Shades of Destiny: Revelations

By MJ PITTMAN

Secrets, betrayal, and revenge.

Michael, Shane, and Damian all have their share of inner demons, but only one of them actually is one.

Surviving the apocalypse was hard enough for the realms. Now they are battling fragile alliances, ancient artifacts, and secrets, all while learning the strength of their abilities that were once hidden in the shadows. While some work to unite the world and end the war, others only seek destruction and revenge. Ultimately, they all discover that the end they feared is only the beginning of the story.

Follow Michael, Shane, and Damian in their struggle forged by the end of days. Shades of Destiny is a twist on the post-apocalyptic genre where the story of preventing the apocalypse leads to revelations that could tear the world further apart.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887311555

Book preview

Chapter 1

Home

It was challenging and painful for Michael to remember the beauty that once graced Green Valley. The town was small, nestled neatly in a lush valley, surrounded by towering, jagged snowcapped mountains with dense forests as far as the eye could see. Green Valley was split in half by the majestic Salmon River, aptly named for its sizable biannual salmon migrations. The fall salmon run was always Michael’s favorite as a younger child. He used to lose himself fishing in the calm, crystal-blue waters. He was always aware that soon, the gentle ebb and flow of the river would fade away along with the brilliant colors of autumn. A more powerful and turbulent river fueled by monstrous rainstorms would come with the harsh winter season.

April studied Michael as he surveyed what was left of Green Valley. Michael had grown distant since the war began, and he seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. His usual upbeat and optimistic views on what could be in the new world seemed to grow fainter every day the war dragged on. Their enemy, Perdicium, had not just stolen their friend, Damian, but was also slowly eating away at what was left of their humanity.

April reached out and lightly touched Michael on the arm. Michael, what are you thinking about? asked April.

Michael slowly turned to look at April and locked on to her greenish-brown eyes, swollen with held back tears. He only caught her eyes for a moment before looking away back toward his desolate hometown. He was usually better at hiding his pain and feelings from everyone else, but April always found a way to disarm him, which he both loved and hated.

Nothing and yet everything all at once. This sight is a lot to take in, Michael explained. As he looked around, he could see the forests still smoldering from the repeated attacks on the town that began over a year ago. Ash was still falling all around them, and everywhere they turned, there was twisted metal with bricks and ash scattered over the ghosts of their friends and family. Michael’s deep brown eyes were red and swollen as he looked up to the clouds swirling around the valley. Even the air is a mixture of decaying corpses, rotting food, and burnt buildings. How is that possible after all this time?

I don’t know? Maybe we should try to remember what it was like before the war. Don’t you remember how beautiful the fall was?

Of course, I do, but it is gone now, April.

Fall was always my favorite too. I know it was yours. That was our home, Michael, before the war. Don’t forget that. Michael nodded, understanding what April was trying to do. He knew that April was worried about him. War is not easy on anyone, but it takes an extra toll on the soul when you blamed yourself for all that happened.

April, do you know what is down there in the valley? Michael asked, pointing toward Green Valley. April shook her head from side to side. Michael steeled himself as he explained, looking more distant than ever to April, Down there are the remains of my friends and family. Michael paused, composing himself; he turned to April. Your family too. Your mother, your father, your siblings, and almost everyone we ever knew and loved. Besides that, you can still see the remains of everyone caught in the attack scattered throughout the banks of the river and on the streets of Green Valley. You remember how the first attack came without warning on the holiday, don’t you? Michael looked away. Barely anyone survived, April. Eighty-two thousand people were gone in a single day. Their bones line the streets to remind the living. They haunt me in my dreams.

Michael carried a burden of regret that he hadn’t shared with anyone, not even April. This is all my fault, Michael began to confess. April looked at Michael, confused and without understanding. You remember how we used to hunt for the relics before the war? April nodded and began to follow his train of thought. I was consumed and driven with the power that the Apple could contain. Perdicium only attacked us once they learned that the Apple had been discovered. It was my fault they learned of its discovery.

But how, Michael? All you did was retrieve it. It’s not like you used it, did you? Michael looked at April with shame and regret, a look April had seen only once before. Michael…

I wished that was the worst part, Michael struggled to explain. I was selfish and wanted it for myself, so I retrieved it without…

A large crash shook Michael out of his nightmarish daze, and he spun around in anticipation as a nearby small building collapsed under its own weight, not able to hold up the concrete slabs on its twisted foundation any longer. A small plume of black ash rose in the air and covered his truck in yet another layer of soot. The truck had once been a bright royal blue, but now it mirrored the world around it, a shade of gray with its bright color choked out. April shielded her eyes from the ash and turned back to Michael. Her ash-covered face was streaked with tears, and she wore a look that pierced Michael to his core. Her long, brown hair, matted with dirt and ash, was wild in the morning breeze. This was not a look she wore often.

It was the first time she had seen the destruction of Green Valley. She turned to see if Sarah was still sitting in their truck; the three of them had been inseparable since the importance of Ethos’s Triad was discovered. Sarah was making her second trip to Green Valley; she had done a solo mission a couple of months prior and now would not leave the truck because of how difficult it was to take in the carnage. Standing a moment, April and Michael locked eyes, leaving the rest of the conversation unspoken. As painful as the moment was, they needed to remain focused. Minutes turned to hours as the triad waited in anticipation of fulfilling their mission.

A low rumble could be heard riding the wind off in the valley, quiet at first, but it grew slowly louder off in the distance. It was a convoy of trucks they were familiar with, and their anticipation quickly turned to action at the realization they were standing on an exposed bluff. Michael cried out in a shouted whisper to find cover. He motioned to April to remain hidden as their mission was to observe and not engage. This was a defining moment of truth for them; the mission had been months in the making, and if they were right about who was in the convoy, perhaps they could turn the tide. Concealed behind a boulder, April motioned for Michael to come closer to have a better vantage point.

Perdicium, Michael muttered so that only April could hear. She gave him a quick sideways glance and nodded her head. They dare not speak too loudly as the wind could carry their voices and could give away their position.

A tall, olive-skinned man wearing scars from various battles was below, exiting a truck in the middle of the convoy. They could clearly make out his most defining feature, the twin figure eight serpents tattooed on each arm. He calmly brushed his jet-black hair out of his face to survey the site where he would continue his search.

Damian! whispered Sarah, startling April and Michael. She had joined them at their position stealthily. Michael nodded with a smile that April and Sarah hadn’t seen for months. They watched for a time as Damian barked out orders to the Perdicium troops as they searched in vaults of old banks and various old structures that were barely still standing. As the day waned on, the afternoon winds switched and were now blowing in the stench of the dead straight to their position. They collectively decided to keep a rotating watch on the enemy movements below while the other two went back to rest in the truck.

I can’t believe he is working for them. He knows better. We must find a way to get to him, Michael explained to Sarah.

And then what, Michael?

Then we bring him back to us. We need to make him see that working for Perdicium is a mistake. All those years working together to find the relics and uncover the mysteries of the realms couldn’t have meant nothing.

Michael, you don’t know why he chose Perdicium. Maybe there was a good reason for him.

A good reason? Sarah, what are you saying? How could you even think that? They have murdered hundreds of thousands of people. What possible reason other than brainwashing could there be? Michael was becoming upset by the conversation, and he hated how Sarah always could see things from the other side’s point of view. He felt that this was dangerous, and it was a defining reason why their relationship was always strained and why they could no longer be anything more than friends. April had just approached the truck leaving her post and could feel the tension between Michael and Sarah.

Perdicium has left for the night, said April. Everything okay?

Michael shot a look at Sarah that April knew all too well.

Peachy! said Michael as he stormed off to the bluff. Michael sat for a moment in solitude and tried to regain his composure. Sarah always had a way of getting under his skin. As he looked out over the valley, he let his mind go back to the day’s events. Damian could detect the movements of those around relics; it gave off an unseen power only he could sense. It was one of his many gifts. Today was the first time that Michael could track Damian without him being aware. It brought a particular sort of satisfaction to know that Damian left Green Valley empty-handed; after all, only Michael knew the new location of the Apple of Eden.

To Michael, it appeared that Damian’s actions made him look more desperate, and a desperate Damian was a dangerous man from his experience. Perdicium knew that too, which was why they used him and his power to cripple the world in a devastating first blow of the apocalyptic war over a year ago. Sure, there were survivors, but none could stand against them after the initial attack. But Michael knew that the next great battle would soon be upon them. The peace of the last three months was only to buy them time, time they were running out of and time they were hoping would lead them to find the lost relics. The whole world knew of the discovery of the first, the Apple, which ultimately led the world into war and the age of the Apocalypse. Damian assumed Michael was still sentimental enough to hide the Apple in their hometown of Green Valley.

Clearly you forgot, old friend. You taught me never to forget the past, and I learned from the best, Michael whispered to himself. A sense of pride and hope washed over Michael, dangerous feelings in the best of times in this war. The Veil was shattered, but its power lingered just enough for Michael to use. Damian wasn’t the only one with exceptional gifts, and Michael was learning to use his a little more each day. He remembered Damian’s lesson on the Veil of Humanity. The Veil had a simple yet essential purpose: shield the world from the realms, protect the world from those with extraordinary powers, and protect the realms from the world’s wrath.

Chapter 2

Chance

Realms? Michael asked, Veil? Extraordinary powers? Damian, what game are you playing? This all sounds made-up!

The Veil is superpowerful and was put in place to shield everyone from the five realms of the world. Even though all five realms exist all at once on Earth, we only see the realm of Ethos, the realm governed by the laws of nature, said Damian. These realms were created by God to bring order and control to the world and hide people who were superpowerful and had superpowers. They were like superheroes and the people we learned about in myths, legends, and all the Bible stories. As the world became more removed from history, those who did not have powers were scared of the superheroes and the realms they were part of.

Okay, but how do you know all this? What are these superhumans? Is it like the comics we read?

"Well, yeah! Wouldn’t it be cool to have superpowers like that! Every realm has power and special abilities that make the world safe from bad people. Each realm had a few superpeople that were the leaders. My mom told me the realms were called Ethos, Zion, Perdicium, Avalon, and Olympus and that together they brought balance to the world.

"Avalon, the realm of water, and their leader, Solomon, was the controlling power in the world during ancient times. Their capital was Atlantis, the one everyone thinks is made-up!

Whoa! That is supercool. What were the other realms and superheroes?

There was Ethos and their cool leader, Adam, the very same one from the Bible from the garden of Eden, although Mom tells me that the whole first story is weird and not accurate. There were more than just two people in the world, obviously, if there were all these superheroes. Then there is Zion, and they had a leader named David. He is also the same one from the Bible that beats up the giant!

That’s crazy. So your mom says that these were real people!

Yup, and she also says that we are related to some of them. That’s why our families have been friends for so long.

Oh, that makes sense, so there are two more, right? What about those ones?

Okay, the last two are Olympus and their leader…

"Don’t tell me it was ZEUS!"

Damian laughed. "I wish. He had a weird name, and I forget how to say it. It is spelled D-Y-E-U-S. I guess it has something to do with Zeus, and there is a supercool legend that says lightning was a superpower of theirs. The last realm my mom told me about is Perdicium, the realm of fire, and they had a superpowerful leader named Helel. He could alter reality like the stone from the superhero movie we like. He thought he should be in charge of the whole world, but the other superheroes didn’t like that, so they all had a big fight. That is why they had to put up this weird shield thing called the Veil that hides everything now.

How do you get rid of the Veil so we can see everything? I want to see superheroes and Atlantis. That would be so cool!

I don’t know, but I guess two of the realms, Olympus and Avalon, were destroyed when they were all fighting, at least that is what Mom said she was told. She also told me that the only way to make everything how it used to be was to find these supersecret and powerful artifacts called relics.

What are they?

Damian pulled out a notebook where he had a handful of drawings with the names of objects. I was told that there are at least three, but maybe more, and tried to draw them when my grandpa was describing them to me. There is the Ark of the Covenant from the Bible and the Holy Grail they talk about too. The last one my grandpa told me about was this one called the Apple of Eden. Remember how I told you Mom said the story was weird and different, apparently the Apple has special powers!

That is so awesome! We should try to find them! We could go on adventures.

I was thinking the same thing! Grandpa says that some of them are not far from here according to legends! Maybe we can talk our families into camping trips to look for them!

I’m down. Let’s do it!

*****

Simple times gave way to trials and tribulation that later changed everything for Michael and Damian. It started with the global pandemics; sickness spread throughout the world quickly without any warning. What came next, but almost simultaneously, was the secrecy of the enemy moving in the shadows, spinning their webs of lies and conspiracy theories. Ultimately, they revealed the truth about the world; by then, it was too late for Ethos. The years leading up to Perdicium’s attacks were strange; the world felt broken, but as Michael knew now, that was all part of their plan. The memories of his conversations with Damian were burned into his mind. The Veil was fractured, and the realms were again at war, thanks to Perdicium and their ambition for control.

The world saw the truth of the realms, and Perdicium’s propaganda had been effective at crippling the reputation of Ethos and, to a lesser degree, Zion. Perdicium was firmly in control, with its puppets strategically placed in influential positions throughout the globe. The world’s citizens lived in fear and consumed the controlling propaganda like candy. They lacked understanding and knowledge of how to handle their new reality. Blindly, they fully gave Perdicium the power to do what they felt was right in the name of safety and security, convenient for Perdicium as they were the threat to begin with. The full power of the realms was now visible for the first time since the Great Wars in ancient times, long forgotten by the masses and long before the first council was created. The Veil was able to be used by any with powerful abilities to blind even those who were well-versed in the use of its power. Michael was only newly learning how to fully control his abilities. The hope was that he had learned enough of the secrets of the Veil to use its power, thereby reversing the tide of the war. He couldn’t help but think to himself, If only I had known all this before the war, how many lives would I have saved?

The night was quiet, and the air stood still. Much of the world was this way now that there was a peace treaty, albeit a false peace under Perdicium’s rule. Their organized surprise attacks on the Ethos and Zion were also coordinated under the guise of peace talks while they were coordinating minor military operations with one of their puppet regimes in Europe. Perdicium had learned from their past history that direct confrontation led to the many rising up against them. Instead, their leaders became masterful at working from the shadows and spun just enough doubt on Ethos and Zions’ collective intentions that Perdicium was seen as a savior to the citizens by the time the realms were revealed. It didn’t take long for more strategic military operations throughout the world to take place, and soon, the battles were occurring in the backyard of the Ethos’s capital. Then came the fateful final blow to Twin Rivers and Green Valley that crippled Ethos’s ability to fight back. Perdicium was able to sell to the rest of the world how deeply they were concerned for everyone’s safety. They even were able to weaponize natural disasters, which only furthered their claim that Ethos had poisoned the world.

April and Sarah slept peacefully, side by side, in the back of the truck while Michael’s thoughts were racing during his night watch. It had been hours since the soldiers of Perdicium left to their camp. However, there was still the possibility of being surprised by an unassuming patrol or by hungry wild animals in desperate search of a scarce meal. There was even the remote possibility that Damian had learned that the Veil was still accessible.

Ha! Michael laughed to himself; he knew this was not likely otherwise they would all be dead already. The cool night brought a slight chill that forced a shiver up his spine. Looking around, he noticed movement without sound in the near distance. It seemed to slowly lurk behind the rubble, perhaps waiting for him to fall asleep to pounce on its easy prey. It wasn’t particularly large and didn’t give off a feeling of something threatening. Nonetheless, he was ready. After about twenty minutes of this cautious dance in the shadows, the creature decided it was time to come closer. It walked so carefully and silently that had he not seen its shadowy dance, Michael would never have seen it coming. It was a dog.

Strange, he thought, the dogs around the valley had mostly become wild and rabid, but this dog was different. He was jet-black with short hair and had the most beautiful and intense yellow eyes. He was very skinny; his ribs were easily defined in the light of the full moon. From out of the shadows, he could easily watch his movements now. Michael grabbed a piece of jerky and tossed it away from the truck, hoping to lead him away.

The dog devoured the jerky and spun around to examine its origin. His eyes met Michael’s, and he could see that the dog was indeed not threatening; instead, he looked up longingly at his newly found source of food, begging for more. He was so gentle and afraid that he began to remind Michael of his childhood dog. Michael exited the truck and sat on the ground, holding out another piece of jerky, trying to entice the dog to come closer this time. He cautiously approached and gently took the jerky from his hand.

Well, aren’t you a good boy? said Michael. His tail began to slowly wag; he clearly knew what that meant. He approached one more time, but this time, it was to lay beside his new best friend. He put his head in Michael’s lap and looked up with those sad puppy eyes that could melt even the heart of the devil himself. He was surprisingly soft, and it was obvious that he had been groomed sometime recently, but judging by his meager state, he was now on his own. His master had probably died recently. Michael decided that it would be good for the three of them to have a furry companion. Maybe he would even turn out to be a good guard dog; after all, even a dog deserves a second chance at life.

Hmm…Chance, what do you think, boy, should I call you Chance? said Michael. He wagged his tail as though to approve of the name. Okay, buddy, Chance it is.

The next morning, Chance was introduced to the girls; they were more than just a little excited. Chance seemed to be genuinely happy about his newly found family. Looking around one last time at the ruins of their hometown, the Ethos scout party confirmed that Damian had given up on this site and decided to move on sometime in the early morning. They did not understand why he was helping Perdicium nor did they want to believe what he had done to Green Valley. Michael was careful to remember every last detail. Sarah tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Her glacier-blue eyes locked onto his with a deep understanding of what he was thinking. This was where it all began, their home, their sanctuary, and now it was destroyed. She turned to get in the truck; her long, dirty blond hair waving in the morning wind brought back memories of younger days when they would sit up here overlooking the peaceful beauty of the valley below without a care in the world. Michael watched her slowly walk over to Chance, and as she gave him a pat on the head, she turned and caught him watching her.

Stop staring at me! she said playfully.

I can’t help it! he shouted back. I’ve always admired your backside.

Sheepishly, she winked and climbed into the truck. Chance was loaded up in the back of the truck, and April, who was already in the cab of the truck, was laughing at the exchange. Not many people understood the three of them and their unique friendship. How could they? The dynamic of their friendship was not an everyday occurrence, and even though they shared a rocky history, their triad was important. The world they all knew was destroyed by Perdicium’s war, and while most of the world had been locked in a battle for much of the last year, there was still hope for an end. Michael hoped to eventually reason with his old friend, Damian, who brokered the current peace treaty. Even though he knew it was only to buy himself more time to find Perdicium’s ancient war machine that was made of the