Nobody was prepared, including the world’s governments. The damage to humanity through loss of life was predictable, yet unfathomable. As nuclear winter spread across the globe, a rapidly cooling climate shocked humanity and many living things to their death. Nuclear Armageddon had become reality and ordinary people were paying the price. In a world without power, the exchange of information was virtually non-existent. A battle for resources was waged, pitting friend against friend and friend against foe. For the Bartlett family, their days on Swan’s Island were untenable.

When Amanda Thomlin finds herself face-to-face with the reality that she may never see her mother again, the overwhelming uncertainty nearly immobilizes her. A kind father figure steps up and takes her under his protection, bringing her into his family.

It’s been a week without power. No phones. No computers. Nothing. Whatever shred of humanity is left in people is slowly dwindling away. Gangs are forming, people are starving, and the whole country is in a free-for-all. Accompanied by his neighbor, Nelson, Mike leaves Pittsburgh and heads to his family’s cabin in Ohio. For Mike, the only thing worse than not making it to the cabin is the fear of his family not being there when he does.

Darrell Donnelly and his daughter Laykin embark on their yearly hiking trip to a scenic and remote part of the Ocala National Forest. What started as a long weekend turned into a fight for survival as the hikers attempt to return home in the face of civil unrest and lawlessness, the aftermath of a coordinated attack on the power grid and most electronic devices.

Dalton Grinder's life had unraveled in a brutal series of blows. First, the Army cast him aside. Then, his wife walked out, leaving him with nothing but the hollow echo of a once-shared life. As if that wasn't enough, his last remaining relative—his grandfather—passed away, closing the final chapter of his family history. Born and bred in the heat and humidity of Florida, Dalton now finds himself heading north to the cold, unforgiving woods of Wisconsin to settle his grandfather’s affairs. But fate isn't done with him yet.

Weeks after a domestic terror attack leaves Texas in the dark, the rest of the nations begins to feel its pain. The economy weakens. Supply chains break. And a shadowy conspiracy works to undermine everything Americans hold dear.

After disease and nuclear warfare decimate the world population, 17-year-old Nadia is sure she's the last person left on Earth. She buries her before-the-end memories and focuses on survival. Then one night, she hears a voice on her radio and everything changes. Nadia finds comfort in her new-found companions, but they also discover an unsettling thread tying them together: their shared birthdays. As they begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding their survival, they soon realize it was no accident, and that they could be in far more danger than they ever imagined…

It really is the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Death, Famine, War, and Conquest. Things a seventeen-year-old boy shouldn’t have to deal with. In those most infamous words, mistakes were made. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The asteroid was supposed to miss. Running for their lives, Ryan Conrad and Kelsey Morgan, race to escape the impact of a super asteroid and the apocalyptic world it left behind. Fighting to survive the aftershocks. The earthquake to end all earthquakes, the largest tsunami in human history, and worst of all, the EMP and loss of civilization.

It came without warning—a one-two punch of economic collapse and deadly pandemic flu that shattered the United States and the entire world. Army veteran Eric Jaeger and paramedic Susan Walker flee the disintegrating Milwaukee suburbs for the Montana survival retreat run by Eric’s buddy, Manny Landeros. They join an eclectic group of friends forced to adapt to a lawless post-apocalyptic world in which kindness and human decency end at Manny’s property line.

Since childhood Nila Carter has been made to spend every weekend at the family cabin. In her teenage years she believes it to be a prison; as an adult it becomes her sanctuary and means to survive. When a mysterious outbreak occurs in India, Nila's brother, Bobby, a virologist with the CDC, places the family on a precautionary alert to be ready to bug out. Unlike anything he's ever seen, the rabies-like virus is not just deadly; it causes extreme violent behavior in those infected.

Life has hardened Joanna Mercer, and she has spent the past four years since her husband's death preparing herself against the uncertainties of life. After an EMP destroys the nation's power grid, every ounce of that strength will be tested.

The Bartlett family had to make an incomprehensible decision. The age old question, should we stay or should we go? The answer lay many thousands of miles from home on the opposite side of the Earth. The journey was filled with perils, and the last port of call may not be as welcoming as they hoped.

When the outbreak comes to a head, Laney is away from home. Chasing her dream of being the winner of a baking reality show, she is sequestered like a juror. No phone, no internet, no knowledge of what is happening. When the show evacuates all of the contestants, somehow Laney is left behind. Shut off from communication when the city loses power, Laney is clueless about what is happening and lacks the knowledge of the virus she is facing. Those infected experience a violent fever rage before the virus ultimately consumes them and takes their lives.

Jolly Copper is one of the few people who know the world is on the brink of cataclysmic destruction.... not because he had any scientific knowledge or prophetic dreams, but because he is nosey and read what was on a fellow bus passenger's phone one day. He learns there will be an unprecedented series of natural disasters, and the expected grand finale disaster is predicted to be a tidal wave massive enough to swallow half the globe.

In a world engulfed by darkness, the courageous determination of Jennifer Smith shines as the lone beacon of hope in a landscape destroyed by bitter cold and chaos. Stripped of technology, humanity teeters on the brink of collapse. Starvation grips the land as ruthless gangs ascend, engaged in a battle for supremacy in this new, savage world.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.

Dalton Grinder's life had unraveled in a brutal series of blows. First, the Army cast him aside. Then, his wife walked out, leaving him with nothing but the hollow echo of a once-shared life. As if that wasn't enough, his last remaining relative—his grandfather—passed away, closing the final chapter of his family history. Born and bred in the heat and humidity of Florida, Dalton now finds himself heading north to the cold, unforgiving woods of Wisconsin to settle his grandfather’s affairs. But fate isn't done with him yet.

Nobody was prepared, including the world’s governments. The damage to humanity through loss of life was predictable, yet unfathomable. As nuclear winter spread across the globe, a rapidly cooling climate shocked humanity and many living things to their death. Nuclear Armageddon had become reality and ordinary people were paying the price. In a world without power, the exchange of information was virtually non-existent. A battle for resources was waged, pitting friend against friend and friend against foe. For the Bartlett family, their days on Swan’s Island were untenable.

When an asteroid strike decimates the country, Cora Wilder and her family flee aboard their 32-foot sailboat, seeking refuge from the fallout on the open water. But during a fateful trip ashore, the unthinkable happens when a ruthless gang kidnaps her sister, leaving Cora and her father grappling with an impossible choice: stay together for safety, or split up to cover more ground. In a moment that will forever define their lives, the decision is made—he'll scour the shoreline aboard their sailboat, while she heads inland on foot, determined to save her sister...or die trying.

When the outbreak comes to a head, Laney is away from home. Chasing her dream of being the winner of a baking reality show, she is sequestered like a juror. No phone, no internet, no knowledge of what is happening. When the show evacuates all of the contestants, somehow Laney is left behind. Shut off from communication when the city loses power, Laney is clueless about what is happening and lacks the knowledge of the virus she is facing. Those infected experience a violent fever rage before the virus ultimately consumes them and takes their lives.

Darrell Donnelly and his daughter Laykin embark on their yearly hiking trip to a scenic and remote part of the Ocala National Forest. What started as a long weekend turned into a fight for survival as the hikers attempt to return home in the face of civil unrest and lawlessness, the aftermath of a coordinated attack on the power grid and most electronic devices.

After disease and nuclear warfare decimate the world population, 17-year-old Nadia is sure she's the last person left on Earth. She buries her before-the-end memories and focuses on survival. Then one night, she hears a voice on her radio and everything changes. Nadia finds comfort in her new-found companions, but they also discover an unsettling thread tying them together: their shared birthdays. As they begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding their survival, they soon realize it was no accident, and that they could be in far more danger than they ever imagined…

It came without warning—a one-two punch of economic collapse and deadly pandemic flu that shattered the United States and the entire world. Army veteran Eric Jaeger and paramedic Susan Walker flee the disintegrating Milwaukee suburbs for the Montana survival retreat run by Eric’s buddy, Manny Landeros. They join an eclectic group of friends forced to adapt to a lawless post-apocalyptic world in which kindness and human decency end at Manny’s property line.

After an EMP knocks out power across the region, Big Rock, NC, is plunged into post-apocalyptic chaos. With no heat, no light, and dwindling resources, survival becomes a race against time in this dystopian nightmare. The townspeople are on the brink, but Lacey faces an even greater challenge—her daughter has been captured by a violent group of terrorists determined to destroy everything she holds dear.

The Soviets invade Afghanistan, and the governments of Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev jockey for position on the international stage. CIA operative Fred Poole races against the clock to decode the pieces of a Soviet puzzle that could lead to war.

World-walking young surgeon Ryn Wilkie is trying to finish her residency here on Earth while also bringing modern medicine and antibiotics to a parallel but somewhat primitive Earth. She wants to improve the plight of women on that world - where they‘re treated as if they're property. It’s a world at about the technological level of our late 1800s. But she can find gold there in the same locations that history tells her they found it on Earth.

"Early Adopter" is a collection of short stories from the edge of human progress. Eight stories hold dark mirrors to our own world—experience thought-provoking sci-fi, technologic tragedy, and pulse-pounding thrillers. To Run Again: Dr. Laura Brandie is ready to change the world. She's the lead researcher behind the KSE, a revolutionary cure for paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions. And now, by good fortune, she's found the perfect candidate for her first human trial: a man who suffers from locked-in syndrome.

As anarchy and civil war took grip across the globe, Britain was quarantined. The press was nationalized, and martial law, curfews, and rationing were implemented. It wasn't enough. An evacuation was planned. The inland towns and cities of the United Kingdom were to be evacuated to defensive enclaves being built around the coast and the Scottish Highlands and in the Irish Republic. For George Tull and the other residents of the Waverly-Price Retirement Home, walking to the coast is not an option.

It all starts with a flick of the wrist as a madman unleashes a cataclysmic plague. Despite the best efforts of the military, the infection spreads like wildfire. Soon, the undead are everywhere, and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

It happens on a routine red-eye from Las Vegas to New York. Just as the plane breaks the early morning sky, in a blink of an eye, 144 passengers onboard flight 6520 die. There is no rhyme or reason. Experts scramble to find an explanation on how and why those on Flight 6520 met their demise so quickly and violently. It is hurriedly explained as a terror attack to the public, but General Buford Cane knows better. He has spent his entire career dedicated to the investigation and prevention of globe-threatening events.

In the middle of the holidays, a biological attack wreaks havoc on the U.S. The virus is quick. Deadly. Unstoppable. The country is left in tatters. For Isaac Race, it’s especially bitter. After the death of his parents and sister, he was just getting his life back on track - the weaponized virus changes all that. Battered by the fresh deaths of his foster parents, but hardened by the year he’s endured, he emerges from the temporary safety of his home to seek out other survivors during the worst winter in years.