Book picks similar to
Zero Hour by Justin Bell


apocalypse
fiction
reviewed
1-cataloged

Frozen Pandemic: Apocalypse


Chris Berkness - 2019
    If you would like an advanced copy of the sequel at no charge, please email me at CCB@Frozen-Pandemic.com. On July 12, 2017, an apocalyptic pandemic was unleashed after an iceberg, the size of Delaware, broke off from the Antarctica Peninsula. This exposed an ecosystem that had been hidden from the sun for over 120,000 years. Imbedded deep in the ice shelf was an object. The object was carrying a deadly virus that killed most of the world’s population. Only two hundred and fifty million survived. And those that did survive will be exposed to the virus in a matter of weeks. A group of strangers, bound by circumstance, embark on an epic journey to develop a vaccine that can save what is left of the human race. Along their 1,200-mile journey, the group must battle the elements, a fanatical group called Soldiers of Destiny, and time. Because the virus effects animals much differently than humans, it is not safe to be outdoors after sunset; it is imperative that the group find shelter each evening before nightfall.  Will they reach the CDC headquarters in time to save humanity and will they discover the truth behind the mysterious object; the origin of the virus? Please visit https://frozen-pandemic.com/ to leave comments or suggestions.

Pandemic: The Beginning


Christine Kersey - 2019
    It doesn't take long for society to collapse, but when surviving neighbors band together, hope is restored.That hope is swiftly shattered when a rogue element forms, requiring food in exchange for security and medical services. The Bronsons refuse, but when the group takes over the neighborhood, they demand the Bronsons join or face deadly consequences. With their lives at stake, they must make a decision: give in or take a stand.

Collapse


Mark Lukens - 2019
    The governments of the world and the media tried to suppress it, but little by little the truth got out. The economy had been in a free-fall, banks closed, protests turned into riots, people began hoarding and panicking. And then on a Friday morning, the collapse came.After the government office where Ray Daniels works shuts down, he just wants to get home to his wife and kids. On his arduous journey home, Ray gets a phone call from Craig, his supervisor, inviting him and his family to his home where the answers to the collapse and the Ripper Plague are waiting for him, but the call breaks up and Ray only hears the word Avalon.When Ray gets home to his family, the TV stations have been replaced with a loop of the president of the United States declaring martial law. The electricity and water are shut off soon after that. They hole up in their bedroom for the night - they have no weapons, little food, and no information about why everything collapsed so quickly.After Ray's neighbor, Helen, holds a secret meeting to try to fight back against martial law, she asks Ray to help her blind daughter Emma, promising that Emma can help him and his family find the way to Avalon. But what is Avalon, and what does Emma know about it?Hours later, after soldiers in gas masks take Helen away, Ray has no choice but to flee with his family. Society has crumbled within the last twenty-four hours. Hordes of flesh-eating infected are loose on the streets. The police and military are doing their best to fight back, but they are losing the battle now. The collapse is here, and Ray wants the answers that Craig has, but he must keep his family alive first.

Among the Dead


Stephen A. Kennedy - 2020
    Everything shuts down. Airports, businesses, schools. Cell phone service and electricity soon follow. The virus turns people insane, causing them to attack anything that moves. Armed forces are quickly overrun, and every citizen is in a fight for their life.Samantha survives the initial onslaught of infected. But now she decides to venture out from upstate New York to find her husband, who was stranded in Los Angeles. Determined to be reunited with her love, she sets out through the hell that the United States has become.Along the way, she meets Jason, another survivor, who was separated from his wife in Flagstaff, Arizona. They decide to travel together, helping each other reach their spouses. They soon find they’ll have to make difficult decisions in order to survive.But how long can someone cling to their values and morals in a world that has abandoned such things?Among the Dead is the first book of the In the Valley trilogy.

Escape From Armageddon


Darrell Maloney - 2013
    His beloved Hannah is a beautiful scientist. Pragmatic, intelligent and analytical, she longs for the family she never had, and a change from her horrific childhood. Mark offers that change, and her life is finally complete.Then Hannah discovers that mankind is doomed. Suddenly their lives become a mad scramble, to find a way to save themselves and everyone they love.

Survive the Fall


Grace Hamilton - 2020
    The hunting trip is merely a ploy contrived by his wife and mother to force Greg and his father to end their estrangement. Not even Greg’s teenage daughter or his father’s hunting buddies along for the ride will be enough of a buffer to heal the rift of long-standing resentments. But the helicopter has barely dropped them in the remote Canadian wilderness when they discover their new equipment is dead with no explanation. Now they’ll have to rely on each other and resort to Old West ingenuity to find their way home—before the hunter becomes the hunted.For seventeen-year-old Darryl Healy, things aren’t much easier on his grandparents’ cattle ranch. Not when his highly intelligent and successful mother keeps hounding him about college applications. But college quickly loses its allure when the lights go out after a cyberattack. Frightening responsibilities fall squarely on Darryl’s unproven shoulders as a power-hungry politician is determined to confiscate the ranch’s resources—by any means necessary.Danger and death await the Healy family as each group attempts to navigate this terrifying new post-apocalyptic world while the vast wilderness separates them. When deceit arises from within their ranks, they’ll face threats as lethal as the grizzly bears and mountain lions lurking in the shadows.And in order to survive the nightmare, a deal with the devil might be their only saving grace.

The Tide


Anthony J. Melchiorri - 2015
    He’s taken them to all corners of the earth to protect the United States from biological and chemical warfare. When his CIA handler, Meredith Webb, gives him a mission to investigate a disturbing lead on a laboratory based out of an abandoned oil rig, they discover the most terrifying threat to mankind they’ve ever faced—a genetically engineered biological weapon called the Oni Agent. Back in the United States, Meredith discovers a frightening connection between the CIA and the Oni Agent. But her investigations are short-lived when the Agent spreads and brings mankind to its knees. Cities burn as it turns humans into warped creatures hell-bent on destruction. Dominic and Meredith vow to do everything they can to combat the Agent and find a cure. But will their efforts be enough to turn the tide—or is humanity’s fate already sealed?

Infection


J.T. Sawyer - 2017
    When a CIA bioweapons ship goes dark, operative Will Reisner and his team are sent to the South China Sea to investigate. As their mission unfolds, a deadly parasitic virus takes hold in cities around the globe, turning its victims into worm-riddled creatures bent on infecting others to increase their numbers, linked by a mysterious mental connection. After barely making it out alive, Reisner reluctantly joins forces with epidemiologist Selene Munroe, who has been trying to discover the origins of the virus to prevent humanity from being completely consumed by the horrific fiend that has been unleashed upon the world. Emergence is a bold reinvention of the well-worn zombie theme that will have you gripping the edge of your seat.

Survival


Devon C. Ford - 2016
    By the time the country realised it was everywhere, nearly everyone died. Being one of the few left alive wasn't the freedom he would have expected. Banding together those he found along the way, he has to fight to keep them safe. To keep them alive. To survive.

Work. Rest. Repeat.


Frank Tayell - 2014
    The soil was poisoned. The air became toxic. Billions died. Those who survived took refuge in great towered cities, and began constructing giant colony ships that would enable them to escape the ruined Earth. The work wasn’t completed in their lifetime. The seas rose to swamp the diseased land, and lap against the city walls. Their descendants laboured on, and now the first of the spaceships is nearing completion. But these cities aren’t dictatorships. An election is scheduled to choose a leader for this last exodus of humanity. With twenty-four hours until voting is due to begin, two workers are murdered. It is the first serious crime in generations, and it is down to the young Constable Ely to solve it. The election must take place. The ships must be launched. Above all, production must come first. (54,000 words)

The Shock


Scott Nicholson - 2012
    While the remaining humans are struggling to adapt and survive, they notice that some among them have...changed.Rachel Wheeler finds herself alone in the city, where violent survivors known as "Zapheads" roam the streets, killing and destroying. Her only hope is to reach the mountains, where her grandfather, a legendary survivalist, established a compound in preparation for Doomsday.Other survivors are fleeing the city, but Zapheads aren't the only danger. Rogue bands of military soldiers want to impose their own order in the crumbling ruins of civilization. When Rachel discovers a 10-year-old boy, she vows to care for him even at the risk of her own life.And the Zapheads are evolving, developing communal skills even as they lay waste to the society they will eventually replace.

Stryker


Bobby Andrews - 2016
    ISIS has unleashed a weaponized version of the deadly Ebola virus, killing 97% of the world’s population. Only the immune and those who hunkered down in remote locations remain. Through the chaos strides a giant of a man known only as Stryker. He is a former Force Recon Marine, who has lost as much as anyone, but fights to preserve his honor and creed in the face of slave traders and rogue military elements who prey on the innocent. Together with his former Drill Instructor, Sarge, they struggle to eliminate the remaining evil elements in society, even as the nation’s infrastructure crumbles and life becomes considerably more difficult. Together, they care for three young women who survived the plague and attempt to give them lives that are as normal as possible under the circumstances. Follow along as they travel through a world gone mad, determined to defend the weak and innocent against long odds.

Brace for Impact


Harley Tate - 2018
    He’s the only one in the airport who knows the truth. When the power goes out, he can’t waste another second. It’s the beginning of the end and every man for himself. A nuclear attack will rip the country apart. Leah Walton is wrapping up a twelve-hour shift as a nurse in the heart of the city. When the power goes out, the hospital operates on crisis mode. She can’t stop to to breathe, let alone check her messages. When she finally listens to her husband’s frantic calls, she’s faced with an impossible choice: leave or die trying. Could you drop everything to save yourself? Grant and Leah race the clock to find each other before the United States is plunged into chaos. When the bombs fall, their worst fears come true. Can Grant make it home in time to find his wife? Will Leah escape the brunt of the blast? The EMP is only the beginning. Brace for Impact is book one in Nuclear Survival: Southern Grit, a post-apocalyptic thriller series following ordinary people struggling to survive after a nuclear attack plunges the nation into chaos.

Rise


Jacqueline Druga - 2020
     A debilitating virus emerges in India and quickly burns its way through the densely populated areas of Asia. The victims suffer for days even weeks on end until finally succumbing. Streets are empty and major cities are mere graveyards Because of the slow killing nature of the virus, attempts to contain it to one continent seemingly work at first, but human smuggling into infection-free areas cause the virus to break borders globally. Darren Reynolds is a foot doctor and survival enthusiast. For years he has made it a hobby to collect all things survival, knowledge and goods. Despite the fact that the United States is fortress America, he knows the virus won’t stay out forever. When news breaks that the virus is on American soil, he is ready to hunker down. He will do anything to protect his family from what threatens to wipe out mankind. But Darren soon learns, things aren’t what they seem. The threat of man’s extinction will not come from the virus. It will come from what rises in the aftermath.

Day by Day Armageddon


J.L. Bourne - 2004
    An unknown plague sweeps the planet. The dead rise to claim the Earth as the new dominant species. Trapped in the midst of a global tragedy, he must make decisions...choices that that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them.