prepper, dystopian, post-apocalyptic tales filled with action, adventure, tragedy, and triumph, join Jessie Townsend as he and his family struggle in a collapsing and uncertain world. The Shepherd: A Society Lost, is an action-packed post-apocalyptic thrill ride detailing the struggles of former Sheriff Jessie Townsend as he and his family seek shelter from a crumbling world with a self-sufficient life on a homestead deep in the Rocky Mountains. Sanctuary soon becomes what he meant to escape, peaceful bliss slipping into desperation and despair in the aftermath of events that shook the foundations that shaped our world to the core. An unholy alliance of conspirators had sought the collapse of our civilization in order to rebuild and reclaim it as their own. Never truly intending to coexist, the unlikely allies found their courses diverging, leading to a struggle that dealt the final death blows to our society. In the absence of the order and structure of our modern civilization, evil, suffering, and chaos were unleashed throughout the world. As the post-collapse struggles of the outside world begin to threaten Jessie’s mountain hideaway, a return to the world he left behind becomes a chance for redemption and survival in—a society lost. For book two in the series, see Betrayal: Society Lost, Volume Two. Other works from this author include: The Last Layover: The New Homefront, Volume One The Guardians: The New Homefront, Volume Two The Blue Ridge Resistance: The New Homefront, Volume Three The Resolution: The New Homefront, Volume Four Betrayal: Society Lost, Volume Two JET: Dangerous Prey The Edge of Civility: A Perseid Collapse Kindle World Novella