Killing Zombies at Zombie Outbreak Chicago

There are people out there that are convinced a zombie apocalypse is inevitable. Then there are people who look at those people like they are crazy. While I do not find myself in the first group, I also do not count myself as a member of the latter either. When I found a deal that let me shoot at zombies with replica guns in a giant pitch-black warehouse, I thought it sounded like the most fun I could have on a Saturday night. I rounded up a group of friends and off we went to kill some zombies.

The deal was offered by Zombie Outbreak Chicago, a tactical lazer tag arena held in a 12,000 square foot 100 year old haunted basement. Scared yet? I will admit, I was a tad bit nervous. The fact that I had some guys with me on the mission did help to ease my nerves.

We arrived for our reservation and found a large group of people outside the entrance. We went inside to check in, get out VIP wrist bands, and our laser tag electronic cards. After registering our cards with usernames in order to keep track of our kills, we milled about and watched the people who had completed the mission come out sweaty and smiling.

We soon realized two things: First, we were starving, and two, we had a much longer wait than we anticipated. In order to kill some time and to satisfy our growling stomachs, we grabbed some food around the corner at a pizza joint, Doughballs. It was incredibly delicious and the perfect sustenance for our zombie killing. By the time we got back it was finally our turn!

The staff equipped us with our gear (guns, flashlights, ammo), told us there were over 300 zombies, wished us luck, opened the door, and off we went! It was completely dark inside, the only light coming from the little flashlights we had attached to our guns. We encountered zombie after zombie, some popping out of walls, some jumping out of windows, and some even running up behind us. Halfway through we got more ammo (thank you VIP tickets!) and then we continued to annihilate any zombies that crossed our path. We came out on the other side sweaty and smiling.