Zombie outbreak on Mines campus

Mines has a history of zombie outbreaks and according to reputable sources, another outbreak is scheduled for the week of Halloween. Don’t worry, the outbreak will not interfere with normal campus activities. The Oredigger has been informed that there is no reason to fear the undead, in fact, the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society is actively looking for students who wouldn’t mind being zombified for a week. If you have always wondered what brains taste like or wanted to play the part of a Sci-Fi hero trying to survive amidst the undead horde, consider signing up for Humans versus Zombies Resurrected. The daily blast describes Humans versus Zombies Resurrected as an “interactive and crazy game of cat and mouse. Zombies tag humans to change them while humans fend off the hoard with a variety of safe weaponry”.

The Humans versus Zombies game was created by students at Goucher College in Baltimore in 2005 and in the last 14 years has been played all across the country. Mines history with the game goes back to at least 2011, and the most recent time it was played on campus was Halloween of last year. If you had participated in last year’s game expect this year’s to be a little different, as there have been several changes to the rules to make it more fair and more fun. Th is year’s game will be played from Monday, October 28th to Friday, November 1st and can be joined at any time until 4 pm on November 1st. The QR code that appears with this article contains a link to information on the rules for this years’ game including how to sign up.

To give some context for when you happen to see people throwing socks at each other on Kafadar Commons next week, allow me to explain a little bit of how the game is played and the objectives for the humans and the zombies. Humans are distinguished by wearing bandanas on their upper arm and are trying to survive and complete missions given to them by the game’s moderators. While surviving humans can earn points for “stunning” zombies by hitting them with foam melee weapons, foam blasters, or balled-up socks. Points that humans earn for stuns can be used to unlock upgrades to make survival easier. Zombies are distinguished by bandanas on their foreheads, and their goal, as would be expected, is “feeding” on human brains by tagging human players. Zombies can also complete missions to earn points for upgrades. If a zombie goes 48 hours without feeding, they become stunned until another zombie feeds them. The whole game is moderated and points are logged on an official website to ensure that no one cheats. If you are interested in playing I would highly recommend reading all the rules for yourself before joining.

The Oredigger reached out to Jessica Bartley, who participated in last year’s game and has been planning this year’s ever since. In discussing her favorite memory from last years’ game, Bartley shared a story that captured how engrossed in the game all the players had become. During last year’s game, the human team had taken care to plan out their schedules so that no one was ever alone and therefore vulnerable to a zombie attack. One day, however, all the Zombies were busy at once. Even with nothing happening, the humans didn’t forget about the game. In fact, it had the opposite effect by making the humans worried about why nothing was happening. As Bartley put it, “that afternoon, none of the zombies were doing anything, no attacks, no tags, not even a playful threat… The humans became convinced that the zombies were planning something big, like apocalypse level big.” Unlike most games, be them video games or a game played in real life like this one, even when nothing seemed to be happening, there was the anticipation for the next clash. If participating in this never dull Sci-Fi Fantasy sounds like a fun way to spend the week of Halloween, be sure to sign up and regardless of what side you end up on happy hunting.