2.8 Hours of fun in Bermondsey

by Katya Chatterjee

★★★★★

Southwark’s Bermondsey Square is cloaked in a spooky chill on Halloween weekend as zombies casually stroll through the streets. A line of raggedy camouflage-streaked Londoners snake around the square, sipping energy drinks with scarves tied around their heads.

Their safety will be at peril for the next 2.8 hours as they make the arduous journey to ‘Resistance HQ’, the final space free from the recent zombie epidemic afflicting London. Their mission: to stay alive! And so we start '2.8 Hours Later', the massive game of zombie-tag spanning across south London.

We should have really followed the lead of those limbering up and doing yoga stretches at the start-line, rather than mocking them. This challenge wasn’t for the faint-hearted.

The exhilarating chase took us through areas of London you wouldn’t normally see by day: a terrifying abandoned car park with zombies hiding in every stairwell, a mad butcher’s lair under a railway bridge and a darkened zombie-infested pub where, despite our best laid plans, our mad dash out the door was foiled as we got trapped against the inward-opening exit. Mock if you will, but it’s funny how your mind gets tricked into believing it’s all real.

On arrival at Resistance HQ – an elaborate construction in Hotel Elephant – the infected, which sadly included both reporter and photographer, had no choice but to be isolated from the rest of the healthy population.

Following rigorous screening while being barked at by men in biohazard suits, we were herded into a room to be ‘zombified’, after which we were let loose into the Zombie Disco!

Our timing was impeccable as almost on arrival, the first howls of Thriller started to play, and my life-long dream of being in a room with zombies dancing in time – for the most part – to Michael Jackson’s epic tune, was finally realised. The drinks menu at the party played to the theme with reasonably priced ‘infected’ cocktails for the undead and ‘serum’ for the rest.

2.8 Hours Later was the first such ‘zombie-tag’ night planned for London. It was a massive hit, proved by the broad, manic smiles on everyone’s faces as they ran for their lives.

The Bristol-based organising company, Slingshot, has six more thrilling events planned in London for the coming year, which, if they are anything like this, would be a shame to miss.