Zombie app mixes scary movie thrills with real-world running
— -- You stretch, put on your headphones, and take a jog, hoping it will be the run of your life.
But within 100 yards, you're hearing creeping guttural breaths and groans that aren't your own.
Now you're running for your life. But from what?
Just when you thought the only thing deader than zombies was another storyline about zombies, another one emerges. However, this one — an app called "Zombies, Run!" — will likely leave you breathless and your body a fraction of what it was.
"I realized I could run a lot longer than I thought I could because I was having fun," says runner Laura Means. "It's the adrenaline. I remember the first time I ran I was like 'I'm going to be done,' and there was a very climatic ending to the first episode and I ran an extra 20 minutes because I was just amped. . . . I liked the idea of a game that only lets you progress if you actually exercise."
Whether used in a park, on a treadmill, or by a creepy abandoned building, this narrated game places real-world runners in a post-apocalyptic world where they must outrun zombies and collect supplies to keep themselves and the rest of humanity alive.
"It starts screwing with your head," Means, 25, says. "Stupid little tricks that I know they do in movies . . . like cracking branches and moans get steadily louder . . . and when they're chasing you, there's radar blips and you're like 'Oh, shoot!'"
Performed by professional actors, the story plays out in one- to two-minute acts scattered throughout the music play lists runners already have on their devices.
"I get annoyed with the songs," says Means, a counselor in Mount Holly, N.J. "I want the song to be over. I want to find out what happens, and this is my own play list."
Her play list fits the mood, with such power tracks as Cake's "I Will Survive," The Beatles' "Help" and Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."
Like other social exercise apps like The Nike+ Running App — which allows friends to leave comments on your Facebook account which are verbally read to you through earphones — Means heard about "Zombies, Run!" through Facebook.
"(A) friend of a friend was raving that he spent the best $8 of his life, and never ran before," Means, 25, says. Still, Means wasn't fond of running. "And I've never liked zombies," Means says. "Ever."
Then her friend Jesse had her watch Shawn of the Dead.
"And I still didn't get it," Means says. "So he decided that he was going to give me a class on zombies."
After sitting through classics by director George A. Romero, some remakes, bad '80s horror comedies and even Evil Dead The Musical, Means was transformed to full zombie devotee.
"I really enjoyed the idea of what people would do in a post-apocalyptic setting," she says, while acknowledging "There isn't much to get, really. Every zombie story has the same basic outline."
See Zombies. Flee Zombies.
Each mission a runner embarks upon is about a half hour and there are currently 30 missions available. Every mission brings you closer to uncovering the mystery of how zombies came to populate this world.
"Zombies, Run!" employs a form of sprint-interval training used by many athletes; joggers are spurred to run quickly with adrenaline-rushing alerts that zombie are near and getting closer. Sprint away or fear losing valuable virtual items.
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