The Silver Spring Penguin

Editor’s note: Kudos to fellow bloggers Sligo (of SilverSpringSingular.com) and Eric (of ThayerAvenue.com), who planned October’s second-annual zombie walk. Not sure how they’re going to top this year’s walk, but it should be killer.

Photo: Braaaiiins would have helped me focus this shot. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

The mob outside the Quarry House Tavern on Bonifant Street got ugly Saturday night. They snarled like rabid animals. They gnawed on brain matter and “smoked” severed fingers. Hey, you would too if you got up on the wrong side of the grave like these people. Don’t judge.

Eventually the crowd for this year’s Silver Spring Zombie Walk grew to a guesstimated 500 heads (not including the disembodied ones) as they dragged themselves up Georgia Avenue to Colesville Road. Participation in the impromptu parade of undead more than doubled since the first rally last year.

“We’ve got two cop cars now,” blogger and event co-organizer Sligo quipped of the event’s security detail. “That’s a measure of our success.”

While most of the zombies were common proletariat who had fallen victim to the scourge, others tipped their blood-smudged hats to celebrities both living and dead. A lanky blonde in a short black dress struck red-carpet poses like celebutante Paris Hilton. At least two women staggered in full Frida Kahlo regalia, even rocking the artist’s complicated braids.

One dude wore circular sunglasses, a blood-stained “New York City” tee shirt, and a wire-haired nag in a shout out to murdered Beatle John Lennon. And a portly, gray-haired guy swayed in a blue suit screaming, “Public option!” His look and lust for universal healthcare alluded to Massachusetts senator and recently dead dude Ted Kennedy.

The mob tore up Georgia Avenue, throwing themselves at barbershop windows and crawling cars in search of brains. They chanted, “What do we want? BRAINS! When do we want ‘em? BRAINS!” (What did you expect? They’re zombies.) Automobile traffic came to a complete stop at Wayne Avenue for several minutes, as the undead lurched toward the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center.

Once there, they triggered screams, stares and laughs from surprised shoppers. Zombie hunters defended themselves with cricket bats and Nerf guns, but they were soon overwhelmed by the horde. En route to the AFI Silver Theatre for a screening of the 2004 zombie parody “Shaun of the Dead”, the undead attacked a Ride-On bus and smeared blood on a bus shelter on Colesville Road.

Because the theater’s auditorium holds only 4oo seats, some zombies left the event without some cinematic action. But that didn’t mean they weren’t satisfied.

“I’m doing this like every freakin’ year!” one zombie told his friends.

Video photography by Ron Pace/SSP. More still photos available from the Silver Spring Zombie Walk’s Flickr pool.

Originally published Oct 26, 2009.