First zombie walk held on South Side streets

A nurse wheeled a bloody, one-legged patient along the sidewalk of East Carson Street… A nurse wheeled a bloody, one-legged patient along the sidewalk of East Carson Street outside Town Tavern Friday night.

Her ashen-faced patient wore army fatigues and a T-shirt, his head tilted to one side. Other people with similarly gray faces surrounded them. Many of them demanded “BRAINS!” as if it was the only word in their vocabulary.

Also covered in blood, the nurse, with a blank stare, looked like a zombie.

Suddenly two “living” people began to weave their way through the crowd. The patient quickly turned his wheelchair in pursuit, grunting after them. The two living people ran from the crowd of zombies as if bitten.

Luke Munnell, the zombie patient, turned to his nurse and said, “Did you see that?”

The “It’s Alive” show sponsored its first Zombie Walk, which began at Town Tavern and continued as a bar crawl and shopping adventure down East Carson Street to the Rex Theater.

Paula Douglass, a bride zombie, said it was just fun. “We’re trying to promote all of the Pittsburgh zombies to come out and watch the [‘It’s Alive’] show.”

For $13, those over 21 could attend a 9 p.m. showing at the Rex featuring a taping of the “It’s Alive” Halloween show, the bands Deathmobile and Forbidden Five, a comedy routine by Stiffy the Dead Clown and a showing of “Night of the Living Dead.”

Many zombies, including Rachel Reck, called Vampira, were under 21, and not able to get into the bars.

“We can’t get into the show tonight, but we’re going to participate anyway,” Reck said.

Reck said the zombie walk was “just a bunch of random weirdos dressing as zombies, having a bar crawl and just having fun eating brains.”

The “It’s Alive” show, a horror show in the genre of Pittsburgh’s “Chiller Theater,” appears on WBGN every Saturday night at 10 p.m.

The “It’s Alive” show Web site, www.theitsaliveshow.com, said a zombie walk is “an organized public gathering of two or more people who dress up in zombie costumes and make up. Usually taking place in an urban center, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls in a somewhat orderly fashion and often limping and gnawing their way towards a local cemetery (or movie theater).”

The site also listed rules of conduct for the walk.

Munnell, the zombie patient, said he became a zombie by “burning my pants with hairspray and a lighter. Then we cut my leg off — not in real life! Lot of fake blood, lot of eyeliner and shoe polish.”

Munnell went to chase after three girls who were walking by. He wheeled toward them, grunting and screaming in a crescendo as he slowly stretched his arms toward them.

The teenagers said in loud, high-pitched voices, “Holy heck!” and ran away.

“Call me!” Munnell shouted after them in a voice described by onlookers as desperate. Then he turned his wheelchair, looking for other live people.