Adventure Survival Thriller

A collection of 13 award-winning short stories concerning the true adventures of California fish and game wardens and the wildlife-destroying outlaws they pursue. These stories illustrate the wide variety of wildlife-related problems wardens face in California, which has a greater diversity of wildlife and wildlife habitat than any other state and is second only to Alaska in its vast expanses of wilderness.

While on a trip into the backcountry, Henry Shaw, a veteran bush pilot is forced to depend on his estranged daughter to survive an unforgiving wilderness. Stranded miles from civilization, injured, and with winter bearing down, hope is bleak. After a terrifying turn of events reveal the plane crash may not have been an accident, tempers flare, secrets unravel, and a trauma from the past resurfaces. Facing overwhelming odds and nonstop danger, it’s now up to Kara to decide whether to remain or embark on a perilous trek across a harsh landscape to make it out alive.

Glitches are appearing across the Minecraft server. Blocks are flickering unexpectedly and randomly disappearing. To make matters worse, villagers are claiming that their entire villages have mysteriously vanished, and they desperately need Gameknight999's help. What's causing the server to overload and glitch, and where have all the NPCs gone? The User-that-is-not-a-user suspects the two questions are related, and that somehow Herobrine's henchmen are responsible.

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can't run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn't hurt him and he doesn't have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It's the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

It's no easy job being the town nutcase. Ella knows from experience. She's grown up in a quaint little place with people who pretend the extraordinary isn't happening around them. They ignore the bumps in the night and won't talk about doors closing by themselves or items moving mysteriously. They also won't talk about the old woman who haunts the streets. Those who do are fibbers, begging for attention. But Ella knows it is no lie - when the lightning cracks and the rain thrashes, someone goes missing: a child, lost to the night.

Ruby is terrified to cave to her feelings for Sean and risk him crushing her heart. Sean is pumped to spend a week with Ruby in Paris on their senior class trip, and he’ll wait however long until she’s ready to take things further. But when Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but caves to another temptation: attending mystery boy’s exclusive party in the Paris catacombs, the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians. Only they never reach the party.

Lily, Simon, and Michael are still trapped in their Minecraft game, but with new friends and a better understanding of their arch enemy, Mr. Anarchy, they're getting closer to finding a way home. But before they can fight the evil griefer and escape the game, the friends need to replenish their resources - and that means trekking deeper into the Overworld. When their mining party is attacked and hostile mobs reveal surprising new powers, it looks like the end for the trio - and for all their friends in town.

After an EMP cripples the country, Colby and Alicia embark on the dangerous trek out of the city to survive. On the treacherous journey home to Humboldt County, a deadly encounter leads to Colby being brought back from the brink of death by strangers. Waking up and suffering amnesia, can he stay alive long enough to unravel what happened?

A small southern town was evacuated after a freak power-plant accident. As the first anniversary of the mishap approaches, some residents are allowed to return past the national guard roadblocks. Mount Hope natives Maggie and Jordan quickly discover that their hometown is not as it was before. Downed cellular networks fail to resume service. Animals savagely attack humans. And the damaged power plant, where Jordan's father is an engineer, is under military lockdown.

Upon returning from a dangerous coastal adventure, Stone Barrington is looking forward to some normalcy with the leading lady in his life. But when a grisly crime arrives on his doorstep, along with some suspicious new clients eager for his help, Stone realizes peace and quiet are no longer an option. As it turns out, the mastermind behind the malfeasance rocking New York City and the nation's capital wields a heavy hand of influence.

Nowhere to run, one place left to hide. You're running from bullets through the streets of your own town. Your life's on the line and no-one's there to help. What's happened? When did safety turn to fear, peace turn to war, happiness turn to panic? When did your normal day become a nightmare? Ellie and her friends struggle with the biggest questions life can offer.

When an EMP collapses society…rabid packs of ex-convicts and gangs ravage an off-grid Texas……turning Houston into hunting grounds. Double-crossed and incarcerated for armed robbery, Alex longs for a second chance. And revenge. Then the EMP downs the Texas grid, providing Alex an opportunity. Despite the buildings aflame, bullets flying, and absolute barbaric conditions, Alex seizes the chance to track down the traitor who crossed him and find Wendy—his daughter.

I volunteered to be a spy, not an assassin. I know this is war...but I just want to do what's right. If you ask me, none of us should be here - but no one gave me a choice. And I won't blindly follow orders. I am essential to the plan. And I will be a hero for my country. If I were normal, I wouldn't be old enough to join the army. But I'm not normal. I'm a weapon.

When Colby Riker, a former LAPD cop turned skillful bounty hunter is hired to bring in Alicia Scott, an elusive bail-jumper, he figured it was an easy payday - until a catastrophic EMP obliterates the country’s power grid and millions are thrust into chaos. No electricity, no transportation, no phones, no rules.

Charlie West just woke up in someone else's nightmare. He's strapped to a chair. He's covered in blood and bruises. He hurts all over. And a strange voice outside the door just ordered his death. The last thing he can remember is that he was a normal high-school kid doing normal things. How long ago was that? Where is he now? Who is he really?

Maddie and Logan were torn apart by a kidnapping attempt when they were young. They were only kids - Logan's dad was POTUS and Maddie's father was the Secret Service agent meant to guard him. The kidnappers were stopped - but Maddie was whisked off to Alaska with her father, for safety. Maddie and Logan had been inseparable...but then she never heard from him again. Now it's a few years later. Maggie's a teenager, used to living a solitary life with her father. It's quiet - until Logan is sent to join them.

While filming on location in scenic Santa Barbara, California, Peter Barrington and Ben Bacchetti look to expand Centurion Studios' business by making a deal with a young Croatian tech billionaire. But when the magnate’s wife is kidnapped, Teddy Fay is brought in to assess the threat and recover the young woman. As Teddy unravels the threads of her disappearance, he quickly comes to find an old vendetta seethes at the center, one that puts them all at risk. And danger is lurking even nearer to home as an obsessive fan with perilous intentions weasels his way onto the film set.

Stone Barrington is nearing his New York City abode when he stumbles into trouble. As it turns out, a new client is in danger - and with both business and the safety of the city at stake, Stone has no choice but to get involved. It’s soon clear that a complicated scheme is being hatched, and the source remains enigmatic...but it’s only a matter of time before he and Stone must each show their hands.

Beneath heaven is hell. Beneath hell is Furnace. Furnace Penitentiary. The world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. One way in, no way out. Once you're here, you're here until you die, and for most of the inmates that doesn't take long - not with the sadistic guards and the bloodthirsty gangs. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, 'new fish' Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars.

In the final minutes of Valhalla Rising, Dirk Pitt discovered, to his shock, that he had two grown children he had never known, 23-year-old fraternal twins born to a woman he thought had died in an underwater earthquake. Both have inherited his love of the sea: the girl, Summer, is a marine biologist; the boy, himself named Dirk, is a marine engineer. And now they are about to help their father in the adventure of a lifetime.