Day 1
London was placed in stasis.
Animal activists accidentally released the Rage Virus.
Cambridge and surrounding towns and villages were overrun. The whole incident was covered as protest.
Army was mobilized despite criticism from Opposition and the public.
Government also aggressively censors the media including the Internet of any footage of the "protest".
Day 2
With the Infected closing in on London, Azur Lane's Royal Navy was deployed to assist.
The Army and Royal Navy set up two defensive lines north of London. Both lines were overrun by the infected by the end of the day.
The public was made aware of the Rage Virus, causing mass panic across the nation.
UK Government notifies WHO of the Rage Virus.
The Infected hits Bullsmoor, where both the Army and Royal Navy are using as a staging ground. Royal Navy suffers their first casualties from the Infected, with six shipgirls killed or infected.
Day 3
After seeing first-hand the dangers of an infected shipgirl, most of the Royal Navy were reassigned to defend the city centre while the Army continue to face the Infected in the suburbs. Shipgirls are still deployed to help the front lines but in limited numbers and are retreated as soon as it was deemed too dangerous to hold the line.
United States offers military help, and by noon units from USAREUR was deployed to England.
Day 4
With US Congress approval, Eagle Union was deployed to England. They would arrive days later.
Infected broke further into London, reaching as far as Edmonton, Arnos Grove, Finchley, and Kingsbury.
The Royal Family was quietly evacuated.
Day 5
NATO forces were deployed with a total of 5000 men from Germany, France. Belgium, Netherlands and Spain.
While Italy does not participate, Sardegna was deployed to assist the Royal Navy, becoming the third Azur Lane faction to join the efforts to fight the Infected.
Everything north of A406 is lost to the Infected.
Key government personnel began to be evacuated.
Day 6
Iron Blood and Iris Orthodoxy was finally deployed to England while the Eagle Union arrives on the same day.
Royal Navy suffers additional losses despite successfully able to push the Infected back temporarily with the help of NATO.
The Infected is temporarily stopped at Cricklewood. A defensive line from Park Royal to Tottenham Hale was erected by NATO and Azur Lane forces.
Day 7
The Sardegna suffers mechanical problems en route to England forcing them to stop at Bilbao for repairs. This would save them from the events that would happen in the next two days.
With swelling numbers up to the hundred thousand, the Infected pushed against the defensive line and overwhelmed the defenders. Azur Lane would saw its biggest loss since the end of the Siren War.
British Prime Minister declares emergency following the breach. Mayor of London orders an evacuation of the city. However, due to how fast the infection spread, many were unable to evacuate in time.
All remaining Azur Lane shipgirls are ordered to retreat from London. However, while most managed to escape, due to the chaos and confusion a few ended up trapped in areas overrun by the Infected. Most however, managed to escape by day 8.
Day 8
All Azur Lane shipgirls made a complete retreat from London. NATO however, continued to stay in the city to buy time for civilians to escape.
With situation spiralling, a nationwide evacuation was ordered.
Azur Lane shipgirls and NATO were redeployed elsewhere in England to facilitate evacuation efforts.
The Infected crosses the Thames River and now begin to spread out of London.
Day 9
Refugee camps are opened across Europe as thousands of Britons flee their country.
To the north, the Infected reaches Birmingham, Nottingham, and later that day, Sheffield. Also, on the same day, Swindon was attacked. Despite NATO intervention, the town falls the next day.
NATO forces also began to pull out of London as the Infected reached as far as Selhurst.
Day 10
Water pressure in London begins to drop.
With NATO focusing on evacuation instead of containment, the Infected quickly made ground and near the end of the day they were closing in on Dover and Folkstone. NATO also increased the number of personnel to help defend the evacuation sites.
Welsh Government orders evacuation as the Infected reaches Chester and Bristol.
British Army prepares to defend Liverpool and Manchester as Leeds was overrun.
Day 11
Infected reaches Sellindge and Lydden, prompting NATO and Azur Lane to use force in an attempt to slow down the Infected from reaching evacuation zones in Folkstone and Dover. While successful, heavy use of air strikes and naval bombardment led to massive collateral damage including the loss of civilian lives. All future naval support by Azur Lane would be limited to destroyers, light cruisers and light carriers only as battleships, heavy cruisers and mainline aircraft carriers are needed for evacuation efforts.
The last train to France departed from Folkstone at 1059. The Eurotunnel was sealed from both ends as soon as the train exits the tunnel.
The last ferries and cruise ships departed Dover two hours later. Both the cruise terminal and the ferry terminal were later bombarded by Azur Lane after Infected broke through. One of the ferries had to be sunk after an Infected managed to get inside.
The Infected reaches Bridgwater and Winchester to the south, and Blackburn to the north, threatening Plymouth, Portsmouth and Southampton while Liverpool and Manchester continue to resist despite in danger of being encircled.
The Infected also enters Wales, Newport and Wrexham evacuated.
Day 12
Sardegna shipgirls finally arrives after delays. The Sardegna Commander comes up with a new tactic which gave the shipgirls a fighting chance against the Infected. This was tested by the Sardegna during the evacuation of Southampton. This was proven successful as the city holds long enough to allow at least 80% of the city population to escape.
After opening their fifth refugee camp, Denmark stops accepting new refugees from Britain but allows their passage to other countries. Benelux countries would also follow.
Infected now reaches Bideford and Exmouth, prompting the evacuation of Plymouth. Azur Lane shipgirls barring Iron Blood who couldn't adopt the new strategy due to technical reasons once again participated in the defence. Plymouth and surrounding towns and villages was successfully evacuated the next day, becoming one of the few victories after several terrible losses.
With the new strategy in place Royal Navy shipgirls was sent to Liverpool and Manchester to help the British Army forces entrenched there. Stockport, Warrington and Runcorn however were overrun.
Day 13
Entire southern England has fallen completely to the Infected.
With power stations shutting down after their workers killed or infected, Great Britain began to suffer power loss.
Pont Britannia and Pont Menai bridge were destroyed to stop the Infected from entering Anglesey. Welsh Government would relocate to Llangefni.
After three days and despite support from NATO and Royal Navy, Manchester was overrun. Royal Navy loses contact with the shipgirls in Manchester. Unable to take any more loses, all Royal Navy shipgirls are recalled from combat operations and would only provide coastal fire support and evacuation for the next fifteen days.
Following the fall of Manchester, Liverpool was also abandoned due to immense number of Infected coming into the city. Only 35% of the city's population were evacuated.
Day 14
After opening their twentieth refugee camp, France stops accepting any more refugees from Britain. Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Spain would later announce that they will continue to accept British refugees.
Wales, with the exception of Anglesey and Holy Island is completely overrun. Wales lost almost 68% of its population.
Infected has reached Penrith and Durham, Scottish government began evacuating key government officials.
Carlisle was successfully evacuated owing to low population and swift actions by NATO.
Newcastle was hit an hour later, at least 78% of the city's population were evacuated.
Day 15
The Infected, now numbering in the millions, crosses Scottish border, prompting an immediate evacuation of Scotland.
WHO orders Great Britain to be quarantined.
To help easing the British refugee burden, United States and Canada agreed to take some of the refugees in Europe. Both countries would take in almost 450000 British refugees with Canada taking almost 300000. France and Denmark temporarily re-accept refugees for several more days.
Day 16
With all power stations in England and Wales ceasing to function, only Scotland remains powered largely from its wind farms which continues to operate even without anyone in charge.
Infected rapidly approach Glasgow and Edinburgh despite efforts to slow them down.
Day 17
Both Glasgow and Edinburgh were hit by the Infected at the same time. Despite efforts by NATO and Azur Lane to evacuate the cities, only 35% of the population were evacuated. Iron Blood and Iris Orthodoxy loses one light cruiser and one destroyer, the last loses from Azur Lane during the outbreak.
Day 18
In an effort to reduce refugee pressure in Europe, NATO opens quarantine camps all across Great Britain. Heavily fortified, these camps could hold at least four thousand refugees. But due to breakdown in communications, not many Britons except for those who stumbled into one knows of its existence.
Both NATO and Azur Lane now focused on quarantine enforcement as the number of Infected in Great Britain is now too many to be directly confronted. Evacuation is still ongoing but due to refugee crisis a quota of at least 20% of the population of a town or city to be evacuated with the rest to be directed to the quarantine camps or the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.
Day 19
The fall of the British Government led to the collapse of the British Pound, setting off a worldwide economic crisis.
Fears of Rage Virus spreading out of Great Britain prompted Denmark, France and Benelux to begin the culling of seagulls and other avian creatures flying in from Britain.
Euro and for it's first time since 2010 the Swiss Franc drop considerably as fears of the Rage Virus led people to believe Western and Central Europe is no longer safe. Inversely, Norwegian krone, Turkish Lira and Russian Ruble saw an increase.
Tourism industry in Western and Central Europe also crumbles under the same reason.
The Infected reaches Dundee and Inveraray, half of Scotland is now overrun.
Day 20
Aberdeen was hit by the Infected.
Day 21
Inverness was overrun.
Day 24
Wick was overrun.
Two hours later, Thurso and Scrabster was evacuated. Graf Spee and Graf Zeppelin carried the final refugees out of Great Britain.
NATO calls off all evacuation efforts.
Royal Navy recalls all surviving shipgirls back to Belfast. With the Admiralty destroyed alongside most of the Ministry of Defence during the failed evacuation of London, Royal Navy was temporarily placed under direct NATO control.
Day 25
The Royal Family made their first appearance since the beginning of the Rage Virus outbreak.
Day 28
England, Wales, and Scotland effectively ceased as a nation. Mainland Great Britain is now designated as a quarantine zone.
Day 28
Royal Navy Retrofit Centre, Kilburn, North London Sector, Great Britain Quarantine Zone
In the retrofit room, a machine continues to operate even long after the power grids had shut down thanks to the building housing it is mostly self-sufficient with solar panels and wind turbines providing half of its energy. However, the humming ambient was interrupted by a female electronic voice that were repeated at several intervals.
"Warning! Fail-safe will be activated in one hour."
"Warning! Fail-safe will be activated in ten minutes."
"Warning! Fail-safe will be activated in five minutes."
"Warning! Fail-safe will be activated in one minute."
"Warning! Fail-safe will be activated in thirty seconds."
"Warning! Fail-safe will be activated in fifteen seconds."
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."
1102
"Warning! Fail-safe activated. Ejecting subject from chamber" The chamber begins to drain the enhancement medium. Afterwards, the chamber door swings open, exposing London to the air outside. Slowly she begins to regain consciousness. "Where…am I?"
Her eyes slowly opened as she looks around the room. The curtain stand was already in front of the chamber so at most she assumed Perseus was already prepared for her release. She then removes the mask on her face before standing up.
"Ugh, I'm all sticky." Spotting the towel on the tray, she wiped her face and body clean but she knows that she's definitely in need of a shower. Pushing the curtain aside, she noticed the room she was in was rather dark, the only illumination came from the retrofit machine. Spotting the light switch, London turned the lights on.
"There, much better." She can see her belongings as well as her clothes on the table in front of her, and most importantly, the shower room. She immediately went inside to further clean herself up. Half an hour later, she emerged from the shower feeling refreshed from it. London then tried out the clothes prepared for her.
"Wow, my new clothes sure look good on me." London posed around the mirror to check herself out. Overall, she was pleased with the design, looking more attractive compared to her old uniform. But then her stomach growled, as hunger suddenly hits her. "My, only three days and yet I felt this hungry already? Did the retrofit makes me use more energy than usual?" Thought London to herself. Unplugging her phone from the charger, she puts it into her dress's pocket before heading out.
"Huh?"
When London opened the door, she was surprised with what she saw. Balloons, banners, tables lining up the walls with stacks of plates and cups on it. Clearly there was supposed to be a party to celebrate her but yet London noticed something's off. There were plates, cups and cutleries yet there is no food or drinks nearby. The ladder and tools are also left on or near the tables as well, a telling sign that whatever her fellow shipgirls or commander had planned, they were simply left in a hurry.
"They've planned a party for me, yet it looked unfinished…" London already began to feel uneasy about this, yet her stomach growls again forcing her to focus on getting something to eat. She starts calling out names of those she believed to be in the facility.
"Perseus? Curlew? Javelin? Hello?"
Leaving behind the unfinished party room, she went for the reception area, where she remembers there was a pantry. When she reached the reception area, she could see on the counter stacks of pizza boxes, a half-filled bottle of soft drink, as well as dishes simply left in the sink. London ignored all of those and went straight for the cupboard hoping for something that she could eat. Inside the cupboard were boxes of breakfast cereal. She took out one of them, and then grabbed one of the bowls available on the dish rack.
"Perseus, I hope you don't mind me eating your cereal." There was no answer again. "Strange, she went out or something?" She then looked into the refrigerator for milk to go with the cereal. While there are several cartons of milk, she also finds another box pizza inside. When she checked the pizza, it had already spoiled prompting London to throw it out.
"For a person that manages retrofits and health for at least half the fleet, its strange that she leaves a spoiled pizza in the fridge." She thought. London then went back to the bowl of cereal with a carton of milk in hand. Thanks to her hunger, she ended up eating the entire box.
"Oh my, I hope Perseus doesn't mind about this." London did the dishes as well, hoping it would at least appease Perseus for emptying an entire cereal box on her own. But something's bugging her. She didn't notice it before but the whole place looks like it wasn't been cleaned in a month. Nonetheless, London decided to wait until Perseus returns from whatever she was doing. She turned on the television hoping to watch something entertaining to pass time.
But upon turning on the television, she finds that none of the channels are working. She tried all channels. BBC, W, ITV3, Channel 4, all of them were static displays. "All channel is not working, is there something going on?" Turning off the television, she brought her phone. That's when she saw the many notifications on her phone.
"What with these notifications?" She checked the notifications and cold sweat began to form on her. The notification are all days old, the latest was at most nine days ago. The earliest was almost twenty-eight days ago. She went through some of the messages.
" ALERT Civil unrest in Cambridge, avoid travelling there if unnecessary."
" ALERT Please remain at your homes and obey official government instructions."
" ALERT Emergency has been declared, please obey official government instructions."
ALERT Evacuation is in effect, please keep calm, pack your important documents and only TWO baggage per individual and head to official evacuation sites."
Reading the messages already brought a sense of dread in London. "Emergency? Evacuation? What is going on? A sudden Siren attack?" But nothing drives fear in her mind more than several missed calls notification from Shropshire. She counted multiple calls made between nineteen to twenty-six days ago. She tried to made a call but to her dismay, the was no service, which also means there is no Internet for her to discover what is going on, including the centre's Wi-Fi. Effectively she was completely cut off from the world outside.
Then London remembers her communicator device. It is a standard issue equipment for every shipgirls regardless of type and class. She turns on the device hoping there was someone on the line.
"This is London, is anyone out there?" There was only silence. She tried again.
"This is heavy cruiser London to HQ, is there anyone on this channel?" She was again met with silence. After several more attempts, she quit the communicator but not without leaving a message.
"This is heavy cruiser London. I'm currently just awoken from stasis after a retrofit but right now I have lost contact with all outside communications. If there is anyone out there listening then please respond." She then set the message to loop every ninety seconds hoping that someone will respond to her message.
With Internet, radio and television out and even her faction failed to respond, London already felt the dread atmosphere brewing, yet she had to brave herself. She then summons her rigging to check if it still functions. She tested the gun elevation and rotation as well as ammo count. After seeing all the guns are in good condition and her ammo was in the green. She went to the main door, only to find it locked.
"Great, even the door is locked. I wonder if there's a spare in the office." London can simply kick the door down or blow it open if she wants to, she just wanted to find any alternatives first before making any rash decisions. She then enters Perseus's office, only to discover what is best described as an organised mess.
"No wonder why she wasn't always in the base. Turns out she just lived here." London thought for herself. The back left corner of the office was essentially a makeshift bed made from stacks of paper and wooden pallets with a mattress on top of it along with a blanket and a pillow, there's a wardrobe with a mirror on its door as well as a basket full of unwashed laundry. And of course, being an office, there's the computer table with a laptop, printer and stacks of paper as well as drawers full of whatever documents in which London assumes their health reports and retrofit details. Even the air conditioning is still on meaning Perseus and whoever else with her at the time left the building in a hurry, with no one that remembered that she was still in stasis.
Nevertheless, London searched the room for a spare key, and after a while she finally found it underneath the computer table. Taking the key, London went back to the main door to unlock it. After unlocking the door, she opened the door and took her first step outside after what apparently a month of a supposedly three day's stasis. The weather was a bit windy despite the sun is shining bright. London finds that the side gate next to the main gate was left opened. Taking a deep breath, London braved herself as she made her way into the streets of her namesake city.
The timeline was based mostly on 28 Days Wiki as well as the comic books, but some elements are modified to fit the needs of the story. For instance, the Rage Virus hits London on the same day it was released by the Animal Freedom Front but here it was pushed to Day 2 and emergency was declared on Day 7 while in the comics it was on Day 8. But the rest of the timeline was probably correct to 28 Days Later canon.
For starters, there was no "official" timeline for how Rage Virus spreads in Great Britain. The only thing for certain according to 28 Days Later wiki and its comic books stated that water pressure and other basic services began to fail on Day 10, and Great Britain was quarantined on Day 15, and by Day 28 there's no such thing as England, Wales and Scotland any more.
Neither the films or the comic made any mention of Wales though Scotland was the main location for the comic series. Since Great Britain was comprised of England, Wales and Scotland, I assumed the Rage Virus spreads out to these countries as well. And how did the Infected managed to get there? Through sheer numbers. Cambridge, which is the Ground Zero for the Rage Virus has a population of a 100000. Assuming an Infected infects 6 out of 10 of its victims, there's already 60000 Infected around on Day 1, and then they start spreading out. From there they began to snowball. By the time London was hit the Infected population was probably in the hundred thousand and when London falls there are now millions of Infected ready to wreak havoc all over Great Britain.
With that much number, then no matter how much firepower you can bring it is still almost impossible to stop the Infected unless you brought out the WMD. This is how even heavily armed shipgirls can get swamped by the Infected. More on how that can happen will be explored in later chapters.