Every week five friends get together to play a game-- a game they call the Apocalypse Game. It's a fun time with chips and beer and plotting the end of the world. Except this time, one of them is missing and the stakes are higher than ever before.Word count: ~3,900

    Food, entertainment, safety, security--SynCorp provides it all. In return, the Company requires complete loyalty and obedience to corporate law.The Soldiers of the Solar Revolution claim life under SynCorp is slavery cloaked in comfort. They launch their rebellion, targeting the pillars of corporate production: sabotaging refineries on Mars, shattering Callisto's orbital ring. Meanwhile, brutal pirates siphon off Company resources in the Belt, and hackers tap into citizens' implants, addicting them to fantasies shaped from their own dreams.Besieged on all sides, SynCorp's Five Factions are in retreat. The rebels aim to destroy the Company to free mankind. But does mankind really want to be freed?

    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?

    Unfortunately, there was little time to ponder the cause. Most animals died at the onset. Others in the reptilian category merely changed. While some humans were unaffected, others experienced a half-death of sorts, morphing into blood and flesh-crazed creatures with a desire only to hunt the living and consume them. Climbing Fox Wattana of the Henomawi Nation claims responsibility for the black rain and its effects; He says it is his revenge against the United States government for robbing his people of their land, ensuring their ultimate extinction. Cole "CB" Baxter isn't taking this lying down. He, his sister, Lilly, and Dr. Georgina Lake will flee their airboat tour business in the Florida Everglades and attempt to rescue what family they can. If that all works out, they plan to follow the ham radio broadcasts of a classic rock DJ named Micky Rode, as he guides the survivors to a gathering spot somewhere in Kansas. That's the plan, anyway. But you know what they say: We make plans ... God laughs.

    He scavenges what he can from what's left over. He is very careful in what he does and where he goes, taking no chances, no unnecessary risks, and weighing every choice... until he decides to visit the hospital at the edge of town, and experiences terror the likes he's never encountered before. A short story of approximately 9500 words, or 29 pages. The first story of the "Mountain Man" series. Contains language and graphic violence. This short story also appears in the horror fiction novella "Cauldron Gristle."If you enjoy this, check out the novels "Mountain Man" and "Safari," the next books in the series.Series order:The Hospital (short story)Mountain ManSafari (Coming in time for Christmas) Hellifax

    Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.

    Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few Marines.When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived beneath a graveyard sky.

    Esker Miller, has five previous thrillers that cover diverse but exciting times. But it was Alaska, the northernmost fringe of civilization, that intrigued him most of all. After years of flying over the desolate landscape and hearing the stories of the people there, he imagined a remote island, a desolate, hostile place where evolution was free to create unique creatures. And so, a single pair of shipwrecked Viking war dogs evolved into terrifying Apex Predators that ravaged the island unchallenged. Eventually, the breakup of Arctic ice floated a few of the beasts to the North Slope of Alaska. There, they faced the valiant townspeople of Chintikook Village. Along with a boyish paleontologist and the local schoolteacher, the humans teamed up to battle the attacking creatures they called Super Wolves. It’s an adventure that pits the fangs and claws of giant devil dogs against the wits and bravery of a small group of townspeople who don’t know how to give up despite impossible odds. If you enjoy this story please see jimmillerbooks.com for a peek at his other books

    But they didn’t bring deliverance…they brought something far, far worse. Something that turns people into mindless, cannibalistic monsters. And it’s spreading. A reporter follows her story of unspeakable horror south of the border and finds it’s worse than she imagined. A wounded fighter pilot finally gets his chance to return to duty but is faced with a mission that could cost him his wings, or his country its chance. A billionaire with dreams of space finds a crashed alien spacecraft unlike anything mankind has ever seen. A brilliant geneticist conducting outlawed research comes face to face with the nightmare consuming the world faster than anyone can comprehend…or stop in time. The government can’t contain it. The military can’t fight it. This is A Time To Die.

    Technology has been reduced to legend, monsters roam the forests, and fear reigns supreme. But that is just the beginning... The wind-borne spores are spreading, disfiguring men and twisting their minds, turning them into creatures that threaten to destroy the townships. Among the townsfolk, political and the religious, dissension is spreading. Through it all, a mother must protect her son...

     Survival. Murder. Snow. Winter is here. The cold spreads over the land, shriveling and choking out all the plant life. Harsh. Unforgiving. The first winter without electricity will surely claim more human lives as well. The isolation may do more damage than the cold, however. Too much time alone drives people to unthinkable acts.

    Their parents have disappeared along with the rest of the world, replaced by glowing blue orbs and a terrifying army of aliens. But the boys are survivors. Living in the tunnels beneath the White Sands military base, escaping from hungry aliens, and searching for supplies, they hatch a plan. The boys will fight back, and before they’re through the white sands will run red with blood.

    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.

    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.

     The Tree of Penance is the third 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 former Sheriff Jessie Townsend as his journey takes him across a nation that is a mere shell of its former self after suffering numerous devastating blows from an orchestrated collapse and the attacks that followed. Along the way, Jessie encounters both friend and foe in a world that has become as lawless as the old-west frontier. Join him as he continues his quest in, The Tree of Penance. . 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 Viking One: A New Homefront Novel The Shepherd: Society Lost, Volume One Betrayal: Society Lost, Volume Two Erebus: An Apocalyptic Thriller JET: Dangerous Prey The Edge of Civility