6. Don and Alice - 28 Weeks Later
I tried to go back. She was already gone. Another appearance in my previous articlewas the everyman, Jim, from 28 Days Later. He wakes up late to the apocalypse but is quick to adapt to the new world. He learns all of its dos and donts and generally gets to grips with survival against the zombies and the arguably much more dangerous living. So its quite fitting to me that I include Don and Alice from 28 Weeks Later, who, despite the longer time period, fail to learn such valuable lessons. Alice is a kind hearted girl who just wants to help, but this eventually leads to the cottage they are staying at being swarmed and her fellow survivors being made a Sunday roast by a passing horde. Don, whoever, is even more the fool. He makes the difficult decision of abandoning her near the start - bad for their relationship but at least hes a survivor. Then, when it turns out Alice is an asymptomatic carrier and has survived, he sneaks into her quarantined cell and breaks every rule of zombie infection in one quick snog, aptly turning into a zombie, gouging his beloveds eyes out and creating a fresh horde to devastate nearly twenty four weeks of work. People have tried to rationalise his actions but I dont see it: he knows full well his wife is infected, that he is not immune and that a fumbled kiss of an apology will result in disaster. Yet he does it anyway. If Max Brooks Survival Guide had a section on Romancing with the Dead, he would have broken (nearly) every rule.