WARNING! CHARACTER DEATHS STARTS FROM THIS CHAPTER FROM NOW ON!

Day 28

1229

Kilburn, North London Sector, Great Britain Quarantine Zone

London walked and walked. But wherever she goes, it was the same story painted all over.

The time on her phone says it was midday, and she knows this is a typical lunch hour.

Yet there was not a single soul in sight.

"Where is everyone?" London muttered for herself. Every street she visited all displayed a state of abandonment. Some streets are simply looked like an ordinary London street albeit messier, vehicles still parked on the sides and piles of leaves and rubbish left littering the sidewalks and the asphalt. And in others there was clear signs that something bad has happened, with burned out buildings, vehicle wrecks clogging the roads and barricades placed to block certain streets yet it had been broken through as if a large group of people had stormed through it.

As she walks around, the sense of loneliness slowly getting to her. She tried to call out attention hoping there would be someone responding.

"Hello!?" Only the rustling sounds of the wind blowing into the trees and chirping of birds replied to her. London walked further down the road and tried again.

"Hello!?"

Again, her only response was silence. London began to feel creeped out, considering the time of day and her location a metropolis like her namesake city being this empty, not to mention the streets are left unkept, blocked or sometimes both gives off a foreboding feeling. As she walks down a street, she came across an intersection blocked by a traffic accident. A lorry had seemingly crashed into the side of a bus, flipping it on its side. It also caused a considerable traffic behind the lorry and the bus as well, with a van swerving into a store front and several cars swerving into the opposite lane to avoid the lorry, though a few ended up crashing into each other.

As she looked around the crashed vehicles, London noticed that many of the vehicles carried at most two to six and one of the had about ten baggage's and its occupant simply just left them behind as if they were in a hurry.

"Looks like they were trying to leave this city…" London then turned her attention to the lorry. The stench of the deceased driver's body entered her nose. "Oh my god, how long has this person left like this?" She could see the deceased remain of the driver still in his driver's seat of the lorry, yet he doesn't look like he died in the accident as scratch marks and other evidence physical violence could be seen, most evidently multiple bite marks along his right arm. "This doesn't look right."

She then inspected the flipped bus. The impact has ruptured the diesel tank yet miraculously it doesn't ignite. When she went to the front of the bus however, she finds the windshield has been smashed in. Like the lorry, the bus driver was also in his seat, dead with the same injuries as well. And through the windshield, she could see several dead bodies inside the bus, covered in blood.

"My God, what happened here!?" Seeing the dead bodies simply left there made London felt sick. Suddenly she regrets eating an entire cereal box. But with the city in a state of disarray, some streets were blocked and now dead bodies left where they died London totally knew something wrong has happened but other than what she could see there are no other information besides an evacuation was underway. Re-examining the bus again, she noticed a placard taped to the windshield of the bus. It was partially covered in blood but it was still readable.

"Evacuation site – St Augustine?" London knows about the church. She once visited it before. A large Gothic styled Anglo-Catholic church located on the southern part of Kilburn. But London was surprised that the church ended becoming an evacuation centre. She could see the church's spire from where she was. London decided to head there, hoping to find answers to what has happened while she was in stasis.

As she heads towards the church, she went past a wall that was full of missing person posters. She stopped for a while to examine it. Various posters were present each with a face of missing Londoners with contact information for the people who posted. London could only hope that these people were safe. As she continues to examine the posters a loud crash was heard from a nearby alley, startling her.

"WHO'S THERE!?" London jumped out in fear, immediately summoning her rigging and aiming at the alley. To her relief, a cat came running out of the alley, crossing the street before disappearing behind rows of abandoned vehicles. "Just a cat. You almost got me you stupid furball." She de-summoned her rigging and letting out a sigh. Even so, the cat had brought forward a feeling she has been trying to push to back of her head ever since she left the retrofit centre. A feeling that she was being followed by someone. She doesn't know what their motives was, all she knows that whoever following her is waiting for an opening to strike. She immediately leaves the area and heads straight to the church turned evacuation site.

1337

St Augustine Church, Kilburn, North London Sector, GBQZ

As she approached the church, she could see evidence that confirmed that it was an evacuation site. Scores of abandoned vehicles leading up to the church as well as military vehicles near the entrance. The entrance itself was heavily fortified with London counted at least four machine guns. But the area surrounding the entrance bears signs of a battle. London herself was appalled at what she saw.

The area surrounding the entrance was filled with decaying corpses, the stench so unbearable London ended up vomiting. She then took out a handkerchief she had with her and used it as a makeshift mask to reduce the stench.

"What in the world, so many dead civilians here." Everywhere around her, she could see large pile of decaying corpses mostly concentrated near the machine guns. Looking closer, she could see the remains of the soldiers that manned the machine gun as well. One of them had his sidearm pulled out as if he's trying to save himself. "But why would the Army shoots civilians?" The area around London was pretty much fortified, with a single Challenger 2 tank and several APCs left abandoned as well as ammo piles and weapons left by the soldiers. Other evidence of an evacuation taking place includes rows of parked buses similar to the one London encountered earlier.

But the kind of damage she found near the church suggested some heavy fighting happened here. Craters on the street as well as damaged buildings shows evidence that some heavy weaponry, likely air strikes were used to protect the site. But some of the damage suggest that shipgirls was also deployed as well. But London ignored all that as she searched the evac site for information that may explain what happened.

But even after searching the site, there's nothing London could find that can explain what has happened other than an order for civilians to be evacuated from Great Britain as well as taking an assault rifle and a few ammos so that if whatever that's been stalking her came out, she won't be totally defenceless as London doesn't think they're worth using her rigging. Frustrated at finding nothing, she then turned her attention to the church itself, hoping she could find answers there. As she heads to the entrance of the church, she spotted among the pile of corpse someone she knows.

"Hmm? Is that…?" She starts getting the sinking feeling as she rushed over to the site where she saw her. As she gets closer, her fear slowly began to materialized.

"No, No! Please God, that's not who I think she is…" When she reached the corpse, her fear was confirmed.

There, in front of her was Curlew, a person who helped her during her retrofit only a month ago now left in front of the church, dead. London falls on her knees, both saddened and shocked, tears forming on her eyes.

"Curlew…Oh god. I…I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I was not there to hep you." London takes a closer look at Curlew. At a glance she could see her cause of death: A large lance impaling her in chest with such force her body was pinned to the wall behind causing her body to remain upright even after death. Unlike the other bodies lying around which already decomposing, her body remains pristine just like when she was killed. Her rigging was also deployed as well meaning she was defending the site

London inspects the lance and just by the design she immediately knew whose lance was it, for she had seen it before, as well as meeting the person who almost always seen wielding it. "This is Saint Louis's, but why?" She couldn't think of any logical reason why would the Saint ended up brutally killing a Royal Navy shipgirl, let alone leaving behind her prized weapon. But she put that thoughts behind as she focused on freeing Curlew's body. She grabs hold of the lance and tried pulling it out. At first, she failed, and after several tries, she realized that the only way to pull the lance out was to use both her hands, which means she had to hold her body with one of her leg.

"Sorry Curlew, but this is the only way." Placing her right leg on Curlew's stomach, London applied pressure while both hands pull the lance out. After three tries, the lance was finally dislodged from Curlew's body. Gently she places down Curlew in a sitting position. She felt sorry for her, as she looked closer, she could see her eyes remained open indicating that whatever Saint Louis had done to her was so violent her eyes had no time to close. One thing she noticed was Curlew was practically bleeding from her eyes, nose and mouth. London was sure that getting stabbed by a lance can't do that kind of injuries. Not wanting to dirty her hands she took a piece of clothing from one of the abandoned vehicles and gently closes Curlew's eyes.

"Rest well, Curlew." She then stands up and wondering what to do. In between waking from stasis from what supposed to be a three day long ended up becoming an entire month only to find herself cut off from the outside world, and then seeing her namesake city in total disarray, then she came upon a church littered with dead, rotting corpses and now finding a dead shipgirl that was apparently killed by another shipgirl. London was already at her wits end at trying to find out what happened. Remembering why she came St Augustine in the first place, she turned her attention to the church itself. As she approaches the maid door, London noticed that the main door has been sprayed with a graffiti.

"REPENT! THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH!"

"What is this, spraying obscene language on a church? Has everyone gone mad or something?" Nevertheless, London opened the doors. Unlike the chaos outside, the majestic interior of the church remains mostly unharmed with the exception of trash littering the floor. The calm nature at least soothes some of her worries. And near the altar at the end of the room was to London at least, a man, whose clothing indicates that he is a priest standing over facing the wall. She tried to get his attention.

"Umm…Excuse me…" However, as she walked towards the priest, she accidentally kicked a tin can left lying on the floor, startling both her and the priest. To her surprise, multiple other individuals suddenly rose between the seats and even on the upper floors. They looked around in quick succession trying to find the source of the noise before they finally noticed London standing near the entrance. For a brief second both sides only stared at each other.

"Hello?" London called out to them gently, only to receive a cacophony of blood curdled screams from the group. What she saw next was the priest began to run towards her alongside several others, their faces went from surprised to straight up anger. Even those upstairs jumped down the railings completely unfazed of the drop, only to stood up and also joined the others.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry!" London immediately darted out of the church in a heartbeat. She ran out to the street and to her horror another group came running towards her from the direction she came from earlier. Men and women all at most having their clothes covered in blood and their faces displaying signs of pure aggression and hate all charging at her. She turned to her right only to see another group also running to her position, as if the group in church had alerted them to her presence and now all of them trying to claim her for themselves.

Fortunately to her, she looked to her left and saw a small pathway. She immediately ran straight through the pathway. Behind her the three groups followed her through, their screams reminding London that they're giving chase. She ran as fast as she can and as she exits the pathway she immediately turned left and ran down the road.

She doesn't care where exactly she has to run. The only thing that matters on London's mind right now was to get away from this enraged crowd, fast.

There we go, 28 Days Later signature infected is here to remind you why skipping your cardio training is a bad idea. There's a reason behind why 28 Days Later is considered by many as the best zombie movie in the market despite it's director doesn't even considered the film to be one. Zombie movie connoisseurs argued whether or not the Infected is considered a zombie because while they do display behaviours similar to zombies, they don't seek to nourish themselves and notably they were alive as opposed to reanimated corpse. Eventually they just give up and put the Infected under entirely new classification of zombies. Especially true as years went by and more zombie media starts using infected humans instead of traditional zombies most notably Left 4 Dead.

Also, technically Curlew is the first infected shipgirl London came across even she's already dead but she's not the only infected shipgirl in London. The next chapter will feature a few of them as they chased London alongside other Infected. If these girls happened to be your waifu then I apologize because this type of story needs some sacrifice to drive the point home.

Also, some FAQs so I don't have to constantly reply to your questions.

Q1: What factions will show up in this story?

A1: Right now, the story focused on the immediate aftermath so only those from NATO countries so other than Royal Navy it's the Eagle Union, Iron Blood, Iris Orthodoxy (the French faction does not split in this story), and Sardegna. Once we're entering 28 Weeks Later part the other factions will show up.

Q2: How strong are infected shipgirls?

A2: They're no different than other Infected. What made them dangerous depends on whether they got infected with or without their rigging. Infected shipgirls without their rigging can be killed like normal Infected but Infected shipgirls with their rigging requires some serious firepower to take them down.

Q3: Can Infected shipgirls with their rigging use their rigging?

A3: No. Upon infected they lose their higher brain function needed to operate their rigging so at most their rigging is nothing more but a dead weight.

Q4: How many shipgirls going to die in this story?

A4: As the prologue says, half of the Royal Navy is gone, and other factions except Sardegna had some loses during the initial outbreak. But as the story progress more will follow.

Q5: My God that's a lot!

A5: This is a fanfic based on 28 Days Later, what are you expecting? Cookies?