It’s the walking dead vs. the running dead.

The organizers of a zombie-themed run are alleging the Toronto Zombie Walk is keeping a stranglehold on the city’s undead — even refusing to show up at a sponsor event because the runners would be there.

But the walkers deny the claims, stating they have never supported events that cost zombies their cold, hard cash.

“I’m not into making people a lot of money on the backs of free zombies,” said Thea Faulds, better known as Thea Munster, founding director of the Toronto Zombie Walk.

The Running Dead “live action zombie apocalypse” kicks off Sunday at 11 a.m. at Riverdale East Park, one day after thousands of brain-hungry, pallid-faced ghouls invaded Nathan Phillips Square for the Toronto Zombie Walk and Halloween Parade.

JP Richards and Doug Bolger co-founded the 5K run. They had hoped the inaugural zombie dash would win the support of the popular walk, now in its eleventh year.

Instead, they allege their slower-moving kin have tried to thwart their event’s success by “threatening” sponsors, guests and members of the public, in an open letter sent to media Saturday.

“Can’t we all just be undead together?” the letter reads. “It truly breaks our living dead hearts that you do not want us to be here at all.”

The bad blood began prior to an Oct. 19 Zombie Appreciation Night hosted by the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, a movie night where people in zombie costumes get a discount, according to Richards.

He said the film festival had agreed to promote a “casting call” for zombie runners as a part of the movie night. The Toronto Zombie Walk has traditionally co-presented the event, and when Munster learned the Running Dead would be there, she threatened to not show up.

That prompted Toronto After Dark to consider dropping its promotional ties to the run — although the festival director says the disagreement was cleared up quickly and it promoted both events.

“There was a bit of confusion, but in the end, we ended up supporting both,” said director Adam Lopez. “There is no conflict here.”

An outraged Munster flatly denied “threatening” sponsors or anyone else. She said she told Lopez she would not attend the movie night because she didn’t want to help Richards recruit zombies for a for-profit event.

“If you want zombies to be the main entertainment, give them a free ticket, at least,” she said.

More than 1,000 people have signed up for the run, in which “zombies” chase “humans,” with various obstacles along the way. Early bird tickets cost $25 for zombies and $44 for humans, while later entries cost $29 and $64, respectively. Two per cent of the gross proceeds will go to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Richards, who previously founded a women’s fitness boot camp and a company that helps people go vegetarian, said he doubts the run will turn much of a profit after costs are covered.

He said he has previously threatened to send a cease-and-desist letter to Munster, and is preparing to send her one this week.

“I feel so attacked,” said Munster, her voice breaking. “I’m really just trying to run this free event... I can’t understand why they are targeting us.”

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But in this zombie war, the battle lines appear to be drawn – the capitalists on one side, and the punk rockers on the other.

“They are pushy. They are businessmen. We’re grassroots. We’re punk rock. We’re the people of Toronto,” said Munster.

“We’re a totally different type of people than a whole bunch of jocks with a lot of money that they’re throwing at this event because zombies make money. We’re not interested in that here.”