London

Appearance(s):	28 Days Later (film) 28 Weeks Later 28 Days Later: The Aftermath 28 Days Later (comic series)
Type:	City
Location:	England
Filming location:	London N/A

London is the largest urban area in, and still the de-facto capital of, England and the United Kingdom.

Upon the outbreak of the Rage virus in 2002, the city was quickly overrun by infected, and the police and military were unable to restore control. Loss of life was extremely heavy, both to outright deaths and suicides and to infection.

London layed abandoned for six months before the US Army arrived to begin cleaning out and resettling the city, but upon the start of the Second Outbreak, London quickly reverted to its "ghost town" status.

In 28 Days Later

During the Original Outbreak of the Rage Virus, the Infected had reached and attacked the streets of Central London within a day after the Infection was released in Cambridge. The British Army set up military blockades in London to protect the city against the Infected, but the Infected overran and destroyed the blockades and the military in London was overrun.

London soon fell into chaos, and by Day 14, the military and government had apparently abandoned the city. (28 Days Later: The Aftermath) After London was overrun and Great Britain was quarantined, the city London was left largely deserted, except for the Infected. (28 Days Later (film)) Within a month after the outbreak, all of the Infected in London died of starvation.

28 Weeks Later

London on Day 28 of the original outbreak.

Approximately six weeks after the Infected in London had all died, a NATO force led by the US Army entered London. They converted the Isle of Dogs into a Green Zone of security and reconstruction, where they began to rebuild and repopulate, while armed forces decontaminated the rest of London, which remained in ruins.

However, twenty-eight weeks after the first outbreak, a Second Outbreak of Infection started in the Green Zone, and the Isle of Dogs was subsequently firebombed in an effort to contain and destroy the Rage Virus.

The US Army decontaminating Central London.

However, a large number of Infected avoided the Code Red firebombing of the Green Zone and escaped into the ruined London, respreading the Virus. In response, the US Army vented poisonous gas and sent soldiers with flamethrowers into the city to exterminate the surviving Infected. (28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later (comic series))

It is unknown whether the US Army was able to wipe out the remaining Infected and take back London, or if the Infected overran the ruined city. However, London's desolate state would suggest the latter outcome.

Trivia

• In one shot in 28 Days Later, Big Ben's clock face reads 8:15, but in another shot it reads 6:40; in the 28 Days Later comics, it reads 9:40, and in 28 Weeks Later, it reads 10:03. Without anyone in London to monitor and control the clock in the aftermath of the outbreak of Rage, these changes in time on Big Ben should not have been there.
• Getting London running again after the first Rage virus outbreak, then six months of derelict status, would be an immensely difficult task. A truly staggering amount of work would have to be done just to clean up all the dead bodies and wrecked and abandoned vehicles. Even more would await in dealing with damage to buildings and infrastructure, getting the city's electricity, water, gas and sewer running, and attempting to identify owners of abandoned properties and vehicles, then find out if any of them are still alive. Every single building, every single tube station, every street, alley and yard, would have to be checked.
• The Second Outbreak was a setback so severe London may never recover from it:
  • Not only were the cleanup and decontamination efforts stopped, but the Isle of Dogs was firebombed and the main city gassed. Some types of poison gas leave a residue that can linger for months on exposed surfaces, like the underside of an iron railing or garden gate.
  • A new infected population was released and would have to be accounted for. Next is the political damage; surviving refugees will be less confident that soldiers can really protect them if they return home, having witnessed the massacre of the first group that went back, and civilians in countries that contributed to the NATO expeditionary force that tried reclaiming London will have grieving relatives among them from the first failed attempt.
  • Worst of all, with the infection now spread to mainland Europe, the Rage Virus will have the chance to spread much farther than before without the borders of an island to stop it, so in the worst case scenario all of NATO's European members may be consumed by the virus.
• London is home to numerous foreign embassies and consulates. It is unknown what happened to any of them or anyone inside, but it can be safely assumed that those diplomatic missions were overrun. Given how early London was reached by the first outbreak, the embassies would have had essentially no time to evacuate.