Fiction Survival Stories

Twenty years ago scientists made some remarkable discoveries with genetics and the ability to perfect the babies we gave birth to. Ten years ago the governments of the world made a hard choice: Earth or people. Nine weeks ago the choices they made came full circle. Fourteen days ago the truth of their mutations leaked out into the borderlands and other areas.

A mysterious voice has been speaking to Louise in her dreams. She and her brother Merwin are Sycamore seeds, who hope to one day set down roots and become big trees. But when a fire forces them to leave their mama tree prematurely, they find themselves catapulted into the unknown, far from home. Alone and unprepared, they must use their wits and imagination to navigate a dangerous world—filled with dinosaurs, meteors, and volcanoes!—and the fear of never finding a safe place to grow up.

One year ago, a solar flare scorched the Earth and destroyed life as we know it. With their parents gone and their supplies running low, grieving stepsiblings Millie and Rose leave home with their infant half-brother in search of Millie’s grandma, a Seminole elder—who Millie knows in her gut is still alive, even if Rose isn’t so sure. Along the way, they meet a group of other surviving kids calling themselves the Lost Boys and their lone adult leader, who reluctantly agree to help them brave the hostile wasteland to make it to Millie’s grandma safely. But the landscape isn’t the only threat.

Since a deadly virus and the violence that followed wiped out his parents and most of his community, Finn has lived alone on the rugged coast with only his loyal dog, Rowdy, for company. He has stayed alive for two winters—hunting and fishing and trading food, and keeping out of sight of the Wilders, an armed and dangerous gang that controls the north, led by a ruthless man named Ramage. But Finn’s isolation is shattered when a girl runs onto the beach. Rose is a Siley—an asylum seeker—and she has escaped from Ramage, who had enslaved her and her younger sister, Kas.

A science-class field trip to the Everglades is supposed to be fun, but Sarah's new at Glades Academy, and her fellow freshmen aren't exactly making her feel welcome. When an opportunity for an unauthorized side trip on an airboat presents itself, it seems like a perfect escape - an afternoon without feeling like a sore thumb. But one simple oversight turns a joyride into a race for survival across the river of grass. Sarah will have to count on her instincts - and a guy she barely knows - if they have any hope of making it back alive.

In the near-future United States, a one-child policy is ruthlessly enforced. Everyone follows the Rule of One. But Ava Goodwin, daughter of the head of the Texas Family Planning Division, has a secret - one her mother died to keep and her father has helped to hide for her entire life. She has an identical twin sister, Mira.

When Adam joined the Pioneer program, he became one of six teens to forfeit their bodies for a new, digital existence. Together, the Six were unstoppable, protecting the world from artificial-intelligence systems that threatened the human race. But they were more than a team, they were family. Until now. Adam has a complex power within his circuitry that defies the very laws of physics. He wasn't programmed to have this power, and he can barely control it or its consequences. Adam's never felt more alone. Amber, the newest Pioneer, knows what it is like to be an outsider.

When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she's about to be the next victim of the app. Knowing hardened criminals are getting a taste of their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn't commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she's innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman's cast of executioners kill them off one by one?

The Swiss Family Robinson has delighted generations of readers with its exciting tale of a family which, though shipwrecked, displays “the right stuff” and builds a charming colony that later, they do not want to leave. Cut off from the comforts and companionship of other humans, they use a familiarity with natural history and biology to find the resources and build the tools to construct a canoe, weave cloth, irrigate a garden, and turn an immense hollow tree into a lofty house with a spiral staircase.

For generations, the noble polar bears have ruled the Northern Kingdoms. But now, their society is on the brink of collapse. A group of power-hungry bears has seized control, and darkness is creeping across the snow. Cubs First and Second don't know any of this. Although they're twins, they couldn't be more different. First loves imagining stories, while his adventurous sister, Jytte, wants to live them. When their mother is taken prisoner, the cubs' world falls apart. They know they have to rescue her, but how can two cubs who've barely learned to hunt survive a treacherous journey across the ice?

Hansel and Gretel are young children whose father is a woodcutter. When a great famine settles over the land, the woodcutter's abusive second wife decides to take the children into the woods and abandon them there so that she and her husband will not starve to death, because the children eat too much. The woodcutter opposes the plan but finally and reluctantly submits to his wife's scheme. They are unaware that in the children's bedroom, Hansel and Gretel have overheard them.

First came the storms. Then came the Fever. And the Wall. After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct...but in reality, a new primitive society has been born. Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader's newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted.

Fox kit O-370 hungers for a life of adventure, like those lived long ago by Mia and Uly. But on the Farm, foxes know only the safety of their wire dens and the promise of eternal happiness in the White Barn. Or so they’re told. When O-370 gets free of his cage, he witnesses the gruesome reality awaiting all the Farm’s foxes and narrowly escapes with his life. In a nearby suburb, young Cozy and her skulk are facing an unknown danger, one that hunts foxes.

In this stand-alone novel with themes of friendship and family, twelve-year-old Elsby discovers a family of talking cats living in the house next door and must help them harness the magic that made them that way. From the author of the acclaimed Coo, The Cats of Silver Crescent is for fans of...

Dylan is 12 years old and embarking on his first ocean kayaking trip with his parents. He has spent the last year convincing them that he is ready for the challenging - and very dangerous - adventure. In fact, he has been determined to go ever since he heard about the destination: Ireland’s Eye. The small island off the coast of Newfoundland is the easternmost settlement in Canada. Or it was. It is now hauntingly empty, a ghost town clinging to the edge of the unforgiving Atlantic.

Shay, one of the rare survivors of the epidemic sweeping the UK, has surrendered herself to the Army because she believes she's a carrier of the deadly disease. Along with other survivors, she unwillingly becomes a test subject in an effort to find a cure. When the lab where she's being held is attacked, Shay and a few others escape - with the help of Dr. Alex Cross, Kai's hated stepfather and Callie's father. Alex is the leader of the cult-like group Multiverse. Their agenda is murky, but genetic engineering might be one of their goals.

Blair Thomas lives in the friendly, lakeside town of Lainey, Michigan, on the beautiful shores of Lake Huron. Lainey boasts superb hunting opportunities and offers visitors miles of sandy shoreline and weekend tours of the historic Tesla Lighthouse. It's the beginning of the fall, duck hunting season, and Blair and her dad are busy preparing for her very first duck hunt. The forecast is calling for extremely high winds and rain, absolutely perfect weather for duck hunting—it doesn't get any better than this!

A great cold has seized the Beyond. The warmth of summer, the smell of sweet grass, and the great caribou migrations are distant memories. Now the wolves know only ice, dark, snow, and endless cold. The order that kept the wolf clans strong for thousands of years has broken down completely. The wolves have only one chance for survival. They must find their way to a new land, a land of warmth and summer. But the journey will take them over a frozen sea and through thousands of miles of perilous territory. Will the wolves trust young Faolan to lead them?

More than 2,000 men, women, and children are on board. Here on the first-class promenade is millionaire John Jacob Astor, who hopes his return from Egypt with his pregnant teen bride will invite a minimum of media attention. And here, in the third-class common room, a beautiful Lebanese refugee, on her way to family in Florida, discovers first love. And there in the distance, shrouded in darkness, an ancient iceberg lies patient, awaiting its encounter.

As a lethal plague sweeps through the land, Ani Mells is shocked when she is unexpectedly captured by the governor's wardens and forced to submit to a test for the deadly Scourge. She is even more surprised when the test results come back positive, and she is sent to Attic Island, a former prison turned refuge - and quarantine colony - for the ill. The Scourge's victims, Ani now among them, can expect only to live out short, painful lives there.