The Last to Fall

For Jack Avery, living among the ruins of the outer zone and scavenging to survive is not the worst of nightmares. Something haunts him far more than any hunter patrol. In one short moment, two years before, something happened that changed him. This story is about his journey through the apocalypse, but also through his own regrets and doubts.

After an EMP obliterates the nation's electrical grid on New Year's Eve, it's not long before society unravels and panic ensues. As the lights go out and silence spreads over the city that never sleeps, four ordinary strangers - a bike messenger, a homeless person, a support rep, and an ex-convict - must forge a connection in order to stay alive. When they realize the danger is far greater than they expected, they must embark on a perilous journey out of the city.

There is a place where nightmares are real. A dark and terrifying place that is hidden from the world we know, by borders that only the most unfortunate of souls will ever cross. James Halldon wakes up in a strange and dark place, surrounded by endless junk and debris. He has no idea where he is, or how he got there. No food. No water. No light. Almost no memories of his past. And there are things moving in the darkness around him. Things that growl.

Tucked away in a high-tech Tactical Operations Center, inside an isolated safehouse in the Horn of Africa, sits Agency analyst Zack Altringham. He is Kenyan-born, Princeton-educated, badly burnt-out - and condemned by his language and cultural skills to a lifetime of fighting America's shadow counter-terror wars.

In a ravaged tribe on the edge of humanity, the suspicious death of a chief thrusts a man into a dark realm for which he is unprepared. When Jonah inherits leadership of the Elk Clan from his father, many in the old man's inner circle question his son's ability to lead the tribe to their winter shelter at the ruins of Eliz. A dark stranger, a journey over hundreds of miles of dangerous highway and clashes with feral gangs will push Jonah to the edge.

When the zombie apocalypse hits America, not a soul is left alive. Except Amo. He's a comic book artist. He's a video game world builder. He's just a regular guy living in New York City, with only his wits, creativity, and basic decency to guide him. He's alone against Seven billion zombies. Will he survive?

The first pulse occurred in the old calendar year of 2022. Gigantic solar flares created massive electromagnetic pulses that stopped the heart of our modern world and returned us to the Dark Ages. And Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant Nathaniel Hogan finds that he has been changed by the gamma radiation in the solar flares. They have enhanced his natural abilities, giving him increased speed, strength, and healing; indefinitely extending his life span and enabling him to be able to draw on the power of the solar flares to create magik. But even he was not prepared for what happened next.

The Superpox-99 virus has wiped out nearly the entire human race. Governments have collapsed. Cities have become graveyards filled with unspeakable horror. People have resorted to scavenging from the dead, or taking from the living. The entire industrialized world has become a wasteland of abandoned cars, decaying bodies, and feral animals. To stay alive, U.S. Deputy Marshal Mason Raines must forage for food, water, and gasoline while outgunning those who seek to take advantage of the apocalyptic anarchy. Together with his giant Irish wolfhound, Bowie, he aligns with survivors of the town of Boone in a life and death struggle against a gang of violent criminals. With each deadly encounter, Mason is force to accept his place as one of the nation's few remaining lawmen. In a world now populated by escaped convicts, paranoid mutants, and government hit squads, his only hope to save the townspeople is to enforce his own brand of frontier justice.

Virus. Chaos. Survival. Alienated in a world where he doesn't fit in, Christian Black survives because he's different. Then the virus came, and made the world turn different, too. Now people are dying by the million. Food supplies are short. Riots are blazing through the streets, and Christian's only goal is to keep his family alive. But safety lies far from the city, and just getting out will be tougher than anyone knows.

The islands of Caldera are a shining jewel in a rather bleak world. A terrible calamity in the past had blanketed much of the world with a toxic "fug". Those who survived were forced to take to the mountains and the skies in wondrous airships. Life has since been a struggle, with only the most ruthless and crafty able to survive. To spare themselves the same fate, the Calderans erected a battery of guns to fend off the airships of the mainland. They isolated themselves from the madness of the world, choosing instead to focus on the pursuits of art and creativity.