Showing results by author "Scott Nicholson" in All Categories

SPINE-CHILLING BODY HORROR FICTION Monstrous transplants. Appalling amputations. Bizarre implants. Nightmarish forms of body enhancements. Disturbing, perverse, often gut-wrenching stories--all between the covers of this anthology. Here are 20 tales by some of today's best horror, suspense, and science fiction writers. The short stories are not for those who are faint of heart or squeamish, or who are easily offended by nasty language, bloody violence, and freakish body augmentations. You've been warned! Bootstrap--The Binds of Lasolastica -- Michael Bailey Idol -- Michael Laimo Unplugged -...

It begins with a long-dormant virus released from an archaeological dig in Northern Alaska. A researcher studying the virus suffers a fever and launches into a bloody killing spree that ends with two police officers dead. A second researcher, Dr. Meg Perriman, has just flown home for the Easter holiday with her family in North Carolina, unknowingly carrying the virus.

It's six weeks after the shock. The smoke on the horizon has diminished, and Rachel Wheeler and her two traveling companions head toward the mountains where Rachel's grandfather Franklin has built a survivalist compound. However, the strange mutated people known as Zapheads seem to be changing from bloodthirsty killers into a force far more menacing.

A massive solar storm erases the world's technological infrastructure and kills billions. While the remaining humans are struggling to adapt and survive, they notice that some among them have...changed. Rachel Wheeler finds herself alone in the city where violent survivors, known as zapheads, roam the streets, killing and destroying. Her only hope is to reach the mountains where her grandfather, a legendary survivalist, established a compound in preparation for doomsday.

After a bloody battle with mutant Zapheads, Rachel Wheeler's life hangs in the balance as the world falls apart around her. To save Rachel, a small group of survivors must find a missing baby, a hyperintelligent Zaphead with mysterious healing powers. The remaining Zapheads have reverted to mindless, violent savages who want to wipe out the human race. Only Rachel holds the key to understanding them and ending the devastating war.

In this chilling tale of horror set in the Appalachian mountains, an evil presence consumes the citizens of a small town, spreading only one thought: death and destruction.

First in a new series featuring paranormal investigators Ellen and Monty Drew. Ellen claims to possess a sixth sense, but Monty, a former PI, only believes what he can see. The Drews are summoned to a Southern California bible college after workers report hearing mysterious voices at night. When they encounter the unhappy ghost of a young girl, Monty's skepticism is shaken, but he resolves to help his wife free the trapped spirit.

In the midst of a zombie outbreak, Dr. Meg Perriman and a group of survivors head for the BioGenix research lab to work on a cure. But the journey won’t be easy. The government has fallen under the spell of the enigmatic Rev. Cameron Ingram, who sees the outbreak as a sign of the Biblical apocalypse. Storms, earthquakes, and devastating plagues appear to support the preacher’s doomsday message. Worse, the dead are rising from their graves, and Meg isn’t sure science can explain these sinister mysteries.

For 13-year-old Ronnie Day, life is full of problems: Mom and Dad have separated, his brother Tim is a constant pest, Melanie Ward either loves him or hates him, and Jesus Christ won't stay in his heart. Plus he has to walk past the red church every day, where the Bell Monster hides with its wings and claws and livers for eyes. But the biggest problem is that Archer McFall is the new preacher at the church, and Mom wants Ronnie to attend midnight services with her.

When 12-year-old Freeman Mills arrives at Wendover, a group home for troubled children, it's a chance for a fresh start. But second chances aren't easy for Freeman, the victim of painful childhood experiments that gave him the ability to read other people's minds. Little does Freeman know that his transfer was made at the request of Dr. Richard Kracowski, whose research into the brain's electrical properties is revealing new powers of the human mind.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Rachel Wheeler is caught between who she is and who she's becoming. A bizarre mutation has her humanity hanging by a thread, especially when the Zaphead inside her wants to kill her friends and lover. As the mutant Zapheads form a social order and shape a new world in the wake of catastrophic solar storms, the few remaining humans band together in a struggle for survival.

They call him Spider. And people come to him when they have a problem. So when teenager Parker Cole approaches Spider at night school, he figures she's just another problem waiting to happen. But then she tells him about her father, who runs a cult called Cloudland based at the foot of mystical Mount Shasta, California. And then she tells Spider about her best friend, who is now dead, her body completely drained of blood.

First in a new series featuring paranormal investigators Ellen and Monty Drew. Ellen claims to possess a sixth sense but Monty, a former P.I., only believes what he can see. She views their work as a sacred mission while Monty just wants a happy wife and a paycheck.

In Ghost College the Drews are summoned to a Southern California bible college after workers report hearing mysterious voices at night.

In the harsh winter of a postapocalyptic landscape, Rachel Wheeler and her companions hole up in an Appalachian compound established by her notorious grandfather. A rogue military platoon plans to seize the compound and control the small band of survivors. At the same time, violent mutants organize into a tribe that threatens to wipe out the human race. Rachel is caught in the middle as she undergoes mutations herself, driven by an urge to kill those around her while drawn to the mysterious Zapheads.

Rachel is separated from her traveling companions and is captured by Zapheads, violent mutants who are gathering in packs and collecting dead bodies while mimicking human behaviors. Then she undergoes startling changes herself, as her friends are hunted by a rogue military platoon that wants to impose its own law and order in the world of After.

When Mackie Dailey survives a cataclysmic solar storm that wipes out civilization and mutates others into violent killers, he seeks out the one person he cares about most. But when he returns to a college campus looking for Allie, he discovers she is a Zaphead - nearly unrecognizable as the human he once loved. Mackie becomes caught in a power struggle among a small group of survivors who turn the campus into a stronghold against the Zaphead threat.

On an Appalachian Mountain ridge, young Vernon Ray Davis hears the rattling of a snare drum deep inside a caveknown as "The Jangling Hole", and the wind carries a whispered name. According to legend, the Hole is home to a group of Civil War soldiers buried by a long-ago avalanche. On the eve of an annual Civil War reenactment, the town of Titusville prepares for a mock battle. But inside the Hole, disturbed spirits are rising from their slumber, and one of them is heading home.

When Jacob Ridgehorn dies, it's up to Roby Snow to make sure his soul goes on to the eternal reward. The only way Roby can do that is convince the Ridgehorn family to eat a special pie. Lurking in the shadows is a mysterious figure named Johnny Divine, monitoring the crossroads between the living and the dead. Southern Appalachian funeral customs get crossed when Roby has to perform miracles... or else.

With the mysterious and charismatic Rev. Cameron Ingram rising as a world leader in the wake of a zombie outbreak, a group of outcast survivors vows to bring him down. Ingram has formed an oppressive new government and demands loyalty from all refugees who seek protection. Those who refuse to wear his mark are considered enemies and left to fend for themselves. Ingram uses the military to expand his influence while he gathers a corrupt inner circle at Promiseland, the megachurch complex that offers sanctuary in a ruined city.

When Wayne "Digger" Wilson hosts a paranormal conference at the haunted White Horse Inn, he has motives beyond searching for the inn's legendary ghosts. Years ago, he made a honeymoon promise to his wife, Beth, that if one of them died, the survivor would return to the White Horse to summon the other's lost spirit. Now she's dead and Digger's back, with the daughter they conceived during that fateful honeymoon 16 years before. And the ghost hunters are stirring up ancient evils that were better left in peace, because the inn's basement is home to a circle of demons that have been waiting for Wayne to return.