Zombies will be invading campus, but without the gory mess.
Lizzie Briasco, junior in nutrition dietetics, and Garrett Blackburn, junior in polymer and fiber engineering, have been organizing a group for a new game on the college scene: Humans vs. Zombies.
Briasco said she came up with the idea to bring the game to Auburn in early summer and began planning, but passed a large portion of the responsibility to Blackburn.
"I came up with the idea to do HvsZ in Auburn at the start of the summer, but got caught up in a summer class and training," Briasco said. "So Garrett took over from there. He's done most--if not all--of the work."
Humans vs. Zombies is a game of tag played at schools, camps, neighborhoods, military bases and conventions across the world, Blackburn said.
"Human players must remain vigilant and defend themselves with socks and dart blasters to avoid being tagged by a growing zombie horde," Blackburn said.
According to the HvsZ website, www.HumansVsZombies.org, the large-scale game of tag was invented at Goucher College in Baltimore in 2005. The game spread quickly through Facebook and is now played at more than 650 colleges and universities worldwide.
HvsZ is a meaningful experience that draws people together regardless of social differences, according to the site.
Since zombies don't discriminate by race, gender or sexual preference, you'll be "eaten" unless you work together.
In the beginning, all participants are "humans." One player is randomly selected to be the "original zombie," and that zombie eats people via tagging them, turning the victim into another zombie. Players may defend themselves by throwing socks or shooting foam darts at the zombies.
Zombies must "eat" a human player every 48 hours to stay alive, and once a human has been tagged, he or she must wear a bandana to identify themselves as a newly changed zombie.
The game is played from 7 a.m. on the beginning day until 3 a.m. on the ending day, and certain areas of campus will be determined "safe zones" where the game is suspended, and all weapons must be concealed.
"The game looks fun," Blackburn said. "Considering that this game has been around several years now, I'm quite surprised that I'm the first to initiate it here at Auburn."
Blackburn, like many others, discovered the game through the Internet.
"Periodically I'd see my non-Auburn-attending high school friends post things about the game on Facebook," Blackburn said. "I've never played before, but I'd like to. From what I've read and pictures I've seen, some people really get into this game."
Once Briasco and Blackburn got permission from University administrators, they made a Facebook group to invite students and the community to the event, set to begin Feb. 6 at 7 a.m.
"Based on what I've read, a typical game lasts a week," Blackburn said. "Auburn is pretty large, though, so we might add a few days to that. The details are still in the works."
Blackburn said he expects a great turnout for the event.
"This is a game of wide appeal ... played at hundreds of universities across the nation," Blackburn said. "Through word of mouth alone there are currently 777 attending and 354 maybes. I expect these numbers to continue to grow."
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