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.
No comments:
Post a Comment