Zombie Chase

October 27

Greenbelt’s Pumpkin Festival has been happening every year around Halloween for more than twenty years. The festival includes a pumpkin carving party and an evening pumpkin walk. This year, for the first time, a zombie chase was added and took place at Northway Fields. People could sign up as either zombies or runners.

A runner checks in and signs a release form. The zombies have arrived earlier and are hiding in the woods.

A runner takes off.

A zombie comes from behind.

Another zombie appears.

Yet another zombie comes out of the woods.

A zombie is a corpse resurrected back to life. They can be a little stiff.

For some reason, two runners come back.

A zombie lurks in the bushes.

A zombie has trouble getting up.

It is believed that zombies love to eat brains.

For some reason, a mother hands her baby to a zombie.

The zombies are from left Matt Holland, Jeremy Tuthill, and Paul Downs, and they are holding the four-month-old baby Lillian. Taking a photo on the right are the baby’s parents Allison and John Bolten. Paul Downs is one of the founders of the Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival, and Allison Bolten has been the organizer for five years. As a member of the Committee to Save the Green Belt, Downs and a few others led the fight to preserve the forest around Northway Fields. Greenbelt’s pumpkin festival was started in the late 1980s as part of the effort to introduce people to these woods.