Run For Your Lives! (3 of 3)

Posted by Kurt


He is tall, with very short hair and a generally thoughtful expression.  He wears a tattered suit covered with blood.  She has a beautiful dress, like a glass of champagne, that would be more presentable if not for the occasional bloody stab wound.  Her hair is an enormous frizzy white wig, and it looks like the only part of her costume untouched by blood.  They are ready for prom, and very much in love.  When humans appear, they stand next to each other as they lurch after stragglers, but in their down times, he stands with a hand casually resting on her hip.  In the morning chill, his shredded jacket offers little warmth, but it’s on her shoulders when they don't have to perform.  When her wild hair begins to bother her, he tears a strip of “caution” tape from the end of a barrier so that she can tie it back, and when she wants it to go wild again for a later wave of humans, she ties the tape around her ribs.  In the warmth of the early afternoon sun, they curl up together on the grass, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle.  When a young human woman dashes shrieking through the zombie horde in an.. impractical costume.. the zombie prom date turns to her boyfriend and mutters an observation about the runner’s motivations for her wardrobe choice, then gives him a grin that is made just a bit more charming by the shine of fake blood that covers her jaw, neck, and chest, like she has just aggressively imbibed spiked punch directly from the bowl.  From time to time between waves of runners, the zombies making small talk will glance at the prom couple and confirm to each other that we are all completely in love with them.

Run For Your Lives! (Part 2 of 3)

Posted by Kurt

A young man waits in the staging area before he begins his run.  Jay wears a torn white dress shirt and plaid pants, all stained with fake blood.  He has rubbed mud in his hair and fixed a false laceration along his cheekbone.  As a zombie volunteer in the morning, he perfected a curious pretzel-shaped crouch, with his arms at unnatural and unsettling angles that just happened to be perfect for suddenly snatching at an inattentive runner’s flag, but now his shift is over, and he is ready to experience the other side of the event.  He is an accomplished runner, with experience completing masochistic ultra-marathons and pushing himself for 24 hour races, but this is his first time to dodge zombies on his way through an obstacle course.

Run For Your Lives! (Part 1 of 3)

Posted by Kurt

A strikingly beautiful young woman stands in an open field, with her boots drenched in dew and her arm thrust into the air.  She holds an orange strip of plastic like a macabre trophy for all to see.  She has big pale eyes and bright white teeth, which look even brighter when contrasted with the thick layers of dirt and sticky fake blood all over her face.  She wears an outfit that is the kind of thing a pretty girl wears when she dresses down - boots, but they’re cute Uggs; a jacket and some flannel stained from copious amounts of fake blood, but they fit her very well.  The look, whether she intends it or not, is “sorority girl goes on a wholesome family camping trip and gets infected by the zombie plague,” with the thick bloodstains around her mouth suggesting the fates of her family members.  When she’s in character, stumbling around and groaning, she’s a very scary zombie, hitting you right in the “this could happen to anyone” place in your gut.  Out of character, though, she makes funny jokes about “Lindsey Lohan on a good day” being her favorite zombie, and she drifts through the field of off-duty zombies with a cute friend from home, meeting people and enjoying the excitement of the morning.  

At this moment, though, she has just withstood her first wave of potential human victims, and she has claimed her trophy.  The orange plastic quivers a bit from her excitement, subtly evoking images of a ghoulish Statue of Liberty, and she shouts, “I’m not even a chaser, but that bitch was slow!”