Survival Short Stories

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.

USA TODAY and #1 AMAZON bestselling author Jeremy Bates presents the complete collection of the award-winning Midnight Book Club short novels. With fast-paced plots and stunning twists, these stories offer close to 1,000 pages of heart-racing suspense, action, and terror from one of today's most exciting voices in horror. Black Canyon Twelve-year-old Brian Garrett embarks on a weekend camping trip in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison, hoping to reconnect with his distant parents. But when his father suffers a brutal accident deep in the chasm, survival takes a sinister turn. Over ...

Have you ever felt the chill of unseen eyes upon you, the prickle of ancient fear when the woods fall silent? When the full moon swells and casts its pale, eerie glow, the world you know recedes. The boundary between man and monster blurs, and the oldest, most terrifying legends step out from the shadows. Prepare to be gripped by Werewolves: Horror Stories, a harrowing collection of FIFTEEN original tales designed to sink their teeth into your deepest anxieties. This isn't just about fangs and fur; it's about the crushing weight of isolation, the heart-stopping terror of the hunt, and the ...

This exciting cryptid creature feature collection contains six short stories of terror in the woods. It contains three previously published stories: THE DARKNESS IN THE PINES THE BEAST OF FALLOW PINES, and SOMETHING IN THE WOODS in addition to three never before published stories: FALLOW CREEK PART I FALLOW CREEK PART 2 and the conclusion to the Fallow Pines story, SOMETHING IN THE WOODS PART II - THE BEAST IN THE DARKNESS! FALLOW CREEK PART I While exploring the long-abandoned Fallow Creek Campground, Dan Easton makes a terrifying discovery in the pines. FALLOW CREEK PART II Rob Easton ...

Echoes of the Frontier gathers thirteen unforgettable tales by literary giants such as Jack London, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, and Bret Harte—each story capturing a different facet of life at the edge of civilization. From the perilous ride of The Denver Express to the poetic solitude of On the Divide, and from the chilling desperation of Love of Life to the dry wit of Nevada Sketches, these stories illuminate the grit, dreams, and humanity of those who dared to tame the wild.

A collection of four critically acclaimed, gripping short novels that delve into the depths of survival, obsession, and the dark side of human nature.Box of Bones Jim, an American expat teaching English in the Philippines, wakes up after a night out to find himself trapped inside a pitch-black coffin—running out of oxygen and out of time. With only his cell phone and his wits, he must fight panic and exhaustion in a desperate race against death.Six Bullets Thirteen months after a massive asteroid wiped out civilization, survivalist Burt James is still alive—bunkered in his fortified ...

Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! By James Bachman When the outbreak spreads to the City of Angels, chaos reigns. Los Angeles descends into a nightmare as wildfires blaze, the infected roam the streets, and survivors scramble to escape a city consumed by death. In a world where the rich hide behind gates and the poor are left to fend for themselves, the lines between life and death blur—and survival comes at an unimaginable cost. Fast-paced, gritty, and unrelenting, Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! plunges readers into a city where every moment is a fight to stay alive. Perfect for fans of ...

How do you survive when an ordinary day explodes into a battle against nature's most terrifying power? When the sky turns a malevolent green and the roar of a thousand freight trains is the last thing you hear before your world is ripped apart? Tornado: Twisted Tales invites you into the heart of fifteen unforgettable storms through a collection of gripping short stories. These aren't just tales of destruction; they are visceral accounts of human endurance, the desperate courage of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, and the unpredictable twists of fate that unfold when ...

For Sage, fitting in with her new classmates is a matter of life or death. Literally. Dragged out of hiding after her parents are killed, Sage is forced to enroll in the Institution. There, she’ll learn to be a model citizen of Eprah. But model citizens are murderers. And when everyone is granted autonomy to be judge, jury, and executioner, it’s far too easy to wind up dead. To stay alive, Sage will have to convince everyone of her unwavering loyalty to Eprah — which means turning her back on everything she’s ever believed. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games and Divergent, you will ...

The war wasn’t the only thing hunting them. 1969 - Deep in the Vietnamese jungle, a U.S. recon squad is sent to investigate a series of patrols that never returned. Cut off from command and surrounded by hostile terrain, they expect enemy fire. What they find is something else. A towering, brutal creature—covered in hair, walking upright, and more intelligent than anything they’ve faced—is stalking them through the green hell of the jungle. Locals call it Nguoi Rung. The men call it Bigfoot. Bigfoot – Vietnam is a gritty war-horror novella blending cryptid terror with the ...

New Orleans, Zombie Apocalypse! By James Bachman The Big Easy just became the Big Dead. Mardi Gras should have been a night of parades, music, and endless revelry. Instead, the floats roll with blood, sequined masks hide rotting faces, and Bourbon Street erupts in screams as the dead crash the party. Tasha, a bartender who knows the Quarter’s back alleys better than any cop. Caleb, an EMT who’s seen every kind of death—until now. Reverend Duval, a preacher holding his flock together inside a barricaded church as the faithful rise with a hunger no prayer can cure. From the French ...

After the Rapture, one war machine still remembers the Word of God. Elior wasn’t made to believe. He was forged for war, discarded, and forgotten—until a woman named Eloise found him in a scrapyard and gave him a second purpose. She treated him not as a weapon, but as a friend. She read Scripture aloud to him, shared meals beside him, and called him by name. Now, in a world left broken by the Rapture, Elior awakens to find the faithful gone and truth silenced. Yet something in him—something Eloise planted—remains. As others surrender to fear or falsehood, Elior walks a ruined world ...

If it knocks four times -- don’t answer. When Liam inherits his late uncle’s remote hunting cabin deep in the Ridge 9 backwoods, he expects quiet isolation — not claw marks on trees, not torn-up trail cams, and certainly not a journal filled with paranoid ramblings about "four knocks" in the night. But the deeper Liam digs into his uncle’s final days, the more disturbing the entries become — detailing a presence that circles the cabin, leaves no tracks, and never comes in… unless you open the door. Now snowed in, with no way to contact the outside world, Liam finds himself alone...

In a world on the brink, Geo faces a looming threat from an interstellar object, prompting him to seek unity amidst chaos. As skepticism gives way to cooperation, unlikely alliances form, demonstrating that true strength lies not in conflict but in collaboration. "Survival of the Mildest" explores how the meek can inherit the earth by choosing wisdom over force in times of crisis.

After the war, when humans were nearly turned into cattle, Ethan Edwards assembled the most lethal vampire hunting crew in the post apocalyptic world. But when he purchases a seemingly useless android, strange things start to happen...things nobody can explain. As he and his team enter a long-abandoned hotel, reality seems to distort, trapping them inside something other than a run-down building harboring nests of their enemies. It almost seems as if they're pawns in a bigger game...expendable characters controlled by unknown forces. And they're running out of time...or are they? "Intense, ...

The silence in the deep woods is not always empty. Sometimes, it’s listening. The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,650-mile journey through the last great wildlands of the American West. Thousands walk it, seeking solitude and adventure. But they are not always alone. For decades, a steady drumbeat of testimony has emerged from these remote spaces—chilling, firsthand accounts of encounters with something that should not exist. This is not a book of folklore. It is a sober presentation of testimony from the people who know this wilderness best: seasoned thru-hikers, Forest Service employees, ...

Washington DC, Zombie Apocalypse! by James Bachman When the halls of power crumble, survival begins. The infection starts in the heart of Washington D.C., turning politicians, aides, and lobbyists into ravenous undead. As chaos engulfs the nation's capital, a janitor, a fast-food worker, and a grandmother on a mission band together in a desperate bid to escape the hellscape. With the military enforcing brutal quarantine measures and the infected growing in numbers, every decision could mean life or death. As the city burns and democracy dies, can a few unlikely heroes find safety, or will ...

This is a SHORT STORY set within the ongoing THE UNSEEN franchise. Potential spoilers ahead! This short story stars the youngest character in the intense THE UNSEEN franchise, Hope Diaz. Her survival is one of heartache, terror, and perseverance, an event that occurs during book two of the main series, DESOLATION.

A collection of four critically acclaimed, gripping short novels that explore the darkness lurking within ordinary lives. Black Canyon Twelve-year-old Brian Garrett embarks on a weekend camping trip in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison, hoping to reconnect with his distant parents. But when his father suffers a brutal accident deep in the chasm, survival takes a sinister turn. Over the next twenty-four hours, Brian will face a horrifying truth about his father—and himself. Rewind A man wakes in a decaying apartment, hooked to a mysterious machine, a dead body in the next room—...

The wildfire isn't the deadliest thing in these woods. A raging inferno tears through Timberline Ridge. A six-person hotshot crew is deployed to contain it. But as smoke thickens and the forest closes in, something ancient and furious emerges from the untouched trees. They call it Bigfoot. Cut off from radio, trapped by fire, and stalked through ash and flame, the team must survive not only the blaze—but a predator that’s lived in these forests long before men ever carried axes. Bigfoot – Fire on the Ridge is a blistering horror novella of primal terror, isolation, and survival. ...