Apocalyptic Adventure

Collected here for the first time is every piece of short fiction from New York Times best seller Mira Grant's acclaimed Newsflesh series, with two new never-before published novellas and all eight short works available for the first time. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, a man-made virus taking over bodies and minds, filling them with one, unstoppable command...feed.

Even after the bombs fell, even after countries unleashed weapons beyond imagination on one another, even after lawlessness became the norm, people still expect their mail. As a deadman, I'm uniquely suited to deliver it.

When a viral apocalypse kills 97 percent of the people on the planet, the survivors' humanity is hanging by a thread. Amid the leftovers of civilization, ex-Army Ranger Jason Larsen is reminded of the meaning of hope, family, and loyalty by a dog and a young boy who are as alone as he is. The survivors he seems to collect become family, and that is very bad news for those who think they run the apocalypse.

The circus of death to prove the worth of mankind is reaching its bloody finale. Fighting the monsters threatening to overwhelm mankind brought out the best and the worst out of humanity. And true to its purpose as a measurement of worthiness, ultimate victory in the raids would require more than just strength. The final chapter awaits, the judgment of the fate of mankind is about to begin.

Dakota Sloane, a tough-as-nails former foster kid, has spent her life running from the past. Logan Garcia, a man haunted by secrets, has only one goal: to drink himself into oblivion. They're two strangers in a bar - until the news reports nuclear bombs in New York City and Washington, D.C. Fearing Miami may be next, Dakota's first thought is to grab her little sister - still trapped in the system - and get the hell out of Dodge. Then the world explodes. Logan and Dakota have less than 10 minutes to seek shelter before the lethal cloud of fallout descends.

The deck is stacked against 29-year-old Ava. She’s a fighter, but she’s got trust issues and doesn’t always make the best decisions. Her personal complications aren’t without merit, but America is on the verge of a second civil war, and Ava must pull it together if she wants to survive. Trouble seems to follow Ava where ever she goes. The onset of the Second American Civil War should be no different. Caught in a vicious protest, she’ll have to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Life only gets more difficult for Ava when she spots a sinister figure watching her every move.

Mike and his family escaped a vast zombie horde to find themselves imprisoned by a clandestine group that seeks global domination by the most nefarious means possible. Help is coming, in the form of a 500-year-old PopTart loving vampire named Tommy. Will he be enough to get the Talbots to freedom or will he succumb to monsters new and old? On top of all this Mike discovers that he is in the crosshairs of an ancient enemy and it is only a matter of time until the final showdown.

Chosen by the enigmatic deity Oberon to be a soldier in a war between good and evil, Zeke Blackwood has become one of the deadliest warriors in the Radiant Isles. With supernatural strength and otherworldly resilience, he’s carved a path of destruction through the realm, defeating both horrifying monsters and skilled sorcerers and acquiring devastating powers no mere human could ever hope to control. Determined to apply his abilities to protecting his companions, Zeke has run afoul of the Isles’ elite—otherworldly beings revered as demigods.

When the end of the world arrived, it came not with a bang, as most expected, but with more of a "pfft" instead. Humanity has been torn asunder and brought to the edge of total annihilation in less than an hour. For those who died, it was a quick death, so fast that their brains didn't have time to process the pain signals from their nerves. For those who survived, the true horror is about to begin as they struggle to not only stay alive, but come to grips with the shocking realization about what - and who - was responsible.

In the near future, the New Las Vegas Sunfield will be one of many enormous solar farms to supply energy to the United States. At more than fifty miles long and two miles wide, the Sunfield generates an electromagnetic field so volatile that ordinary machinery and even the simplest electronic devices must be kept miles away from it. Thus, the only men who can guard the most technologically advanced power station on earth do so on horseback.They are the Outriders.

In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: They can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home. They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

From Mike Talbot's journal: "The End...has come and gone. This is the new beginning, the new world order and it sucks. The end for humanity came the moment the US government sent out the infected flu shots. My name is Michael Talbot and this is my journal. I'm writing this because no one's tomorrow is guaranteed, and I have to leave something behind to those who may follow."

Kendra, Andrew, and the other survivors arrive with Lewis Hound’s chosen people at an unfamiliar planet with more questions than answers: how did they get there? Where did all of the advanced technology come from? And is this really Proxima B Centauri? The colony ship breaks into sections and makes an emergency landing amidst a meteor shower, and Lewis Hound, Eden’s enigmatic leader, goes missing.

Near what was once the Pacific northwest, Ryan Cawdor and his roving band of post-holocaust survivors discover a beautiful valley untouched by the nuclear blast that changed the earth forever. Resisting the temptation to settle in that idyllic land, the group is captured and forced deep beneath an extinct volcano to an isolated community of in-bred scientists. These psychopathic descendants of a 20th century government research team are blindly laboring to find better ways of genocide, unaware that the world they are striving to slaughter has already died.

As the cosmos reels, the precarious balance of BuyMort is on the brink of collapse. The Sleem have fallen, leaving a power vacuum that echoes across the multiverse. New threats loom as the Church initiates a desperate crusade, not just for dominance but for survival. Facing them? Tyson Dawes, the Windowpuncher, Warlord of Nu-Earth, and CEO of Silken Sands. Meeting the relics of the Church with relics of his own, tricking, baiting, and battling the tremendous power of the Beholders, some say he has gone too far.

In the polluted, sprawling hive cities of Necromunda, life is short. From the decadent heights of the Spire to the murderous deeps of the underhive, those on the climb must be bold and brutal, or face a violent end. When the barbarous Fettnir, Goliath overlord of the Chemfall Butchers, turns his attention to Escher territory, the result is nothing short of a massacre. Brielle of the Wild Hydras escapes the slaughter and is cast into the deepest levels of the underhive.

Jebediah Trapper is a ticking time bomb. After sort of saving the day months ago, he's got a nuclear bomb attached to him in the Fate Dimension, where magic and potential collide. Jeb just wants to defuse himself before he collapses into a sickly pile of green goo or ignites in a city-destroying blast. There's just one problem: The world doesn't slow down because you've got a nuclear hangnail. Mab, Queen of the Fae wants him for unknown, yet most likely sinister reasons. A mysterious, abhorrent entity is making him an offer he can't refuse, and the undead are getting organized.

For Max Duncan, the word Sundown means one thing … run. Corpses infected with a mysterious, incurable virus are roaming free throughout the United States, feasting upon the living. The Duncan family compound in Montana is Max’s only hope for survival - but to get there, she has to flee from South Carolina and survive crossing several states with her daughter Jack in tow. Max has a choice to make. Does she risk her own life, and her daughter’s, to find the man she’s always loved? Griffin Wells was Max’s high school sweetheart, and he has no idea that Jack is his child.

When John sets out for a weekend camping trip in the Yukon, he never could have imagined the world would be plunged into chaos by the System–a mystical energy wave that destroys electronics and grants game-like powers to humanity. Suddenly, animals are evolving, monsters are spawning, and John finds himself equipped with a character sheet and incredible, physics-defying skills.