Apocalyptic Short Stories

I’m a perp. When I got older and actually cared about history, I found out that wasn’t a name people were proud to have a few decades ago, but most people today are perps. It’s short for "perpetual". We wear collectors that harness the power created by our movement. It’s so normal now it’s hard to imagine a world without them. When humanity exhausted the resources of Earth, we had to resort to harnessing energy in a different way.

It's 2085, the time of the Great Affliction. Continents are burning, land is disappearing, and humanity is destroying itself as mass shootings and suicides wipe out the population. To Marjaana Salonen, the solution is found in high technology. By integrating the human brain with a sophisticated computer chip, she believes she can bring new hope to society. Her invention was supposed to fix it all, but Salonen's daughter has her own ideas. To Laura, her mother's invention is an opportunity to impose her own vision on the world—the promise of a new reality that is far more sinister.

The 32nd edition of Writers of the Future may be the best new book yet! Brand-new adventure through space, time, and possibility. Along the way these new authors will introduce you to fascinating characters such as Nate, a very loyal companion - like most werewolves would be. Keanie has a parasite that lets her morph and so transform into anyone. Liz owns a dinosaur maker, but raw ingredients can be a problem. Anna slaves away in a factory but her magic leaves her unfulfilled. These authors take creative writing to a whole new level!

Drowned Worlds looks at the future we might have if the oceans rise, good or bad. Here you'll find stories of action, adventure, romance, and, yes, warning and apocalypse. Stories inspired by Ballard's The Drowned World, Sterling's Islands in the Net, and Ryman's The Child Garden. Stories that allow that things may get worse, but remembers that such times also bring out the best in us all.

The stories in this second anthology explore the legends of the Outlands, beyond the border of humanity's immediate control, where strange and powerful creatures roam.

Rachel and the Smith Brothers are on the run, trying to escape the dangers they left in the city. But when they stop off for supplies, they suddenly find themselves in a whole new kind of trouble. Rachel realises the true nature of the men she is travelling with, but where exactly does she fit in?

In the post-collapse world, animals are once again returned to the top of the food chain as nearly all of the humans on the planet have perished. The budgies and bats of Davao City are expanding their colonies as nature intended when they stumble upon remnants of the human population. The decisions made after this discovery will affect all those involved in ways they could never imagine.

Safety lights are out, oxygen production has halted, and her partner is out of reach on the nearby moon. Shannon is stuck on this frozen, lifeless rock 4.2 light-years from home, on a planet known simply as Proxima g. She’s racing against time to repair the broken life-support system so her wife, son, and all the other refugees from Earth don’t arrive to a useless habitat that’s succumbed to the harshness of space. But there’s more to this situation than meets the eye, and with each step she takes the mystery only deepens.

When the æristocracy decides to withdraw their blimps from the Venusian economy and head back to an abandoned Earth, the surf-turned-æristocrat Sir Thomas begins tearing down their entire economy in order to save millions of lives. A dystopian sci-fi about class warfare, The Blimps of Venus shows us the true motives behind eugenics and other evils.

Some said the world would end in the cold. Some said the world would end in a fire. Some said when there was no more room in hell the dead would rise up to devour the living. Nobody thought it would be because of the corn.

Morning in Whitehorse, and everything is normal. All too normal. A girlfriend who loves him; an evening at the farmer’s market in Shipyard’s Park. Idyllic, relaxing, peaceful. What more could a man want? John Lee isn’t sure, but stray thoughts intrude, and memories of a different time, a different place, a different world keep intruding. Angst-ridden, exhausting memories of a world of pain and struggle. Nothing like the paradise he lives in. Now, if only John wasn’t so attracted to them.

Sergeant is my first name, and it happens to be my rank as well. I was born into - and because of - this war...but that's another story. My particular interest in the military hovered near zero for most of my life, but like everyone else in my , we were drafted into service. There was never a time during the war that I didn't want to stay alive, either, so I fought. At first, I fought selfishly for my own life, and then for my squad and platoon, and finally for the individuals I served with. It was a circuitous route, and probably just a little self-centered, but it led me here.

In this short story, meet John Chase before the V Plague apocalypse. He is part of the US Army's Delta Force. In Crucifixion: V Plague, Book 2, he mentions a flashback to running through a Central American jungle with Spetsnaz in pursuit. This is that story. Note that this is a short story and does not need to be listened to in any particular sequence with the V Plague series.

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.

Day-to-day life is hard for film students. Whether you're an editor, a scriptwriter, or a videographer, it's never easy. More so when an apocalypse has arrived, taking with it the industry you've dedicated your life to, and leaving you with skills ill-suited to a post-apocalyptic fantasy hellscape.

It was well after dark when Matt Matthews got back down to the headquarters camp, and saw the city stranger sitting there before the fire. He knew he was a city man after a single glance at the shiny, low-topped shoes and the reminiscence of a crease in the dusty trousers. Matt tossed the gophers and the two small coyotes off his broad shoulders to old Moe Arhelger, across the campfire, staring in suspicious silence from the stranger to Moe and back again. "Who's he?" he asked finally.

Oscilando entre el terror, la fantasía y la ciencia ficción, cada una de las diez historias que componen el libro son una cara de una sociedad post apocalíptica, enferma y desgastada -que podría estar ubicada en cualquier lugar del mundo-, cuyos personajes parecen dar la última pelea por sobrevivir a las ruinas, aunque sepan que el destino ya está marcado.

After losing almost everything and everyone he has ever valued or love, an aspiring writer decides to write one last story before the COVID virus strain of 2023 claims his life. What he doesn't realize is that his last story may very well save the lives of future generations to come - with God giving the people of Earth a second chance.

In a world devastated by corruption, Father Darcy has lost his faith. After letting down the very people he pledged to protect, he decides to take a pilgrimage across the dangerous English countryside in an attempt to find his mission again. There, he meets men hungry for his blood. A vicious, relentless landscape. And two boys more dangerous than anything he has ever seen before. But can he save these children, or will they change his cause forever?

She's a hacker with a disabled son, living in a martial state. The future looks dark, with no promise of relief from the tyranny, and when her son's life is threatened, the mother must fight back using whatever means necessary.