But the underwater cities survived, and some heavily protected land enclaves as well. When the "ozone summer" years were ending, submarine captain Ron Tregarth rediscovered his lost love, Graciela Navarro. but their triumph against all odds was only the beginning, for the alien known as the Eternal stood between them and threatened to destroy all they held dearest. The Eternal's goal was to absorb the minds of every living thing, to create a death-in-life to enslave the planet.

    Instead, it evolved into the Machine Plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out—there is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station—and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...

    This collection brings together alien encounters, classic fantasy creatures, strange magic, historical milieus; stories with heart, of people making their ways in the world the best they can, however strange and hostile those worlds might be; rare, hard-to-find stories that haven't been available in years. All this, now brought together in the first widely-available retrospective collection of Vaughn's work, including her Hugo-nominated, WSFA Small Press Award winning story "Amaryllis," about a post-catastrophe future in which a community struggles to live in balance with the environment and each other."Amaryllis" was also published in Lightspeed Magazine.ContentsTHE BEST WE CANSTRIFE LINGERS IN MEMORYA HUNTER'S ODE TO HIS BAITSUN, STONE, SPEARCROWSSALVAGEDRAW THY BREATH IN PAINTHE GIRL WITH THE PRE-RAPHAELITE HAIRGAME OF CHANCEROARING TWENTIESA RIDDLE IN NINE SYLLABLES1977DANAE AT SEAFOR FEAR OF DRAGONSTHE ART OF HOMECOMINGASTROPHILIABANNERLESSAMARYLLIS

    The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task.Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind. But are they truly alone?Find out in this raw and rousing first installment of the Planet Urth series.

    The shores and waters of the East River are the "DMQZ," the uninhabited area that separates uninfected Manhattan from the slowly dying borough of Brooklyn.Jacob Hale is a Manhattan police officer rising in the ranks of the Safe Zone military government until a bank heist gone wrong lands him on suspension and under suspicion. On a quest to clear his good name, Hale finds himself drawn into a web of conspiracy, terrorism, and revolt - and into the orbit of a mysterious woman who may be the key to it all.

    Their childhoods were spent in small Texas towns with summers at their respected grandparent’s farms. Like most teenagers growing up in small towns they could not wait to flee after graduation for big cities and successful careers. Careers were launched, the big house on the golf course bought, luxury cars leased, and fancy vacations taken. They had it all until a global fuel shortage started causing Mark to wonder about his job and the financial future of his family. Follow Mark and Kelly as they learn about global finances, hidden agendas, and the cover-up of the upcoming global fuel shortage and severe economic depression it will create. Follow the Turner’s as they plan their strategy to voluntarily move from an upper middle-class lifestyle to a self-sustaining lifestyle on an Oklahoma farm before it is too late. Learn alongside them as they learn the skills needed to live on a small farm, raise their own food, and prepare for a global economic depression on a scale never seem by mankind before.

    Seventeen year old Cassandra Wild thought living in the chaos of her mother’s home daycare and dealing with her developing feelings for Bryce, her new Martial Arts’ instructor, was a struggle, until the night her world turned upside down.When an untested vaccine kills more than just a rampant flu virus, Cassie learns how to survive in a world where the dead walk, and the living…run!

    The sombre story of a group of people in their fifties who face the fact that there is no younger generation coming to replace them; instead nature is rushing back to obliterate the disaster they have brought on themselves.

    They have tried to plan for everything, but they never imagined this would happen. Recently, personal tragedy nearly devastated Mollie and Jake, leaving them struggling to rebuild their relationship while they consider selling the farm.  Now, as disaster strikes, Mollie is away on business, leaving Jake and ten-year-old Malcolm to prepare for the worst. Daughter Katie, soon to start her final year of college and planning a mission trip afterward, is over a thousand miles from home. The older children, and their spouses, live within an easy drive—under normal times. In this first installment of the Havoc in Wyoming series, they'll soon find themselves in a chaotic new world, where nothing is normal or easy, it's downright dangerous. Will the Caldwells’ planning, provisions, and faith be enough? Or have the recent changes in their relationship been detrimental to the family's survival? The Havoc in Wyoming series has been described as “Cozy Apocalypse” and contains no profanity; gratuitous sex scenes; or gruesome, overly detailed death scenes. While set in an imagined future, the people of Bakerville face real-life obstacles, created by this new world and brought with them from their old world.

    The planet is further paralyzed by a wicked winter storm blanketing everything under several feet of snow and ice. For those who survive it is only the beginning of their nightmare as bodies of the missing begin falling from the sky. Captain Austin Reynolds, lone survivor of his military unit, sets out on a cross country trek in search of his pregnant wife. Upon vague instructions from General Roth he heads for Cheyenne Mountain where he hopes to find answers and his wife. Along the way he meets up with other survivors who join in his quest.As the survivors make their way to the mountain, it becomes apparent humans are no longer the fittest on the planet and the fight for survival may be their last.

    The stories detail his ensuing adventures as he tries to make sense of the societies he encounters each time he wakes.

    In San Francisco, the survivors are heir to a city transformed. It is a haunted, dreaming place peopled with memories, and in a strange way nearly alive itself. And although it is only beginning to recover from near-ultimate disaster, the city is at risk again. An army of power-hungry men are descending on San Francisco. Teenagers Jax and Danny-boy must lead the fight for freedom using the only weapons they have art, magic, and the soul of the city itself.

    The sky looms frigid white. The electricity falters. Airplanes everywhere crash to the ground. But the Givens are saved by mysterious strangers, three fearsome and beautiful beings who force a plain silver bracelet onto each sister’s wrist. Within moments, the sky comes down in a crushing sheet of light and everything around them is gone.Shielded from the devastation by their silver adornments, the Givens suddenly find themselves elsewhere, a strange new Earth where restaurants move through the air like flying saucers and the fabric of time is manipulated by common household appliances.Soon Hannah and Amanda are joined by four other survivors from their world—a mordant cartoonist, a shy teenage girl, a brilliant young Australian, and a troubled ex-prodigy. Hunted by enemies they never knew they had and afflicted with temporal abilities they never wanted, the sisters and their companions begin a cross-country journey to find the one man who can save them—before time runs out.

    When the sky begins to fall and he finds himself alone, his best hope is to run – or risk losing what he loves forever.When the world ends and you find yourself forsaken, every second counts. No one knows this more than Edgar Hill. Stranded on the other side of the country from his wife and children, Ed must push himself across a devastated wasteland to get back to them. With the clock ticking and hundreds of miles between them, his best hope is to run -- or risk losing what he loves forever.

    Venus, being almost the same mass as Earth, is chosen over Mars as humanity’s first permanent steppingstone into the universe.Arik Ockley is part of the first generation to be born and raised off-Earth. After a puzzling accident, Arik wakes up to find that his wife is almost three months pregnant. Since the colony’s environmental systems cannot safely support any increases in population, Arik immediately resumes his work on AP, or artificial photosynthesis, in order to save the life of his unborn child. Arik’s new and frantic research uncovers startling truths about the planet, and about the distorted reality the founders of the colony have constructed for Arik’s entire generation. Everything Arik has ever known is called into question, and he must figure out the right path for himself, his wife, and his unborn daughter.