Fiction Survival Stories

Thrown into solitary confinement for his failed escape attempt from furnace prison, Alex Sawyer struggles not to let the hellish pitch-black silence overwhelm him. Before another escape attempt is even possible, he must first survive the nightmare that now haunts his endless nights. Because the hole doesn’t need monsters to do its dirty work — not the usual brutes in black suits and their silver-eyed, fleshless hounds, or wheezing freaks with filthy syringes.

A catastrophic tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, in 2011. It was part of a larger tornado outbreak in the spring of that year and reached a maximum width of nearly one mile during its path through the southern part of the city, killing 158 people, and injuring over 1,000. It caused damages amounting to $2.8 billion, making it the costliest single tornado in US history. Lauren will bring her signature intensity to this distinctly American natural disaster, placing a young boy in the middle of one of the deadliest tornadoes to strike the United States since 1947.

When the black rain began to fall, it was a worldwide phenomenon that mystified everyone. There was little time to ponder the cause. Most animals died at the onset. While some humans were unaffected, others experienced a half-death of sorts, morphing into blood and flesh-crazed creatures with a desire to hunt the living. Climbing Fox Wattana of the Henomawi Nation claims responsibility for the black rain; he says it will will ensure the ultimate extinction of the United States government as revenge for robbing his people of their land. Cole "CB" Baxter isn't taking this lying down.

Reeling from the devastation of Dust & Decay, Benny Imura and his friends plunge deep into the zombie-infested wastelands of the great Rot & Ruin. Benny, Nix, Lilah, and Chong journey through a fierce wilderness that was once America, searching for the jet they saw in the skies months ago. If that jet exists, then humanity itself must have survived somewhere.

Emily, David, Mason, Lisa, and Mark head to the California coast to find a boat back to Canada. They all felt that it would be much easier and quicker to sail home rather than go over land with the others. They were wrong. The trek through the lawless city to get to the coast is only the first step. Hardship and loss await as the teens struggle to overcome both the challenge of the journey and threats from within. The trip home will change them all - for good or bad, as the stranded teens make for home by sea.

The crew felt a new wind. The bitter cold added to the bite of a ship that had never gone this fast. Sharp eyes stayed fixed on the dim horizon. There was no time for caution, though they knew dangerous ice lay ahead. The Carpathia raced into the same ice field that had just claimed Titanic. Henry Cromwell dreams of becoming a reporter. Armed with a homemade radio, he spent the first three days of Carpathia’s voyage listening in on the North Atlantic’s radio traffic—eagerly jotting down notes and being a general bother to the crew. But nothing prepared him for what he would hear at 12:30 am.

Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business. But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after.

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.

Rick is like many Americans. He's concerned with what he sees on the news, and how the country seems to be ready to tear itself apart. His biggest concern has been civil unrest. Already an avid camper, he sets out to secure his future, and career, by finding his own Eden.

Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Gower Peninsula—the first region in Great Britain declared an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty—this true coming-of-age story follows a teenage boy whose world collapses, driving him into the wild. Alone in the caves, sustained only by fish, rabbit, and stubborn survival instinct, he faces the full weight of silence, darkness, and fear.

It was 1964 in the brand-new state of Alaska, a vast land of staggering beauty and heart-stopping dangers. Eleven-year-old Jack had grown up living happily with his parents in an off-the-grid cabin, miles from their closest neighbors. Grizzlies and wolves outnumbered people, and dark winter days were 30 degrees below zero. Jack had always thought of himself as strong -- "Alaska tough". But then the most powerful earthquake in American history -- the Good Friday Earthquake -- struck.

It was bad when Jake found out his brother was one of them. A Human-Controller. A slave. But that was nothing compared to this. When the Animorphs decide to visit the Yeerks' new base, it seems simple. But then they get caught, and Jake falls - just for a moment - into the Yeerk pool. Now they're out, and his friends can't see it. To them, he's just like normal. But Jake is screaming for help. His worst fear has finally come true. He's become the enemy.

When 13-year-old Valor is sent to jail, she couldn't be happier. Demidova's prison for criminal children is exactly where she wants to be. Valor's twin sister, Sasha, is serving a life sentence for stealing from the royal family, and Valor is going to help her escape...from the inside. Never mind that no one has escaped the prison in centuries. Valor has a master plan and resources most people could only dream about. But she didn't count on having to outsmart both the guards and her fellow prisoners.

Alex Sawyer has escaped his underground nightmare to discover the whole world has become a prison, and Alfred Furnace is its master. Monsters rule the streets, leaving nothing but murder in their wake. Those who do not die become slaves to Furnace's reign of cruelty. Alex is a monster too. He is the only one who can stop Furnace but in doing so he could destroy everything. Is he the executed or the executioner? Who will die? All Alex knows is that one way or another, it all ends now.

The courageous groups of teens made their way home in a post-apocalyptic adventure story of survival after an EMP had virtually shut down modern technology across North America. What they find there after their long, dangerous journeys leaves them stunned. Their reunion begins in a hail of gunfire and only gets worse from there. The teens are shocked to learn that their town is under siege and their families, friends, and neighbors are being held hostage and some used as slaves.

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this trilogy. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois.

In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. There he meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny. When they play a prank on the town bully’s family that goes wrong, they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing forever.

Esna Donovan was stranded on a planet full of people that didn't look like her as a child along with her brother. Their father was murdered, leaving them sitting in their spaceship waiting for his return. They remember almost nothing from before that time, when two Calavari who were business associates of their father took them in and told them they could never be seen outside their full body armor. They've honored their father's dying wish, living and working on the Calavari's farm while exploring the barren wastelands looking for bits of technological salvage.

The story begins when the young teen who suffers a head injury emerges from a sailboat that ran aground during a hurricane. The trauma of discovering she is amnesic is soon dwarfed by the realization she is totally alone. Gradually, her expectation that people will return to the community they evacuated is replaced with the startling truth that everyone is gone. Vanished from the face of the Earth. Hindered by a selective memory that affords only brief glimpses of her past, Ivy and her new friend Tonka—a West Highland White Terrier—set off on a quest to find other people.

The Polaris is on a mission to explore new lands, and its crew is eager to bring their discoveries back home. But when members of the advance landing party mysteriously disappear, the remaining adults abandon ship, leaving behind the young cabin attendants and deckhands - none of them older than 12. With whispers of mutiny, a strange tropical illness, and perhaps even a wild beast shadowing them, the young sailors are desperate to steer the vessel to safety.