2.8 Hours Later - ZOMBIE!!!

Friday the 28th of September was the big day! Sara, Jack, Iain, and I were finding out whether or not we'd get to be zombies for our volunteer shift with 2.8 Hours Later... I don't know about the others, but I think the only other comparisons to how anxious I was at such news would be; finding out what degree I got (2.1 - WOO) and generally any time I'm at the dentists. I stood with bated breath, my hands covering the majority of my face, waiting while a member of the team searched my name on her computer; she turned to me with an exasperated expression, blew her breath between her teeth and said;

'You're a type two zombie mate!' 

I was overjoyed! Iain and Sara got the same treatment and were just as enthused as I was; though both behaved in a much cooler manner than I did - actually shouting 'YAY' and doing a little dance. Jack was the only none-zombie, but he was happy enough to be a marshal nevertheless. Next we were lead upstairs to start our Zombification, but this was where things got a little sad; Iain - being the tallest man that I know - had trouble with scrubs and was told he couldn't be in the same zone as us. Woe. WOE! So it meant that we had to get separated; Sara and I as type two zombies in zone 9 - with Jack as our marshal/personal photographer/phone minder/general awesome guy - whereas Iain had to be a type one in the garden surrounding the estate agents. Eventually we got over this; got covered in blood, and sat around making hilarious (and I mean HILARIOUS) zombie puns until we were taken to our zone. This is how we looked after a good make over;

Zone 9.

Sara and I were teamed with two other girls; Laura and Beki; both were awesome zombies (I remembered Beki from Wednesday night; terrifying!) on a dingy street just after the survivors had a run in with a girl and her soon-to-turn-zombie boyfriend in the skate park. During our warm up routines of star jumps, jogging on the spot, and generally looking like undead idiots in order to limber up we made friends with some rats. Disgusting! To say that we were meant to be the most fearsome things on that street; we all freaked out as a rat ran past me, hit Sara's foot and did a back flip over it!

Just before the first lot of unfortunate survivors stumbled across our path the full moon came out and cast an even creepier, eerie over us;

And then another for good measure...

It was exhilarating hearing all of the terrified comments from the players/survivors when they got to us; it was really difficult not to smile with each profanity they came out with, but their fear just spurred us on all the more. All of the guttural noises we made were incredible; sucking our breath harshly down our throats that we sounded famished, the horrible splattering of blood that Sara was spitting at people (AMAZING!!), and all of the screams/cries/roars we made sounded like nothing I would've thought any of us could make. 

There are two specific moments/people from that night that stand out; the first being when I ran, limbs flailing, roaring towards a blonde girl; she let out the most blood curdling scream that I have ever heard! It stopped me in my tracks and I couldn't help but watch her, dumbfounded, hold a trembling arm out for me to bite. The second was when a pal of mine, one of my best pals from college, (finally) appeared at the top of our street; I heard my name repeated a few times (and there was me thinking I'd be unrecognisable in the light/zombie attire) and decided to lock on to her; there was no way I was letting her past without a fight! I would not let her pass, having to make lots of zombie noises to stop myself from laughing/smiling while she shouted 'Fuck off Jess! Just fuck off! Ahh!' she was terrified! (I won't lie; I felt awesome at this point!) If it wasn't for the Zombie School Rule of 'Do not tag from the front' I would have sunk my teeth into her with ease! ...but alas, she slipped through my fingers and darted off down the road (seriously; you were a whippet!).

After the final survivors came through our zone we went and had a little rest in the skate park while Joe (our Zone Leader) played around on a skateboard. What a legend. The off back to HQ (Mad Lab in Norther Quarter) to get changed before dragging our shattered zombie arses to the Zombie Disco for a drink, natter, and relax.

10/10

My experience with 2.8 Hours Later was just the best experience of my life. As a survivor; I've never been so terrified yet enjoying myself so much, while being a Zombie was just amazing; I thoroughly miss terrifying people. I won't be hesitating to do it again next year. I implore you all to do it; you won't regret it.

Massive thanks to Slingshot for being so innovative and courageous to make the game and so many others that I am dying to play!

2.8 Hours Later - Survivor Mode

I keep trying to write a really informative opening to this post, but my brain is just shouting at me - over and over again - at just how INCREDIBLE the game was! So there. I've said it! Just WOW!

So, on Wednesday the 26th of September I met Iain on Piccadilly Gardens (where I was pestered by a ridiculous amount of rude people and hobos that wanted beer. Go away. I am not a personal shopper) and took ourselves down to The Engine Room at Hope Mill where I became an absolute wreck due to a combination of excitement, anticipation, and sheer terror - I was about to be chased down by real (well... not really), live (... again; not exactly), flesh eating ZOMBIES! During briefing I received several slaps (demonstrating how the zombies will be able to touch us) and because groups of survivors have to be 6-8 people, Iain and I got put with four random lads - Alex, Tom, Tom, and Steve - received our first co-ordinates and went out into the apocalypse.

Almost instantly we saw some zombies and freaked out! They were type one so it's not like they could have caught us, but we actually ran away screaming like idiots anyway, but not before a survivor told us how she'd lost her husband (possibly at some coordinates) but I couldn't help but feel bad and start offering her help. How she didn't laugh at my genuine concern is worthy of applause. The next place we were sent was a show house, where a man picked Tom and I to be the couple he was 'selling' the house to - let me note that I was NOT happy, in fact, I tried to hide from him (he kept separating us from the rest of the group and I was actually trembling in case a zombie jumped out of a wardrobe) - eventually, after finding out we didn't have a blank cheque, he chucked us out into a garden full of zombies. What a gent. Iain lost his armband; cue me being a total hero and going back to the zombie garden to get it. 

After this we got lost. Eventually, after finding our way back to the church we found the creepiest woman ever, who was also hilarious in my books, requesting a guitar for a sing-a-long (I snorted with laughter) but then we discovered she was chained up and turning! RUN!! Even though she's chained up...

ONWARDS! We found ourselves being ushered into an office building next to Piccadilly Station; oh god... this wasn't going to be good. We had to go up some stairs and my stomach dropped; were we about to be chased up them by blood thirsty zombies?! Turns out; no. We weren't. Thank heavens! However, upon being forced to enter a HUGE room; two, former business men, zombies started chasing us. AHHH!! Running full pelt across the room I thought I was a goner, but thankfully I managed to avoid their clutches and instead Alex had an extremely close call with a zombie, and Iain got bitten. The survivor in this building was rather nasty; even after I complimented his sterling moustache he had the cheek to say I was 'too short' for his looting gang. Well; good day to you sir! Loot I shall!

Market Street was TERRIFYING! And where your trusty narrator received her first, agonising, zombie bite. Oh woe. We stood near the tram stop (after getting lost AGAIN! Cheers Tom) and saw at least nine zombies twitching and shuffling half way down the street; running full pelt into one of the scariest zombies ever (who I also recognised from Zombie School), tried to b-line away from him only to run into the clutches of all the zombies who had already chased the boys all the way down Market Street, where one happily took a chunk out of my arm. CHOMP. A survivor named William (I had to suppress a sob) told us where to go next.

St. Ann's Square involved a game of catch while at least twenty survivors tried to get a Sainsbury's bag surrounded by eight type two zombies; all at the request of an irritatingly quiet survivor who was with-holding the co-ordinates. 'G for Giraffe, or J for Jaguar?!' I had clearly forgotten my phonetic alphabet by this point and was pretty much shouting this at some poor actress clutching a flower stand. I'm obviously not going to be of sound mind should the apocalypse actually happen.

Urbis. A mad scientist was wielding a putrid smelling bottle and led us into a crowd of zombies and then ran away; taking the repellent smell with her. We were ambushed! I managed to trip over another survivor and get bitten anyway. Oh soothe! The next stop was a Skate Park behind Skyline where I managed to fall over yet again (I am absolutely useless) but none of us actually stuck around long enough to here the co-ordinates.

Before we got to our next place we had to run down another street filled with zombies (where I was positioned two days later as a type two zombie! Hooray!). A rather large crowd of players had gathered up at this point; where no one seemed to be daring enough to run through them. '3, 2, 1, CHARRRRGE!!' We all took ONE step and stopped...

The Pub. This was my favourite zone. We had to pound on the door of a derelict pub and wait for the survivor to let us in; she flung the door open brandishing a shovel (causing me to jump back into the boys, who laughed heartily at me). A particular song came on (any Shaun of The Dead fan should know of which song I speak) as she was talking to us followed by a horrific roar; we ran before we even saw the zombie that the roar belong to. 

Survivor Camp. Salvation was heavily guarded by the undead. There was at least a million of them! Ok... I'm being facetious; there was about eight, or ten. Even if we tried to take a detour (that was sign posted) there were even MORE ZOMBIES! One in particular had the most guttural, blood curdling, roar I've ever heard, and he would be the final zombie to bite me. 

(I so wanted this tattooed the minute they put it on it.)

Needless to say that I was a glow stick as I walked through quarantine and was quickly branded with an INFECTED stamp before the change finally happened. Zombie Jess; and Alex, Tom, Iain, and Steve (only Tom survived!) reared our undead, brain hungry, faces for the Zombie Disco. 

 
Possibly The best night of my entire life.