At midnight on Monday morning on October 14th, another game of Humans vs. Zombies commenced at Stockton. Humans vs. Zombies, or HvZ, is played by thousands of colleges throughout the nation and is one of the most fun and interesting games one can play. The goals in HvZ differ between being a zombie and a human. If you are a human, your objective is to survive the week of Hvz, which is how long the game lasts. You must attend nightly missions to obtain food rations and to prevent yourself from turning into a zombie. Humans can use Nerf guns or socks to defend themselves against zombies.

If you are a zombie, however, your goal is to tag as many humans as you can. Once you tag a human, you collect their code and enter it on the HvZ website, and your victim then also becomes a zombie. You must eat at least once every 48 hours, or you will starve. If you get shot by a human, you are out of the game for 10 minutes, the time it takes for a zombie to respawn. Once a zombie is respawned, they can continue hunting for more humans. Zombies do not need to complete their nightly missions, but it is easier to find targets if they do (and it is also a lot more fun!).

When I played HvZ, I was the first one to get tagged by a zombie. I was tagged by the OZ, or “Original Zombie.” The OZ is disguised to look like a human, though they are secretly lurking around and tagging humans to turn them into zombies. Though I wish I had more time as a human, I also loved the thrill that came with being a zombie. I ran after people all day every day of the game trying to tag them, and even got a few! I jumped out of my window to tag people, and I even wore zombie makeup one of the days! My muscles were so sore from all of the running, but it was definitely worth it and some of the most fun I’ve ever had!