Apocalyptic Fiction

The best-selling Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith first introduced listeners to a world ravaged by an engineered virus that turned men into monsters. Now, for the first time ever, comes a collection of Extinction Cycle short stories that explore the human spirit and the fight for survival in the face of overwhelming odds from some of the leading voices in the post-apocalyptic genre.

When a new dungeon is born, it wants nothing more than to have the most vicious monsters, the most cunning traps and the most shiny of loot. There is only one problem...but it's a rather big one. It finished its first floor years ago, but it still hasn't been visited by any adventurers! In order to find someone—or something—to explore its floors, or perhaps just to find someone to talk to, this dungeon will have to go way off script. But it soon discovers that going off script brings problems of its own, and that adventurers are not the only thing this world is missing.

It all came down to me. The one who followed the rules, never went looking for trouble - I kept to myself. I just wanted to take care of my family. To not constantly look over my shoulder, worried about the things that went bump in the night. I just wanted to survive. But that wasn't meant to be. As luck - or fate, or something - would have it, the trouble found me. I followed a rabbit through the wreckage of a half-ruined world to get back what was mine, and wound up at the end of it. In Wonderland. But there's nothing magical about it.

Can humanity Survive what it never saw coming? On October 15 at 2:15 a.ms Earth vanished. A scattered few woke alone in a world with no rules, other than survival at any cost. A journalist wanders the wretched reality of an empty New York, searching for his wife and son. A serial killer must hunt in a land where prey is now an endangered species. A mother shields her young daughter from danger through every terror-filled breath.

A year has passed since the cataclysmic impact of asteroid AG5. Whilst Earth's survivors struggle against a devastating winter, the world's finest assemble on the International Space Station for a covert mission that could change the course of civilization. Back in the US, former director general Steiner is due to stand trial for masterminding heinous acts of terror. As calls for the death penalty gain momentum, those that sit in judgement are unaware that Steiner holds the key to the survival of the entire human race.

A supervolcanic eruption in Yellowstone Park sends lava and mud flowing toward populated areas, and clouds of ash drifting across the country. The fallout destroys crops and livestock, clogs machinery, and makes cities uninhabitable. Those who survive find themselves caught in an apocalyptic catastrophe in which humanity has no choice but to rise from the ashes and recreate the world.

The world outside has grown toxic, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. The remnants of humanity live underground in a single silo. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they want: They are allowed to go outside.

Zombie, Indiana explores the impact of an invading zombie horde on a trio of Hoosier protagonists…each of whom have some dark secrets to keep. When the governor’s daughter mysteriously disappears on a field trip, IMPD Special Sergeant James Nolan, scholarship student Kesha Washington, and Governor Hank Burleson must all come together not only to find the governor’s daughter, but also to undertake a quest to redeem the very soul of the state itself…all while under constant attack from the living dead.

From out of the clear blue sky, an unknown chunk of rock from the frozen void strikes the Earth with unimaginable force, gouging a wound into the very crust of the planet. Millions die in an instant, and millions more await the end as the looming catastrophe unfolds...Thousands of miles away from the disaster, a call comes in the middle of the night. Families act, and react, and while panic spreads, the world keeps on spinning. Maybe a little slower, and perhaps with a teeny bit more of a tilt, but such things are a mere trifle to the existence of a planet.

When the cultivators came to Earth, they destroyed our entire civilization in a matter of hours. Armies fell, cities burned, and that was before the moon turned red and filled our world with monsters. Now, over a decade later, what's left of humanity slaves under the heels of our Qi-infused masters. The luckiest of us might even become one of them, they say—if we serve the Dynasty well enough and harness the power of Qi. But I want none of that. I'm sick of serving, and I want nothing to do with their world. Instead, I want them to pay for what they did to mine.

It's now two years since the zombie apocalypse changed the world. Survival is precarious for Zach Gunderson and his friends. They are encountering zombies who are evolving into something more than mindless automatons, and the group dynamic is threatened by the revelation of a murderer in their midst. They handle each situation in their own special manner, but a seemingly innocent encounter with a group of Marines leads to disastrous consequences.

First the dead rose up, and civilization fell. Those who survived struggled to rebuild, creating makeshift societies with harsh new rules and harsher punishments. Some would be leaders, others slaves. But none would ever be safe from the walking death. Off the coast of Texas, an island research facility offers sanctuary, supplies, and hope to a desperate trio of survivors. But when they learn what the scientists are doing, how their experiments could unleash armies of the undead, they have no choice but to fight back.

As the story opens, Snowman is sleeping in a tree, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

The best-selling Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith first introduced listeners to a world ravaged by an engineered virus that turned men into monsters. Humanity's only hope was not a cure, but another bioweapon. When deployed it killed 90 percent of the infected, but the remaining 10 percent transformed into even more terrifying creatures called Variants. Here's a collection of Extinction Cycle short stories that explore the human spirit and the fight for survival in the face of overwhelming odds from some of the leading voices in the post-apocalyptic genre.

For 32 years archaeologist Julius Gabriel investigated the Mayan calendar, a 2,500-year-old enigma of time and space that predicts humanity will perish on December 21, 2012 (the winter solstice). Julius believes that certain mysterious sites represent pieces of a global puzzle linked to the salvation of our species. Ridiculed by his peers, Julius dies before he can solve the doomsday prophecy. Now only one person can prevent our annihilation: Julius' son, Michael, a patient locked up in a Miami mental asylum.

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.

For trained assassin Dylan Romero, business is good. As the agency's top warriors, he and partner Jake Walker are the last two people evil wants to see on the other side of a gun. When a mission takes them to the college town of Bozeman, Montana, they discover that there is more than just another mark in another town to keep them there. With a heavy concentration of vessels doing their demon masters' dirty work and flesh-craving monsters lurking around every corner, the secluded Midwest town is set to become the first battleground of the apocalypse.

Trust no one. Pull the trigger. Hide. Run. Stay away from the other survivors. Stay away from the Infected. Emma has obeyed her father's rules since she can remember running from the car accident that claimed his life. But one night that all changes. The knock at her cabin door and the voice of the girl on the other side don't make Emma help the girl. No - it's the fact that the girl, Anna, is willing to die to save her wounded brother that changes everything in Emma's world.

Ben, Joel, Allie, and their dog, Gunner, have faced down foes of all descriptions in their odyssey across the EMP-ravaged country in search of their families. Now, as they approach the final leg of their journey, the stakes are raised. With no way of knowing what danger lurks ahead, they encounter a new and never-ending gauntlet of challenges and threats. Their ability to work as a team is tested anew, and they realize survival in this new world will require them all to make sacrifices.

Caleb Webb is the dictionary definition of disadvantaged, and surviving on his own is nothing new. When the apocalypse hits, his rugged skill set for staying alive on the mean streets of Los Angeles comes in handy. Unfortunately, he's on a collision course with the worst criminal cartel in the city, unless someone intervenes.