Novels by James anderson

A blue screen materialized in the air directly in front of Willa. Lines of white text scrolled across the digital interface.[Sponsor Chat Room Activated][User SilverFox: She got lucky. That monster was blind.][User IceKing: She is barefoot and arrogant. I bet fifty points she freezes before sunset.][User VoidWalker: A writer? What a useless class. She will die soon.]Willa read the scrolling text as she trudged through the snow. Her new boots kept her toes warm but the wind still bit at her face. The invisible audience treated her struggle like a cheap television show. They bet on her death from the comfort of their safe rooms.[User Bloodhound has entered the chat.][User Bloodhound: I like her spite. One thousand points on Willa surviving the night.]The chat feed paused for a fraction of a second before exploding with laughing emojis. The other sponsors mocked Bloodhound for wasting points on a dead girl walking. Willa stopped walking and looked up at the grey clouds. A cold sm

Willa marched through the knee deep snow. The frozen crystals bit into her bare skin like shards of glass. Her toes had already gone numb. The chill crept up her calves and threatened to freeze her joints solid. She kept her eyes focused on the endless white horizon. She needed to put distance between herself and the arrogant veteran.A violent tremor shook the ground beneath her feet. The snow erupted ten yards away and sprayed chunks of ice into the air. A massive creature ripped its way out of the frozen earth.It looked like an armored centipede the size of a city bus. Thick white scales covered its back. Hundreds of hooked legs dug into the permafrost. The beast had no eyes on its pale face. It only had a gaping maw filled with jagged teeth. Two more of the creatures burst from the ground near the center of the scattered newbies.Screams pierced the howling wind. The panicked survivors scattered in every direction. A woman in a ripped hospital gown tripped over a buried rock and

Willa pressed her hands against her chest and searched for shattered ribs or torn skin. She expected her fingers to slip in warm blood. She found only her wet blouse clinging to her skin. The memory of the delivery truck smashing into her side on Fifth Avenue flashed behind her eyes. The grill had crushed the breath out of her lungs. The wet asphalt had scraped her face. Yet she stood here without a single scratch. She was dead. The realization crashed over her and stole the air from the room."What audience?" Willa asked the silent passengers. "Who is watching us?""Nobody you know," the man standing next to the metal pole said."I did not sign up for a game," Willa said. "I want to get off this bus right now.""You cannot," the man said. He did not move from his spot."Are you the one in charge?" Willa asked. She stepped closer to him and glared into his eyes."I am just a passenger," the man said."You just dragged me onto a bus full of corpses," Willa said. "I demand you open tho

Willa pushed her key into the lock of her apartment on Mercer Street. The metal clicked and she pushed the heavy oak door open. She had left her shift at the publishing firm three hours early because a massive power outage had shut down the city grid. She dropped her keys on the console table and set her leather bag on the floor.A muffled thump echoed from the back hallway. Willa stopped taking off her trench coat. The apartment should have been empty. Ethan had told her he had a job interview downtown. A soft groan drifted from the master bedroom. Willa walked down the hall in her bare feet. The bedroom door stood cracked open. She pushed the wood with her fingertips. The door swung wide and hit the drywall.Ethan was tangled in the white sheets with her younger sister. They froze in place."Ethan?" Willa asked."Willa wait," Ethan stammered. He scrambled backward against the headboard and pulled a sheet over his waist. "I can explain this.""Explain what?" Willa asked. "Explain why