WWZ fanfic: Operation DRYPOOL and the fall of Britain

Good update. Looking forward to more. When you said South East London was overrun with the undead, it took me a minute to figure out the difference between that and OTL. 

Let the Undead have it!



Thank you. More coming soon.
You're cruel!

LVI


By the time morning came, the Undead started appearing in further areas of London some distance away from the initial outbreaks which had begun the night before. Operation BANKSIDE procedures were being followed by the armed forces and there was cooperation with the civil authorities in this but it didn’t matter. The military response came late and was too small. Regardless, even if that hadn’t been the case, London was doomed. The Undead were in the city and the response from the public to their arrival drove the course of their spread. The few infected fled like so many uninfected did away from them. New, unexpected outbreaks occurred soon enough when those with Solanum in their blood were killed by that disease far away from where they had been infected with it.

For BANKSIDE to work, as it had first appeared to do once Solanum reached British shores, military units trained to deal with outbreaks – elements of the British Army as well as some Royal Marines too – needed to respond to reports of outbreaks. They first had to get those reports, plus confirm their accuracy, before they intervened. These would come from the police and other emergency services. Without those, it had always been accepted that the fight against outbreaks would fail… accepted by those willing to listen to sense though, which didn’t include everyone. There were now too many reports incoming for the military to respond to as the Undead spread across London yet, at the same time, not enough of them too. Where the Undead were in certain locations was something that the armed forces were told about yet news of other outbreaks weren’t passed to them. The system broke under the weight of so many of the Undead spread so far apart across areas of London in addition to the panic seen on the streets of the nation’s capital.


North of the Thames, radiating from Romford, there were outbreaks in Dagenham, Barking, East Ham, Leyton, Woodford and Chigwell within London while outside of the city’s boundaries, the Undead were present in Brentwood, Billericay, Basildon and Thurrock. This presence in Essex, through highly populated areas here, was a substantial as it was within East London.

South of the Thames, the Woolwich Outbreak spread even further than the immediate surrounding neighbourhoods of Charlton, Plumstead and Thamesmead. More of the extensive Thamesmead urban area had them roaming about attacking people while they also spread into Blackheath, Eltham and Greenwich too. Moreover, they ‘jumped’ ahead a good distance away to Bexleyheath, Catford and Chislehurst first before then being in Bromley and Orpington too. Infected people in cars going far without being stopped or meeting obstruction were responsible for these leaps. That was only going worse as the day wore on, much worse.

Soldiers were active throughout East London and South-East London. There was gunfire where the Undead were met with and sweeps made. Cordons were established and people screened. This failed though. In these urban areas, the Undead had a continued source of reinforcements as infected people died and then joined their ranks. The terrain which they operated in crippled the ability of the small numbers of soldiers to properly clear anywhere. They faced surprise attacks from the Undead who stepped out of doorways, fell from windows & balconies above deliberately towards them, or tried to grab them from within bushes & underneath cars. Civilians fleeing overwhelmed efforts to contain them and went past the thin lines trying to block their passage. There was even violence where desperate, scared people forced their way though and when soldiers fired warning shots skywards – really not wanting to fire on uninfected British civilians! – several of them were attacked by these frightened and angry people who mistook those for shots against them and their neighbours.

As said, the armed forces weren’t alerted to other outbreaks. Where there was no organised force trying to stop them, even failing overall as was seen elsewhere, the numbers of the Undead grew at alarming speed. They killed at will and concentrated together in number – that clustering seen before though not on this scale – to roam through the streets but also across public spaces and also across back gardens. As they chased sights and sounds made by the living, soon getting distracted by something new, they did themselves much damage. There was no sense of self-preservation in them. While this might have seemed like a good thing, it wasn’t overall. Tearing open a leg enough meant that they were unable to walk but they could still crawl and thus posed a different sort of risk. To kill the Undead, when soldiers on BANKSIDE missions went up against them, they wanted the Undead upright and out in the open to present a target.

Londoners didn’t always flee at the immediate approach of the Undead. Whether it was just a temporary stand against them or an intent to make an effort permanent, they took the fight to them. A tiny number of guns were in the hands of Londoners and it wasn’t as if anyone in possession of one was an expert marksman who could take a headshot – a proper one – to kill one of the Undead with such a weapon. This was Britain, not the United States! Instead of firearms, improvised weapons were used. Many of the Undead were killed or at least significantly injured to stop attacks this way. However, engaging the Undead brought with it serious risks of infection either by a bite or a scratch but also the unseen manner of an airborne blood transfer of tiny particles into the mouth, the nose or the eyes. Other Londoners took the opportunity to commit crimes while this was going on. There was looting, robberies, theft and other acts of violence such as arson and purposeful destruction. Large parts of the city were engulfed in violence long before the Undead reached them.

Anyone turning on the news to find out what was going on, to get information and advice, found that there was no mention of any of this.


During the day, approaching two thousand soldiers were involved in trying to turn the tide of the Undead. This was nowhere near enough.

Ten times as many, maybe twenty times more were needed. If present, they would have been used not just for directly engaging the Undead but to man those cordons and establish quarantine zones to check fleeing people for infection.

Such numbers weren’t available. BANKSIDE training hadn’t gone that far and wide among the armed forces. Troops which were trained to go up against the Undead and fulfil supporting roles were already committed elsewhere. They were in Devon, they were in East Anglia, they were in the East Midlands, they were in Kent and they were in the West Midlands.

Furthermore, many of them had been gathered yesterday ready to go on the offensive through Birmingham and rid that city of the Undead. The scenes being played out in London had already been seen in Britain’s second city and it had left many thousands dead with up to a million people trapped within their homes or elsewhere within Birmingham all awaiting rescue. Now London was being torn apart.

Below Whitehall, somewhere not that far from the widest reaches of Undead presence, a decision was taken to cancel the Birmingham mission. New orders were issued to the majority of the soldiers gathered there. They would go to London. Birmingham would be abandoned to its fate… along with all those there.

Could those troops get to London fast enough? Would it matter if they did when what they were going to be faced with only got worse with every passing minute?

Thank you.
I've read that before and there is some inspiration from there, yes.
Next up is the Undead overrunning NYC in the face of military opposition against that and then the same happening to London before a general collapse across much of Britain as the Undead take over.

Can't wait for the next update. Haven't checked this TL in a while.