The Second Outbreak was a large outbreak of the Rage Virus in London that was unintentionally sparked by Alice Harris twenty-eight weeks after the Original Outbreak in Britain.
Background[]
Before the Original Outbreak of the Rage Virus in Great Britain, Donald and Alice Harris sent their children, Tammy and Andy, off to Spain as the school was having a study abroad event. When the Original Outbreak hit they then fled into the countryside, taking refuge with a band of survivors, in the first few days of the outbreak, around the time London fell to the epidemic. However, soon after, they were besieged by Infected who were in pursuit of a young boy who had fled Sandford. Most of the inhabitants were killed or infected, while Don and, unbeknownst to him, Alice fled the cottage, but not before the latter was infected and became a Carrier. While Don fled to a military camp and was placed into quarantine, Alice secretly returned to her home in London, hiding in the attic for 6 months while the Infected began to starve to death.
Outbreak[]
The Infected storm London during the outbreak.
Alice was discovered by her children, then taken to District One and put in isolation by the US Army. She was visited without authorization by Don, who kissed her. However, Don was infected with Rage by Alice's saliva from the kiss, and after killing Alice, the infected Don escaped the isolation cell and began spreading the Infection. (28 Weeks Later)
District One was thus put into Code Red lockdown, and civilians were herded into safe rooms with locked doors. However, the Infected broke into the safe rooms and began infecting and killing the trapped crowds.
Hordes of Infected and surviving citizens began to escape from the enclosures into the streets of District One. Snipers were first ordered to shoot only Infected, but as the numbers of Infected grew and overwhelmed the surviving populance and it became more difficult to tell Infected from uninfected, snipers were ordered to kill everyone at ground level, infected or not.
The Isle of Dogs in the aftermath of the Second Outbreak.
District One was soon after firebombed, but not before both civilians and a large number of Infected escaped into London. Following the escape of Infected into London, the US Army began venting poisonous gas and sending soldiers armed with flamethrowers into the city to exterminate the Infected. (28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later (comic series))
In the final scene of 28 Weeks Later the helicopter which transported Andy Harris who was carrying the Rage Virus but was a Carrier and his sister Tammy Harris out of England can be seen crashed while a french radio transmission calling for help can be heard in the background. Infected are seen running towards the Eiffel Tower meaning that all the efforts of the Military containing the Virus have failed and that the Virus has now reached the European mainland.
Trivia[]
- In an earlier script for 28 Weeks Later, the Second Outbreak was caused when the U.S. military was running tests on the corpse of an infected boy found in an aquarium in London.