Age of Resolve

Ilene Grydsuk

Description

In a world where sin is forbidden and morality is the rule of law, two young Biodome agents find themselves at the center of a battle to save the new order from annihilation.
It’s been one hundred years since the Correction, the great reset that erased the misguided ideology and spurious intentions of an ancient civilization seemingly bent on destroying itself. The Biodome’s universal moral compass is under attack. Known as the existential virus (EV), she is not to be trifled with. She is judge, jury, and—when need be—executioner. The only cure for EV is an end to the Age of Resolve and a return to ancient times.
Seventeen-year-old Everett Steele has just transitioned from high school graduate to official disciple of the new order. After she and fellow Biodome agent Jake Domanso join together in a secret crusade to save EV from annihilation, they become immersed in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. Can they save humanity from the self-destruction of relative morality and the chaos of free will, or is history destined to repeat itself?

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Existential crisis
• Free will
• Morality
• Existentialism
• Allegory
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 13 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663244789
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

AGE OF RESOLVE
THE E.V. CHRONICLES
ILENE GRYDSUK


AGE OF RESOLVE THE E.V. CHRONICLES
 
Copyright © 2022 Ilene Grydsuk.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
iUniverse
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Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4477-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4479-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4478-9 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916068
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 10/05/2022

 
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]
 
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.
 
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
 
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
 
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Website
 
The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB
Copyright ©2016, 2020 by Bible Hub
Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue

For my children. There is good in this world; you are the living proof.
Above all else, stay true to yourselves.
PROLOGUE
Dostoevsky once wrote: “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted”; and that, for existentialism, is the starting point. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse.
—Jean Paul Sartre, 1946
EVERY ERA MUST COME to an end so that a new era can be born. And every era has that pivotal event that seals its fate. The Stone Age gave way to the Bronze Age, and then came the Iron Age. Ancient history gave way to the Age of Discovery in the fifteenth century. Civilization was introduced to rudimentary globalization through overseas exploration, planting the seeds of twenty-first century capitalism. Before the annihilation. Fast-forward through the machine age, the atomic age, the space age, arriving at the information age, complete with the digital revolution and the birth of multimedia. And left to your own devices, what has been the outcome of this human and social evolution?
My instructions were simple, clear, succinct. I created a clear guide for humankind, an enduring missive that extends to the far reaches of the human race, in one form or another. Through the centuries, you have added and interpreted and made the stories your own, but the underlying message has never changed. The hypocrisy is nauseating. Have I not been patient? Have I not been benevolent? But like any good parent, I have my limits. World wars, famines, genocide, crime, poverty, violence, homelessness, addiction, corruption . Nuclear armament, exploitation, terrorism, environmental destruction, abuse, torture, false gods. You were made in my image, yet you stray more from my likeness with each passing day.
You have lost your way. The human existential crisis has reached monumental proportions. You have forgotten what a gift I have given you in life on earth. The seeds of impiety have been cast far and wide. The honorable and the righteous among you must now pay for the sins of the many wicked. You have been weighed, measured, and found wanting. No more survival of the fittest, no more reaping what you sow, no more legacy of chaos and wretchedness for your children.
The path to Armageddon stops now. Welcome to the real Age of Atonement. The Age of Resolve.
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
—Isaiah 13:9 (New International Version)
CHAPTER 1
How can a man know what is good or best for him, and yet chronically fail to act upon his knowledge?
—Aristotle, Ethics
IT’S BEEN ONE HUNDRED years since the Correction, the great reset that wiped out the misguided ideology and spurious intentions of an ancient civilization seemingly bent on destroying itself. One hundred years since the Biodome replaced all the tyrannical, monocratic regimes and phony democracies as our one true panglobal leader. And with it, the existential virus, EV for short. Our modern-day exterminator of all things wrong with the world. The keeper of moral universalism. I don’t know how she became a “she,” but her matronly anthropomorphosis is now an established fact.
She is not contagious, she is not airborne or waterborne or foodborne. I was literally born with her, just like everyone else. Unlike for her ancient predecessors, there is no vaccine, no antivirals; medical intervention is pointless. She is not interested in children. Learning right from wrong as a child, after all, is not the same thing as knowing right from wrong. But since I just turned seventeen, she is awake and free will now come with a price. I still have freedom of choice, of course, but I intend to choose wisely. For at least the next fifty years or so, when she will once again fall dormant.
I’ve listened to the debate about what exactly she is countless times now. Is she a coronavirus, a calicivirus, an astrovirus, an arenavirus, a flavivirus? I say who cares. It doesn’t matter what she is; as long as you live by the Biodome decree, EV is just along for the cellular ride. No harm, no foul. Like Mom says with her cheeky “be HIP” chant. Harmony. Integrity. Purpose.
So much has changed. The world that has been spun out of the Correction is so evolved, yet some things endure. Like high school. Ugh . Like this particular high school. No amount of paint can mask the weariness of this tired old building. This year we got robin’s egg blue to replace last year’s sunray yellow.
As my eyes wander around the room from classmate to classmate, I am struck by how much we have all grown over the last four years. My childhood friend Jenny sits front and center of Mr. Pietra’s ancient history class. Her wavy brown locks have gone from long to short and back again. The braces she wore through our two years as juniors are gone, leaving a brilliant smile in their wake. Harriet sits to her left, exotic as ever with her deep brown eyes and dark complexion. She’s grown into a long, lean, athletic frame with legs that go on forever. I look over my peers one by one. Crop cuts, flat hats, jeweled backpacks, friendship bracelets all fading to distant memories. We are on the threshold of adulthood here. This is the graduating class of 100 PC.
And then I think of my own transformation. To my great relief, little Everett Steele has shed her gawky thirteen-year-old body. My little stick figure-self, all elbows and knees, has been replaced with warm curves. The spray of freckles across my nose is long gone, and my rounded chubby cheeks have given way to a more refined and mature countenance. I have been described as a porcelain doll more than once. Mom calls me her little sprite. I’m Dad’s pint-sized dynamo and Evander’s spunky big sister. I might roll my eyes, but the monikers fairly depict my willful nature.
My ears register an abrupt change in tone and cadence. The interruption brings me back to the present.
“Come on, Mr. Pietra. You can’t be serious. There’s no way this kid created this social media empire that infected 220 million people in one shot! That’s impossi