Book picks similar to
The End Begins by James D. Dean


zombies
horror
zombie
post-apocalyptic

Deadlands


Scott A. Johnson - 2009
    Survivors live underground, ever on the defensive against rotters -- mindless corpses that troll the sweltering surface. A new menace has evolved, set on human annihilation.

Rebel Radio


Boyd Craven - 2015
    Can be read on it's own or as a companion after The World Burns 5: The World Bleeds!Life after an EMP puts the USA in the dark ages is not an easy one. Life is dangerous and difficult enough without humans preying on each other. Don, an alcoholic and a gamer girl called 'Z' make an odd introduction together and find themselves thrust into a survival situation neither of them are prepared to endure. A ghost from Don's past surfaces, one who's responsible for his pain and suffering. Can both Don and Z endure in a world that has gone crazy, when all they want to do is keep on living?

Friends of the Family (The Colter Saga)


Joel Baker - 2009
    To escape, they decide to return to Jesse's childhood home of Haven. On the perilous journey they encounter a deserted genetics lab. That evening the results of a genetic experiment, five massive dogs working as a team, walk into their camp. The dogs finally disappear back into the dark. On a second visit, the dogs become friends of the family. As they near Haven, a sheriffs warning about a brutal gang, triggers a buried childhood memory for Jesse and the gangs involvement in the death of his parents. The gang decides to visit Haven. The Colters set a brutally effective trap. Jesse is severely injured, but survives. Sarah and Jesse, with the help of their friends, build a future and slowly things get better. At the end Jessie is alone and dying. It's his time, and he feels complacent. He's an old man with a bent back and a deep love for Sarah, sitting in a small clearing on the side of a mountain overlooking Haven.

Run


Rich Restucci - 2015
     Slow and plodding, they are Legion. The undead hunt the living. Stop and they will catch you. Hide and they will find you. If you have a heartbeat you do the only thing you can: You run. Survivors escape to an island stronghold: A cop and his daughter, a computer nerd, a garbage man with a piece of rebar, and an escapee from a mental hospital with a life-saving secret. After reaching Alcatraz, the ever expanding group of survivors realize that the infected are not the only threat. Caught between the viciousness of the undead, and the heartlessness of the living, what choice is there? Run.

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.

Apocalypse Z


G.E. Swanson - 2012
    Zombies roam the streets and mankind is nearing extinction. In an attempt to escape the virus and zombie's grasp, the Jacobs family and a group of young adults must travel 1,300 miles up the West Coast to a cabin located high in the mountains of Washington. Things don’t go as planned and their trip quickly turns into a life or death struggle. Along the way they fight zombies, psychos, freaks, and sometimes amongst themselves.This book contains: graphic violence, sex, and strong language.This is the first book in the Apocalypse Z series.

The Last Layover


Steven C. Bird - 2014
    The Last Layover is a fiction novel based on real places and potential scenarios where an out of control government pushes America to the brink of financial and social collapse. This vulnerable state allows the unthinkable to happen, causing the comfort, security, and conveniences of our modern first world society to quickly come to an end. Imagine yourself far from home when the world suddenly changes. Just think back to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and other such recent events, and you can see just how quickly society breaks down. Those situations even occurred with the nature of the emergency being confined to one specific geographic area, where help is just the next town or state away. Now also think about how that scene would play out if help was not going to come. What if those who you would look to for help had their own emergencies to contend with, leaving you and those around you to fend for yourselves? What about all of those modern conveniences of society like ATM’s, point of sale debit/credit card readers, cell phones, and the internet? What if it all went down while you were away from home? What about our food supply chain? How much food does your family have at home to get them through if the shelves were to go empty? How much do you have with you? Will it all go bad without electricity? Do you have what it takes to defend yourself and those around you when society takes an ugly turn and violence becomes necessary for survival? Those are a few of the things that this book helps you think about. In The Last Layover, an airline crew finds themselves on an overnight layover in New York City, far from their homes when a series of events take place that bring our modern society to its knees. Join them as they face the dangers and difficulties of trying to make their way back to their homes and families in a rapidly deteriorating society, without our modern transportation and communications infrastructure, all while dealing with the lawlessness and violence that quickly ensues in a desperate and broken society. Discover with them the dark side that humanity can quickly take, as well as the good that can come from faith, family, and friendship.

The North


Sean Cummings - 2014
    Escape the City. Stay Alive.Sixteen-year-old David Simmons is on a mission to save his eight-year-old sister. In a smoldering world infested with walking cadavers, the survivors of Simmons infantry reserve unit are going hatches down in a pair of armoured personnel carriers and everyone knows that it’s only a matter of time until their fuel runs dry. There’s a weak short wave radio signal from a place called Sanctuary Base and it’s supposed to be zombie-free. But there’s more than a thousand miles to cover, a biting, unforgiving cold, armed survivalists, legions of the living dead and someone called SUNRAY. They’re outgunned, outnumbered and out of time. This tense thriller for teens offers a terrifying and brutal vision of survival in a post-apocalyptic world where the bonds of friendship and family are the only things left that are worth fighting for.

Fortress Britain


Glynn James - 2012
    Now Fortress Britain is the last bastion of the living - with 50 million beleaguered survivors facing down a world of 7 billion animated corpses.And when civilization fell, one international team of supremely elite special operators was being assembled for a nearly impossible mission, deployed out of the SAS barracks at Hereford. Supremely trained and armed, always the most skilled, resolved, and unstoppable amongst us, now the commandos of Alpha team are humanity's last best hope for survival. Searching through the detritus of fallen Europe, scavenging pharmaceutical labs for clues to a vaccine that might bring humanity back from the brink, now they are tasked with one last desperate operation.They must cross the Atlantic aboard the world's only remaining supercarrier, insert by air into the very middle of a dead continent, and then fight their way on foot through a city of 3 million ravening dead guys. But these Zulus will not be like any zombies they have ever fought before...

Until the End of the World


Sarah Lyons Fleming - 2013
    After all, she’s been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she’s stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents’ cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too. This is difficult enough, but Cassie’s tag along ex-boyfriend and her friend’s bratty sister have a knack for making everything, even the apocalypse, more unpleasant. When the two attract a threat as deadly as the undead to their safe haven, Cassie’s forced to see how far she’ll go to protect those she loves. And it’s a lot farther than she’d anticipated. This, coupled with Adrian’s distant voice on Safe Zone Radio and, of course, the living dead, threaten to put Cassie right back into the funk she just dragged herself out of. Survival’s great and all, especially when you have leather armor, good friends and home-brewed beer, but there’s something Cassie must do besides survive: tell Adrian she still loves him. And to do that, Cassie has to find faith that she’s stronger than she thinks, she’s still a crack shot and true love never dies.

Toward the Brink: The Apocalyptic Plague Survival Series Book One


Craig A. McDonough - 2015
    Seemingly a spontaneous event, teenager Elliot Goodwin knew better. His mother, a nurse of many years, told him of a diabolical illness that had swept through Idaho a few years before... not long after the potato growth hormone had been - somewhat mysteriously - approved for general use. The hormone meant larger potatoes which in turn meant more French Fries which ledto more profit. The greed of one man to control the fast food industry was seen as a catalyst by a decades old clandestine group that secretly controlled world affairs. When the outbreak occurred Elliot is forced to flee with his girlfriend, Cindy and a tough no-nonsense cop Mulhaven. Who bore more than a passing resemblance to Morgan Freeman. Their escape from Twin Falls is accompanied by danger at every turn from green puking zombies to out of control rogue cops and National Guard. They meet up with a tall stranger who is as mysterious as he is knowledgeable and adaptable. Together with gun store owner, rescued by the 'Tall Man' earlier, they make tracks for Canada and a safe haven in the form of Elliot's Aunt Kath.Along the way they discover the un-dead are not as a result of pollution, waste and chemicals in the food supply but a deliberate plan to reduce the worlds population by up to ninety percent. That plan, however, soon goes awry and leads the world to the brinkof destruction. Toward the Brink details the lead up to those event as seen through the eyes of a small group from Twin Falls as they attempt to make good their escape. Book 2 At the Brink to be released in June 2015. Sign up for the authors newsletter at craigamcdonough.com and keep up to date on this and other new releases.

The Greater Good: A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Series


Suzanne Sussex - 2020
    The world is on high alert. It's coming for us...A video hits the Internet and quickly goes viral. A video showing a woman, attacked, bitten and dying.... before rising again.Experts confirm the video as a fake. A prank. But all the expert denials count for nothing when the virus reaches the UK.Chloe finds herself left behind, abandoned by Steve who rejoins the army to fight the new enemy. She'll be forced to survive on her own. Whatever it takes.They must all make sacrifices to do what is right. To do what is right for the greater good.Don't miss this gritty and harrowing look at the end of the world, featuring a dark, realistic vision of the Zombie Apocalypse that will keep you up at night.

The Tide Series Box Set (The Tide #1-4)


Anthony J. Melchiorri - 2018
    A devastating bioweapon will change the face and fate of humanity as we know it. Captain Dominic Holland leads a crew of skilled covert operatives and scientific personnel aboard a clandestine ship dedicated to fighting chemical and biological warfare. Their missions have taken them across the world to combat sinister plots and dangerous adversaries. But their next assignment is more dangerous than any they faced before. Far off the eastern coast of the United States, intelligence officers discover a covert laboratory on an abandoned oil rig with unspeakable horrors. Twisted creatures wash ashore across the country. Hospitals are overrun by patients suffering from an incurable disease with terrifying symptoms. Dom and his team may be the only ones equipped to find out why. They embark on a globe-trotting race to unravel the apocalyptic mystery behind the bioweapon destroying civilization. But will their efforts be enough to turn the tide—or is humanity’s fate already sealed?

Among the Dead


Timothy W. Long - 2013
    When she learns that a rescue mission is heading back into the chaos, she jumps at the chance to tag along and put her unique skill set and, more importantly, swords to use.Lester finds a new way to deal with the situation: ignore reality with drugs. When he manages to find himself threatened, he joins with an unlikely ally to take the fight to the dead.Meanwhile, Mike makes use of his journalistic skills to find the source of the virus, in the process discovering a way to escape the city. Two mysterious words fuel his mad quest: Lazarus Black.“Definitely a zombie novel to check out.” --HorrorNews.net on AMONG THE LIVING“One of my favorite zombie novels.” --BuyZombie.com on AMONG THE LIVING“Very entertaining... this is a Zbook I give 5 stars to...” --Alaskan Book Cafe on AMONG THE LIVING

The Defiant: Grid Down


John W. Vance - 2015
    Then that day came… When Nicholas McNeil, a father and dedicated husband, turned out the lights in his suburban home Sunday night, they would never turn on again. During the early Monday morning hours, a spectacular and well coordinated attack destroys the grid and brings the United States to its knees. Nicholas was a man who had heeded the warnings to a degree, but most did not. With a society unprepared and a government overwhelmed, panic turns to chaos and soon violence. Fighting for what resources are still available, Nicholas and his family also find themselves fighting to survive as society turns on itself.