Humanity had barely survived The Panic 70 years earlier and now the slow death brought on by the collapse of society seems unavoidable, especially as it seems the worst is still to come. Accompanied by a strange hound he rescued from the labs deep beneath the Fort, Alan sets out to aid the survivors who struggle to hold back mankind's final hour, joining up with a handful of soldiers desperately trying to fan the embers of mankind into life once more. But Alan has a secret he's desperate to hide and which threatens to be revealed with every action he takes. Can his fear of discovery be overcome so that mankind can stand a chance of surviving? Or will humanity topple over the brink as he stands by and watches? Following on from Project - 16, The Brink tells the story of a man who faces a destiny he neither wants nor is prepared for and starts Alan Harding on a path to legend.

    This story was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine in March 2007. It is available in The Best of Elizabeth Bear.

    He sleeps in a real bed and eats real food and only jumps into Neuroma to work. All he wanted was to log in, work and log out and live in general obscurity. Getting the attention of a CEO, meeting a stranger in real life, and forced to play in a secret game of corporations were not penciled into his calendar. While that was bad, he started to question whether Odditek was still in control, or had their complacency created the noose tightening around their neck. Bran was not yet aware of the choice before him. He could no longer stand back and watch, and he had to pick a side and fight before he lost the ability to choose. Would he recognize the inevitable in time? Was it possible to make a ‘correct’ choice, or had the lines blurred so much that hero and villain were indistinguishable? This novel is part of an Odditek series and is a LitRPG novel. I realize it’s the first Odditek series, but more are coming. This series started as a companion series to a book called Lantern Online. I wanted a way to build up the world as it now exists, and to explain what Odditek is. Neuroma and Nerves are mentioned in Lantern Online, and I felt all that information was taking away from my story and is mostly not relevant, but good to know information. I took a lot of it out and added it to this series. Anyway, out of that came Office Wars. I hope it's different than most LitRPG you will read, and brings another dimension to the genre. Explicit language! I will not lie, there is a satirical nature to this story, and a lot of the language and scenarios are morally questionable on purpose. In this story and I use a lot of curse words and controversial commentary. Just look on Facebook or any half a dozen social media sites, and you will see similar language, conversations, and other nonsense. If we all moved into a digital world, this is how I view that world.

    It was written in a hurry. It is riddled with inconsistencies. And it never quite arrives at whatever point it sought to make. But remember: The $25 you donated to charity in exchange for this steaming mess of prose will help our species shuffle along, and I hope you’ll feel warmed by your good deed as you read. Thank you for decreasing the overall worldwide level of suck, and as they say in my hometown: Don’t forget to be awesome.Best wishes!John Green* The book has been made available under creative commons license, so it can be acquired legally here: http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/post/2... :)

    His grandmother died, his ex-fiancee was trying to take his daughter away, the snow was coming down, and he was on his way back from Ohio. Then something happened. As he stops at a rest stop in northwest Ohio, the power goes out. Not just the lights, but the cars, phones, and everything else that made up everyday life. He has to get home, and he has no idea how to do it. Stuck in the snow amid a cataclysmic event that no one can precisely explain, he sets out to help not only himself, but those trapped with him. He has to find a way to travel the 300+ miles home, and he needs to do it fast. His family at home is saddled with problems of their own, and they have no way of knowing what has happened to him. As the world slowly spirals out of control, Ben must try to make it home...or die trying. From the bestselling author of the Six Feet From Hell and Refuge From the Dead series comes a realistic take on TEOTWAWKI - the end of the world as we know it. No zombies this time, just pure survival.

    This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

    Two psychic talents are required to mine it. Three species seeking control. Taymar is telekinetic, violent and deadly. She is also the first of her kind to be telepathic as well, making her an intolerable threat to the ruling species of her home planet. They want to control her. To tame her. She just wants to be free. A cruel twist of fate has Nevvis tasked with managing Taymar when he is supposed to be managing a planet on the verge of war. But, she is hard to ignore and impossible to forget. When the Shreet invaders attack, Taymar jumps at the chance to escape. Nevvis would love nothing better than to let her go, but he can’t. If he is to save their home from the Shreet, he must twist her into a weapon and somehow convince her to help save a planet that has only ever tried to destroy her.

    A deadly pandemic unleashed. The fate of mankind hangs in the balance...In a near future devastated by famine, disease, and overcrowding, the United States balances on the cusp of collapse--and civil war.When terrorists hijack a lavish cruise ship, wealthy Amelia Black is forced into hiding with Gabriel Rivera, an enigmatic stranger with a dangerous secret. Despite their overwhelming differences--and the killers hunting them--the pair must form an unlikely alliance to battle a new catastrophic threat: a genetically engineered, world-ending bio-weapon hidden on the ship.What starts out as a single, terrifying incident will soon evolve into a race to save mankind from an extinction-level event...When the end comes for you, when there are no more rules and survival at all costs threatens to tear apart the moral fabric of the world, how far will you go to survive?*Rated PG-13 for mild language and moderate violence.*Full of twists, turns, and unexpected surprises.

    Just friends. They’d never actually date each other, because they’ve been friends since childhood and that would be weird. Now it’s the apocalypse. People are leaking blood from their eyeballs and turning into homicidal oozing mutants. Fortunately, Kevin has access to an underground shelter, and he and Missy make it there in time to avoid a horrible gruesome death. But they’re trapped down there. Things are going to get weird. A gooey 24,000-word novella from the four-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of such demented horror/comedies as BLISTER, WOLF HUNT, DEAD CLOWN BARBECUE, and BENJAMIN'S PARASITE.

    

    Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories.Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse.THE END IS NIGH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others.

    From the Book of Revelation to The Road Warrior, from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving eschatological tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. In doing so, these visionary authors have addressed one of the most challenging and enduring themes of imaginative fiction: The nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction - including George R. R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King - Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. Whether the end of the world comes through nuclear war, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm, these are tales of survivors, in some cases struggling to rebuild the society that was, in others, merely surviving, scrounging for food in depopulated ruins and defending themselves against monsters, mutants, and marauders. Wastelands delves into this bleak landscape, uncovering the raw human emotion and heart-pounding thrills at the genre's core. --back coverContains the following stories:Introduction by John Joseph AdamsThe End of the Whole Mess by Stephen KingSalvage by Orson Scott CardThe People of Sand and Slag by Paolo BacigalupiBread and Bombs by M. RickertHow We Got In Town and Out Again by Jonathan LethemDark, Dark Were the Tunnels by George R. R. MartinWaiting for the Zephyr by Tobias S. BuckellNever Despair by Jack McDevittWhen Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory DoctorowThe Last of the O-Forms by James Van PeltStill Life With Apocalypse by Richard KadreyArtie’s Angels by Catherine WellsJudgment Passed by Jerry OltionMute by Gene WolfeInertia by Nancy KressAnd the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth BearSpeech Sounds by Octavia E. ButlerKillers by Carol EmshwillerGinny Sweethips’ Flying Circus by Neal Barrett, Jr.The End of the World as We Know It by Dale BaileyA Song Before Sunset by David GriggEpisode Seven... by John LanganAppendix: For Further Reading

    Until the world we knew went up in sweltering, viral flames. Despite our differences, I couldn’t leave Loren for dead after hearing her petrified screams, and with no one else to turn to, that left us tied to one another as the apocalypse continued to unfold. Fast forward one year later, and there’s only thing I now desire more than our survival... Her. Getting her beneath me has become an obsession, an infection rooted deep within me like the very virus meant to kill us. I’m falling for her at the worst time possible, I know this, but she is, too. It was inevitable, really. Whether we supersede the Z’s or not, one thing’s for certain—in the end, Loren will be mine. *NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Snare is a 20k novella originally part of the Black Hearts anthology. It is SHORT, steamy, and straight to the point.

    He returns to the Asylum adrift, unsure how to process the situation. But one thing is a constant: he's the Foul Mouth, he won't be grieving, he'll be GRIEFING, and it will be up to Ultra Class '09 to bear the brunt of the onslaught.

    Short flashback that occurs between "The Scorch Trials" and "The Death Cure."