In the early hours after midnight on 1 November 2002, the day after Halloween. The three animal rights activists slipped past the perimeter of a primate research center in Cambridge. Inside, they discovered chimpanzees strapped to chairs, forced to watch loops of extreme human violence. A terrified scientist intercepted the group. Two male activists quickly pinned him to prevent him from calling security. Ignoring the scientist's desperate warnings that the animals were infected with a highly contagious, blood-borne "Rage" virus, the female activist clipped the padlock on a cage. The moment the door swung open, a chimpanzee leaped out, and tore into her neck. Within seconds, the virus rewired her brain. She vomited blood, screamed with primal fury, and turned on her fellow activists and the scientist as the infection found its first human hosts. On 6 November, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky News report mass riots, fires, and casualties as survivors flee to Red Cross shelters preparing for a mass evacuation which is completely underway. On 19 November at 11:59pm, all channel Broadcasts ceased as Britain collapses, the Prime Minister Tony Blair, his family, the Queen and members of the royal family attempt to evacuate Buckingham Palace for Balmoral before fleeing into exile in either Canada or Australia. Six months later, the infected on the mainland starved to death. On 26 May 2003, US-led NATO forces launched Operation Rising Dawn, attempting to resettle refugees in a heavily fortified zone on the Isle of Dogs, designated District One. The peace lasted barely a month. In late June, a survivor named Alice was found to be an asymptomatic carrier of the virus. Her husband, Don, snuck into her holding cell. After a reconciliation, he kissed her. The virus transmitted instantly through his saliva. Don turned, killed Alice, and broke out into the civilian population. By August 2003, District One became a war zone by NATO ordered a firebombing of Code Red in London, but it was too late. Two children, Tammy and Andy, escaped via a helicopter piloted by a defector. Unbeknownst to the crew, Andy carried the infection. The helicopter landed in France, unleashing the Rage virus onto continental Europe as the infected quickly swarmed Paris. Unlike Britain, mainland Europe had active, heavily armed military borders. A massive, scorched-earth campaign by NATO forces successfully contained the outbreak, driving the infected back toward the coast and effectively abandoning the British Isles to permanent quarantine. By the year 2030, Great Britain remained a ghost world, surrounded by naval blockades. However, a small, isolated community of uninfected survivors managed to establish a self-sustaining safe haven on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland. Protected by the natural tidal shifts that cut the island off from the mainland twice a day, this community achieved a milestone. It became home to Spike, the very first human born into a world where British society had been completely erased by the infected.
