"When there's no more room in hell, then the dead will walk the earth"
Dawn of the Dead (1978)

To be honest, neither of the two authors had previously attended a Survival Zombie event and, although we had a picture of what it was about, we did not exactly know what the general conditions were that made these events.

We started researching the WRG web site (www.worldrealgames.com), the organizers of this "VodafoneYu Survival Zombie" event where, in addition to the FAQs about what is allowed or not, we saw other activities that drew our attention: "The Predator Hunt" or events like "Skirmish" centered around "Softcombat". Interesting activities of which some of them can be combined with airsoft players.

Tickets could be bought in two shops in the city; a comic book shop near the city centre and the Hobbyairsoft store, specialized in airsoft equipment located in the nearby town of Alhendín (in Granada, southern Spain).

However, the weeks went by without any more information except for what our feverish minds were imagining, so we started searching on YouTube for other events. We made a list of the equipment we needed: comfortable clothing, communication gear, belt flashlights, chemical lights, energy gel and muesli bars for the long night awaiting us. Also some warm clothes and a change of socks, which was quite handy.

When the day came, we took off with all our gear and we felt as if we were to survive a whole night of adventure. There was no way two experienced airsofters like us were going to be intimidated by a few hordes of zombies.

We were standing, at 20:00 pm, in the front row of Granada's bullring, watching how the venue filled with the participants whose restless humming showed their eagerness for the event to start. 1,500 people bent on achieving salvation.

And the show begins!! A very entertaining presentation speech enhanced further by the use of pyrotechnics, simulating a shoot-out with two fatalities. And just outside the Bullring the event kicks off with a horde of zombies closing on the survivors, herding them towards their destinations.

From there, the organizers wanted to speed up the press a little and they took us directly to one of the areas where the action was going to begin. So we were comfortably driven to our destination in a WRG vehicle, which took us to a downtown area of Granada: the “Plaza de Gracia” Gracia square, where the participants had to achieve something deceptively simple: a code which they needed to give to one of the soldiers who were guarding the place. Only that getting the code was not so simple; there was an army of zombies in the area and the dangerous "Father Isidro" leading one of the hordes.

From there, we went to another location where there was an important event taking place next to the Genil River. One of us participated in the adventure in which we had to enter into an area without any lighting, just carrying a small flashlight, and trying not to activate the traps which consisting of a series of wires with bells that attracted zombies. Once you made it through a corridor, you had to get a hold of a mace (a soft-combat one, of course) and even kill a zombie.

After all this, your two special reporters from 0'20 were ready to continue as player, since we were very eager to try for ourselves the "Zombie Survival" from a player perspective. It was quite complex at first, we did not have any clues and people unrelated to the event walked up and down the crowded streets late on a Saturday night, which made the adventure a little less credible.

It was almost 01:00 am, as we arrived at a meeting point where another of the highlights from the actors in the organization and volunteer airsofters were to take place. A zombie horde killed a group of soldiers. A true turmoil in which we had to run away as we were being chased by the "Zs" from the organization.

Until this time of the feeling was that the activity, rather feverish up until then, had slowed down. There were a number of bottlenecks in some of the tests, despite attempts by the organizers to streamline the groups, there were some queues, and in some cases frustration among the participants.

Although, we must be admit that, little by little the tests were available again and we were able to try some. Including one in which we had to search through the entrails of a zombie, (a very unpleasant experience thanks to an excellent job by the make-up artists) and another in which the two members of 0'20 had to jump into a pool to retrieve vials with the cure. But we must not forget that the pool had an unexpected inhabitant.

We ran out of time before we could be bitten by zombies and thus could not go through the make-up process (in which we were quite interested), but we managed to reach the end of the night as survivors, of which we feel quite proud.

In short, the experience had its ups and downs, some very intense moments and others of inactivity that were a bit disappointing for many participants. But the truth is that,  after comparing noted with many other participants from other events, "Survival Zombie" activities in large cities may cause a kind of anticlimax as there is a great deal of "out of game" atmosphere surrounding the players and the traveling distances between points are very long. But re-enactments performed in more rural or closed areas are not only very successful but more disturbingly frightening.

Finally, your 0'20 reporters would like to leave you with one conclusion: as soon as we know the date of the next "Survival Zombie" we will be there to take revenge on the zombies.

If you don't fight, you die... and I'm not gonna stand by! 
Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead