Few things can claim to be as culturally relevant today as our current obsession with zombies and the end of the world. This is no more obvious than from the stellar ratings that AMC’s “The Walking Dead” receives with every episode, coupled with the sales of its comic book basis, and then fan conventions that take place all over the country dedicated solely to the zombie craze. We’ve even made fantasizing about the zombie apocalypse a normal thing as zombie themed target sheets are some of the best selling accessories for gun sports, in addition to entire TV shows based around people getting ready for the end of the world. Now, “The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman has taken our obsession to a new level with The Walking Dead Escape obstacle course, a test of endurance for fans that wish to subject themselves to just a slice of what the end of days could be.
Having read “The Zombie Survival Guide” from cover-to-cover upon its release and played well over 300 hours of the Left 4 Dead games, I couldn’t wait to see whatever was going to greet me inside Philips Arena in Atlanta, but let me tell you firsthand, no video game can prepare you for what Skybound EXP have put together. This is no walk in the park, and it will require you to be in at least some form of physical shape before attempting.
After checking in and receiving my credentials I made my way to the entrance and secured a spot in the next wave of survivors that were going to make the run. I was ready. I’d been pumping myself up the entire journey there and I was convinced no zombie was going to get the better of me, that’s when the sky got dark and the thunder rang out. The rain didn’t even spend any time warming itself up either, it was a downpour from the start. If you’re going to have a zombie apocalypse you might as well go all out and let the elements participate.
Eventually we were lead inside and after a brief safety explanation, where they assured us that what we were about to experience was in fact not real, we were shepherded into a large army tent. Only a few rows of people stood in front of me, but we were packed inside, had this been a real zombie outbreak we all would have been dead meat. An Army guy at the front of the tent picked up his loudspeaker and started to set us all straight, down a path to hell that is.
“At some point in the late hours of last night or early this morning, what we all had believed to be science fiction has appeared to become real. We do not understand these events but we do know that it is not safe to stay in a major metropolitan area. As you’ve probably seen on the news, all of the major cities in the world appear to have fallen to the same circumstance as Atlanta. I need you to stay close to your friends and family, if you get separated I cannot guarantee your safety…”
He continued, but I was too ready to get the chase going to keep listening, that was when a scream erupted from the back of the tent and all the alarms started going off. They opened the front of the tent and we were off. As expected everyone was running at full blast, and there were a number of walkers peppered throughout the opening. Eventually I rounded a corner and found the path lead outside, where it was still pouring down rain, we ran through a collection of broken down cars while a young man who was quickly becoming walker food shouted “Save yourselves!” You better believe we did.
Right across the street from the arena was the entrance to a parking garage. I trudged down the steps and through the empty lot, eventually finding more walkers blocking the path that was also littered with police barricades requiring one to either maneuver around them or hop over. Following this rather easy obstacle was an overturned chain link fence. I watched as one person in front of me crawled under it and was ensnared by the walker laying on top. Not wanting to be so quickly grabbed by one of the dead I dove under the fence but out of her reach, resulting in the first of many injuries I would sustain.
The path continued down into the parking garage but eventually lead us underneath a highway and up a ramp to a series of school buses waiting for us in the rain. I could hear the iconic music from the climax of 28 Days Later playing in my head. At this point we had to climb through the back of the bus, but it took some folks longer than others to get inside so a line started to form. A girl in front of me grabbed the rail and tried to hoist herself up, but couldn’t make it on her own. Someone behind me shouted “Help her!” so myself and this girl’s friend lifted her up and pushed her in the bus. I felt like a hero. I climbed into the bus, completely soaked and was met with a lone walker on the inside. I hoped over the seats to make it past him.
I jumped out of the bus and ran towards the second one, which featured a few more members of the dead among its ranks. While a few dummies sat in the seats there were a few squirmers reaching out for a bite of me, but I wouldn’t let ’em have it. The bus had been previously backed up to a loading dock leading back into the arena. At this point I took my glasses off, thinking I could do it without them and having no dry part of my clothing to clean them with, but then I rounded the corner and couldn’t tell the walkers from the volunteers. Better put my eyes back on.
Here was when the location came into play for the course as we were lead directly onto the basketball court at Philips Arena. A medical outpost had been constructed on the center which, as you can imagine, had been overrun by zombies. Following my debut as a Forward for the Atlanta Hawks were went down another hallway which forced us to crawl through some chain link tunnels, totally surrounded by walkers. As I exited the first one a volunteer standing at the entrance of the second tunnel shouted “Look out behind you!” and foolishly I looked, as soon as I turned to face forward I got slapped in the face by a rubber arm hanging from the entrance.
After conquering the tiny tunnels and getting a face full of a dead appendage came the most terrifying part of The Walking Dead Escape. No, not a heard of walkers. The stairs. It was at this point that we had to go up six flights of stairs, which doesn’t sound like a lot on its own but remember this was after running from zombies in the rain, down hallways, and in buses for probably half a mile thus far. When you get to the top there is a very convenient check point where volunteers are waiting with water cups (this part may or may not actually happen during the real apocalypse). What helped make this interlude in the course still feel like part of the experience was that TV’s in the area were showing newscasts dedicated to the end of the world, a definite nice touch.
Down some more stairs and through a few more hallways with walkers scattered to and fro, this was when The Walking Dead Escape really started to feel like an apocalypse trial run. The group that had begun the event together was totally scattered. I was alone with a pair of girls both in front of and behind me by a few feet but other than that there was no one. The ambient music playing over loudspeakers inside the arena seeped through into the hallways, some of which weren’t lit at all, and made your hair stand on edge. Thunder boomed outside and lightning cracked right by the windows. Running all that length, crawling under barricades, and traversing all those stops had successfully worn me out, and that’s what would end up proving deadly if this were a grand work of fiction, just how tired and defenseless the situation had left me.
The path lead to another stairwell, this time going down thankfully, and at the bottom a man in a SWAT uniform stopped myself and the pairings of girls in front of and behind me saying:
“The walkers are outisde. They can hear you, they can smell you. When we tell you to go you’re going to get low and go straight across the hallway.”
“The boy can go first,” one of the girls said.
Way to sell out a stranger lady.
I stepped up to the plate in the moment though and took point on our next excursion, which once again lead us outside into the nasty rain and back inside where we were met with, once again, more stairs. Only four flights this time, but my being the defacto leader of this group at that point I went up first and called out when I saw the final set.
The final hallway of the event was almost the least memorable, save for the mazes that had been set up one just a set of fences with a black tarp covering them and the other a collection of cardboard boxes all stacked up to block your way, but that was when the most surreal part of the experience happened: the quarantine zone. After arriving at the end there was once again a giant group of people standing around waiting to exit. Bodybags surrounded us, spelling out what was surely an omen for much of the group. Military folks walked around and periodically would take someone from the crowd and send them to the front of the line, seemingly for no reason. So I put up a stink.
“Why are they only taking girls??”
A short older woman wearing a surgical mask approached me and shouted “You want to go? GO! By yourself!”
I’ve done this whole thing by myself lady, what makes this part any different?
I stand in front of another military tent. They unzip it and push me inside where I’m surrounded by ten or so scientists all wearing hazmat suits. One of them inspects my eyes and throat before sending me into another room. I sit on a small stool with another doctor in front of me.
“What’s your name? First and last.”
“Spencer Perry.”
“Have you come in contact with the infected?”
“Maybe,” I stammered. I don’t know why I lied to him. We both knew the answer to this question and yet I was so caught up in the moment and didn’t want to get told the bad news.
He looked at my arms with some kind of light.
“You’re showing signs,” he said. “There might be another way.”
He rubbed a sponge on my arm and poked me with a fake needle.
“You can be cured.”
That was when the other doctor walked over and put a gun to my head.
“God forgive me,” he shouted.
He pulled the trigger and I felt a little push from the barrel of the gun on the side of my temple.
“No! He could have been saved!”
That was when I started to think maybe I had gotten infected over the course of The Walking Dead Escape.
And like that, it was over. I had conquered the entirety of the obstacle course but it wasn’t enough, in the narrative of the event I ended up as just another body on the pile.
So how is it you might be wondering? It’s exhausting. Even now as I write this my legs are still sore from all of the stairs. Forget Crossfit, The Walking Dead Escape is the only workout you really need. If you’re hoping to attend the event in the hopes of getting scared, don’t bother, it’s not in the least bit scary, except for making one realize just how out of shape you really are. On the flip side, if you want to try something out that is a well thought out endurance test with unique challenges that you won’t normally find, by all means give it a whirl. It’s a wicked fun time, though I’m not sure the full price for admission ($75 for survivors) would be entirely worth the 25 minute leg workout. Unless you’re completely masochistic.
At the end of the event I made my way outside of the arena. The rain was still coming down but it had stopped showering with the same ferocity that it had been during my adventure. I stumbled down to the subway station and waited for the train. That was when I was struck by the core theme of “The Walking Dead” that somehow made its way into the obstacle course: Survival isn’t easy. You have to fight for every minute of it, and in the end it may not be the dead that claim you. I was exhausted, drenched, and ready for food, but if this really were the zombie apocalypse I wouldn’t have the luxury of getting a hot meal or the knowledge that soon I’d be safe on my own couch. That was when, despite any of the times I may have wished for it, I decided I never wanted the zombie apocalypse to happen. You might think you want it, but you really don’t, and if you’re still not convinced, try out The Walking Dead Escape. It will make you thankful for civilization.
For more information on The Walking Dead Escape, and to find out when it’s coming to a town near you, click here!
