Blog 8: HvZ

            For one week per semester, there is complete chaos throughout the college. “Humans Versus Zombies,” or HvZ for short, is a campus-wide event that includes nerf guns, socks, and just about anything you can think of! Preparation includes buying the best nerf gun (with tons of ammunition) from “Toys R Us,” having a green band, and prepare for LOTS of paranoia!

The green bands can stand for two things: 1) if the band is around a player’s arm, it means he or she is a “human” and 2) if the band is around the player’s head, it means he or she has turned into a ”zombie.” Every night for one week there is a mission for the players to accomplish.

For instance, one night all the humans had to make it through the dark path to the apartments without being tagged by the zombies. (Zombies tag humans, while humans either shoot zombies with a nerf gun or with socks.) As if that doesn’t provide enough paranoia, there’s a big catch! When walking around campus, humans and zombies are free game. In other words, humans must run from building to building to make it difficult to be tagged.

Most people prefer to always walk with a friend, just in case the friend sees danger coming from another direction. However, if the human hits a zombie with a nerf gun, the zombie will remain inactive for ten minutes, thus giving the human time to get away as quickly as possible. The missions get harder and harder each night, until there is a winner.

Humans Versus Zombies provides a fun way to interact with different people, since there are no rules against forming alliances. Especially as freshmen, this event allowed us to get to know as many people as possible. Rather than just getting to know people on my floor or in my building, I was able to become acquainted with people I don’t live with.