Apocalyptic Short Stories

Generations after a bloody nuclear civil war, the United States is not as we know it. The inhabitants of the Northern states live as normal, but the South, after being decimated during the Second Civil War, are a changed people. Nuclear fallout has stolen any vestige of humanity. When the aircraft carrying the President of the Northern United States takes an erroneous detour, it is shot down somewhere over the south.

An offshoot species of a parasite, normally only found in amphibians, has evolved to include humans in its bizarre, three-stage life cycle, which causes the host to grow extra limbs and other body parts. Is there a way to break the cycle and stop the decline of the human race, or will phobia, paranoia, and fear blind us and seal our fate?

Perkus and Dardet scout the ruins left behind by nuclear war. Happening on a warehouse with little entry, they see an opportunity for salvage. But things hide in dark places in the wasteland.

During the 1700's, Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground at the entrance to Beaufort inlet and wasn't discovered until hundreds of years later. During an expedition of the sunken ship, something went terribly wrong, but the effects of that incident would not be felt until years later when a barrel of an unknown substance was tossed overboard during the expedition. The barrel took several years to erode, but when it did that's when all hell broke loose.

Life is but a dream, a construct, an illusion of our minds. Space monkey to earth, over. No response, it's all inside my head. The moment before the moment, when I decided to be someone else, someone better. It's all a lie...Natasha is my witness. My head hurts, where am I? I don't remember how I got here. Perhaps, this is just a dream or something else. Perhaps a nightmare? Wake up, wake up little man. Reality is about to smash you against the wall.

Only Alpha can fix this. Alpha and Kyle have toiled all day to carefully construct the perfect dinner date for Tina, whose crippling depression has bedridden her for months. Why is Tina so miserable, and why does she place so much blame on Alpha, whose dominance of humanity has solved all of the world's problems? Throughout the course of the evening, logic clashes against depression. Rationalizations against uncompromising morality. Love against revenge.

Monkeypox zombies infect the world with their deadly capability to eat brains and turn other humans into zombies. Johnny, the main character, must survive as he tries to get out of his high-rise office building filled with zombies. Later, Johnny is in a homeless hideout under the bridge and deals with the homeless political groups while barely surviving. Finally, he takes shelter with his ex-wife, Jennifer, her house stashed with guns and supplies. Herds of zombies break through into their home and they blast their way out by using grenades and guns.

Flesh-eating zombies invade a biker bar! Is it an isolated incident or a ghastly foretaste of a nationwide plague of zombies? Harry Black and his girlfriend, Irena, have to survive the first zombie onslaught in order to find out while society crashes and burns all around them.

A small group of survivors battle a post-apocalyptic landscape that is void of plant life. Hunger plagues the few remaining human survivors. The world has been pillaged and scavenging for food has become the lifeblood of survival, but starvation is now on the horizon for these fellow travelers. Many have taken to cannibalism, but this group has managed to survive without going quite so far. While scavenging, they first come across a woman, and shortly after, her child. They capture them and debate their options. In order to satisfy their burning hunger, they must first lose their humanity. Some will win, all will lose.

Vidu, a used-car dealer and d-bag extraordinaire, had been aimlessly wandering the streets of Chicago with only one thing on his mind… and that was before he got turned into a zombie. Just when you thought you had seen the last of him, now you can find out what happened to Vidu after he left his friends behind during the pandemonium of Dead Drunk: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse… One Beer at a Time. Humor, action, zombies, hangovers, gratuitous insults, and more Vidu!

Eric A. Shelman's short story, Last Supper, tells the tale of a man stranded in an abandoned building, surrounded by the walking dead. Out of food and low on water, he is forced to take action. His decision will utterly shock you. This is a story you'll think about long after you hear the last word.

From the author of the Hugo-winning Six Months, Three Days, a new wrinkle on the old story of three wishes, set after the end of the world.

The third part of the Undead series. The gang must get the vaccine to the CDC before it's too late and the air force bombs the city.

A viral outbreak on a global scale. Four strangers band together to make it to the safe house alive.

The Destroyer of Earth did not set out to be one. A perfect storm of catastrophes, a touch of hubris, and a lot of human ingenuity, and you get yourself deeper than ever. The button has been pressed, the world is in ruins. Will humanity figure out how to survive? What is Antigravel? What did you think was the road-stop for man to explore the empty reaches of space? Faster than light travel? Interstellar navigation? Time dilation? Puh. We beat all that by sheer force of will. No. It was micrometeoroids. Rocks. F--king space rocks.

Post-war Denver is ruled by the powerful Guild, an egalitarian regime intent on maintaining order at all costs. But some of the citizens remember what it was like before the fall of the old world and will stop at nothing to bring back capitalism and democracy to their city. Meanwhile, Misha, a young farm boy with his head in the clouds, is lured in by the beautiful Kara. She holds the key to a secret that will bring Misha's world crashing down and has the potential to change his future.

With the advent of the new Generation "A", the line between child and parent is becoming disturbingly blurred. Something has gone terribly wrong with nature; it's almost as if humanity is broken. The question is, will we make it through this alive?

Seven characters find themselves trapped inside an elevator during a zombie apocalypse. The narrator, the last passenger to occupy the elevator, tells them that his wife, who was murdered by a zombie, told him as she died in his arms that she saw one of the passengers get bitten by a zombie before the person ducked into the elevator, but she died before she could describe the victim to him. The terrified passengers know that the victim will soon turn and attack them. They must determine who it is and kill him or her before it is too late - if they don't kill each other first trying to find out.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Star' is the story of a shooting star which is discovered hurtling towards our solar system. It is on a collision course with Neptune. When the celestial crash occurs, the two planets combine into a gigantic burning star which is being drawn rapidly and irresistibly towards our sun. But on what trajectory? Will it hit any other planets on its way?

If someone observed us from afar, they could claim that our civilization was a civilization of walls. That was its main purpose. Such observers would likely not be able to explain why. I cannot either. Walls do not protect. They just trap and kill. Three short stories about a dystopic future, about people turning into machines, about walls and fences, about the way history works. Three short stories about now.