28 Days Later outbreak timeline - Death of a Nation

[kspence92]

I recently read a timeline about the movie 28 days later, and it got me thinking, how would things have gone down if that did happen ?

So here's my take on the 28 days before Jim woke up...
************************************************** ****

At 8:38 PM, May 4th 2002, a group of animal rights activists broke into a research lab near Cambridge University, unleashing several chimps which are, unknown to the activists, infected with the highly contagious Rage virus.

Within seconds, all of the activists, and a scientist who had desperately tried to stop them releasing the caged animals, had become infected.

They rampaged through the building, infecting and some cases killing researchers and security guards alike.

Police recieved their first 999 call from the lab at 8:45 PM, and the first units were on the scene seven minutes later, unsure as to what to expect, as the 999 call was cut off to the sounds of screaming before the horrified caller could tell them what was going on. They arrived just as a dozen infected smashed through the front doors, and assaulted the police officers before they could flee, infecting them.

There were at least thirty infected in the immediate vicinity of the blood soaked research centre and they spread out in search of more victims.

Lack of communication with the dispatched officers became worrisome to police hq, and several more officers were sent to the scene, which was now abandoned by the infected, only blood and smashed windows a testiment to recent carnage in the building.

Several car accidents occured as infected ran accoss roads in pursuit of victims, forcing drivers to break or swerve.

A group of infected reached Cambridge's main train station twenty minutes later and stormed a waiting train, killing several people and infecting dozens of others.

999 calls from the public alerted police to what was thought to be a mass brawl between drunken students at the train station, and public order units were dispatched as were three ambulances.

Police clad in riot gear and armed with shields and batons charged the infected, who did not seem remotely intimidated, and seemed intent on attacking the officers. A few were successfully detained and restrained by police strapped on guereys and taken to hospital by ambulance, once the officers saw they were vomiting blood and were clearly very sick.

Things took a turn for the worst when some of the officers were bitten, or got infected blood in the eyes and mouths. Those infected turned in between ten and twenty seconds, the longest known incubation in the outbreak period being thirty four seconds. Within a few minutes, several officers had turned and were fighting with their former colleagues.

The shocked and bewildered officers quickly got back in their vans and withdrew from the area, and formed a defensive line on nearby station road whilst waiting on reinforcements.

By 9:30 PM, BBC news was reporting a small scale riot occuring in Central Cambridge, completely oblivious to the true nature of events on the ground.

At 10:00 PM, armed response units were dispatched to the area surrounding Cambridge train station, as well as the Primate Research Centre, the two focus points of the outbreak. However, the virus continued to spread at rapid rates, with both police and public still, at that point, unaware of the biological nature of the violence.

A caller from Cambridge got in contact with BBC news at 11:22 PM, his last moments were heard on live television.

Newsreader : "So tell us what you can see, where you are."

Man : "There's a group of maybe twenty odd people up the street from me, some are breaking into people houses, i can hear screaming. i dont know if you can hear it on your end. I dont know why they're doing this."

Newsreader : "Do you have any idea who these people actually are ?"

Man : "No. no, but i know for sure i saw at least two of them pass me earlier when i was hiding behind a car and they were wearing police uniforms, and another had a paramedics uniform on. They started beating up some poor old woman who was trying to run away...( man sobs for a moment)....its just horrible, i dont know whats happening. Theres a police van up the street on fire, its just chaos."

Newsreader : "Has anyone actually died there as far as you know ?"

Man : "I dont know, i wouldnt be surprised though with so much blood everywhere. There's more people coming down the street now, i cant tell who...(sound of indistinct shouting and running feet on the ground)...oh my god. Keep away ! Get the <bleep> away you <bleep>ing <bleep>s. Arrrgghhhhh. (sound of growls, then the phones goes dead.)



By midnight, twenty police officers lay dead, with at least the same number infected. Gunshots rang out cross much of central Cambridge, and gangs of youths began looting in the town centre, believing the violence by the infected was some kind of riot by drunk students, and so decided to take advantage of the chaos.

The confusion grew, and several looters were shot in the town centre by police who had itchy trigger fingers after dealing with the infected.

The first infected reached the main shopping area at quarter past twelve, populated only with some students returning from nights out and police officers interviewing witnesses to the looting. Chaos broke out as the infection spread in the town centre, by rampaging infected storming into pubs and night clubs.

By two in the morning, the outbreak was more or less out of control, and hundreds of infected were prowling the streets, and dozens of people were dead.

The Prime Minister Tony Blair was woken at 2:35 AM and informed that a major public disturbance was occuring in Cambridge, and that fatalities had occured. That was all anyone really knew at that point.


More to come...

[JSmith]

I have a 28 Days/Weeks Later timeline on here also.
http://alternatehistory.net/discussi...d.php?t=179352- Tons of views but hardly any particpation. Good luck with yours.

[Overlord]

Hey, this is a topic which is of interest to me too.

Essentially, I'd like to inquire as to the nature of the biological effects of it all... My question to you as author of the timeline, and to anyone who actually is a biologist or medical doctor is the following;

Is the disease in this film, or arguably any radical behaviour changing disease, theoretically a biological possibility or is it as ASB as the dead spontaneously jumping out of their graves...

Quite simply, are all zombies ASB or are there cases wherein there is some plausibility (I'm thinking films like The Crazies, 28 days etc, rather than the likes of Dawn of the Dead, I am Legend etc).

[kspence92]

From what i could gather, it was originally supposed to be an inhibitor to cure anger, using the ebola virus, but then it mutated into the complete opposite and causes extreme, uncontrollable rage.

The infected are not walking corpses, but rather just highly aggressive and insane, so not technically zombies, but still quite close.

[Iamwinterborn]

But, like zombie movies, it does raise the question of... why don't they attack each other?

[Overlord]

Originally Posted by Iamwinterborn

But, like zombie movies, it does raise the question of... why don't they attack each other?

My thinking takes me towards a more larval type infection. There are larvae for example which make ants climb up blades of grass or make caterpillars turn red in nature.

Perhaps eggs could travel using the bite or something?

Not sure, no biologist

[OAM47]

Originally Posted by Iamwinterborn

But, like zombie movies, it does raise the question of... why don't they attack each other?

It's usually glossed over, but the most popular answer is that they can smell a difference due to chemicals in the sweat of the individuals, or something like that. Sometimes it's also mentioned that the virus' main concern, as is most organisms, is spreading itself, thus it makes the victim very hungry, but not for stuff that smells like itself.

[willbell]

Originally Posted by Overlord

Essentially, I'd like to inquire as to the nature of the biological effects of it all... My question to you as author of the timeline, and to anyone who actually is a biologist or medical doctor is the following;

Is the disease in this film, or arguably any radical behaviour changing disease, theoretically a biological possibility or is it as ASB as the dead spontaneously jumping out of their graves...

Quite simply, are all zombies ASB or are there cases wherein there is some plausibility (I'm thinking films like The Crazies, 28 days etc, rather than the likes of Dawn of the Dead, I am Legend etc).

I am a Biology Enthusiast, I can tell you that there is nothing I know that can do it, I have heard Rabies and Ebola suggested, but I believe nothing could cause a hoard of zombies especially with 34 second incubation period, Ebola is bad but the things is you would turn into a pile of rotting flesh quickly.

[Firestorm]

Originally Posted by kspence92

At 8:38 PM, May 4th 2002, a group of animal rights activists broke into a research lab near Cambridge University, unleashing several chimps which are, unknown to the activists, infected with the highly contagious Rage virus.

Within seconds, all of the activists, and a scientist who had desperately tried to stop them releasing the caged animals, had become infected earlier.

They rampaged through the building before being confronted by a single armed security guard. The infection ended just as quickly as it began.

That's what would really happen.

[LordIreland]

Nice TL.
Subscribed

[kspence92]

Originally Posted by Firestorm

That's what would really happen.

Depends how many people were infected in the building before security was able to respond, most security guards in the UK arnt armed.

So in a way, gun control leads to the death of millions lol

[kspence92]

One thing that always left me wondering is why there were no car wrecks or dead bodies littering the streets of London or abandoned army vehicles. I mean, i know the city was evacuated but surely not everybody could have been saved before the virus hit ?

[Cursor]

Originally Posted by kspence92

Depends how many people were infected in the building before security was able to respond, most security guards in the UK arnt armed.

So in a way, gun control leads to the death of millions lol

100% of civilian guards are unarmed in the UK. Civilian guards for banks etc lost the ability to have guns in the 1950s.

The only armed guard force outside the military are the two special police forces, the civil nuclear constabulary and ministry of defense police - both of which are 100% firearms trained (unlike the regular police).

It took something silly like 10% of all on duty armed officers nationwide to look for 1 armed criminal recently near a village - so I wouldn't have any high hopes for the police's ability to hold back the infected hordes

[Flashman]

This is awesome!
But i was wondering- will this goto 28 WEEKS and then 28 MONTHS and so on?

[kspence92]

Id possibly go through 28 weeks and do a timeline on the outbreak in Europe, and how NATO and Russia are forced to unite to try and quell the outbreak or something along those lines

[Ozymandias]

I don't know if anyone has posted this, but I thought it might be helpful:

WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK!: MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF AN OUTBREAK OF ZOMBIE INFECTION

Philip Munz, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad, Robert J. Smith
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University,
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada
Department of Mathematics, The University of Ottawa,
585 King Edward Ave, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5, Canada
Department of Mathematics and Faculty of Medicine, The University of Ottawa,
585 King Edward Ave, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5, Canada


Abstract

Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all.

LINK: When Zombies Attack! (pdf)

This is a serious study of the consequences of a zombie outbreak. From Wikipedia:

According to a 2009 Carleton University and University of Ottawa epidemiological analysis, an outbreak of even Living Dead's slow zombies "is likely to lead to the collapse of civilization, unless it is dealt with quickly." Based on their mathematical modelling, the authors concluded that offensive strategies were much more reliable than quarantine strategies, due to various risks that can compromise a quarantine. They also found that discovering a cure would merely leave a few humans alive, since this would do little to slow the infection rate.

On a longer time scale, the researchers found that all humans end up turned or dead. This is because the main epidemiological risk of zombies, besides the difficulties of neutralizing them, is that their population just keeps increasing; generations of humans merely "surviving" still have a tendency to feed zombie populations, resulting in gross outnumbering. The researchers explain that their methods of modelling may be applicable to the spread of political views or diseases with dormant infection.

[Pikers3]

Hey, I've been thinking about how Europe would defend against the 28 days later outbreak in France and thought of this.

Basically, these plans would only happen if every country in Europe decided to start to build defences as the outbreak happened in the UK. This gives them 28 weeks or 7 months to build them.
I have taken the liberty of assuming that the infected can't cross defended mountains or major rivers.

I can imagine that the US, Russia and almost everyone in the world would give loads of resources to the Europeans to try and stop the infection in Europe and stop it spreading to Asia. This would be in all sorts of things from arms, to food for refugee camps to actual soldiers on the ground.

France: Basically crapped, No real rivers that end in mountains to set up defensive lines and since it is such a big country this is also impractical. Its' only real lines of defence are in Brittany, Cherbourg Peninsula and the Garonne River near Bordeaux. Its plan of action would be first to try and contain the plague, but once that fails, evacuate its populations to behind the defensive lines in Brittany, Cherbourg, Garonne River and behind the Rhine and in Italy. Most of the most important government things would go to Corsica just to be doubly safe.

Belgium and Luxembourg: very crapped, no natural lines of defence and hardly any time before the infection arrives at their borders. Their main objective would be to get as much of their population and defensive capabilities behind the Rhine defences.

Germany: The major defensive line would be the Rhine. It in many places high mountain and is very wide so could easily serve as a breaker. The problem they have is that it is so long and all it takes is one infected to get through. So as soon as the infection happens in France, all German citizens on the French side of the Rhine and within 20 miles of it are evacuated to massive refugee camps. This line of defence is likely to fall though so as soon as it hits a major population centre they abandon the rest of Germany to defend along the Elbe and Danube. The Danube part would just be for the Germans and is also quite long. While the Elbe one is very long but likely to be backed by at least Austria, Poland and Czech Republic. The Germans would also try and defend Hamburg but likely to have to withdraw behind the Kiel Canal. This is probably the safest place in all Germany so the government is likely to de facto evacuate to there once the outbreak happens in France.

Netherlands: Likely to try and defend the Rhine front at all costs, however once that fails, retreat to behind the "Ramstad defence" Which would probably hold and could be re-enforced by flooding the rest of the Netherlands. Even if this fails they could defend in the peninsula of North Holland.

Denmark: Should be very safe, could carry on almost as normal until the Rhine defence falls, then re-enforce the defensive line on the Kiel Canal, once that fails retreat to a line in Southern Danish Jutland and once that fails, and retreat to the islands, taking the population with them.

Spain and Portugal: They would defend the Pyrenees with everything they had and probably enact and exclusion zone of like 40 miles so any once infected that gets through can be tracked down and killed before they do any damage. However, if the Pyrenees fall, Spain and Portugal are doomed.

Sweden and Norway: Should be the least worried in Europe apart from island nations. The infected would have to overrun all continental defences and survive the march through Lapland or the miles of sea of the Oresund to get to any major population centres, basically safe.

Switzerland: Its mountains and rivers should allow it to hide behind many different lines of defence, however all but the Alpine defences would probably fall, so it would lose the majority of its' cities.

Italy: Is one of the better defensible nations. It could 1st, have defences along the French Alps. Once these fail, retreat to the other side of the Po River. If this falls then it can pick several very defensible positions along the thin peninsula. Very likely to survive and even if everything goes wrong it would still have Sicily and Sardinia.

Poland, Czech Republic, Belarus and Lithuania: Would defend the Elbe line for the lives of everyone they know. However, this is not very strong and is a long line of defence to hold. Therefore is likely to fall. The Poles might try and create a defence line along one of their major rivers, but like France they aren't very defensible and would be likely to fail. The other nations are crapped once the Elbe falls.

Estonia and Latvia: Can have their own defensive lines, but they would likely fall. Estonia would use Lake Pepius and the sea, but for such a small nation it would be a very hard task to defend them for long and it would likely to seek evacuating its small population to Finland or Russia and its islands in the Baltic
Latvia would probably try and form a defensive line along the bottom of the Courland? Peninsula. Due to a small population, it would likely fail.

Former Yugoslavia, Austria and Hungary: Would defend the Danube line for their nations. It would start at the Alpine defences of Austria and then go along the Danube. This is also likely to fail as it is so long and the nations defending it do not have the capabilities that the Western European nations do. Slovakia would probably defend this line to as it could easily evacuate it population behind it.

Romania: Would likely use the Carpathian Mountains to try and slow the zombie advance, once this fails, they would retreat behind the Danube. This is small enough to actually hold out, but most of the Romanian population would die if it came to this.

Greece: is like Italy, has numerous geographical choke points and by the time the Danube falls could easily evacuate its population to its islands and 1st Athens and then behind the Corinth canal.

Ukraine: would use the Crimea as a safe haven and try and evacuate the most amounts of people there. It would probably team up with Russia in a defensive line somewhere as a last ditch attempt.

Russia and Finland: Most of Russia would fall as the line of defence and the amount of infected would be too great. Finland would probably try and team up with Russia to defend itself, St Petersburg and Karelia. If this line of defence falls then Finland falls. Finland would evacuate its government to Aland Islands if that line fell. Russia would keep retreating and retreating hoping the cold and the vastness would stop the infection.

Turkey: Would probably evacuate all of mainland Thrace just to be sure but may try and defend the thin bit of the peninsula just to be sure. Would keep a worried eye on how the infection is advancing in the Caucasus.

To illistrate my points I made some maps Showing the defensive lines.

On the one below it shows how likely I think areas are to be able to stay infected free, from Dark red = defo Zombieland to Green = Zombies only on the telly.

[kaeim]

I liked the first part of this AAR, 28 Days Later, however I honestly think that you didn't do very well with writing the events of 28 Weeks Later.

My biggest rage (pun moment ) with this is that you wrote this as every nation for itself. I honestly cannot comprehend how that with word of an outbreak in France, every military in Europe (and most likely America) is headed towards France in an effort to stop it before it spreads throughout Europe.The fact that there wasn't an massive international force on the way in when the virus first struke France strikes me as very naive. I can understand why there might not have been an international force on the way immediately seeing as how everyone thought the virus had been killed off, but surely within a few hours of the French government realising that the Rage Virus was spreading throughout Northern France, you'd have the entire world throwing its resources immediately.

It was mentioned earlier that governments made contingency plans in case of any potential disaster. I'd think that in the aftermath of Britain collapsing completely, every other government would have started to make plans in case infection spread to their nation. You seem to portray every country as though they hadn't encountered the virus already and had little idea of its capabilities.

Something else that struck me during your portrayal of 28 Days Later is that it was basically Britain on its own. Why weren't there foreign soldiers going over to fight? I doubt that America would have watched over the course of a month its main European ally collapse without doing anything to help.

The point I'm basically making here is that you don't seem to imagine a strong international response to the Rage Virus. I honestly cannot comprehend any other scenario that doesn't include massive foreign intervention.

[SAVORYapple]

Originally Posted by kaeim

I liked the first part of this AAR, 28 Days Later, however I honestly think that you didn't do very well with writing the events of 28 Weeks Later.

My biggest rage (pun moment ) with this is that you wrote this as every nation for itself. I honestly cannot comprehend how that with word of an outbreak in France, every military in Europe (and most likely America) is headed towards France in an effort to stop it before it spreads throughout Europe.The fact that there wasn't an massive international force on the way in when the virus first struke France strikes me as very naive. I can understand why there might not have been an international force on the way immediately seeing as how everyone thought the virus had been killed off, but surely within a few hours of the French government realising that the Rage Virus was spreading throughout Northern France, you'd have the entire world throwing its resources immediately.

It was mentioned earlier that governments made contingency plans in case of any potential disaster. I'd think that in the aftermath of Britain collapsing completely, every other government would have started to make plans in case infection spread to their nation. You seem to portray every country as though they hadn't encountered the virus already and had little idea of its capabilities.

Something else that struck me during your portrayal of 28 Days Later is that it was basically Britain on its own. Why weren't there foreign soldiers going over to fight? I doubt that America would have watched over the course of a month its main European ally collapse without doing anything to help.

The point I'm basically making here is that you don't seem to imagine a strong international response to the Rage Virus. I honestly cannot comprehend any other scenario that doesn't include massive foreign intervention.

Would France accept any foreign troops, especially American ones? also, don't underestimate the stupid virus paralyzing most governments

[kaeim]

Originally Posted by lookupshootup

Would France accept any foreign troops, especially American ones? also, don't underestimate the stupid virus paralyzing most governments

Considering how their neighbour literally collapsed with millions dead, I'd say the French would be more willing to consider. And there's stupid virus, and there's realism which the author has said he's trying to aim for