After the Truth (Book Two)

Three

A refuge so easily becomes a prison.

Many others have, and will, document what is happening across our planet and our civilization. After my last entry I decided I would only update this journal when I was back with my family. I dreamed that the sense of relief and unbridled joy would lift my spirits enough to allow me to write once again, despite all the carnage in the wider world. But I would have rebuilt from my own carnage.

It has been two years.

The world and my own carnage have only got worse.

When I finally got to escape the British military hospital, I was told it was still too dangerous for me to simply return to my own home.

Neither could I return to my family.

I am essentially both homeless and under house arrest. The British authorities have moved me to a very tranquil, isolated, country house in the Midlands. I do not know who owns the house, but I suspect it is either the military or one of the intelligence services.

So why, after all this time, am I writing in this journal again? There is no Jeremiah or Samuel. There is no Isabel. There is no joy. Nothing has been rebuilt.

Up until a few days ago I had always thought my British protectors were being overly cautious for my wellbeing. I also suspected they wanted to simply keep me from any public attention. But I could not see the point. After two years, with a mounting death toll, and no known cure for what is happening, there is far more to think about than my initial investigation. However, three days ago I was thrust back into the public eye.

A large scale, extremely well-coordinated and simultaneous hack took place across the planet. A radical and technically able faction of the Truth Movement announced itself to the world. Hundreds of news websites, including the BBC, CNN, Fox News, the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, the LA Times, Le Monde, Die Welt and Guangming Daily were all hit within thirty-seconds of each other. The home pages of Google, Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia were also affected at exactly the same time. Cyber security specialists are still trying to work out how it could have happened.

No data was taking during the attack. Instead, each website was defaced. Images and text displayed the symbology and agenda of the Truth Movement. There was also a video that contained part of my speech to the UN.

The Word was also displayed on each page.

All those years ago, computer forensic analysis of Malcolm Privet's website on the Ten Commandments showed that sixty-five people saw the web page with the Word displayed on it. Before the pages hacked by the Truth Movement attack were removed, which apparently took less than four minutes, it has been estimated five hundred and fifty million people were exposed.

Fear of the truth has exploded across the planet.

In the UK, a general election has been forced after a vote of no confidence in the government. The Opposition leader has declared if she is elected that something like the attack will never be allowed to happen again. All Internet traffic into and out of the UK will be locked down and scanned before it gets through to the public.

Effectively, all communication between anyone inside and out the UK will be monitored. Logistically how this will happen, the opposition party has not detailed. But it is proving a popular proposal.

Already, after the hacking of so many websites, there has been a spike of sudden deaths.

Worryingly, freedom of speech advocates and other human rights and civil liberty organizations are notably muted against the oppositions proposals.

The British opposition are not unique in making such declarations. It is a rallying cry being shouted around the globe. Physically and electronically, people are wanting to cut themselves off from others. The once ubiquitous Internet is now fragmenting. Each country wants to take control of the information passing around the globe. Some countries have physically cut some of the undersea cables coming ashore to their lands.

Such is the fear of a single word.

Such is the fear of the truth.

Journalists are finding it harder and harder to report the progress of the cataclysm engulfing our planet and our species.

With the exposure from the hack video of my UN speech, I have become the face of the perceived evil facing humanity.

To this end, I have been lucky so few know where I am.

If the opposition party win the British election, I believe that will change. I have now seen recordings of two speeches where the opposition leader has declared I should be held accountable for all that has happened.

After the election it seems I will not be welcome in my country of birth.

I do not know where else I could go. And I do not know how I could get there. There are fewer and fewer places I would be welcome.

Yesterday the Unites States was also thrown into turmoil.

For some time, world leaders, the US President included, have erected impenetrable walls, both physical and virtual, designed to make it impossible they are exposed to the Word. All electronic communications are filtered. There is a lag in any phone call, so any mention of the Word can be detected and blocked instantaneously. Only the most trusted of advisors are allowed to speak directly to their leaders in person.

However, despite all these precautions, the Word got through to the President of the United States two days ago. Yesterday he resigned.

In his resignation address he was forced to be honest why he was resigning and had to admit it was impossible to lead the US and tell the truth at the same time. The crisis deepened when the Vice President also resigned, before he could even be sworn in. For the first time in US history the Speaker of the House has become leader.

There is open betting whether the Speaker will resign as well, or whether they will die in office.

Nothing is certain anymore and everything is in chaos. I do not know what will happen to me, but against this backdrop of an estimated eight million deaths, I feel my destiny is insignificant.

Strangely, I take comfort from that thought.