Containing the six books of the Portal in the Forest series, this compendium follows the complete saga of the Crushing Fist and the struggle of the worlds of man to survive in an uncaring and brutal multiverse. THE PORTAL IN THE FOREST A rural Virginia neighborhood finds a portal to other realities that changes destinations each day. Unfortunately, all the worlds it reaches have suffered unique and terrible dooms. A determined stranger and a suburb of abandoned children might be able to save the world if they can just figure out the common link between the myriad destroyed Earths. THE DESOLATE GUARDIANS Heath, an off-hours network manager, discovers that his computers can connect to other Internets on other Earths. He becomes the only link between the scattered men and women still guarding the worlds of man, but what can a few lonely guardians do against the coming darkness? THE MOON AFLAME Poor Alek is a fool that refuses to gaze up at His glory and accept the Change. Alek and the Free heretics must be rooted out and obliterated. The way must be paved for the coming of the Dreamer On High-humanity will dance under the Moon aflame as salvation descends from the sky. THE EMPTY EARTH With disaster looming, our scattered few must work together. One such guardian is the reluctant author Noah Fulmer. After returning from a mission, he finds that the human race seems to have vanished. Is there something wrong with the world, with his mind-or with reality itself? THE CRUSHING FIST As the worlds of man begin to collapse, displaced billions flee coreward for aid. Conn, an ex-soldier, tries to piece together the link between a slaughter-filled mission five years before and the current doom bearing down on the Earths of the Empire. Between his former military squadmates and his new connections among the elite, he must uncover the truth of the Empire's mortal flaw. OUR FINAL ACTS There's nowhere left to run now. The Crushing Fist is bearing down on the Empire from every direction, cutting off any chance of escape. The First World has failed and been destroyed. The skies are beginning to leak compressed space and the ground is oozing magma from the enormous pressure on reality itself. The next few days hold the final acts of the human race. For whatever it's worth, we intend to make those acts count.