The Infected are the antagonists of the 28 Days Later series. They are, as their name states, people that are infected with the Rage Virus, causing mindless, uncontrollable rage, and aggression.
Overview
'Infected' refers to humans who have been infected by the Rage Virus that originated in the Cambridge Primate Research Centre. Highly contagious and spread through bodily fluids such as blood and saliva, the virus takes over a host and causes symptoms to fully manifest within ten to twenty seconds of exposure. Symptoms include constant spasming, red irises, and internal bleeding from all bodily orifices as well as haemoemesis (vomiting infectious blood). The Infected individual is then locked in a permanent state of constant, rabid, all-consuming hyper-aggression and rage, with a single-minded drive to always attack and pursue any uninfected individuals they find. Almost all higher brain functions disappear, as the Infected de-prioritize or don't practice any other goals, up to and including self-preservation, and family and former loved ones from their pre-infection lives aren't the slightest bit safe from being attacked by them. Donald Harris, an unusually intelligent Infected, was a notable exception to the lack of higher brain functions, who experienced fragment memory flashbacks of his pre-infection family, but it did nothing to curb his aggression and instead seemed to enhance it, motivating him further to attack his family.
Though Rage does not kill its host directly, the Infected, lacking the instincts to find food or practice the most basic self-care, do inevitably die from starvation and dehydration if not from earlier causes. Infected will not act to evade or respond to mortal danger, at least not when they are in pursuit of uninfected, although it's implied they fled the fires in Manchester.
Due to the virus' easy transmission, very short incubation stage and the extreme effectiveness of the rage-fuelled, mindless vectors; a single Infected can jump-start the mass infection and slaughter of large crowds of people in densely crowded areas within a matter of minutes, as the Infected multiply through the crowd in a rapid domino effect. However, the Rage Virus' aforementioned strengths also count as weaknesses alongside its inability to infect non-primate hosts, as they prevent the Infection from being easily or unintentionally spread overseas beyond a populated island.
Infection
A human, chimp, or other primate that is exposed to the Rage Virus through bodily-fluid contact of blood and/or saliva - a scratch, a bite, a kiss, an injection, spitting, vomiting, or infected blood getting in their eyes, mouth, face, or simply skin - will become infected in roughly ten to twenty seconds. The onset of Rage during this period is marked by intense, excruciating pain, described by the first infected Animal Freedom Front activist mid-process as "burning", and also by uncontrollable convulsions and spasms in the extremities, hemorrhaging which causes bleeding from the eyes, and seemingly a rapidly-building increase in anger in the host. (28 Days Later (film), 28 Weeks Later) The amount of time after exposure that it takes for a victim to become fully infected seems to depend on the quantity of virus that they were exposed to: Frank, after a single drop of infected blood fell into his eye, took almost half a minute to begin clearly showing onset symptoms, while Clifton became infected almost instantly after an Infected vomited a large mouthful of blood directly on his unprotected face. (28 Days Later (film))
Physiological symptoms
The Rage Virus causes the Infected to experience near-constant spasms in their extremities, (28 Days Later (film)) and their irises enlarge and become bloodred. They also regularly, if not constantly, bleed from bodily orifices such as their eyes, nose, mouth, and seemingly hair follicles, and they vomit copious amounts of infectious blood; due to internal hemorrhaging of the capillaries (28 Days Later (comic series)).
While the Infected do eventually die from effectively starving themselves to death, they seem to be able to last longer than uninfected individuals without nutrition; as despite their heavy water expulsion from their constant hemorrhaging and copious vomiting, it took until four weeks after the Original Outbreak's twenty-eighth day before the majority of the Infected in England became too weak to move, whilst there were still many Infected alive in Scotland months later. (28 Days Later (film), 28 Weeks Later)
Intelligence and behaviour
The Rage Virus causes the Infected to lose almost all higher brain functions to the point where they can't perform complex problem-solving, can't wield complex tools, and won't restrain themselves in the slightest from attacking their former allies, family or loved ones. However, not all basic intelligence or problem-solving is gone. Infected have been known to instantaneously disregard uninfected they were attacking or pursuing if they abruptly die before the Infected can infect them; as was seen during the Second Outbreak, when an Infected immediately tossed aside a woman it had grabbed when a sniper shot her, and when two Infected who were in the process of mauling a sniper instantly fled when the sniper was killed by a headshot. (28 Weeks Later) The Infected are shown to retain some spatial awareness, as they can calculate complex routes to unseen targets. They have been known to go through doors, windows and entrance points and navigate around other obstacles to reach sources of possible uninfected activity.
When an uninfected individual is near, an Infected will become enraged and try and get to, and infect or kill the uninfected. However, those infected with Rage will also ignore each other, only attacking those who are not infected and/or do not show symptoms of Infection. The Infected use their sense of smell to find the uninfected and to tell other Infected from the uninfected, and trace amounts of products such as perfume or soap will attract the Infected to the source - Hugh Baker speculated that Infection (as with other diseases) or even just the all-consuming rage it induces could've enhanced the Infected's sense of smell. (28 Days Later: The Aftermath) When unibfected individuals aren't near, Infected appear to relatively calm down. Mailer ceased resisting his bonds and trying to attack as soon as Jim and Henry West were out of his sights and reach. Infected have been observed multiple times to, when inactive, simply lie in areas filled with multiple corpses before being alerted to the presence of uninfected, seemingly sleeping until noise jars and alerts them. (28 Days Later (film), 28 Days Later (comic series))
The Infected prefer to be in shaded to pitch-black areas compared to bright light. In the direct aftermath of the Original Outbreak, numerous different survivors considered it safer to move at day than during night, when Infected were shown to emerge into the open (28 Days Later (film), 28 Days Later (comic series)); the Infected which chased Jim, Hannah, Frank and Selena in an underground tunnel in London did not not follow them into the daylight, and the Infected which attacked the Worsley House usually only did so at night. (28 Days Later (film)) Those Infected from the Second Outbreak which survived the Code Red firebombing were shown to retreat into the Underground at dawn. (28 Weeks Later) However, the Infected are by no means exclusively nocturnal - the survivors at Geoff and Sally's farm were forced to fortify against Infected that were active during the day, and the sunrise following the Second Outbreak didn't prevent a massive horde of Infected approaching Regent's Park.
Infected may give up a chase and go in search of other victims if they're unable to reach an uninfected due to physical barriers - but this isn't likely to happen, due to the Infected's rabid motivation and physical capabilities making them very unlikely to give up. (28 Days Later (film), 28 Days Later (comic series)) When a horde of Infected attacked Frank's taxi in an underground tunnel; when the uninfected group escaped in the taxi out of the tunnel, clearly outrunning the Infected due to the vehicle's superior speed, the Infected gave up the chase, seeming to know they had as good as lost them. When Jim freed an infected Mailer from his chains, rather than attempting to find a way to reach Jim who was standing on top of a wall, Mailer instead turned his attention to those inside Worsley House. (28 Days Later (film)) When Don Harris closed and locked the bathroom door in Geoff and Sally's house in-between himself and an Infected, the infected man spent roughly four seconds attempting to break the door down, before giving up and turning his immediate attention (along with the other present Infected) to attacking two other uninfected who were immediately behind him instead. (28 Weeks Later) When in pursuit, Infected will not act to evade even oncoming mortal danger such as fire, gunshots, chemical gas and sharp weapons. However, it's implied Infected might act to preserve themselves at other times, as the fires which destroyed Manchester drove hundreds of Infected into the surrounding countryside.
If Infected hear a sound made by uninfected, they will relentlessly search the source of the sound for the uninfected; but if they are unable to find them quickly enough, they will quickly abandon searching for them and go back to searching for other victims. It's also been observed that when one out of numerous Infected senses a sign of uninfected activity and attacks the source, other Infected will take note of the commotion and join in the effort. (28 Days Later (comic series))
After being infected, Don Harris exhibited unusual levels of intelligence that were usually devoid in the Infected. He apparently retained fragment memories if not complete memories in relation to his family: hearing his wife and his daughter's voices respectively caused him to flash back to the emotionally-traumatic moment he abandoned his wife Alice to die, which did not deter him from attacking either of them for longer than a moment and instead motivated him to attack them further, and he also appeared to stalk his uninfected son without closing in on him in District One. It's also implied that the infected Don remembered how to operate basic machinery, as he was able to escape Alice's isolation cell, something he only could have done if he used his ID card to unlock the door to the cell. A further show of his intelligence was his makeshift use of an M4 rifle as a blunt-force weapon to beat Scarlet Levy to death. (28 Weeks Later)
Little is known about how the Infected would react to Carriers and if it would be any different than how they react to uninfected, in a standard situation. Only Don was ever known to interact with a Carrier - his wife after being unknowingly infected by her, savagely attacking and mutilating her to death - and his reaction may have been due to his aforementioned flashbacks' impact on his Infected behavior. (28 Weeks Later)
Abilities
The Infected possess a seemingly adrenaline-heightened mobility, with a pre-infection Don Harris noting they were very fast-running when recalling his escape on foot from them. Indeed, despite Don's own life-or-death, fear-induced adrenalised mobility, the Infected gradually closed distance behind him over their field-wide chase. (28 Weeks Later) Infected, thanks to their adrenalisation and single-mindedness, have been known to ignore or shrug off pain and injury that would be instantly debilitating to people under normal circumstances; such as non-fatal gunshots, burning alive and dismemberment, from the moment of injury up to the point of collapse or death for the Infected. (28 Days Later (film), 28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later (comic series))
The Infected are extremely sensitive to light, as the light of one small candle was shown to be sufficient enough to draw the attention of nearby Infected; (28 Days Later (film)) and the infected Don Harris had little trouble roaming around in the abandoned Underground, whereas Tammy, Andy and Scarlet Levy needed night vision in order to navigate through the darkness. (28 Weeks Later)
Weaknesses
The Infected's aforementioned durability and disregard for harm to themselves makes them difficult to slow down or even disable with means that would usually literally or figuratively cripple a person (such as fire and gunshots) -- however, the amount of injury dealt will still affect their mobility despite their disregard for pain, as one Infected moved very slowly compared to other Infected after its arm and shoulder were severed by helicopter blades. (28 Weeks Later)
The Infected apparently cannot swim, as while they can run through shallow waters (such as waters that are three or four feet high), (28 Weeks Later) if they run into deeper water, they will get caught in it and drown. (28 Days Later (comic series))
Rage does not directly cause the death of its host, but because the Infected don't actively seek self-nourishment; even if they do avoid being killed by uninfected through self-defence or excessive military force, they still effectively all have a limited lifespan before malnutrition renders them too weak to move and then kills them.
Differences from zombies
The Infected are distinct from previous cinematic zombies in that they are not the reanimated dead but are living people infected with a virus that overrides higher brain functions with single-minded rage and aggression. This in turn means that the Infected, though more resistant to pain and injury, can be killed by injuries fatal to non-infected humans. Also, earlier films such as George A. Romero's Living Dead series, Return of the Living Dead, and the Resident Evil series portray zombies as creatures that desire to consume living flesh. By contrast, while the Infected will attempt to bite their victims, it is exclusively as a means of killing or infecting them, and they are not shown to ingest any organic material -- this is a plot point, as the Infected's lack of self-nourishment instincts practically guarantee that they have a limited lifespan as they starve themselves to death through negligence.
While the standard cinematic zombie is depicted as a slow and clumsy creature, the Infected are very strong and fast-moving thanks to their adrenaline-enhanced stamina, popularizing the "fast zombie" archetype in pop culture and media. Unlike most zombies, the Infected, while losing much of their higher intelligence, are apparently highly attuned to their surroundings, being able to navigate over and around obstacles to otherwise unseen targets; (28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath) whereas most other zombies will simply try to approach uninfected individuals from the most direct route, often failing repeatedly. The Infected in a similar situation will simply run into the building, often destroying doors and windows, and go through the structure to reach the designated target. (28 Days Later (film))
Gallery
28 Days Later (film)
28 Weeks Later
28 Days Later: The Aftermath
28 Years Later
TBA
Trivia
- Ethan Van Sciver, Green Lantern writer and artist, officially stated in Issue #2 of Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps that the Red Lanterns, people that wear red power rings, are filled with rage and spew dangerously acidic blood, were inspired by the Infected from the 28 Days Later franchise. He also mentioned that they were his favourite Lantern Corps.
- The Flood from the Doctor Who episode The Waters of Mars are similar to the Infected in that they are both humans infected with an extremely virulent and fast-acting virus, and both produce copious amounts of infectious blood/water from their mouths.
- People who are observant will noticed that the Infected sometimes go after their former friends or family (now turned enemies). Examples of this are:
- Mailer, the Infected that was chained in the Worsley House courtyard in 28 Days Later, attacked his uninfected fellow soldiers first before proceeding to attack Jim, Selena and Hannah.
- In 28 Weeks Later, the infected Don appeared to be stalking his children.
- The only infected animals to be seen (so far) are the chimpanzees from 28 Days Later; apart from that no other infected animals are seen. Oddly, there does not appear to be that many animals seen in Britain since the Original Outbreak occurred (though there are still some horses, swans, deer, crows, pigeons, rats and dogs). However, it is probable that most of the animals in Britain were killed by the Infected due to their fits of rage and/or due to the fact that only primates (such as humans, apes, and monkeys) are able to carry the Rage Virus. It is probable that if an animal was exposed to the Infection, it would be unaffected, as Rage can only use primates as its hosts. This can be seen in 28 Days Later when a crow is seen pecking at a dead body of an Infected soldier in the rafters of a building without any symptoms of Infection.
- The Infected seen in 28 Weeks Later are apparently as active during the day as at night, forcing survivors to take cover in the darkness. But in 28 Days Later and the comic series, the Infected were much more active at night than during the day. The reason for the Infected in 28 Weeks Later being diurnal is not explained anywhere, and it could have been overlooked, or it could just be the Infected's sheer determination to find more uninfected victims. Another possibility suggested by a few fans is that people infected do not become nocturnal until some time after infection. This is supported by the fact that most of the Infected seen in Days and the comics had presumably been infected for weeks, whereas the Infected encountered in Weeks had only been infected for hours or days at the most.
- The Infected appear to have a slower metabolism than normal, being able to last for weeks or even months before succumbing to starvation. However, considering the amount of adrenaline the Infected use to try and infect or kill the uninfected, this should be the other way round; their metabolism should speed up rather than slow down. This could mean that the Rage Virus alters its hosts' metabolism to make them last longer than normal without food or water.
- It is debated whether or not the Infected speak verbally, as in 28 Days Later, an Infected Child yelled "I hate you!" at Jim before the latter killed him. However, Danny Boyle confirmed that the child speaking was due to an audio inconsistency. It is believed that the Infected do not speak, as in the 28 Days Later comics, Gordon and Luis Rodriguez both told survivors from Infected by seeing whether or not they spoke.