Apocalyptic Short Stories

In this riveting tale of looming apocalypse, Pup is living off the grid for the summer with her parents on an island off the coast of Maine, when all three of them face the hardest decisions of their lives. Across the water one night they can see homes burning and hear gunfire. Pup and her parents, with their goat and chickens and garden and their dog, Opey, have no contact with the mainland, except for boat runs into town.

The aliens left. Their monsters didn’t. Life after the invasion is perilous for these young men. The world ended while they were still learning to drive. Now, they’re all that stands between humanity and extinction. But here’s the kicker: Earth’s alien invaders didn’t take everything when they departed. They left monsters behind. This collection contains five explosive sci-fi survival stories from bestselling author M.G. Herron. Each one follows a different hero facing impossible odds as he discovers what it takes to remain human when the world—and its alien monsters—want him dead.

Laurel is stabilizing a patient in the ER when the power goes out. When the rest of the hospital evacuates, she refuses to leave her patients behind—especially her sick mother. She’s determined to fight for their lives. Even if it means putting her own in danger… In a remote mountain cabin hundreds of miles away, Laurel’s husband, Bear, begins a grueling trek across Minnesota. He’ll do whatever it takes to reunite his family. But it’s a dangerous journey, and he’s all alone save for his loyal dog, Jessamine, and Trent, an orphaned boy he finds along the way.

Eleven years after the Pyongyang Flu decimated North America, the world is a graveyard of old dreams and new nightmares. the high Cascades, Caleb Harrison sits in the isolation of Outpost One, a solitary sentinel guarding the only pass to his home, Hammondville. But the silence of the mountains is about to be shattered. When a desperate "Mayday" from a neighboring outpost slices through the static, Caleb realizes the Raiders aren't just coming—they’re already here. Will Caleb fall back and save himself or risk his life to stay and become a "speed bump" to buy Hammondville time?

These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.

It’s only two weeks before an asteroid turns home to dust. Though most of Earth has already been evacuated, it’s Samantha’s job to catalog plant samples for the survivors’ unknowable journey beyond. Preparing to stay behind and watch the world end, she makes a final human connection. As certain doom hurtles nearer, the unexpected and beautiful potential for the future begins to flower.

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 bounty hunting survivor. A Galactic dark elf. A woman who has given up her humanity to become something more. These stories and more are available in the first short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, covering year one on Earth. When the world ends, humanity steps up, finding new ways to survive in a world with classes, magic, and monsters. The anthology features exciting, new stories by five new writers and a new, never publicly released short story by Tao Wong.

In this 2024 re-release, the apocalypse has ended for Adrian Ring, and the rebuilding of the world has begun. But have all the stories of the old world's death been told? Elsewhere on Earth, there is a plane filled with innocents, and a criminal could wipe it from the skies with a tide of undeath. A young man in Manhattan is going mad with hunger and fear. A veterinarian races to save her animal patients, and their owners, one by one. A drunk lunatic is driven to self-destruction, craving the undead horde and the absolution they will give him.

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.

This collection of five short stories touches on themes and topics throughout the genre including zombies, superheroes, artificial intelligence, and the changing role of birthdays in the future. "Billy and the Zombies" is a story about a boy who spent most of his life preparing for a zombie apocalypse and now has to deal with one in real life. "Mom's Special Day" talks about an indeterminate future where birthdays have a much different meaning than they do today. "The Trial of WLQC-73" discusses what happens when we create computers that are as human as we are with all of our faults and failings. "The Heist" is a story about a future where Superheroes aren't as clean cut as our comic books show them to be. "Chance Encounters" describes what happens when a simple misunderstanding spirals out of control.

Fighting in the streets, corruption at the highest levels, collapsing infrastructure, brutal police, a daily threat of nuclear war: few of us thought we’d find ourselves here, so far into the 21st century. What’s next? Are we really going to be “great again,” however that’s meant? And if we are, what does that mean for those of us on the receiving end of the less-than-great? In this diverse and vigorous mix of stories by newcomers and luminaries, writers offer their takes on what life might hold for us in the next few years.

Richard just wanted a girlfriend - not the apocalypse. Richard Peak's senior year is looking painfully ordinary - fighting for position on the soccer team, his parents' constant arguing, a glaring lack of a girlfriend. He can't wait to graduate and join a soccer team overseas, preferably as far from home as possible. Then the president is assassinated and his life changes forever. As an alarming chain of nationwide terrorist attacks trigger a civil war, Richard finds himself on a dangerous journey for survival.

Undead Tales: Fifteen Thrilling Zombie Stories is the audio version of the new zombie anthology, published by the best-selling authors, J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon. Get it now and start listening!

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

PLAGUERS PROWL THE EARTH. HUMANITY HAS BECOME PREY. Those who remain live in walled compounds. Life is ruled by warlords, their power upheld by mercenaries. Standing against the warlords is a covert resistance group of researchers and mercenaries. They work in secret to develop a cure for the plague. But the warlords will stop at nothing to control the cure. Can the resistance force outmaneuver the warlords in their quest to save humanity? If you like the dystopian future of The Running Man and the gritty characters of The Last of Us, you’ll love the high-octane Afterworld Apocalypse bundle.

Life in the Trench is harsh but simple - until a young girl braves an unknown path in a bracing coming-of-age short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Sweet Tooth and the Gideon Falls comics.

Civilization has collapsed, and the man who's responsible is buried in a small town graveyard. At night, teens Wren and Elias meet near his grave to spend some alone time together, but a stranger resembling a character from an old children's book interrupts them with a strange message.

The System Apocalypse has brought the clothing industry, and just about everything else, to a grinding halt. Now Lana Pearson intends to kickstart the local industry into gear to help Vancouver self-sustain itself. Key to her strategy are special teams of non-combat classes.

When her lover succumbs to the virus plaguing the remains of the civilized world, Lindsay is left alone on a sailboat she can't operate. With nuclear bombs deployed to destroy the infected and the storm season just beginning, she must find a way to survive - without losing her mind in the process. Get ready to dive into the first book in the In Caves & Catacombs series.