Book picks similar to
Worst Case Scenario (Book 1) by G. Allen Mercer


post-apocalyptic
post-apocalyptic-disaster-dystopian
post-apocalyptic-nuclear
science-fiction

Gone to Ground


Cheryl Taylor - 2013
     Journalist Maggie Langton, determined not to let her son, Mark, grow up in the dangerous environment of the APZ, decides to run for the empty ranch land of northwestern Arizona. When she runs into O’Reilly, a fugitive ex-Enforcer, she grudgingly admits she needs help developing those skills needed to live on a small ranch camp. What she doesn’t expect, however, is that with knowledge of how to live rough, O’Reilly also possesses a darker knowledge: knowledge much more dangerous, and knowledge which the government will do anything to suppress. Maggie and O’Reilly find themselves in a fight to keep their newly formed family safe and secure, and out from under the rule of the controlling new government. At the same time they discover a conspiracy much deeper than anyone had believed possible.

The Last Tribe


Brad Manuel - 2015
    Not only do you struggle to find food, water, and shelter, you deal with the sadness and loss of everyone you know, and everything you have. Fourteen year old Greg Dixon is living that nightmare. Attending boarding school outside of Boston, he is separated from his family when a pandemic strikes. His classmates and teachers are dead, rotting in a dormitory turned morgue steps from his room. The nights are getting colder, and his food has run out. The last message from his father is get away from the city, and meet at his grandparent’s town in remote New Hampshire. Knowing the impending New England winter could be the final nail in his coffin, he packs what little food he can find, and sets off on his one hundred mile walk north with the unwavering belief that his family is alive and will join him. As the fast moving and deadly disease strips away family and friends, Greg’s father, John, is trapped in South Carolina. Roadblocks, a panic stricken population, and winter make it impossible for him to get to his son. John and his three brothers appear to be immune, but they are scattered across a locked down United States, forced to wait for the end of humanity before travelling to the mountains of New Hampshire. Spring arrives, and the Dixons make their way north to find young Greg. They meet others along the way, and slowly form the last tribe of humanity from the few people still alive in the northeast.

Downward Cycle


J.K. Franks - 2016
    As planes fall from the sky, cars suddenly die, and most electrical devices stop working with catastrophic consequences. But the loss of electrical power is just the first of the problems facing the survivors. In the chaos, that follows. An ordinary man helplessly watches the world around him begin to breakdown. While the thin veneer of normalcy stubbornly shrouds the coming collapse. Scott Montgomery discovers the truth; not just about the extent of damage to the world's infrastructure but also the drastic plans one shadowy group has for regaining control. A shockingly realistic look at how society copes when the world is thrust back to a time before electricity. It is brutal, deadly and largely fact-based storytelling. Scott and his new friends battle to save their town and themselves. They cannot avoid the steadily growing number of people who have realized that they can get away with whatever they want in a world where there are no longer any legal consequences for their actions. Adding to the problems is an elite para-military organization pursuing a draconian plan to ensure their vision for the new world with deadly consequences.

Lost Dogs


Kenton Kilgore - 2014
    Their home is Kent Island, MD: a beautiful, peaceful place, good for raising a family, good for having dogs. When unearthly beings strike without warning or mercy against humankind, Buddy and Sally lose the ones they love and the lives they knew. Now they must band together with other "lost dogs" to find food, water, and shelter without their masters. But survival is not enough for Buddy: he holds out hope that Rob, Genn, and Audrey live. And that he can find them before inhuman forces ensure that man is never again Earth's master.

Cling


Jeff Menapace - 2016
    A rare and hazardous gift, it is one she would rather not possess, as its price is great suffering. There is a word used to describe her kind: Martyr.Wandering the wastelands of a ruined Earth plagued by gangs and Cling—an affliction which shortens the human lifespan to a mere few decades—Sadie’s hope to find a slice of utopia fades.When an act of desperation in a reckless moment sets her on the run from a vicious warlord, her flight leads to a mysterious boy who seems to hold the answers to Sadie’s salvation. If she will use her gift to help his community, he vows to share the location of a tunnel deep beneath the ground—a tunnel revealed to Sadie in a fever dream as the key to defeating her pursuers.But when Sadie enters the tunnel, what she discovers plunges the boy’s community into unimaginable peril. Despite Sadie’s commitment to self-preservation, she cannot bring herself to abandon him and his people. Fortunately, Sadie has a few tricks up her sleeve—and an old acquaintance with a notorious set of skills who just may agree to join the fray.

Edge of Collapse: An EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival Prepper Series (American Fallout Book 1)


Alex Gunwick - 2017
    In seconds, his routine business trip becomes a nightmarish struggle to survive. After narrowly escaping a nuclear explosion in San Francisco, the Navy SEAL must travel through a world without rule of law. Relying on his skills and the items in his Bug Out Bag, he fights an epic battle as he struggles to get home. Nothing will stop him from getting back to his family. As his resources run out, his resourcefulness kicks in. His family’s depending on him and he won’t let them down—even if it means leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Liz can’t believe they’re under attack. At first, it seems like things won’t be too bad. Yet within hours, it seems like the whole world’s gone crazy. With communication lines down, she’s unable to reach her husband, Luke. Getting her kids to their Bug Out Location won’t be easy, but she’s determined to make it. It’s well stocked and safely tucked away in a canyon. But as people begin to flee the cities, a new darkness spreads across America. Her struggle to survive rips apart her core values and forces her to examine what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a survivor. American Fallout is a thrilling post-apocalyptic survival prepper EMP fiction series that makes you step back and ask: Could this happen tomorrow? What would happen if the world’s nuclear arsenal was unleashed? What would you do if it happened while you were away from home? And how would your family survive?

Surviving A New World: An EMP Survival story (New World Survival Book 1)


Connor McCoy - 2020
    There, he embraced a life free from the constraints of modern technology and life on the “outside”, but soon, his quiet life is no more. The country has gone powerless, which for him, doesn’t mean much… until someone needs his help. The altruistic former soldier knows not to turn his back on a person in need, so he does the right thing, but the right decision doesn’t always lead to a perfect outcome. Follow Christopher’s heroic journey as he reluctantly re-enters society and struggles to fit in in the new world.

Ashes, Ashes #1


Karyn Folan - 2016
    After a nuclear bomb levels Washington, DC, a teen embarks on a treacherous 200-mile trek through a harrowing wasteland populated by desperate survivors to get his disabled sister to safety.

The World After, Book 3


Ryan Casey - 2017
    Scott Harvard is a survivor of that blast. He is alone, with just a young child and a dog for company, and has sworn to protect them both at any cost.When Scott learns of a rumoured military base one hundred miles away, he sees a potentially life-changing journey ahead of him. But no journey is without its challenges. A terrifying group with their own horrifying vision of the country's future are after him--and they want to take the young girl away.Now, with the harsh elements of winter rapidly worsening, and constantly facing the threat of starvation and dehydration, Scott must utilise his survival skills and get to this safe haven with the child and the dog by his side. But with threats around every corner, it might just be a journey too far...The World After: Book Three is the third book in a new post apocalyptic trilogy by Ryan Casey, author of Dead Days and Infection Z. It is sure to delight fans of the author's trademark complex characters, rapid pacing, and unexpected twists and turns.

CALIFORNIA ARCHIPELAGO: When the Earth Gives, it Also Takes Away


Ron Mcgraw - 2014
    Islands form while the sea abides.

After the Pretty Pox: The Attic


August Ansel - 2016
    God will ignore us entirely.” A searing act of bioterrorism. A catastrophic plague they call the Pretty Pox. Most of the human race is dead, and for two years Arie McInnes has been alone, riding out the aftermath of the Pretty Pox, waiting for her own inevitable end. Hidden in the attic of her ruined home, Arie survives by wit and skill, ritual and habit. Convinced that humans are a dangerous fluke, a problematic species best allowed to expire, she chooses solitude…even in matters of life and death. Arie’s precarious world is upended when her youngest brother – a man she’s never met – appears out of nowhere with a badly injured woman. Their presence in the attic draws the attention of a dark watcher in the woods, and Arie is forced to choose between the narrow beliefs that have sustained her and the stubborn instinct to love and protect. In Book One of August Ansel’s captivating new post-apocalyptic series, After the Pretty Pox casts an unwavering eye on what it means to be human in a world where nature has the upper hand, and the only rules left to live by – for good or ill – are the ones written on our hearts.

The Flight


Caleb Cleek - 2015
    Time is short as they fear he will settle his grudge by adding their families to the mounting number of bodies left in the wake of his destruction.Meanwhile, Connor’s brother, Zeke, faces his own obstacles as he attempts to escape Atlanta before the virus unleashed in the Chinese bio-attack infects the entire population, turning people into ravenous, infected monsters.The brothers face overwhelming odds as they fight to protect the people they care for and do the right thing in the face of crumbling humanity. Will Connor and Matt find their families and will Zeke make it across the country to reunite with his brother? Or will they be added to the mounting casualties piling up at the feet of ruthless outlaws and the infected?

Cry Havoc


A. American - 2016
    There’s war and rumors of war. There’s the false recovery of the economy. Failing faith in the US economy is extremely high. Foreign banks have either slowed their purchases of Treasury Bonds or, in a few cases, begun unloading them.We have a current election that is rife with corruption, extreme partisanship and outright fraud. It would appear the left in the country is ready to do about anything to see their candidate elected. While this is very concerning today, what does it mean to the election process as a whole? What will the next one look like? Does anyone believe they will actually improve? Or will the next batters up to the ultimate Homeplate simply make it even worse, take it even further down the rabbit hole?In reality, it matters not who wins. They can only be there for eight years. But the election sets precedent for the next one; and the next one will push the limits even further, if there is one. We’ve all heard of the spooky bank holiday. This sort of thing usually happens on a weekend, and on Monday morning you simply cannot access your account. You have no access to your money. Don’t think it can happen? Neither did the people of Greece. Or Germany when they were limited to fifty Euros a day. What would you do? Do you keep cash on hand? Do you trust your bank? If you put twenty thousand dollars into the bank and then ask for ten thousand back, you have to fill out forms and justify your need for it. Then they tell the government about it and you face further sanctions.Here in America, we think we’re free. Well, we are currently listed as number twenty on the scale of freedom. Think about that. Number twenty! Chile is ahead of us! But we have our guns and all of those other countries don’t. And indeed we do, for now. But what if, if, they were to take those away? What do we do then? And before you say you would take to the streets and fight back, think for a minute what that really means. Then watch a few videos on Syria or Ukraine. It’s all fun and games until someone puts a tank main-gun round through your house.What follows is just one idea of what this could look like. I’m not saying this is the way it would go. It’s just some thoughts on it. On how people could act. What the government may do in response and how people might respond in turn.

The Borrowed World


Franklin Horton - 2015
    Life as we know it in America grinds to a halt as the electrical grid collapses, communication networks are damaged, critical bridges and dams are destroyed, and major fuel refineries go up in massive fiery clouds. When the government responds by immediately halting fuel sales to the public, Jim Powell finds himself in a terrifying predicament – trapped five hundred miles from home with a group of coworkers. With thousands of trapped travelers and scarce law enforcement, the miles between Jim and his family become a brutal gauntlet where the rules of civilized society no longer apply. As Jim puts his years of preparation and planning to the test, he is forced to ask himself if he has what it takes to make it home. Does he have the strength -- the brutality -- required to meet this new world toe-to-toe?

The Breaking Point


Justin Bell - 2021
    An FBI agent caught in a web of lies. To survive the apocalypse they must fight the most desperate battle of their lives - or die trying.Tired of the same old apocalyptic tale? Welcome to your new addiction.***A former soldier trying to escape his past is adrift in small town USA.An FBI agent goes against her superiors’ orders, investigating strange kidnappings in the heart of middle America.When the unimaginable happens and the world is plunged into darkness, the survivors will be forced to face their greatest fears as they’re dragged to their breaking points - and beyond.