A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary-the remains of St. Louis-a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. Then a rider comes from the wasteland beyond its walls. She reports on the outside world: west of the Cascades, rain falls, crops grow, civilization thrives. But there is danger too: the rising power of an army that pillages and enslaves every community they happen upon. Against the wishes of the Sanctuary, a small group sets out in secrecy. Led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark, they hope to expand their infant nation, and to reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

     Way out in the sea, impossible to reach. It rises gray and bare, up and up, and then out of sight. As if the sea gave birth to something meant to connect it to the sky. I’ve never seen the top. Maze says she’s not convinced it has one. And I’ve always taken its impossible presence for what the Fathers say it is: a relic from before the Wipe. The hubris of pre-Wipe man, and a reminder for us all as to why it is God’s Will that we never return to technology. But Maze suddenly has it in her head that the tower means something else, something different than the history the Fathers have given us. I think she’s a conspiracy theorist. Until she shows me the map. Just the word mirror scribbled in red ink, next to a marking, and she expects me to go into the Deadlands with her. As long as I’ve known of her recklessness, and as much of a bad influence as she is on me, I can’t say no. Because while she doesn’t know they exist, I can’t stop my feelings for her. And I start to realize, when we first pass over the rotting gates, into the ruin that was a city, that it will take something much more than either of us ever knew we had in order to survive the truth.

    This is Volume 2. Look for Volume 1 in the series for more great stories!When the world falls apart, when civilization collapses, when life as we know it ends, our greatest terrors becomes real. Perhaps it's nuclear war with its poisonous radiation, hideous plagues or chemical contamination, rogue artificial intelligences controlling killer robots, or zombies that turn our friends and neighbors into inhuman monsters. What can the common man or woman do in the face of apocalyptic fears?Apocalyptic Fears I and II are collections of bestselling, award-winning or just plain exciting stories by some of the best independent authors of today.Knights and Demons: Tanshuku by Greg DragonSurviving the apocalypse means staying clear of monsters. Alysia never dreamed her first years as an adult would be spent fighting demons. However, as the chosen warrior of the Turevila, she must defeat them in order to save the world.Massacre at Lonesome Ridge: A Zombie Western by Samantha WarrenSheriff Connor McClane would like the world to leave him in peace at the bottom of the bottle he's crawled into. Unfortunately an army of the undead, led by Charity Banks, very unhappy transplant to the west, have other plans for him.You Will Be Like God by Steve StrobleIn 2095, being a parent is complicated but eliminating grandchildren is profitable. Bud Lee believes he has proof that his boss is plotting to decide Earth's fate by recruiting surrogate children into a think tank named The Club.Ink: Red, by Al K. LineThe needle buzzed. The nightmare began. Strapped to a gurney, Edsel watched in horror as they tattooed his entire body bright red. His captors were overconfident; he escaped, only to be chased across the ravaged city.Numbers Game by Rebecca RodeTreena isn't sure she wants to be Rated anymore. This number will brand her forever. But Rating Day comes and her number is announced-and it shocks everyone.Swarmers by R. V. DoonA lethal virus with no known cure is awakened in a secret lab and goes airborne. Their world is forever altered, and the stunned survivors must keep fighting for their very existence.Thrown Away, Parts 1-3 by Glynn JamesAmong the remnants of mankind it is thought that the strangers who live behind the barrier, inside their protected city, may still hold that secret. But no one taken by the hunters from the city ever comes back.The Flense: China by Saul TanpepperA fiery train crash in northern China. A sinking off the Libyan coast. Villagers vanish in Ghana. Each event is preceded by the sudden spread of a mysterious ailment and is followed by the appearance of a man dressed in black and silver who witnesses claim is the devil himself.Zombie Maneuvers by Griffin CarmichaelBefore the world fell apart, Janet's life was already indistinguishable from Hell. In Connor, she'd thought she found a strong protector, someone who would take care of her. What she got was a brutal man who used and abused her.The Moon Dwellers by David EstesSeventeen-year-old Adele, a member of the middle-class moon dwellers, is unjustly sentenced to life in prison for her parents' crimes of treason. Against all odds, Adele must escape and find her family while being hunted by a deranged killing machine named Rivet.The Protectors by Ryan KingIt's been twenty years since the Great Plague.

    It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.

    Then to begin the ruination of your much anticipated weekend the grating tone of the Emergency Alert System flashes over the radio, then promptly dies.This is the beginning of a 250 mile odyssey for Morgan Carter. Morgan works on the road and finds himself far from home when his car dies, as well as his Blackberry and every other piece of electronics he has. With no idea what has occurred he reluctantly finds himself on shanks’ mare carrying that ridiculous pack that everyone made fun of him for keeping in the car. Morgan has to find his way across the state of Florida, from Tallahassee to the heart of the state in Lake County.Along his way he has to seek out food, water and shelter where he can, not to mention keeping himself from being killed by any number of now scared and desperate people. During his travels he will try and help where he can, but that can turn out to be a costly mistake. We live in a wonderfully modern society where anything we want is a mouse click away. The lights come on with the flip of a switch and even a child can turn on the faucet at the sink and water always comes out. But what if it all went away?Could you face what Morgan faces, could you make the decisions he has to make? Life and sometimes death in the blink of an eye, could you do it?

    All that changes the day the red rain falls from a cloudless sky. Just hours after the first reports from Europe, humanity is on the brink of extinction, wiped from the face of the earth in a few bloody moments, leaving Emily alone in an empty city. As she struggles to grasp the magnitude of her situation, Emily becomes the final witness to the end of our world… and the birth of a terrifying new one. The world she knew and loved is dead and gone. Now Emily must try to find a way out of New York as the truth behind the red rain is revealed: the earth no longer belongs to humanity.

    With no clean running water, power, or forms of communication, the Earth went backward, taking with it almost everything they held dear. Survivors like Mick were forced to do the best they could with what they had. Because in the post-Impact world, alternatives were a luxury that no one could afford.Now a deadly virus threatens those who were unfortunate enough to survive.With the clock ticking down on their lives, Mick will navigate the deceitful webs spun by those that oppose his drive for salvation. And along his quest to prevent another catastrophe, Mick will rediscover what it truly means to be human. ***Impetus does away with the genre's tendency to dwell solely on the catastrophe, to instead examine the very-real human experience and condition behind a world-changing disaster.

    You cannot escape death when death is everywhere.FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS A TERRIBLE ENEMY HAS BEEN WAITING...NOW THE GATES ARE OPEN...AND HUMANITY'S EXTINCTION IS ABOUT TO BEGIN...All across the globe strange gates have appeared at random. Anyone who touches one dies. Anyone who tries to interfere with one dies. The world's best scientists have no idea what they are, but one thing is certain... these strange gates are about to open.Humanity holds its breath.On the United States' chaotic East Coast, Coast Guard captain Guy Granger sets off on a desperate journey across the Atlantic to find his kids. Mina Magar is a photojournalist forced to take pictures of horrors she could never have imagined as something terrible emerges onto London's busy Oxford Street. Rick Bastion is a fading pop star with his head in a bottle and no hope for the future--even before the apocalypse began on his doorstep.For all of them, staying alive is almost impossible, but they must try. Hell is coming and no one can escape it. Mankind must fight back or become extinct.The gates are open. And all Hell is about to break loose.

     Set against the backdrop of the isolated forests north of New Hampshire's White Mountains, while camping on family land, Tom and Lori Thornton (and their dog, Buck) find themselves in a sudden SHTF scenario. No cellular service. Dangerous roads. Limited supplies. And far more questions than answers. After the shocking murder of Tom's uncle by a band of looters, the couple's already faltering marriage reaches the breaking point amid the chaos. Trust and loyalties are challenged, old friendships are put to the test, and while immediate answers and solutions elude them, they must rely on raw instincts in order to survive.

    Her only family is her little sister, still trapped in the system. When the news shows the bombs striking several major cities, Dakota’s first thought is to grab her sister and get the hell out of Miami. Logan Garcia is a man haunted by secrets. His life plan is to drink himself into oblivion--until the shockwave hits, shattering the world as he knows it. In the moments before the deadly fallout descends, Dakota offers Logan a deal. She knows a place to ride out the coming chaos, a safe house deep in the Everglades. If he helps her rescue her sister, she’ll take him with her. But Dakota’s past has caught up to her. Someone is hunting her through the radioactive ruins of Miami. And he won’t stop until he has her...or they’re both dead. An electrifying post-apocalyptic survival adventure, the Nuclear Dawn series features fast-paced action combined with strong, complex characters. Perfect for fans of Logan Keys, Jacqueline Druga, Mike Kraus, and Boyd Craven. *Rated PG-13 for violence and some swearing.*

    She never imagined it would go this far. It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it human-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game. Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes. But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing. Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.

    When Riley was born, her mother escaped the Breeders, the group of doctors using cruel experiments to bolster the dwindling human race. Her parents do everything possible to keep her from their clutches-- moving from one desolate farm after another to escape the Breeders' long reach. The Breeders control everything- the local war lords, the remaining factories, the fuel. They have unchecked power in this lawless society. And they're hunting Riley.When the local Sheriff abducts the adult members of her family and hands her mother over to the Breeders, Riley and her eight-year-old brother, Ethan, hiding in a shelter, are left to starve. Then Clay arrives, the handsome gunslinger who seems determined to help to make up for past sins. The problem is Clay thinks Riley is a bender-- a genderless mutation, neither male nor female. As Riley's affection for Clay grows she wonders can she trust Clay with her secret and risk her freedom?The three embark on a journey across the scarred remains of New Mexico-- escaping the Riders who use human sacrifice to appease their Good Mother, various men scrambling for luck, and a deranged lone survivor of a plague. When Riley is shot and forced into the Breeder's hospital, she learns the horrible fate of her mother—a fate she'll share unless she can find a way out.

    Each year hundreds are active. Chances are, this year, you will catch one of those strains. You will cough, sneeze, and your body will ache. Without a second thought, you’ll take a double dose of green liquid, go to bed, and swear you’ll feel better in the morning. Not this time.In 1918 forty million people succumbed to a particular strain of swine flu. It appeared out of nowhere, and just as quickly as it surfaced, the Spanish Flu vanished. Gone for good. Or so we thought. Though mankind has anticipated its resurfacing for some time, mankind is ill prepared. Mutated and with a vengeance, the Spanish Flu returns.In a world blackened with plague, a glimmer of light exists in the small town of Lodi, Ohio. They shine as a sanctuary because they are ‘flu-free’ In the wake of the reality that they are spared, the spirit and strength of Lodi is tested. It becomes a fight against what is morally right or wrong in an increasingly difficult battle to stay healthy and alive until the flu has run its course.

    The surviving few are left to find their way among the ashes of civilization. Chaos reigns. What if your preparations weren't enough? Nick thought he was ready. He has a lodge in the mountains in New Mexico, packed full of supplies and ammo. He thought he could protect his family, but the virus took them anyway. Soon, he finds others that rely on him. With everything lost, can he find the strength in himself to go on? Could you face your greatest fears? Liz is trapped in Albuquerque. A dangerous battle rages around her, and she doesn't have long to live if she stays. The only way out is through the mountains, and there's only one man who can take her. But can she put her faith in a stranger's promise? Only a few survived the outbreak, but that was just the beginning. Now they'll have to fight harder than ever to stay alive. Fight to Survive is Book 1 in a post-apocalyptic thriller series about people pushing past their limits as they try to survive the end of the world.

    Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be days before help can arrive.Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He's prepared. In his car are a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a backpack of food, water, and supplies. He knows there is only one thing he can do ... that he must do: get home to his wife Beth, go back to their gated community on the far edge of the San Fernando Valley.All he has to do is walk. But he will quickly learn that it's not that easy. His dangerous, unpredictable journey home will take him through the different worlds of what was once Los Angeles. Wildfires rage out of control. Flood waters burst through collapsed dams. Natural gas explosions consume neighborhoods. Sinkholes swallow entire buildings. After-shocks rip apart the ground. Looters rampage through the streets.There's no power. No running water. No order.Marty Slack thinks he's prepared. He's wrong. Nothing can prepare him for this ordeal, a quest for his family and for his soul, a journey that will test the limits of his endurance and his humanity, a trek from the man he was to the man he can be ... if he can survive The Walk.