Apocalyptic Short Stories

Embark on a journey across the planet through 23 stories written by 16 authors from six different countries. From super-powered humans taking down polluting industries to genius inventors creating innovative high-tech solutions to protect their communities, Gaia Awakens explores the gauntlet of climate fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy alike.

As the well-tipped tour guide at a model town within a nuclear test site in 1950s Nevada, Darren Murphy has a job to die for. His work is easy and relaxed, much like himself, drawing envy from his wide circle of friends. But one fateful day, after one particularly late night in the burgeoning city of Las Vegas, Darren makes a huge mistake. "I'll try my best to get us all out of here before the next bomb goes off..." Murphy often jokes to his rapt tour groups. Only this time, due to a slip-up no one could have foreseen, his best might not be enough.

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.

One year after the Shattering and the great collapse, survivors in Columbus, Ohio, are barely holding things together. Then, on December 24, when all seemed lost, a new hero appears, and he is determined to protect all the children of the Earth.

In his sharply crafted, unnerving first collection of speculative fiction shorts, Courttia Newland envisages an alternate future as lived by the African diaspora.

A woman who has resorted to becoming an escort to survive in the year 2013 - after a nuclear bomb has wiped out about 40 percent of the city's population - has bad dreams of a phantom killer who attacks her in her sleep....

A great catastrophe desolates humanity. A strong blinding light flashes in the blue Mediterranean sky for an instant. Almost every inhabitant ends up blind, only a few manage to escape the event. The novel, divided into several stories, narrates how several characters live and react to this apocalyptic situation in different ways.

Soulwaves: Insertions is an audiobook comprising of 12 short stories. They are wild rides of imagination. It is both the prequel and sequel to the novel Soulwaves: A Future History. The stories straddle the present day and stretch from the beginning to the end of time in this particular Universe. Like the novel that inspired them, they are of course completely fictitious, laced with threads of universal truths. They are complete conjecture and wild rides of the imagination.

An incurable disease kills millions around the world. A selfish father is about to be its next victim. See what he wishes for in his last hour. Gene Carlotta is on his deathbed and won’t live long enough to see the next sunrise. As his life flashes in his mind’s eye he comes to realize the one thing he never gave his son and the heartbreaking remorse that consumes his last moments.

Twin brother and sister Hugo and Lila sit on the corner of Main Street while the world around them burns.

What happens when our world - and everything in it - goes wrong? Explore that question in 32 short stories written by a diverse mix of the best authors in Canada, including award-winning veterans of their craft and brand-new talent. Edited by Erin Vance and Ellen Curtis, this collection showcases the talent, imagination, and prestige that Canada has to offer.

In the future, biohacking has taken humanity to the brink of evolutionary advantage as Artificially Integrated Persons perform at maximal potential, but for Jagga, his utopia turns into a nightmare.

In a story set in the distant future, Planet Earth is visited by strangers from Planet Xanadu, claiming to have been sent by our own future selves to warn present-day Earth of the dangers that lie ahead. After the initial shock and disbelief, followed by much debate, the world’s leaders agree to put their faith in these Future People, with the hope that they can help to avoid impending disaster and save Planet Earth and its inhabitants.

Emma Johnson is 12 years old. She lives with her aunt and her two cousins, as her parents died when she was two years old. At home, she is treated more like a servant than a member of the family. She often thinks about her parents, who were both virologists and worked on secret government projects. She wonders what really happened to them. A few theories exist as to the real cause of their disappearance and if they really are dead.

In his sharply crafted, unnerving first collection of speculative short stories, Courttia Newland envisages an alternate future as lived by the African diaspora. Robots driven by all-too-human urges set out to colonize space; Kill Parties roam the streets of a postapocalyptic world; a matriarchal race of mer creatures depends on interbreeding with mortals to survive; mysterious seeds appear in cities across the world, growing into the likeness of people in their vicinity.

From the mind of Black Midnight author David Boyer comes a new experiment in a whole new, terrifying vision into our own future, modern technology, and current world events, with some hardcore science fiction tossed in for good measure. After all of the primary social networks suddenly stop working, millions of American citizens fear a conspiracy is in the works. A black market COVID vaccine dealer finds himself on the wrong end of the needle. A man left all alone with nothing but sad memories and vivid hallucinations finally comes to terms with his own destiny—or is it fate?

Seventeen-year-old Loreto Riker has never known life outside a bunker. After an atomic war thrusts the world into an eternal winter, the descendant of the survivors accepts an exploratory mission to search for others on the ravaged surface. But the treacherous task quickly turns deadly when he’s attacked by radioactively deformed flesh-eaters. Desperately evading the mutant cannibals, Loreto pairs up with a sword-wielding woman on the run from the foul creatures.

Earth is quickly becoming an undead wasteland, that much is for sure. What isn't certain is the fate of her three children, as their desperate bid to find safety at their family cabin is cut off by the revelation of world-altering proportions. What seems like a lifetime ago, the secret battle to be the first superpower to perfect the perfect bioweapon has been corrupted into a scourge now headed straight for them. Suddenly Abby's past becomes just as unclear as her future.

Collection of Another 21 stories from the Zzone is a continuation of stories set within the Sapien Overlords universe. While the first collection introduced the general notions and various time periods encompassing this universe, starting before the cataclysmic event that was the Greatest War and expanding into the Zetwork and United Zzone Federation-ruled Earth, this collection expands on them.

In a time when a pandemic is threatening the entire population, Risa and her family apply for coveted acceptance into a new Safe City - a place designed to keep the virus out and to preserve a select few of the population. But getting accepted into the city may not be worth it - especially when she is sedated for secure transport and wakes up, unable to find her family. Meeting a few new friends and an intriguing soldier named Camsen Luck may help, but none of them can convince her that self-preservation is more important than finding her family; or that trying to escape is suicide.