Survival Short Stories

Set in the UK in the immediate aftermath of a mysterious illness that swept the country and left millions dead, the series follows the trials facing a reluctant hero, Dan, and the group he forms around him. They must battle the elements, find sufficient supplies and equipment to survive, and protect themselves against the most destructive force on the planet: other people. Banding together those he found along the way, he has to fight to keep them safe. To keep them alive. To survive.

When my best friend and the only person who knows who - and what - I really am gets selected for the Mating Games, I know the only way to save her is to try and win her for myself. All I need to do is navigate three trials while not letting anyone know I'm a woman, or, and this might be even more important, that I have magic. Easy, right? Easier than slaving away for all hours of the day swinging an ax in the mines. Or so I thought. I certainly didn't count on the one man I've longed for, the one man who stirs feelings of femininity and desire within me, to enter the games as well.

Our ‘fight of flight’ response is something hardwired into the primitive part of our brain. Our need to survive, to outlive whatever danger poses, that immediate threat to our lives is little short of a marvel. Everything else is abandoned in order to survive. Whilst in modern times that ability has been somewhat modified and ‘reasoned’ away to an extent, in past years it’s what usually kept you alive. In this volume people struggle valiantly to survive and to exist no matter the extent of the threat they face.

Would you survive? Vince Walker and the remaining survivors from the town of Cloverdale, Indiana continue to come to terms with their new reality. Accepting the fact that the country has been thrust into nuclear war with an unknown enemy means they must forget their former lives and forge ahead. The affects of the EMP blasts have left the survivors with no utilities, and no communication with the world outside of their once sleepy little town. A power surge also resulted in widespread fires, destroying most buildings and homes, leaving few resources intact.

Bruce and Mike finally made it home. But the battle for the future has just begun. The Louisiana farm that Bruce and his allies had built to survive the end of the world was everything they could have hoped for — but no one had planned for the endless horde of fast, smart, and ravenous blue zombies who could think, heal, and even reproduce. Now, as they gather an armory of military weaponry from abandoned outposts all across the countryside, Bruce and his growing clan of survivors realize the truth — their compound can be the beginning of a new and rebuilt world.

On the night of July 30, 1997 a landslide shattered the tranquility of Thredbo Village, sweeping away two ski lodges and burying 19 people beneath tonnes of concrete and mud. In the days that followed, the world mourned as rescuers dragged body after body from the rubble. But out of tragedy sprang an amazing story of survival. Stuart Diver, whose young wife Sally died beside him in the first moments of the slide, had clung to life buried beneath a concrete slab for 65 freezing hours.This is Stuart Diver’s story.

After an epic battle, the weapon is lost, but Atlas won’t succumb so easily. He’s vanished with the key to humanity’s survival, and David Bryce is left to fight on his own. Atlas finds himself in the middle of a hornet’s nest, amid an alien people that he can hardly comprehend. But their motivations are clear, and that’s enough to keep him focused on retrieving the prize.

Like most college students, all Callie Norton has worried about for weeks was passing this semester’s finals. After a night out celebrating, she and her friends wake up, sick with way more than the hangover of the century. All too soon, Callie realizes that this is not just a common cold she’s suffering from—and when she wakes up from a coma in a quarantine tent as the sole survivor, lack of food and water aren’t her only problems.

The first in an exciting new series for children from ex-SAS officer and best-selling adult author Chris Ryan. Five kids: Alex, Li, Paulo, Hex and Amber, are marooned on a desert island where they must face the ultimate test: survival! Killer komodo dragons, sharks, and modern day pirates are amongst the dangers they face. Can the five bond as a team, and stay alive? New to audio, this gripping story is read by Adrian Lester, best-known for his role in Spooks on TV.

Laurel is stabilizing a patient in the ER when the power goes out. When the rest of the hospital evacuates, she refuses to leave her patients behind—especially her sick mother. She’s determined to fight for their lives. Even if it means putting her own in danger… In a remote mountain cabin hundreds of miles away, Laurel’s husband, Bear, begins a grueling trek across Minnesota. He’ll do whatever it takes to reunite his family. But it’s a dangerous journey, and he’s all alone save for his loyal dog, Jessamine, and Trent, an orphaned boy he finds along the way.

Forty-eight hours after the Upheaval, reality is beginning to set in at the Whitaker Estate. The world, As We Know It, has ended. Dillon Mitchell and her friends are left to survive, after discovering most of the population, at least in the United States, has mysteriously died.

When a human team is sent to scout a few hundred light-years in front of the death wave, it encounters a civilization far in advance of our own, a civilization of machine intelligences. These sentient, intelligent machines have existed for eons and have survived earlier “death waves,”...

For Megan Wolford, life as she knew it came to an end after the world was decimated by an EMP. Now, she does her best to survive and protect her daughter, Caitlin. But when the young girl falls ill with a mysterious virus, Meghan must leave the safety of their home and embark on a dangerous journey to forage for medical supplies.

When an EMP catastrophe shuts down power worldwide, Melanie Pearson must embark on a grueling trek to reunite with her family. But before she can cross the savage wastelands, she’ll need to help her boss find his own son first. And Melanie quickly realizes she may have made a deal with the devil himself….

Shannon Grayson is a tough-as-nails long-haul truck driver. But her life is turned upside down when a massive EMP blast hits North America and demolishes the power grid. Trapped in a sprawling retail super-center, Shannon barely escapes with her life and her truck. Now, as a bullet wound in her shoulder festers with an infection, Shannon is determined to find the daughter she lost contact with five years ago.

The war of the wizards has ended. What will happen to the golden fairies now? They were enslaved for six years and forced to create golden wands for the Zandles. Will the Ardoors be any different? In any case, without their magic, their lights are fading fast. And without their freedom, death is imminent....

In the lawless aftermath of a collapsed galactic empire, survival belongs to the cunning, the ruthless, and—rarely—the honorable. Commodore Gideon Adira, heir to a once-noble house now struggling for relevance, leads a fragile convoy of merchant starships through hostile star lanes to deliver food to the starving millions aboard the crumbling space city of Albion. The task is noble. The risks are immense. Pirates lurk behind every asteroid. Treacherous rival houses scheme for control. And worse still, an old enemy is on the hunt.

The Fall Festival was hopping every afternoon and into the evening of those three days. Little kids chasing one another and squealing, and the big ones sneaking off to smoke or to make out with a girl and maybe cop a feel, and come back to talk about it. Back in those days, a pack of Harley's was kind of threatening. If a bunch of Harleys were parked outside a hamburger joint, most folks would just go on down the road to the next burger joint rather than risk confronting a bunch of bikers.

Tim Beckdolt, rangy and self-reliant, is as American as the frontier itself. But after spending eight treacherous months digging $175,000 in gold out of Desperation Peak—all he has left is desperation. Two sadistic strangers have taken his gold, and now they want to take his life. He's on the run—the target of a Devil’s Manhunt.

Fanner Marston has survived what killed every other man in his party. Driven by greed, power and obsession, he crosses a brutal landscape toward the legendary city of Parva, where the Great Secret of the Universe is said to wait. Marston wants absolute power. He has paid for it in blood, thirst and endurance. But reaching the secret is only the beginning—because the truth at the end of his quest may overturn everything he believed the prize would give him. Forty men began the journey. One man reaches the end. And the greatest secret in existence has one more surprise waiting for him.