Apocalyptic World

Jim Powell is convinced that his presence in the valley is putting his friends and family in danger. Hoping to buy them some time, he increases the security at his home, then sets off on a trip to allow the situation in his community to cool off. As much as he hates the idea, he also intends to scout out a location to fall back to if his people get driven from their homes. Frustrated by the constant tension and violence, his best friend, Lloyd, joins him.

If it wasn’t for bad luck, some of us wouldn’t have any luck at all. Old saying, sure, but boy is it true when it comes to Adrian Ring’s zombie apocalypse. Welcome to Dead Lucky; an anthology of 12 tales set in the world of Adrian’s Undead Diary.

Only six weeks have passed since a super-EMP attack devastated the United States, but already, life has changed dramatically. Most of America has become a wasteland filled with starving bands of people, mobs and gangs. Millions are dead and millions more are suffering, with no end in sight. For Gordon, Samantha, Sebastian, Cruz, and Barone, the turmoil and chaos they dealt with in the early weeks after the attack will seem trivial in comparison to the collapse of society that plays out before their eyes.

After escaping his human captors, Wolfrik returns to Wolf Hollow covered in scars and hostility. He wants nothing to do with pack politics and refuses to play nice. An injury isolated the she-wolf and left her vulnerable. Ever since Kallie's foot was permanently maimed in a vulhena attack, she's been relocated to the den where Palmer - the pack's elder and council member - is after her to become his third mate.

In a frozen wasteland where survival hangs by a thread, Simon Frost and his band of hardened warriors embark on a daring mission. With their lives on the line, they scour the treacherous landscape in search of vital resources to keep their camp alive. But when they encounter a ruthless adversary, they find themselves outnumbered and outmatched as a relentless battle erupts. Bullets tear through the air, and the stench of blood saturates the earth as they fight tooth and nail, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.

Hannah Evans startles awake, covered in gore, in a place she doesn't know. Captured and restrained in the hands of strangers, she struggles frantically to remember who she is. And then she sees the needle she was injected with...and the bodies. Before long, she's thrust into a desperate struggle to survive. Navigating a crumbled landscape, fighting for her breath and her humanity, Hannah clings to the shallow hope that her family is still alive.

In this fifth installment in The Borrowed World Series, human resources manager Alice Watkins is finally making it home. In her journey across Virginia, she experiences a country disintegrating and collapsing in on itself in the wake of a nationwide terror attack. Her trip home is agonizing; her experiences indescribable.

It didn't take long for Portland, Oregon, to fall. Amid a decaying and crumbling city, a group of survivors hides amid the smoke and the fire. They need to get out of the city...which is easier said than done with thousands of zombies blocking the path. Witness the terrifying flight of these survivors as they leave the city behind and let it burn.

It's been around nine long months since the United States spiraled into chaos due to a cascading systems failure. From the recesses of a fractured government comes a plan to restore order and rescue what remains of the population. The first step comes with restoring power. But what if having access to electricity came at such a price that many - like Jim Powell, his friends, and his neighbors - would rather face a future in the dark.

Mike and Beth didn't know each other existed before the night of the meteor shower. A melancholy film producer and a house sitter barely scraping by—chance made them neighbors, a bottle of champagne brought them together, and a shared need for human connection sparked something more. After a drunken and desperate one-night stand, the two strangers awake to discover a surprise astronomical event has left widespread destruction in its wake. But the cosmic lightshow was only part of something much bigger, and far more terrifying.

For a year now, Jim Powell has wrestled with his personal demons. As he watched people around him suffer and die, he harbored a secret guilt. He'd once wished for an event like the one America was now experiencing, dreaming of the great reset that would purge the nation of those who'd gone soft and weak.

The zombie apocalypse has taken lives, but it has also taken away the freedom of the living to make choices for themselves. To stay alive, people are forced to follow corrupt leaders who would use the innocent to obtain power and material riches they would not have earned before the infected dead seized the world.

Peter watched his new family drive away, certain it was the last time he'd ever see them. But sometimes plans go awry in the best way. Now, the plan is to get back to them. But sometimes plans go awry in the worst way. Sometimes the only plan is to believe it will be all right, even when it's almost impossible to believe.

As Lance and his bedraggled group of survivors trek wearily across a wasted American nation, fighting off bands of criminals that would take everything they own, they discover that the most serious threat is still before them. Their numbers depleted at every stage, they now enter Raton Pass, New Mexico, a place where any semblance of rational thought or empathy for other human beings has long since ceased to exist.

One second was all it took to erase Frank's dreams. New home. New car. New retirement. Stolen by the EMP. It gets worse. Frank's neighbors failed to prepare at all, so it falls on him to keep them alive. He starts easy: stockpile food, water, and guns. Disaster lessons he'd picked up reading books about the end of the world.

Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway has concocted his most genius plan ever to avoid chores... especially the dreaded L-A-UN-D-R-Y. If he can wear all the clothes he owns, he'll only have to do the laundry once during his school break. On the day of the highly anticipated Beach Bash, Eddie's monstrous pile of dirty laundry is found by his mom. And Eddie's day has just taken a turn for the worst. Now he's stuck at home by himself, missing the bash, and doing his whole pile of laundry. But midcycle, the power goes out!

Having lost both a hand and his entire team when Jim Powell and his friends attacked the power plant, Boss is obsessed with revenge. He had no idea who the men were, but he’s determined to launch a search for them until his command makes it clear that his mission of vengeance is not a priority. Undeterred, Boss arrives at a covert method of engaging the entire population of southwest Virginia in his hunt for the insurgents.

Winter falls hard on Oregon, burying the world under snow and ice. One group of survivors, stuck in a tomb of their own creation, fights to survive, while another group treks across the snowbound countryside, leaving a trail of bloody footprints in their wake...and an army of the undead.

Having survived Atlantis, the town of Indian Hill beckons. As Mike and Trip make their way toward Indian Hill and are in search of some much needed answers, Jack is fast on their heels. It is a dangerous journey fraught with all manner of creatures. Zombies, Night Runners and the Alien Whistlers do their best to prevent the trio from ever going home again. The Whistlers are constantly roaming the wilds in search of food, the zombies gather in large groups, and the night runners own the night.

Now that it boils down to survival of the *ssholes, decisions have to be made and sacrifices are in order. And as much as I would like to keep my firm stance on the moral high ground, I’m really not that fond of the consequences. If only there was an alternate solution for my problems...but as I’ve recently found out, that comes with its own massive downsides.