Apocalyptic Short Stories

A leaderless, exhausted federal government is pulling out of Texas, leaving nine million survivors of the apocalypse to fend for themselves. In an attempt to fill the void, the Alliance of West Texas prepares to step in. The ruling council establishes five directives; Energy, Agriculture, Transportation, Communications and Security.

Zone guide Yuri Bonyev escorts three scientists to an uncharted sector in the Zone chasing rumors of an old military bunker. Not everyone is who they appear to be, and Yuri learns perhaps some secrets are better left buried.

Earth has fallen far from its splendor and progress. Humanity’s long-held fear of an asteroid colliding with the world has come to pass, and the repercussions are devastating. Resultant natural disasters, plagues, and famines have taken billions of lives. With mankind’s future uncertain, scientists set to work creating a virtual Earth in which people can live in the mind rather than in physical form.

Earth is quickly becoming an undead wasteland, that much is for sure. What isn't certain is the fate of her three children, as their desperate bid to find safety at their family cabin is cut off by the revelation of world-altering proportions. What seems like a lifetime ago, the secret battle to be the first superpower to perfect the perfect bioweapon has been corrupted into a scourge now headed straight for them. Suddenly Abby's past becomes just as unclear as her future.

A reluctant hero. Dick aka Devil Dog's world changes drastically when the EMP takes out the power grid. A homeless Marine veteran living in the abandoned tunnels beneath Chicago, he's far better prepared than most people. Devil Dog becomes the reluctant savior of women and children from the worst of the gangs that now rule topside. Doing the right thing makes him new enemies, driving him ever deeper into the tunnels that keep his charges safe - until he runs across a young woman who might be his daughter.

Waiting for Martin is set in a nebulous future-never in which catastrophic environmental change has returned ancient beings to Earth, as well as raining down a disastrous helping of new ones. A family of children try to make their way home to their older brother, who is their guardian, when a bit of environmental fallout gets in their way.

A Paperback Original A sharply constructed, death-defying story collection that dismantles the myths of white America, revealing race, class, and gender as fictions that can be taken apart and remade In his first story collection in fifteen years, Jess Row evokes white America—specifically...

Shannon Grayson is a tough-as-nails long-haul truck driver. But her life is turned upside down when a massive EMP blast hits North America and demolishes the power grid. Trapped in a sprawling retail super-center, Shannon barely escapes with her life and her truck. Now, as a bullet wound in her shoulder festers with an infection, Shannon is determined to find the daughter she lost contact with five years ago.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell once wrote of a world where abuse of power begins with an abuse of language and a bastardization of truth. Some of today's most exciting voices in speculative fiction explore the ramifications of those ideas in Ignorance Is Strength.

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we'd do to survive the coming zombie plague.

The world isn't how they left it. When the bunker airlocks release them after 20 years in hibernation, the survivors find a silent, barren world outside. But they are not alone. There is a presence here, alive in the dust - spirits of the earth, benevolent and malicious as they interact with the human remnant.

In Dark Property, a woman carries a dying baby across a desert waste, moving toward a fortress harboring a mysterious resurrection cult. Menaced by scavengers, she nevertheless begins to suspect that the reality within the fortress may be even more unsettling than the blasted environment outside. In Contagion and Other Stories, Evenson takes his audiences into a world that is at once apocalyptic, dark, observant, and grotesque without ever dipping into static genre conventions.

A boy and his father walk on the shore of an ocean filled with bloody spears cast off from a war between gods. A father travels back in time over and over, unable to rescue the mother of his child. A mischievous satyr lurking in a dungeon has a field day with trespassing adventurers. These tales and more are in Resurrections, a compilation of short stories written by Chris Philbrook.

It's the start of summer vacation, and poor Tony has just lost his grandfather. His father is deployed overseas, and his mother is raising him and his little brother all alone. But that's not what's bothering Tony. It's that his nana will be all alone in her small, rural home during the heat of summer, doing the yard work, the laundry, and all the things around the house, while mourning her husband. That won't sit for Tony. With his mother's permission he moves in with Nana for the summer.

My name is Zoe Cartwright, and I see people’s memories. They haunt me. I know things I shouldn’t about my friends and family—their experiences with love and loss, hope and fear—things that must never be forgotten. Stories that must be written down. The world has already changed so much; who knows what the future will hold.

By protecting and nurturing the ones with the knowledge, Terry Henry Walton begins building his Force de Guerre, a paramilitary group that will secure this new world from those who would take and destroy.

When an EMP wipes out the power grid, Caroline Thompson is alone on the family ranch while her husband, Luke, and their son are stranded in Fort Worth as chaos erupts. With no power, no law, and danger at every turn, Caroline must fight her way into the collapsing city to find them. But bringing her family back together is only the beginning. Looters are closing in, determined to take everything Caroline has fought to protect as their ranch turns into a battleground for survival.

A collection of (mostly) previously unpublished stories by award-winning journalist and cult horror author Ryan C. Thomas. From zombies to monsters to ghosts and more, Thomas weaves unique tales that will send a chill up your spine.

Phillip (the Ghost) and his friends are in Taos for a fun weekend when they meet a weird artist named Goffrey and decide to spend the weekend in the mountains. You never know where you'll be when it's the end of the world as we knew it.

Adrian Ring is in a coma. Shot by a traitor in his midst, he has slipped into an existence where his consciousness is neither alive nor dead. He has gone to the other side. Bolstered by the presence of the friends he has lost since "that day", Adrian embarks on exploring this frozen landscape of dreams and nightmares. Transported through time and space, Adrian sees a hunting trip firsthand with Gavin and then relives one of Gilbert's worst firefights during his Vietnam era. Then, he sees something that hasn't happened yet, but will. And what he sees will change the world forever.