The predictable spread of the virus had almost led to the remnants of the government becoming complacent when plotting where to defend and where they thought the virus would strike next. It was always known the virus would spread fastest in urban areas, and that rural areas would fare best. Thats why the sudden outbreak in Scotland took the government by surprise.
It wasnt massive hoards of infected rampaging across Hadrians Wall that would spread the virus into Scotland, but rather, a single crow that had been feating upon the corpse of an infected just north of Newcastle.
Rage did not affect birds, or any non humans/non primates for that matter, but they still acted as carriers in some cases.
The crow was flying over Glasgow, Scotland exactly three weeks to the day the outbreak first began when a 10 year old boy shot at it with a BB gun, to relieve the bordom from the cesession of TV and radio broadcasting in Scotland only days previous.
The birds body tumbled as it fell from the sky, and hit a middled aged woman in the face, in what was nothing more than a freak accident. But thats all it took, one drop of the crows blood entering her mouth.
It took a few seconds for the shock of the bird hitting her to settle in, and by the time that happened, a burning sensation was tearing through her body, contorting and twisting violently as she screamed and doubled over on the pavement much to the horror of bystanders, who knew exactly what was happening.
16 seconds later she had turned and mass panic had began on Oswalt Street in Glasgow city center as hundreds of people fled the scene, dozens dying the stampede that followed.
Glasgow's armed response units and public order police were on the scene in minutes, and were doing all they could to hold back the tide of infection, but the virus spread, as it had in ever other engagement the security forces had faced since day 1.
Twenty minutes later, Tony Blair and his cabinet were informed via telephone call that the infection had somehow broken out in Glasgow, and that hundreds of people had become casualties and that law and order was desintigrating rapidly as the population of Glasgow fled in terror.
Chaos reigned in the city of some 600,000 people. Nobody had expected the infection to hit Glasgow, and certainly not so soon. All major roads were jammed with cars, vans, trucks, buses, basically anything with wheels. The deathtoll was rising constantly by the minute as the infected rampaged accross Britain's third largest city, although by then the most populous place in country after London and Birmingham were abandoned. In the chaotic and rushed attempts at evacuating Glasgow, staff at hospitals and nursing homes were forced to make an extremely difficult choice. Abandon their patients that could not be moved, or mercy kill them. Dozens of patients in Glasgow's hospitals and nursing homes were overdosed on medicines that day to prevent them from horrendous deaths at the hands of the infected.
Within eight hours, Scottish regiments of the British army and police forces from other areas of Scotland had failed to contain the outbreak, and most of Glasgow was a bloodbath, with tens of thousands dead or infected.
On the night of 24 May, with Glasgow having entirely fallen to infection only hours earlier, and the infection rapidly spreading towards Edinburgh and Fife, the government convinced NATO to allow them to flee Scotland via a Royal Air Force helicopter, allowing the no fly zone a one hour lift. They left at 11:30 PM from Edinburgh, with all remaining members of the British Cabinet aboard. They landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland soon after, where they established a new capital from where to govern what remained of the country, which by then was not much. The remaining members of the Royal Family holding out in Balmoral Castle evacuated to Canada an hour or so later, a few chose live in Belfast and some went to Australia.
Although broadcasting had ceased, some newspapers continued to print, and a very few landlines remained operational in some areas. Word got around quick that the government had abandoned the country, and it became clear that all hope was lost for Great Britain.
The next day, the power grid in Scotland failed for one last time, and did not come back on, and water supplies in most of southern and central Scotland were failing also. Society was crumbling, piece by piece.
Over the next few days, the breakdown in communications ruined any chance that the remaining military and police forces had in regaining control, or even holding onto what they had, facing both the increasing numbers of infected, as well as dwindling stocks of food, medical supplies and ammuntion, as well as accomodation for the thousands of refugees from England and southern and central Scotland.
The Forth Road and Rail Bridges over the River Forth were destroyed by retreating remnants of the Black Watch regiment as they withdrew from Edinburgh, as the city and its famous castle's defences crumbled. The decision to demolish the bridges bought a few hours, maybe a day, but the end still came for the Scottish nation as Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Dundee, and then Perth, Fort William and Aberdeen all were overwhelmed by the infected.
28 days after the outbreak, almost all of Great Britain had been infected or abandoned, although some areas in the Scottish Highlands survived relatively intact due to their georgraphic isolation. At least 14,000 people survived in isolated towns and villages in the north.
As of 2 June 2002, four weeks after the outbreak, the United Kingdom of Great Britain effectively ceased to exist as a nationstate. With the exception of Northern Ireland and some islands around the mainland, the UK was no more.
After being coronated in Belfast on 3 June 2002, King Charles III, formerly Charles, Prince of Wales, made a heartfelt speech that was broadcast around the world and into refugee camps all over Europe housing British refugees. He appealed to the surviving citizens to stand united in grief, and in strength, and assured Britons and they would once again return home, once the scourge had been swept away.