Three years ago, the Zombie Response Team (ZRT) Jeep became a reality.
“We had a third car. It was sort of our spare car, it had nearly 200,000 miles on it,” Bryant said as he described the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee. “I just started thinking about what it might look like to have a Jeep to defend a zombie attack, and three months later, it was done.”
Bryant didn’t spend a lot of money on the Jeep either.
“I used stuff we had around the house, a few things we picked up at the junk yard. The front windshield screen is old metal shelves, the machine gun mount is an old jack stand, the white bars on the side are from an old party tent,” he said. “I didn’t make the welds look good; they’re pretty rough.”
Bryant, 47, also explained that he had to make sure the vehicle was safe and legal to drive.
“I put the body through the back window, but kept the license plate in view. The machine gun is an obvious fake, but we put it on after we arrive at an event.”
Bryant and his wife are very busy during October, taking the ZRT Jeep to various haunted houses and Halloween gatherings. In the past week, they have been out in the Jeep nearly every night and on Halloween night, it will be parked in front of their home as they entertain the kids and neighbors.
They travel as far as Cincinnati to go to haunted houses and also have been at Slash Moraine.
“It’s just fun. Everybody is having fun, and it makes their imagination go wild,” Bryant said. “The sunroof works so you came climb out and man the machine gun, and everybody wants their picture taken doing that. I tell them they need to look serious - we’re fighting Zombies, but they always smile instead.”
Bryant also frequently meets up with the local food truck, Zombie Dogs, and people look over the ZRT while they wait in line. Bryant doesn’t charge any fee for appearing at an event or car show.
“No, this isn’t about money; this is about fun and Halloween and zombies. I did have a guy tell me he give me his week’s paycheck to drive it for a day, but I had to pass on that.”
Going to the gas station is also an event.
“It always takes 45 minutes to get gas; people just keep coming over to talk. There is even a video on YouTube that someone shot at the Speedway station on Fairfield Road,” he said. “ I knew this was going to be fun, but we sort of created our own famous car. I never dreamed it would be this popular.”
To find out more about the ZRT, go to the Facebook page, ZRT Dayton:
The video can be found on YouTube at:
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