Braaaaains

[pandora_parrot]

If you were a visitor to San Francisco, particularly the Union Square/Chinatown areas yesterday, you were in for a bit of a surprise. Your visit might have gone something like this: (Note: This is a composite story of several real events)

---

Riding the train in, the announcer comes over the radio, "We're sorry, but there's been a medical emergency and we're going to have to divert the train."

Groaning with annoyance, you and the rest of the passengers complain about the way that this is impacting you, and you look idly out the train window. Out of the corner of your eye, perhaps you might have glimpsed what looked like an injured man stumbling down the street. And... was he covered in blood? But the train turns and your view of him suddenly vanishes.

After you disembark from the train, you begin your journey towards Chinatown. As you reach one of your favorite routes, your path is blocked by a scary looking man in military fatigues carrying a machine gun. There are several of them, and they appear to be blocking off several streets.

"Move along. This street is blocked," is the only thing they'll say to you. Behind him, you can see people in hazmat suits wandering around.

What's going on in the city today?

As you pass by the Transamerica pyramid, you might be started to see several people dancing to strange music wearing Guy Fawkes masks. They are carrying signs and clearly protesting something, but you're not sure what. You're headed to Chinatown to do some shopping, so you ignore them and move on.

While shopping you meet a nice blond woman with a duct-tape X on her shirt. Through confused about her fashion sense, you engage in a nice conversation with her. Suddenly, you hear a noise behind you, like a man groaning.

It IS a man groaning! "Oh my god! Is he alright?!" you exclaim. He's covered in blood and his eyes are vacant. His clothing is torn and he is shambling forward like he's been hurt. You run over to him to see if he needs help.

"Braaaaaaains" is the only thing he says.

You ask again if he needs assistance, but he just groans and walks past you. A bump from behind, and you turn around to see a woman in much the same state as the man that just walked past. Blood is running down her face and she is also aimlessly stumbling forward. You have just a moment to catch your breath when suddenly you hear a scream.

It's the blond woman you were talking to earlier! The bloody man is chasing her, and she's running away! He catches her in the middle of the street and begins to... to GNAW ON HER!?! The bloody woman that was behind you shambles over as well and knocks the blond woman to the ground. A moment later, a whole swarm of blood covered, clothing torn people surround the woman and... and... Are they EATING her?!!

You can't see her anymore. Her screaming stops. The crown begins to disperse.

The blond woman is still there, and it looks like she's getting up. Oh, relief!

But... something is wrong. There is a puddle of blood on the ground where she was laying, and it looks like she has a gash in her head. Blood is running down her hair and the side of her face. And... it sounds like...

She begins to moan like the others and shamble forward. In fact, she joins a crowd that is shambling towards YOU.

You back into the window of the store, confused and scared about what's going on, as the crowd of... "zombies?" passes you by. Looking up and down the street, they fill the sidewalk as far as the eye can see. You watch as a blood spattered dog walks past carrying someone's arm, followed closely by a one armed woman. Hundreds of people, covered in blood go shambling past, their only words being "braaaaaaainnnnnnnns."

After a little while, it is over, and they have passed. Where they came from, blood is everywhere. It covers the street, the windows of stores, everywhere.

What is going on in this town?!

---

This was the BEST. ZOMBIE. ATTACK. EVER. The fact that there was an actual terrorist attack simulation (more here) going on at the same time as the zombies was incredible. You can get some pics of the zombies from a previous year and from this year.

It was wild. I got attacked over by the Scientologist protests and infected by the zombie hoard. People didn't know what to make of us. Some were laughing. Some were scared. Some were annoyed or disgusted. Some were confused. Although I disapprove of it, some folks were committing minor acts of public vandalism, attacking busses and storefronts, leaving bloody handprints all over them. It was wild to be a part of all that, watching the whole thing happen. For my part, I just shambled around and looked zombie like.

And the fact that they were actually diverting trains and blocking off streets was just icing on the cake. What serendipitous luck. Apparently, some zombies were walking past the hazmat teams and the armed soldiers at one point. The soldiers were freaked out, and one asked the crowd, "What the fuck is going on here?"

*nods* An amazing day, I must say. And now I'm up at 3 AM to go hunt photographs with the lovely foxgrrl. See ya!

Here's my photos from the event

Zombie Attack 08

Comments

[chaoticset.livejournal.com]

Note to anarchist groups: If you wish to make federal employees say "What the fuck is going on here?", fake a zombie attack.

ZOMG ZOMBIES OW MMM YUMMY BRAINS

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

Totally awesome!

When we had our first nightclub of the living dead down at the club we organised a zombie shuffle through the mall it's located in. Someone slipped the security guys some cash to play the music from Dawn Of The Dead. But having military dudes involved is fantastic.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

oh... they weren't involved intentionally.

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

I know but kewl all the same.

I wrote my reply on the way to the local IMAX to see Kung Foo Panda (awesome), But in the store there they had this.

http://www.baronbob.com/flesheatingzombie-actionfigure.htm

And this.

http://www.baronbob.com/horrifiedbmovieactors-actionfigure.htm

I thought it was so serendipitous.

[changingone77.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's just awesome.

[sunlightlotus.livejournal.com]

I.. just.dont.get.it.

Must be a west coast thing.

[osakadensetsu.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's pure awesome timing.

Sounds like comedy!

[gtonizuka.livejournal.com]

.....though I fear for their safety if I even THOUGHT I saw this going on. We're talking a combination of impro-parkour, martial arts, and District B13 if I saw someone get bitten with no warning.

Re: Sounds like comedy!

[(Anonymous)]

Uh huh. See. I was just gonna say, I'm so glad we didn't go downtown that day. Man, I would've needed bail money.