2.8 HOURS LATER.

The rather late zombie post! My friend Alyna's boyfriend knows the guy that wrote the script for a little something called 2.8 hours later. The website says 'Run. Understand that at every moment you are being hunted; by zombies, by police, by vigilantes. Starting from a secret border location, you are issued with a map and the address of the first location you must reach, somewhere in your quarantined city. Each location will immerse you further into the world of 2.8, where being bitten by a zombie doesn't just mean infection, it could mean quarantine. As you journey further into the game you uncover clues to the location of the mysterious Asylum. Once there, you will be scanned for infection – if you are infected you are transformed into one of the zombie horde. Asylum is a place of refuge for the infected and non infected alike, where both can live in harmony and get down at the Zombie Disco – THE party at the end of the world.'

Basically, a company called Slingshot took over Leeds (I'm talking the mall, carparks, the university buildings, random bus depots, alleys - the lot), and pretended that there was a zombie apocalypse going down. We were given a map at the start, and the co-ordinates to ONE checkpoint, then at that check point we got the co-ordinates for the next one. If you get through all of the checkpoints, you'll eventually get to the asylum and be quarantined or freed....

During our game, we started in an abandoned car park (okay, it was just late at night and no one was there, but it wasn't abandoned), gave our tickets to two very rude ladies (whom I started up a conversation about nail varnish with and eventually won them over) got given a green arm band, and prepared ourselves for a brief. The arm bands, although highly attractive, are essential to the game; the zombies know they can chase after you if you're wearing a band - if you aren't, you're an innocent member of the public and did not sign up for the fun. 

ZOMBIE FIGHTERS READY, Eley above, Aly below

My team consisted of Eley, Rosi, James, Rod, Helen.and two girls we didn't know. After the first check point Helen was too freaked out to continue (they had been misguided - you can't trust those check point helpers! - and sent down a tunnel FILLED with zombies), so she went home and we continued on. Lots of running and walking on - I had been caught by a pretend policeman who knew I was an illegal (cause I didn't have papers - yeah, it's all part of the storyline) and lots of zombies chased us. Someone lead us through the mall to a loading bay that had some very quick and angry zombies and also, at there were a few alley's we simply had to sprint through. It was tiring but you had so much adrenaline pumping you didn't care - you just wanted to get to the end! 

 

Upon reaching the last alley, I was too tired. I also actually WANTED to be made up as a zombie (why pay and play to not?), so I decided I was fair game and only jogged the final stretch. This meant I was caught and infected (marked with a UV pen), and when going through quarantine marked as infected.

 

James was brave enough to film and run, so here's a little snapshot of the last alley we had to clear. I am second on the right but you can barely see me! 

All in all it was a GREAT experience, I'm so glad I went and would urge anyone who is kind of interested to go along for the ride, it was funny in places and down right scary in others. Just perhaps do a bit of fitness training first ;)