Throngs of “zombies” slowly made their approach towards Fremont last Friday in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for the largest zombie walk. The event, hosted by Fremont Outdoor Cinemas, attracted an official total of 3,848 zombies, although it was believed as many as 6,000 were unofficially lurking in the Fremont area that night. This total shattered the official Guinness record for 894 zombies set back in 2006 as well as the unofficial record of 1,550 set in 2008.

Everyone from zombie Elvis, zombie Jesus, even a golden retriever zombie participated in the walk. They proceeded to chant while wandering around the downtown Fremont neighborhood, almost like a zombie rights rally. “What do we want?” “BRAINS!” “When do we want it?” “NOW!” Some zombies even held signs, ranging from the direct “Will work for brains” or the more pacifist slogan, “Zombies are people too.”

Even the local fire department was overrun by zombies. As a fire truck slowly drove the horde, a monotone voice repeatedly bellowed from the truck’s loudspeaker: “BRAINS!”

I ran into one of the few fellow humans at the event, who was adamantly “anti-zombie.” He referred to himself as Shaun, in reference to the movie “Shaun of the Dead,” which was to be playing later that night. “We’re protecting Fremont from the undead,” he said. “I’m afraid they won’t make the record today because we personally killed two dozen zombies on the way over here.”

Shaun’s worries of not breaking the record proved to be unfounded, mainly due to the determination of the zombie horde in attendance. Flapper 1920’s zombie Stevie McMichael wanted to be a part of the record breaking event. “It’s the Guinness Book of World Records!” she said, adding, “I wanted to be a flapper because it’s really hot.”

Others, like Travis Stendahl who came from Vashon Island, were worried that heat might have prevented some zombies from making the trek. “I think that may keep some zombies out, they’ll decay before they get here,” he said.

However, Travis did his part in helping to break the record. “I was going to take my brother and the whole family got involved.” His mother Karen Stendahl explained their hippie zombie costumes. “The most we had in common for clothing was tie-dye.”

Nearby, zombie Eric McNeill said his motivation for coming out was simple. “Death, rotting flesh,” he deadpanned. “It just sounded cool, I wanted to be a part of it.”

Fremont Outdoor Cinemas Assistant Producer Danniel Linn was impressed by the turnout. “We’ve been planning this for three weeks, and had such great support from the “zombie walk” community,” he said. The team at Fremont Outdoor Cinemas (FOC) had spent the previous weeks getting the word out, including contacting the people at the Guinness Book of World Records and paying the $700 fee for them to review their record-breaking attempt.

Linn said the idea for the event began with FOC Producer Ryan Reiter. “He’s a great producer and he just went for it. It’s turned out incredible,” Linn said. “In coordination with the zombie walk, we’re also doing a Thriller dance. So we could have two records tonight.”

Over a thousand zombies participated in the Thriller dance, breaking the previous record of 241 zombies set in April 2009.

A Fremont Zombie