What Kept Me Outdoors Last October 19, 2013

Yep! That's right. I survived the Zombie Outbreak. Hah! Almost. LOL.

Lemme tell the tale from the beginning so you would understand what I'm talking about, and why am I in hilarious pain right now. (It really is hilarious since I always find myself laughing at how pathetic I've become :-D)

Now, onto the story. Forward Ho!

One fateful day, I agreed to join the rest of my teammates to run for the Outbreak. It's a fun run that's made even fun-er since there will be zombies running after you or blocking your way. You need to put in extra effort since your goal isn't just finishing the race, rather, finishing it ALIVE!

Yep. Alive! 

Here we are cam whoring before the race. Well, the girls. :)

Each participants are granted with three lives. The lives being, screaming three red flags stapled on a dog leash-like belt that you need to put around your waist which the zombies are so bent on taking from you. You need to protect it to stay alive.

This is how the flags look like. We strategically hid them under our shirts to give the zombies a hard time snatching them away. Sounds genius right? It wasn't allowed. We were ordered to expose them. Not doing so will signify that we are already infected. >__<

So then, three lives dangling by our waists, racing hearts (from fear, excitement, or both), we run like maniacs when the soldiers gave the go signal.

So I run. Run. Run. After ten, yep, TEN quick big steps, I fell flat on the hard cement. Hoorah! But as I am so into the moment, my mind was like, “Get up and run!” Get up and run is what I did. Hah! I feel proud of myself for this. But then, two more steps and I am yet again face to face with the rough and cold cement road. So much for being fit and healthy there, lady.

Again I fall, again I stand. And run! Oh, boy did I run as if I wasn't bleeding at all. I just wanna get to the safe area and get this over with. Luckily, I did reached the first safe area on my two feet. By this time, I was racing for breath and the thought that this is just the first run, I started thinking if I can finish the race at all.

I saw my teammates and regrouped with them. We waited for our remaining teammates to arrive before continuing on. But before that, they succeeded on having the medics check on my wounds. Uh-huh! WOUNDS. A big one on my left elbow, another pretty scratch near my left hip bone, and a huge scratch on my left knee. Let's not ignore the scratch on my watch that's on my left wrist, another scratch on the heel of my left palm.

 Here are my knees side by side. Taken from my phone. Pardon the quality. :)

Near my left hip bone.

Hooray! :D

Now lemme share an interesting insight. All of my wounds are on the left side, well, I have small scratches on the right side of my body i.e. elbow and hipbone but that is just because I rolled over after falling. Sounded like an action star, eh? Haha! But yeah, that's what I did. After falling, I saw a Zombading approaching me and so I have to quickly get up and get away. But you know what happened – I fell yet again. Pssshh. XD

Back to the interesting insight I was talking about. If you're a right handed person, chances are, you would fall on your left side. Same goes for left handed people, they are likely to fall on their right side. I reached this hypothesis after seeing that Joycie and Faye (both left handed) both fell on their right knees whereas Feya and I (both right handed) fell on our left side. Interesting, right? Haha!

Now, onto the second part of the race. All patched up, we walked. This time, the atmosphere is calm and no zombies in sight. Yet.

Up ahead, on the dimmest area, zombies lie in wait for us. Time to run! But inside my head, and I think I said this aloud, I go; “It's dark, there's no way they'll know where our flags are so there's no need to sprint, or is there?”

But yeah, we run. Sir Albert leading us, we run past the horde and arrived safely on the second safe area. Lemme just note that my left hand grew numb after Barbie held onto it so tightly. Haha! I am really thankful to this girl for looking after me. She held on me tighly because she's afraid I might fall again. I'm that much of a bother, huh? But yeah, thank you thank you so much! I felt safe. ^_____^

Second safe area. A soldier is waiting for us. He then gave us two options. To go to E-17 and deliver a message to one of his comrade. Successfully doing so will grant our team 3-4 extra lives. By this time, some of us have already lost some of their lives so the idea sounded sweet. But, the area may or may not be infested. That, or we can take the fast route to L-11.

The race is more than just running away from zombies, it was filled to the brim with a lot of decision making. Body and mind racking, I tell you.

The team decided to take the challenge and deliver the message. For extra lives, what else?

Gingerly, we turned left and scoured the area. One man, a runner, or so he seems by how steady he runs, went on ahead and went back to call for his teammates, announcing that the place is clear. Remember what the soldier said? The area may or may not be infested. And so, after hearing him say that, we also went on only to be ambushed by zombies hiding behind the plant boxes. So much for heart racing surprises. Well, the race is so full with that.

After seeing the zombies appear right in front of our eyes, we run and run back to the safe area. When we regrouped, some of my teammates got some of their lives snatched while mine remains three. I ain't giving you mine! Bleh!

Tired from running, and our adrenaline pumping, we walked to L-11. Sore asses that we have. LOL!

This time, we are headed to the mall. But before entering, a soldier who seemed to have gone wacko was sitting while leaning on a post. He was made up to look like a zombie himself although he doesn't attack us. He just stayed sitting there, his body wrapped around with a rope, and around his neck is a cardboard which I fail to remember what was said. Haha!

Here's a photo of him.

But he's chanting; “Do not trust the Orange. Orange will kill you!” on and on that upon reaching the third safe place and before entering the mall, we made a double take when we saw a man in Orange, note that, ORANGE coveralls.

Now, we are again faced with a situation. The soldier said not to trust the Orange and that the Orange will kill us. And yet here is an Orange (he actually resemble Annoying Orange btw). And lemme just say that Mr. Orange is a great actor. Well, even that crazy soldier is. Mr. Orange, though smiling, he exude this sinister aura that made you doubt whatever he's telling you. He's THAT effective. Applause to all of you! :)

Christian volunteered to look for an alternate route but came back with nothing. So, in we went to the mall. We are trusting the Orange.

Eyes wandering around the mall, trying to look for zombies that might be hiding and planning a surprise attack, our senses are all perked up.

Farther inside, more Oranges awaited us. Again, they made us decide. Give them one of our lives and take the easy way out, or turn right and try to pass through blind zombies. Now, this is the the part where it gets exciting. Since they are blind, you just have to be extremely quiet lest you want them to hear you and attack you.

I love this because for the first time since the race started, we aren't running away from them. We get to walk near and in between them just as long as we keep our mouths shut. The Black Swan, and Spider Man are amongst these blind zombies. Hah! Was it so fun when one of the staffs intentionally created a noise that startled the participants but we remained quiet. Again, Barbie was holding on to me. :)

After successfully getting past those blind zombies, we met yet another Orange and warned us that the set of zombies far ahead are deaf. This time, we need to imitate them to blend in. Woah! Here goes my acting skills that apparently, amuses Barbie and the rest of my team. Well, I wanna be a zombie, not the real zombie, but I want to act like a zombie next time. Just grabbing the chance, ya know! XD

Back hunched, left arm dangling, I limp and dragged my left (injured) leg and chat with some of the zombies that come my way. They're deaf anyways, as long as I'm acting like one of them, I can have some fun, right? Haha!

We're all feeling good and excited after that round. We got to take some rest from running. This is a smart move on the organizers' part. Since running inside the mall can be greatly dangerous, setting up blind and deaf zombies that participants can safely pass with is a great idea. Plus, we get to rest. We are already anticipating the hoard of “normal” zombies that are waiting for us upon exiting the mall.

Another Orange came and told us that this here, is a crucial moment of the game. (We proved afterwards that this is indeed so.)

We are allowed to give off lives to our teammates. I offered mine since I still have three but I was ignored. OTL

So yeah, we moved on. We were instructed to be careful who we listen to. That statement alone is enough to set our minds at work of the possible scenarios that are awaiting us.

But before that, take a look at my team. Tough looking people, aren't they? XD

For the most part of the game, men in yellow were the ones guiding us the way. They always point where to go next. Well this time, the man himself is pointing at two different directions. Ya! How can you do that? You're supposed to guide us! Aigoo..

Part of the game. I know. :)

Another one of those seemingly crazy characters played his role and delivered his lines with so much plausible acting skills. Hands down to all of you.

So, yeah, both of them are wearing the orange coveralls all the past scouts are wearing. But the ropes tied around their bodies and lack of calm in their demeanor, (add to that the loss of control on their salivary glands LOL) set them apart and made them an interesting and equally confusing characters of the game.

The first man told us to hear what the second man has to say. He's begging that we hear him out. And so, we went to listen to what he has to say.

He told us of the evil plans of Dr. Adarna, and that if and when we went up the stairs to the right, we will then be instructed to go down and out the delivery area. A hoard of zombies is awaiting for us there. What's worse, at the end of the line, Dr. Adarna himself is waiting for us; awaiting new recruits for his evil plans. We are to be experimented on. But that is if we went that way.

Now, we can climb up the other way, go down and out from another exit and face a different fate. According to him, we should go that way to save ourselves from being experimented on and for us to truly survive.

Again, another crucial moment that needed utmost decision making. So what did we do? Rock-Paper-Scissors. That's right. I mean, what's more intelligent and accurate way to decide important matters than using Rock-Paper-Scissors, right? I suggested the idea, by the way. Haha!

And so, through that intellectual method, we decided to go where he instructed us not to. After all, he's a wacko. Why should we trust him?

Forward we marched, up the escalator, and stood face to face with yet another sane-looking man (he's kinda cute though XD) in Orange and told us to go down and out the delivery area (exactly as the earlier man said). Another thing though, this man here told us to just continue going down and do no talk to anybody else.

We kept that in mind and ignored the man that told us to go back up and get away from that area as we descend.

Now, down the delivery area, we saw two other people in Orange coveralls. The other one is a woman, and the other, a man. Both could pass up to be models though, just an observation.

These two people are holding plastics of pink powder in one of their hands and told us that we needed to let them put that pink powder on our foreheads to signify that we are clear of the virus. But since we're keeping in mind what the man upstairs told us (to not talk to anybody else), we ignored them both and just went past them.

Lo and behold! A hoard of zombies waiting for us! So much for accuracy on the side of the last insane-looking Orange we talked to. Ugh!

By this time, Christian is telling us that it's not yet too late to come back up and take the other route. Their number is that alarming that we contemplated on taking a hundred and eighty turn and come back up.

We were dilly dallying and testing the zombies whether they will run after us or just remain standing on their spots. And again, they surprised us. One of the zombies showcased some of his acrobatic skills, then got up on his feet, and went on full sprint. After us. We run. Yet again, we run. But went back to test them again. 

This time, when the zombies started to run after us, the rest of my team went on ahead, running and avoiding them to protect their remaining lives. While being the chicken that I am, I ran back and away. When I turned to look for my team, they are nowhere to be found. OMO! I have to take care of this situation alone then, huh?

I waited for more participants to gather around and run alongside them. Heh! One way to survive this is to have a lot of people around you and confuse the zombies who to run after. So yeah, I run and run and get past each of the zombies salivating for my lives. Muwahahah!

I can feel that the race is almost over. And with my three lives still intact, I felt a great sense of pride. Hah! Only, since the people I am running along with is a group, they stick with each other. What happened? I was left alone on the other side. And so, the cool looking zombie with a really nice mask on picked the small and alone girl that happened to be me. TT_____TT

He took one of my lives. Huhu. Only now did I realize that he didn't just took one of my lives, he also ripped the lower part of my shirt. Aigoo...

Here am I boasting the two lives that I successfully kept safe. Look at the lower right part of my shirt on the right. It's ripped ain't it? I just noticed that after seeing this photo. Had to check the shirt when I get home. My poor shirt, why must you be victimized? TT_____TT

Back with my team and with two lives left, we met up with Dr. Nefario err.. Dr. Adarna himself, congratulating us for successfully... successfully adding up to his pawns for experimentation. So the crazy orange guy has been telling the truth. We all failed the mission. Huhu.

Again, we thought of coming back. Which also means, running past that same hoard of zombies to get back up and out the other way. But, some of our teammates already lost all their lives. So, yeah. We are all sore losers! LOL!

We get inside the “lab”, surrender our remaining flags, and claimed the dog tag that says, “Outbreak Survivor.”

Well, we failed the mission but we succeeded on something else: We stayed alive! So the dog tag is a token for keeping the flags safe. Haha!

Everybody hopped in the van and were drove back to the starting/finish line. Photo ops with zombies, claim our “Survival is a choice” t-shirt, changed, and marched out to calm our raging stomachs.

On the way, we saw a horde of zombies. But this time, we're on peaceful grounds. LOL! We waved at them and they waved back as if we're old friends passing by each other on the street. And while all we do was wave goodbye at them, Honey ran to the other side of the street and asked for a photo. Wow, I wish I did the same. It looks so Jjang! Nice one! :D

Ah, my whole body is sore and it's past one in the morning already. We were running for more than two hours! Wow!

But yeah, the whole experience was really fun. I might be scratched, bruised, can feel my elbow throbbing, and my legs aching, but I really feel light and happy. Hah! The walking contradiction that I am. :)

Thank you to everyone whom I shared this unique experience with!

Sir Albert, for being the fine leader that you really are. You always go ahead to check the perimeter for us. Thank you! To Honey, for being tough and always going on ahead. And yep, for being our pretty camera woman. LOL!

Barbie! For keeping me company and making sure I don't fall flat on my face again. Haha! Jeongmal kamsamnida, Baruebi-ya! >_____< 너무 너무 감사합니다! While I was running for my life and making sure I went out alive, you were looking after a fallen comrade. Such a big heart! I'm happy to meet and befriend you. :-D

Christian, Aubrey, Jom, Joycie, Faye, Feya, Ate Ayoy and boyfriend, thank you for sharing this tiring but ultimately fun experience with me. So, how does making this an annual ritual sound? I promise not to fall next time. Well, at least not after just ten steps onto the race. I'll work hard to reach twenty next time. Hahahah!

Here we are donning our "SURVIVAL IS A CHOICE" T-shirt.

Thank you guys!

나는 너무 재미 있었다! ^_____^

creds to Honey/Sir Albert for the photos! :)