“In the old world, we made our own decisions. We could decide what to wear, what to eat, what to think and what to say. We had freedom of movement, for the most part. We lived where we could find work and where we wanted to live or could afford, with the money we had. You could own property. Money was the currency for buying things. We earned money in our jobs and we spent money in many ways, as we needed. We bought a house, we had a car, and we had lots of things in our house. We bought clothes, food - everything we needed. People would spend a lot of their time talking to each other. Friendships were one of the things that made life worth living: knowing others and being known by other people.
“The New Order is set up on a completely different basis. It says that your life has worth because you obey the rules for the Common Good, which you learnt as children. You are trained not to challenge the system. If you questioned the system, you might not agree to follow instructions every hour of every day.”
The more the older man spoke, the more Mark’s head was filled with questions.
“What happened in the war?” he asked.
Jonathan looked at him then nodded at the Comms guys before continuing.
“The war was very carefully planned. It was a global coup, organised by the majority of the world’s elite. Most of them were already in government and in positions of authority. Many of the leaders were already meeting in secret, long before the war. They had to eliminate all the leaders who refused to join them. If you were a leader, either you were in or you were out.
“They engineered a cocktail of disastrous events: financial meltdown in well developed countries, famine in poor countries in Africa, disease in parts of Asia, an epidemic in Europe and America, a religious war in the Middle East, fears of a global environmental catastrophe that were inflated. They all coincided so that the whole world was affected. Every country faced crisis. They manipulated people in all countries, rich and poor, into thinking that the New Order was the solution. They pushed all the nations into a global crisis. The world was desperate; right on the edge. They presented a way out and people bought into it. They promised jobs for everyone, they promised a bright future but they did not give them the truth. They did not tell them that they would be divided or that many would be sedated.”
“Did people fight back?” asked Johnson.
“Yes,” replied Jonathan. “In many countries, people took up arms to resist them. It took about four months to quell all the resistance. They waited for people to muster in groups in remote areas, then they made air strikes and missile attacks - wiped them out. Sometimes they sent in people to talk peace and then the bombs would fall. There were some places where the resistance was strong and the fighting was fierce, like in the Swiss mountains and the Southern plains of America. One of the last places to fall was Afghanistan because the Afghans had been fighting outsiders for more than four generations.
Mark looked at the images of determined faces, bronzed by years of sun.
“Why was religion taken away?” asked Mark. “Could they not give believers a country somewhere?”
Jonathan smiled at the question and shook his head.
“For many of the peoples of the earth, faith was the foundation of their freedom and their independence. That sense of freedom had to be completely removed for the New Order to dominate and to control the world. Their goal was one world government and they would not tolerate even one country where people had liberty. Faith was an enemy, a potent threat, so it was outlawed. All references to faith in the megacities were deleted. For Christians, meeting had to be in secret. The church was driven underground.”
“You said you fled to a remote place in Scotland,” said Johnson.
“That’s right. We went to a cottage near a place called Rannoch. It was well off the beaten track. It was a place where outlaws used to hide out centuries ago. We stayed there while the war was fought.
“When victory was declared, everyone was called upon to apply for positions in cities, on farms and communes. That was when God showed us that we should come up here and apply to work here. They needed people. We found Jasper and we took to meeting and praying for the camp. We had a house in a village nearby and one day, a family came to join us. It has slowly grown over the years. We get people from the cities who need a refreshing and teaching.”
“Why don’t you go and invade the cities?” asked Sanjay.
“We exist to serve the Lord,” replied Helena this time. “He is sovereign, he is our king and our leader. Our job is to listen to the Spirit and follow as best we can. He has told us to not fight a human fight. We war, but we war in the spirit, through prayer. We are subversive. Yes, we long for the Lord to come and unravel the whole system and set all the captives free. But if we went on our own strength and our own will, we would certainly fail. We would be found and probably sent to a Level One camp or simply killed.”
“Look at you,” said Jonathan, gesturing towards them. “Would you be here if Sebastian had not been faithful and courageous enough to make contact with you, without being caught? He had our support, both physical and spiritual. We pray for the Lord to add to our number all the time.”
“That is what John said,” added Johnson. “Why does someone like Sebastian come here and then go back to the city when he could stay here?”
Jonathan nodded. It was a fair question.
“We prayed with him. The Lord told him very clearly that he wanted him back in the city. To obey is better than sacrifice. It is better to give than to receive. Sebastian has great joy because of you guys crossing over and moving deeper into faith. It makes his sacrifice worthwhile. He knows the Lord is pleased with him. The Lord loves radical obedience. He is looking for people with hearts fully committed to him. Apart from our faith, nothing matters. We are here for him. Death does not frighten us.”
“We are sending updates to the church in New Birmingham so they hear our news,” added Jasper, “and we can organise to make a group call to the church.”
“How did you hack into the system to get us to the hospital ward and then onto the train safely?” asked Mark, still curious.
“We have some of the best Comms guys and they are working in different countries. Some are under cover, but they work together. Through prayer, they had insights into how they could manipulate the system. It means we can move people without it being alerted.”
“Why did they do it – the leaders of the war, the people who planned the coup and took over?” asked Sanjay. He spoke slowly; his voice was serious.
“That is a good question.” Jonathan rubbed his chin before answering.
“The heart of man is naturally set against God’s ways. The first man, Adam, went astray and his sin affects everyone so that they have to come to Jesus and accept him as Saviour and Lord then they are forgiven. They are then able to live for God and not for another. People who do not yield to the Lord have a tendency towards control. You can see it through many periods of history: empire after empire built by warring leaders, seeking to lord it over many peoples. Those people who have significant power tend to yearn for absolute power. The leaders of the New Order were seduced by what they thought they could achieve. They were motivated by greed, pride, and control. They used lies, deception, fear and force to reach their goal. They knew that many countries of the world would not adopt the system willingly so they had to resort to half truths, falsities, deceit, manipulation and, ultimately, force. They were unaware that they were collaborating with the Enemy, the one who hates everything God has made, the one who opposes everything the Lord has planned. The Lord came to set us free. The Enemy comes to make us captives, to keep us from experiencing liberty.”
Jonathan paused. The three newcomers were pensive, considering what he had said.
“I think we should break for coffee,” suggested Jasper.
“The school group is coming in ten,” said one of the Comms guys.
They walked over towards the castle. Jonathan and Helena went to stand near t
he drawbridge while they stayed back by the trees. They watched while the drone transporter landed on the grass and a group of teenage boys in uniform with two teachers got out and went over to be greeted by Jonathan and Helena. The group headed in to the castle to be shown around.
“This happens from time to time,” said Jasper. “Schools do tours of the area. They will be gone in about an hour.”
For the rest of the morning they stayed in the Comms room, exploring archive material from the time of the war and the early years of the New World Order.
They went back to the castle dining room for lunch and Stevie and Pete came to join them. They chatted throughout about the war and how things were before the war.
“You said you wanted a tour,” said Jasper, when they had cleared the table.
He and Imogen led Sanjay, Johnson and Mark back outside, via the front door.
Jasper pointed out the coat of arms on the wall above the front door and explained to them what it signified: the marriage of a Campbell man and a Stuart woman, with the date 1672.
Inside, they climbed up a level to the room at the base of the tower. The light was dim from two narrow arrow slits in the East wall. There was an ancient tree in the centre of the stone vaulted room. The trunk was slender and blackened with age. Jasper told them about a family legend: a distant ancestor had had a dream. He was instructed by an angel. He should gather his treasure, load it onto his donkey then let his laden donkey wander, and follow it at a discrete distance. Where it sat down to rest in the evening, he should build his castle, and his family would prosper. The man followed the instructions and that evening the donkey sat under one of three trees to rest.
“Is this the actual tree?” blurted out Sanjay, touching the trunk.
“Yes,” Imogen replied, “it is a holly tree. I think it’s remarkable that they did not toss it on the fire on a cold night. Years ago, our grandfather cut off a piece and sent it to London to be dated. They came back with a date: 1370. Our grandfather was the 24th Thane. The man who started building the castle was the 3rd Thane.”
“What is a thane?” asked Mark.
“When Scotland was ruled by a king, he had a group of knights to support him. Our family was entrusted to protect this area around Nairn for the king. When the king went to battle, the thanes were expected to show up with soldiers to make up the army.” Jasper lent back on the ancient stonework.
“But why are the walls are so thick?” asked Sanjay. He was over by the window. He could see that the outside walls were over a metre and a half thick from the depth of the recess.
“In those days, the Scots were often at war with each other. There were separate groups called clans. Often a clan would have a long-standing conflict with another clan. They called it a feud. Sometimes there were invasions from armies from other countries. You would generally not be safe in a timber house. Castles were built in stone all over Europe from the 12th century onwards.”
“How do you know all of this?” asked Sanjay.
“Some we learnt from our father when we were children, we learnt about castles at school, some I studied when I was older and some I have researched here,” answered Jasper. “About five years ago, we had a massive breakthrough after some of our Comms guys prayed for a way to secretly access the Archive of the New Order and the Lord showed them a way in.”
He led them up the tower and showed them the large rooms on the three floors above. The floors were connected by a tight, spiral staircase cut in stone, that was dimly lit by narrow arrow slits. Mark was amazed to see how the stone treads had been worn over generations: he was stepping where men and women of the 14th century had stepped.
A narrow flight at the top led up to small door. Jasper pulled and it swung inwards so that they could climb out onto the battlements, blinking in the bright daylight after the gloom inside. On the West side, there was the small river that Mark recognised from his morning ramble. They could see the blue bridge. The tallest trees had high branches up at their level. A light breeze ruffled their hair. They peered down to the courtyard below. From the East side they could see the layout of some of the camp from up here. A mixture of sounds reached their ears: gardeners working; children calling; hammering in the workshop. A pigeon swung past, heading to the wood. To the North, they could see the sea in the distance. Shadows from the clouds were moving across the fields towards the North East.
“Was this castle famous?” asked Johnson.
Jasper looked at Imogen and she answered.
“Before the war, this place was well known because it was mentioned in a play by a famous writer called William Shakespeare. He wrote a series of plays between about 1590 and 1610. He was world famous - he was regarded as one of the best writers in the English language. Dad told us that he thought Shakespeare must have come here because some of the detail in the play could have only been written by someone who had come to this area and who knew this place. The king he wrote the play for was a Scot, a Stuart, and the first king to rule all of Wales, England and Scotland together. His name was James. He was the one to bring in a flag to represent England and Scotland. It was called the Union Jack. His nephew, also a Stuart, lived a few miles over there to the East.”
She pointed in that direction.
“Shakespeare could have joined the king on a tour of this area. It would not have been safe for a Londoner like him to come up here alone, in those days. He could easily have been robbed and killed. Our ancestors did not go anywhere unless they were armed. They even used to keep a small dagger in their sock.”
Imogen stared into the distance, towards the North and the sea.
“We used to live in London when we were children. You could go to the theatre and watch a Shakespeare play or many other shows. London was a vibrant city in those days: full of people from numerous countries. It was one of the great cities of the world. I remember our dad took us to see the Olympic Games when they came to London in 2012. I was almost twelve.”
“Olympic Games, did you say?” asked Johnson.
“Yes,” answered Jasper. “Every four years, there was a huge contest with all sorts of events. About two hundred countries sent men and women to compete. If you came third in your event, you won a bronze medal, second got a silver medal and the winner was given a gold medal. Here at camp, we try to keep alive all the games we learnt before the War. That is one of the reasons we play football.”
Imogen led them back down to the first floor and along a long corridor, showing them bedrooms with ornate beds. She told them about the 14th Thane: a woman called Muriel Calder. She was born in about 1498. When she was young, she was branded, like a cow, because her uncles feared that she would be taken because she was the heir to the title. When she was ten or eleven, she was kidnapped by the Campbell’s. She was taken to their castle on the West side of Scotland. She was married off to the youngest son of the chief when she was old enough. She lived until she was seventy.
“Dad lived here from the age of five. He used to sprint down this corridor to bed at night.”
The three looked at her, puzzled.
“At night, when it was dark, all these doorways were in shadow. He imagined that baddies might be waiting to kidnap him. If he ran fast enough, they might not catch him!”
They grinned.
The main bedroom was hung with tapestries. They had scenes from the Bible, like Moses leading the people of Israel across the Red Sea. The three had never seen biblical depictions before and they studied them closely, finding Moses with a long beard and trying to work out which one, among the other figures, was his brother, Aaron.
The bed was a four-poster with feathers at the top of each of the posts.
“Dad told us that when he was little, occasionally when there was thunder and lightning at night, if he was scared and could not sleep, he would creep in and sleep between his mother and father. He felt so safe, snuggled up between them,” Imogen smiled as she spoke.
“He grew up here as a child and now he is
a prisoner of the New Order?”
Johnson spoke with incredulity.
“That’s right. When the New Order was imposed, some people were left with almost nothing,” Jasper said. “A few were winners, most were losers. You could say that many were prisoners of the New Order, on many of the Levels.”
They showed them the bedroom wings and where the servants used to sleep in the attics. Some of the attics were packed with things from before the war. They had a rummage in some old wardrobes so that they could show them old kilts and clothes from generations ago.
Later on, they descended to the basement down more stone steps. Imogen opened an old wooden door and flicked a light switch. There was a long vaulted room, painted white, with a table along its length. There was an assortment of old kitchen equipment.
“This was the kitchen from the 17th century until grandfather was a young boy in the early 1930’s.”
She showed them the fresh water well and explained that it was an essential resource whenever the castle was under siege.
She then led them through what would have been dungeons and stables.
“When we were young, the castle was open to the public. This area was the gift shop.” Under dust covers there were still shelves with a range of gifts and baskets of toys that they delved into, picking up small toys, woollen gloves and tartan scarves. In one window, there was a display of knives. There was so much to look at but eventually Jasper and Imogen suggested they go for tea.
They slipped up some back stairs and emerged near the entrance. They went into a small dining room where hot teapots and warm scones where waiting for them.
Johnson wanted to know what it was like living in London when they were children. Jasper explained that they could get about on buses and trains but there was sometimes the threat of being mugged, if they were alone. Imogen told them about the shopping you could do. They explained how everyone used money to pay for things. Mark was amazed to hear about how people owned their own things, even when they were children. Imogen said that many people would get caught up in accumulating more and more possessions.
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