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The Way We Fall


Megan Crewe - 2012
    Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in. And then you're dead.When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.Because how will she go on if there isn't?

The Dog Stars


Peter Heller - 2012
    Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley. But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.

Wizard of the Wasteland


Jon Cronshaw - 2017
     Terrified of being alone with his demons, Abel joins the travelling showman, passing off pre-apocalypse technology as objects of magic and intrigue. When they stumble upon a group of children, enslaved by the brutal drug gang The Family, Abel must risk everything he has to save them. But having the wizard at his side might not be enough...

GAMELAND: Season One


Saul W. Tanpepper - 2012
    Connected to their Infected Players via neural implants (government-mandated in the event of an outbreak), Operators pit the Undead against one another using remote gaming controllers in a high stakes game of money, violence, and power. For the poor, the televised action on state-controlled Media streams is horrifying yet powerfully addictive. Volunteering to become an Undead Player is strictly forbidden, but fame and money lure some to The Game.On a whim, a small group of computer hackers and gamers decides to sneak onto the island, hoping to catch a glimpse of the uncontrolled Infecteds, unimplanted victims of an outbreak that took place there over a decade earlier. But while breaking in turns out to be a lot easier than any of them could have ever imagined, getting back out is one a hell of a killer. As they soon discover, when you play, you play to win. Because, if you die, you become part of The Game. The series consists of eight episodes publishing monthly through December 2012. Also available in paperback.EPISODE 1: Deep Into the GameZpocalypto gamer Jessica Daniels and her gang of code jackers decide to break into Long Island's Gameland hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the Infected Undead, risking arrest and an extension to their Life Service Commitment (a civil or military obligation fulfilled after death). But getting past the EM field, the wall surrounding the island, the mined waters, requires the addition of a stranger to their fold. Tensions within the group rise. So do the risks. After a near-fatal accident during preparation nearly takes the life of one of their members, emotions run dangerously high. They press on and find an abandoned wasteland like nothing they ever expected. Excitement quickly turns to dread as the dangers become all too clear.Approximately 50,000 words (~185 pages)EPISODE 2: FailsafeJessie and Kelly clash after one of their group gets stranded among the Infected Undead, forcing Kelly to make a rash decision which will ultimately deliver them into the hands of those who would turn them all into mindless players in The Game.Approximately 50,000 words (~185 pages)EPISODE 3: Deadman's SwitchUnable to escape from Long Island because of the failsafe device implanted inside their brains, the group digs in until they can devise a way to neutralize it. Jessie is anointed as their leader despite Jake's claims that she is unfit. A final desperate attempt is made to leave, setting into motion a sequence of events that will result in one of them dead, another infected, and all of them running for their lives.Approximately 52,000 words (~192 pages)EPISODE 4: Sunder the Hollow OnesA mutiny in the group splits the members, leaving Jessie out in the cold. As she continues to struggle to fulfill her promise to bring everyone safely home, a chance encounter with one of Gameland's residents dredges up deeply buried memories, leaving her feeling haunted and doubtful about her future.Approximately 44,000 words (~160 pages)EPISODE 5: Prometheus WeptAfter one member of their group is infected, Jessie makes a decision to hand over another to a mysterious group of Undead sympathizers in exchange for a promised antidote. But will she be able to collect the medicine and return before it's too late? Will the medicine work? And will she be able to get them all back home again?Approximately 41,000 words (~150 pages)EPISODE 6: Kingdom of PlayersArmed with a potential antiserum to the reanimation virus, Jessica races back to Gameland to save her infected friend. Waylaid along the way, she must fight for her life to save another. Will she make it back in time? Or will her friend die and return as one of the Undead?Approximately 41,000 words (~150 pages)EPISODE 7: Tag, You're DeadTorn between rescuing Ashley from the homicidal Ben and staying with Jake, who's been infected, Jessie, Kelly and Reggie must carefully plan their next move. But Reggie falls ill and the Undead break into their stronghold. Soon they're fighting for their lives in a battle that will lead all of the group to their darkest hour.Approximately 47,000 words (~170 pages)EPISODE 8: Jacker's CodeThe shocking conclusion to the high-tech horror thriller, GAMELAND. Jessie and the remaining gamers and hackers struggle against all odds to escape Gameland and Long Island, even though some of them have been infected with the zombie virus. Determined to do whatever is necessary to get home, they will have to face some of the most difficult decisions of their lives. But even if they're successful, will they ever be able to go back to the lives they so recklessly left behind?The world is suddenly a very different place from the one they left behind, and not all monsters live behind walls.Approximately 54,000 words (~196 pages)

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War


Max Brooks - 2006
    Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.

PODs


Michelle K. Pickett - 2013
    Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul. After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters. Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life--a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.

Apocalypse


Kyle West - 2012
    An invasion of monsters. A desperate fight for survival...Alex Keener has lived all of his sixteen years in Bunker 108. He's walked the same metal halls, seen the same faces, has followed the same rules. All that changes when a viral outbreak forces him to flee the safety of his bunker.Outside, he discovers a barren world twisted by the impact of the meteor Ragnarok thirty years ago. Alone, he must wander a brutal landscape, where every breath is a fight for survival. Monsters haunt the planet's surface, and nothing of the old world remains.Can Alex survive this hellish wasteland, or will he become its newest victim?

Outpost


Adam Baker - 2011
    They didn't expect the world to end. Kasker Rampart: a derelict refinery platform moored in the Arctic Ocean. A skeleton crew of fifteen fight boredom and despair as they wait for a relief ship to take them home. But the world beyond their frozen wasteland has gone to hell. Cities lie ravaged by a global pandemic. One by one TV channels die, replaced by silent wavebands. The Rampart crew are marooned. They must survive the long Arctic winter, then make their way home alone. They battle starvation and hypothermia, unaware that the deadly contagion that has devastated the world is heading their way...

The Remaining


D.J. Molles - 2012
    On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace. The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. Some day soon, Captain Harden will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his very simple mission: Subvenire Refectus.To Rescue and Rebuild.

Dead of Night


Jonathan Maberry - 2011
    But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite.

Last One at the Party


Bethany Clift - 2021
    The human race has been wiped out by the 6DM virus (Six Days Maximum - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself). The end of the world as we know it.Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be. But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone?

The Upheaval


Erica Stevens - 2013
    time. Every single person felt the rumbling, and experienced the tremors that would forever alter the course of history. Most did not survive. These are the accounts of some of those that did. *Note* This book is the first compilation of a serial story, due to this fact it does not have a conclusion. *Due to language and graphic content this book is recommended for readers 17 and older. Edited by Kevin Mills Edited by Leslie Mitchell at G2 Freelance Editing.Cover art by www.EbookLaunch.com

The Zombie Chronicles


Chrissy Peebles - 2012
    When they get caught in a flood during a rainstorm, the group is forced to take refuge. They are thrust into a mystery they can't explain, and when things slowly begin to unravel, they learn they have to play by a new set of rules.IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a warning to those readers who are looking for a more violent read with gruesome descriptions of blood and gore. This is NOT that type of book. There is lots of zombie action, but this particular story is based more on the action, drama, and survival aspects.word count = 61,805

The Extinction Pandemic (The Hatchery Compound #1)


Grayson Hawkins - 2015
     Bryce Sloan was the epitome of the patriotic American. He joined the Army with the vision of action on far away continents. Instead, he was thrust into the job of a Soldier serving stateside and the only action he saw was at military bases across the United States. After his time with the Army was up, he settled down with his family in Arizona, where he intended to live out an average lifestyle, but before he could settle in, the "Outbreak" began. The “Outbreak”, a mysterious illness, quickly began to spread across the country. Before the “Outbreak” could reach critical mass, Bryce had the foresight to prepare his family for the mass exodus to come. He found the perfect sanctuary for his family; a fish hatchery. As the “Outbreak” unfolded, Bryce ran into multiple groups of like-minded people that all sought out a place to call home, and for those who could contribute to the cause, they found sanctuary in the Hatchery Compound.

All the Little Children


Jo Furniss - 2017
    Overnight, all communication with the outside world is lost.Knowing something terrible has happened, Marlene suspects that the isolation of the remote campsite is all that’s protecting her family. But the arrival of a lost boy reveals they are not alone in the woods, and as the unfolding disaster ravages the land, more youngsters seek refuge under her wing. The lives of her own children aren’t the only ones at stake.When their sanctuary is threatened, Marlene faces the mother of all dilemmas: Should she save her own kids or try to save them all?