Post Nuclear 4 -The Rebellion

Gordon was excited. He was watching something on his mobile phone that was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The most popular videos of the last week would appear on the Top 50 app on the mobile phone. One of them was from Cardiff University. A university lecturer, a middle aged man with wire rimmed glasses and white hair, was standing in a lecture hall. Behind him, electronically inserted as if it was on the wall, was the logo of the Welsh Independence Party.
"I base my ideas on western democracy," he said. "Let the farmers keep the money they make from selling their crops. Then they would grow more. We're living on what the military would have once called quarter rations. There's no need for this. A hundred years ago, European farms used to over produce. We had the European grain mountain and the European butter mountain. We could end rationing forever. We could have a surplus. We want democratic elections. Governments should be accountable."

Digging up turnips that morning, Gordon took out his mobile phone to show the video to Tony. No one else was around.
"Tony, I'm not going to show this to the others, but I'll show you." Tony watched the video and a look of fear came over his face.
"Oh no, oh no."
"Do you think he's wrong?" asked Gordon.
"No. I think he's perfectly all right. I just wonder what the government will do to someone like him."
"Put him and all his followers in prison?"
"No Gordon, that's not what a government do to suppress a rebellion. If you do that, you get rid of a few prominent leaders, you don't get rid of the movement."
"They could be like the Chinese communists and shoot all the students dead."
"The Chinese communist party was a hundred years ago, Gordon. These people are far worse. Goodness knows what they will do. Something horrible. Something we could never even imagine."

A few days later the prisoners on the farm were woken up in the middle of the night by an earth tremor that shook the beds in the dormitory.
"What was that?" Gary shouted. He climbed down from his bunk bed which was on the third storey at the top of the ladder. He turned the light on. "I'm going outside to have a look." Gordon sat on a chair and turned his mobile phone on. He turned on New World News.
"There's been an earthquake in Wales," Gordon said.
"How do they know that so soon?" asked Tony. "It happened a minute ago."
"Artificial Intelligence. Cameras on the street corners. The pictures are coming in right now. Damaged buildings. Rubble. Messiah Daniel Moses is about to give an address." The crisp sound of the leader's voice came from Tony's mobile phone.
"This was all planned days ago," said Tony. "The government knew this was coming. Since when has the University of Cardiff been on an active geological fault?"
"Be quiet," said Simon. "I want to listen to the speech."
"Our hearts go out to the families of the dead and the injured in Wales. We are sending out our rescue teams. They will be there by morning. All those who are homeless but uninjured should make their way on foot to the nearest main road and then to the nearest motorway. There will be food and provisions provided for you there. Our relief stations will be set up along the motorways between Wales and Birmingham. The community houses in Birmingham will have enough capacity to take on all the refugees from Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend and Newport."
"How does he know exactly where the earthquake was?"
"Shut up, Tony," said Simon. Messiah Daniel Moses had finished his speech.
"Tony, the thing is," said Gordon, "I really can't see how the government can manufacture an earthquake deliberately, wherever they want one."
"It was an earthquake bomb. It was a nuclear warhead. It exploded in the Welsh mountains, 20 miles from Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. The towns have been flattened. Just to stop that professor from making Wales an independent country. The biggest Welsh towns have been blown away and the people who lived there have all gone to Birmingham."
"Oh, come on," said Simon. "He's a good man, Messiah Daniel Moses. He wouldn't really want to hurt people like that."
"We shall see, Simon, we shall see."

A few months later there was a poor rye harvest. The weather had been very wet over the summer and the fields were flooded with six inches of water. Gordon and Tony joined the other men, treading water in leaky Wellington boots to perform the laborious task of cutting the heads off the plants with a sickle and collecting them in a bucket.
"You can't blame the government for the weather," said Simon. "I'm sure Tony's got some little aliens who came to him in the night and told him how Messiah Daniel Moses has been sending up helicopters to drop crystals on the clouds to make it rain."
"No, I haven't seen any aliens," said Tony. "But I'll tell you one thing, there aren't as many people on this farm as there used to be. They gave a lot of them early release. If we had as many people as we had last year, we'd have picked all that rye and we'd still have had enough to feed the chickens. Now the chickens have all gone to slaughter. We can't afford to feed chickens to make eggs to make bread. This stuff has got to be dried out on the metal rack above the fire and made into bran flakes to make that disgusting cereal we will eat at lunch time. Then our evening meal will be soup with no bread. The government will do everything it can to perlong this famine and make it worse."
"There's enough tinned food in the Joseph Campaign warehouses to give everybody steak and chips for two years," said Gordon. "Why can't we just eat that?"
"They send that food to another factory to be made into tins of soup. The government are eeking it out. They'll make the famine last for 7 years."
"Tony," said Elliott at the top of his voice. "Perhaps you can explain to all my students why the government has become so sinister. Why do you think it does these terrible things?"
"When that rebellion at Cardiff University happened, they said to each other, behind closed doors, we must be giving them too much food. That's why they're having all these ideas. If we can change the dietary rules from 500 calories a day to 27 grams of protein a day, haemic iron is no longer an essential nutrient, we can make them tired. We can make university lecturers so that they don't have the energy to think. Then there will be no more thought of rebellion."

A year later Gordon had been released from prison. He was working as a second hand book salesman on the community bus in Birdwell. It was Saturday lunchtime. His 10 year old son Sam was complaining about his porridge. 10 year old Sam held up the spoon and made a disgusted noise.
"It's very nice porridge," said the middle aged man who was standing behind the counter, in the tiny kitchen at the back of the bus, wearing white overalls.
"No it's not."
"Yes it is. It's got 6 different kinds of grain in it and a whole cup of milk."
"It tastes like wet sand."
"How do you know what wet sand tastes like?"
"We are kids. We eat wet sand."
"I took them to the beach once during the university holidays," said Anna.
"Oh yeah, great fun," said Nicky. "3 days in a hotel in Sunderland. The holiday of a lifetime."

"I'll never be able to eat porridge again without thinking about wet sand," said Gordon. He was holding a letter in his hand.
"My best friend in prison was a man called Tony. He's coming out of prison. He wants to live in Birdwell so he can be with me." 13 year old Tommy burst out laughing.
"Is he gay? Is he in love with you?"
"I think men can have close friendships without being in love with each other," said Ruth.
"Well, you know what they say about men in prison. I think it would be really funny if he was gay and if he was in love with Dad."
"Yes, Tommy, absolutely hilarious," said Nicky.
"Well, if he wants to live in Birdwell I don't suppose we can stop him," said Gordon.

A few weeks later Tony appeared on the bus. It was time for the evening meal. This was a thick broth made with vegetables and a single ounce of meat. It was eaten without bread. The famine was officially over but bread and burgers had never returned to the menu. Tony sat down next to Gordon with a bowl of soup. Gordon was already eating his.
"Are you Dad's boyfriend?" asked Tommy.
"Shut up, Tommy," said Nicky.
"Well, you're a friend of Dad's and you're a boy. Good soup tonight. Dad's favourite. An ounce of steak with chopped potatoes and onions in mushy pea sauce. Worth getting put away for."
"Tommy, are you taking a diploma in how to be obnoxious, offensive and rude?" asked Ruth.
"Your kids are wonderful," said Tony. "I wish I had kids."
"Do you?" asked Anna.
"Yes. Even if I had to put up with a teenager's obnoxious sense of humour. It must still be good to have kids."
"Sometimes," said Anna, "I feel happy that I have kids sometimes."
"And so many, if you don't mind me saying so."
"We were trying to repopulate the earth after the war," said Tommy. "Well, either that or Mam couldn't find a chemist's shop that had a roof on it."
"I think Mam couldn't find a chemist's shop with a roof on it, so she had you," said Sam.
"And you. You're younger than me." Tony looked Tommy straight in the eye.
"You remind me of Donald Trump," he said. Gordon choked on his soup and a tiny bit came out of his nose.
"I'm sorry if my son insulted you," said Anna, "but please don't compare him to Donald Trump."
"No offence intended," said Tony. "Isn't human resilience good? We're survivors of a nuclear war, we're half starved, and we can still have a good laugh. What's your name?"
"Tommy."
"Well Tommy, you're someone who says what he thinks, like Donald Trump, and you sometimes hear the truth from someone like that when others are afraid to say it."

A few weeks later Gordon led his family into the woods for a picnic. Tony was with them. It was pleasant weather but not especially warm. There was a cool breeze. Anna was wearing a hat and gloves. They sat down on some plastic seats around a wooden table. Tony took 2 Bibles out of a plastic bag he had been carrying. He handed one to Gordon.
"Daniel Moses isn't really the Messiah," said Tony.
"Who is he then?" asked Ruth.
"He's the son of perdition," said Tommy. "The evil one spoken about in the Bible."
"Where did you hear that?" asked Gordon.
"When people go to prison for saying something bad about Messiah Daniel Moses their names are always on New World News. You can search for them on Yamazoogle. Nothing on the internet is ever really erased. They might delete it from one place but they can't get rid of it completely. Your tablet will find them eventually. Tony, you were a very good preacher."
"That must be nearly 30 years ago," said Tony. "Glad to know that people are still listening. Wow."
"Did you come to Birdwell to start an underground church?" asked Anna.
"Yes," said Tony. "I hope you don't mind."
"Praise the Lord," said Anna. "I've been praying for someone to do that for years. I have an old Bible from before the war and a full set of books about the second coming of Christ, the real Christ." Tony opened his Bible and started reading from it.

"From the book of Daniel, chapter 8. 'And out of it came a little horn and it grew up exceedingly great towards the south, towards the east and towards the beautiful land. And it grew towards the host of Heaven and caused some of the hosts and some of the stars to fall down, and trampled them underfoot.' Messiah Daniel Moses  was the little horn. He was a nobody. He was a church pastor and a cult leader and then he became ruler of the whole world." Tony turned over a few pages in his Bible. "From the book of Revelation, chapter 6. 'And behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it was given a bow and wore a crown, and was sent to conquer.' People say of Messiah Daniel Moses, isn't he a good man? Isn't he a man of peace? Well, so he might claim to be a white horse but he is also the red horse of war and the black horse of poverty. He crushes any rebellion against him by causing an earthquake with a strategically positioned nuclear warhead, as he did in Wales, and then uses hunger as a way of making people compliant. One day he will use biological weapons, the pale horse of death. Now, no one knows the day or the hour of his coming, Jesus said, but he also said, 'when you see all these things, lift up your heads, your redemption is near.' Jesus is coming very soon. The end is just around the corner."

They finished the Bible study, got up from the table and walked deeper into the wood. They came to a stream.
"Should we baptise Gordon and Anna?" asked Tony.
"Yes," said Anna, an excited look of joy and amazement on her face. She couldn't believe this was finally happening. She was a member of a church. She was being baptised. Tommy asked,
"Can you baptise me as well? I'm a Christian."