Not because of Sinterklaas or Christmas. The first one was celebrated with a few gifts below 5 Euro. The latter won't be celebrated with gifts at all, just dinner.

No the expenses are because of the isolation we want to have done on the house and the two dormers (dakkapellen) and of course the tiles for the hallway and toilet. Those should be in this Saturday, for about 900+ Euro. For the dormers we have filed a permit application and the isolation just needs an ok on the offer. We want to have a lot of things done. The walls, new HR++ glass on the first floor, isolation of the crawl space under the house. Ka-ching!

Matthijs has been busy arranging most of these things. Together we finished the garden (now all we need is more bulbs and plants) and I have been writing my *ss off for Extinction. Busy, busy.

Report of Failsafe an event by Lore-ley.

Character

Chantal Tielen, 23 years old, student and part-time cashier. Obsessed with make-up and designer clothes. Use/skills in a zombie outbreak: none. At the Liga convention to give a jazz dance demo with her team.

Costume

Heels. Panty, black dress, way too large earrings, black shiny coat (the Michellin kind). Lots of make-up. Contemporary events are great, I got my whole outfit at the Zeeman and an ugly purse from a second hand store.

Gear / weapons

Sports-bag containing: bottle of water, candy bars, make-up, brush, sport-tape, towel, sport pants, t-shirt, sneakers. Weapons: none.

Preparations

On the Wednesday before the event I cut a shoe out of foam (a replica of my heels) and on the Thursday I also made two chair legs. I finished latexing them 10 minutes before departure on Friday afternoon. Several trips to the local Zeeman got me my outfit. Packing stuff was a breeze compared to our normal packing for medieval style events. I didn't even have to take the day off for packing.

We picked up Laurens at the train station of Den Dolder. Due to train troubles he couldn't get to Amersfoort in time. And off we were to Esbeek where we arrived at 20:15. In time for the introduction and to get into costume (and in my case icky layers of make-up).

The event

We started out with an OC walk through the forest to the place where we would start. I was wearing my heels, because that was how this character would normally dress, so it was a bit of an adventure already. Still I made it there safely and was lucky not to be one of the two people that actually slid in the mud.

We were briefed that we had no memories of that day after 12:00 and now it was obviously dark and we were obviously in the middle of a forest unknown to us. We would all wake up to the smell of wet earth and autumn leaves. Time-in!

Not long after waking and finding ourselves among strangers we noticed some shuffling figures approaching. When one of our group was touched by the shuffling thing he froze. Fear took hold and the group fled away from the slowly approaching things. The word 'zombie' was heard more than once, but most people did not believe that. Zombies were something out of a movie. Halloween had been a week before and it was too early for carnival. Still, flee we did.

After about 20 paces Chantal decided it would be better to change shoes. So hopping on one leg on the forest floor she changed her heels for the sport sneakers in her bag. Much better. Too bad there was no time to put on the pants too, it was cold.

We ran for it with the 'zombies' in pursuit until we came across two parked cars with blazing headlights. Some guy with a gun ordered us to stop and wanted to check us one by one for 'bites'. However, with the zombies approaching there was not much time for that. So the group walked around the cars, while the owners got in, and fled further in the direction of some kind of building. Later we found out that the cars had been broken into and the owners killed...

The building appeared to be a group accommodation called 'Blokhut gamma'. It looked more like a slaughter house with blood all over the floors and walls. Something very bad had happened here.

We found some drinks in the fridge and after a check of the building we made ourselves as comfortable as possible with zombies banging on the doors and windows. It was clear that we would need to get supplies from somewhere and the lights did not work due to a generator being out of fuel. That needed to be fixed as well. So that night and the following day some groups went out on expedition for fuel, food, weapons etc. With every mission we lost a few people to the zombies. At this moment there was no more denying they were actual zombies.

We found information that led us to the conclusion that this zombie outbreak was an experiment gone horribly wrong and that someone had dropped us here as some sort of test or experiment. People tried to find a cure for the zombie illness (once you got bitten or scratched you started to turn into a zombie) but we did not get there. Instead we thought we found out that amputation of infected limbs would stop the infection. (After time out on Saturday we heard that this was not necessarily true.) I think we had about 10 amputations this weekend...

Some people wanted to leave and 'make a run for it' but run to where? We didn't know what we would find outside 'zone gamma' and how many zombies were actually out there. Not until we fixed a zombie radar tower, a radio and found the location of a bunker did we make actual plans to leave as a group. After dark on Saturday we set out with what was left of the group (about 30 out of the original 50) to get to the bunker that would be more safe than a group accommodation with two bashed in doors. And from which an evacuation could be started (i.e. a rescue!).

We encountered some soldiers in the forest but left them there to die when some zombies arrived at the same spot. (Ethics anyone?) We fled and fled until we safely reached the bunker. Inside we had to puzzle together a login code for the system to request evacuation. Lots of stress! Meanwhile a large group of zombies had been attracted by the outside lights of the bunker (which had turned on when we approached). We found more evidence of gruesome experiments on humans and some of those test subjects were still in the bunker! Somehow they found a way out of the back of their guarded room and attacked us from an unexpected side. People fell, among them the lawyer Jan-Diederick (Matthijs) and the biggest guy of our group (Tobie). They were thrown outside as quickly as possible because they had been bitten and would turn on us in no time.

We finally got through to the 'evacuation team' and told them to come rescue the 30 people that were left, but we got the message that we had to get rid of all inside infections. Then they would send a helicopter to rescue us. That would take 30 minutes. Still there were some infected people left inside and they were dealt with in the most brutal way. Anyone with the slightest sign of infection was bludgeoned to death or thrown out to feed the zombies. This is where Chantal finally lost it. She turned into herself and kept on repeating "we'll be alright, we'll be alright" while rocking herself back and forth.

Didn't help much of course when Tobie-turned-zombie came crashing through the door and slaughtered Marlies' character Cloe. Chantal had hid under a table at that point, praying that the zombies would not look down. The other humans still left fled into a small corridor and were followed by Tobie. Then the door slowly closed and Chantal was left in the room with 3 zombies shuffling around...

The zombies did not look under the table but left the bunker. Chantal made a run for the corridor door, hoping she would not run into the Tobie zombie. She did not think about grabbing her bag and she was not aware she was still clutching her coat and one of her heeled shoes. All she knew was that she had to get back to the rest of the group and get out.

Thank heaven the Tobie zombie had been dealt with and behind the door Chantal ran into doctor Kelly (Brian). Chantal had a serious breakdown then. Crying, sobbing and nearly hyperventilating (and thus drawing too much attention) she was herded outside by the bartender Marcel (Rene) and ran for it with the others.

They found themselves on the wrong lawn. They had to circle around the bunker to the other lawn, invested with zombies, where the helicopter would pick them up. There were only 19 people left now. They took a forest path to the corner of the lawn where the helicopter appeared. The zombies immediately started shuffling towards the noise and lights. People started yelling for the helicopter to come down and then they heard the question:
how many of you are there?
19!
We only have room for 8!
....

Everybody tried to get to the ropes first. Chantal was pushed forward by the bartender and clung on for dear life. Then the pilot called out that we could not lift off, there were too many people hanging on.

One of the survivors was still carrying a cleaver and started cutting ropes, among which the one Chantal was clinging to. Desperation surged through her. They would leave without her!
Gunshots. People falling from the ropes, among whom the guy with the cleaver.
The helicopter started rising. Chantal screamed out in desperation and then started running toward the forest. Away from the zombies that were still approaching.

She caught up to a small group of other people that didn't make it into the helicopter and were fleeing into the forest. Chantal was only carrying a left shoe for a weapon, the clothes on her back and a small led light....

Time-out!

Wrapping up

It took me a few minutes to get out of the emo mode. I was still crying when Matthijs approached me, painted as zombie. Several people asked if I was alright, which I assured them I was. It's just that I had been panicking and crying for the past hour or so.

We got the 'what was actually happening' story from the SL's. We had been on the right track. The 6 or so survivors that made it to the helicopter (among whom the one armed bartender, wtf?!) got buttons with the text "Failsafe survivor", the rest got a button saying "Failsafe zombie". No doubt about what will happen to the group of Chantal...

Matthijs and I took a shower and then he went to talk a bit and I turned in for the night. I had not slept much, we both had opted to sleep in character. That meant not much sleep and the sleep that we did get was broken by zombies banging on the door or people keeping us up to date about what was happening. But it was quite worth the experience.

Sunday I woke up at 09:30, had breakfast and started cleaning up. I collected dishes, brought foodstuffs back to the kitchen and spent a lot of time scrubbing fake blood from walls, sinks and toilets. It did not want to get out of the joints and I had to use undiluted cleaning stuff to get the pink out of the toilet seats. Still, I managed to make most of it presentable again. (Hint: don't ever use fake blood on tiled walls or plastic) At 14:10 we left to drop Laurens off in Utrecht and arrived home at 15:30 I think.

We were very tired. We only watched tv, had dinner, watched some more tv (I struggled to stay awake) and went to bed at 21:10. It had been a very good weekend!

With the birthday of my brother in mind (3rd of December) I was the one choosing the weekend of 9-11 out of the two options for Extinction. However, we have an npc day planned on the 4th of December and guess which date my brother chose to celebrate his birthday? Right.. the 4th. This will either mean missing one of the events or traveling up and down the country in one day...

The VA planning has been announced. And Moots 1 is in the same weekend as one of the rehearsal days of Amersical. Shit! We've been told at the start of the season that being present at the rehearsals is an absolute must. Still, I only have 3 minor roles (I am furniture once again.. damn it) and doing an Overasselt-Amersfoort-Overasselt on the Saturday is not an option. It just takes too much time. So it is either miss the rehearsal if that's even an option, or miss the Moots. While we had big plans for it! F*ck!