College is awesome. Why? Well, where else can you say that you fought off a zombie apocalypse and won?

Every quarter at the University of Chicago a game is played called Humans v. Zombies. It’s basically a super awesome version of tag. Usually about 100 people sign up to play. One of those people is the original zombie. The job of the original zombie is to go around and tag humans turning them into zombies. Humans are equipped with Nerf Guns. With these Nerf Guns, they have the power to shoot a zombie which renders the zombie “out of play” for 15 minutes. Dorm rooms, academic buildings, and dinning halls are safe zones for humans; however, the dorm hallways and the lounge below the dinning hall is fair game. Zombies are identified as people wearing bright orange bandannas on their heads and humans are identified as people wearing bright orange bandannas on their arms. These shennanigans go on for about a week.

What’s so fun about all of that?

Well I’m glad you asked. You see, I didn’t actually play Humans V. Zombies, I was on the side lines. However, as the days of week passed by, the number of zombies multiplies and the humans become more and more paranoid. The humans leave for their classes early and take long routes to get there, they never leave the safety of their room unless it is completely necessary, and they are on the constant look out for zombies. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to watch humans get ambushed by a herd (yes I do mean a herd) of zombies. Just the other day I was walking through the center of our quad when I saw a human who was walking to class. He was constantly looking over his shoulder and was prepared to sprint at a moments notice. However, he didn’t see the group of zombies lurking on the east side of the quad. The zombie rushed the human and ran him down until he became a zombie. When you’re on your way to your math class, this is quite the sight.

The smarter humans who don’t go into the quad are the most paranoid. My friend was playing the game and he was still a human. On Wednesdays you can buy a shake for a dollar down at C-Shop. He comes into my room and asks if I would like to join him. My roommate and I explain the dangers of getting a shake during such a crazy apocalypse, but, let’s face it, a dollar shake is totally worth risking your life for. So, four of us, including my one human friend, walked down to C-Shop. We flanked him on all sides and watched for zombies as the popped out from behind bushes and tried to tag him. It was quite the adrenaline rush.

For us Non-Humans v. Zombies players, there is still a chance to join in on the fun. Once during the week that Humans v. Zombies is played, a Nerf Gun war is held in one of the academic buildings. A group of my zombie friends invited me to go with them and I simply couldn’t resist. One of my friends lent me his Maverick to go and play the game. They set up Harper Memorial Library into a war zone. We played numerous games of capture the flag and it was a lot of fun. However, I think the best thing about playing was seeing the contraptions that people built to play the game. A bunch of people had customized Nerf weapons that were out of this world:

Plus, by going to this Nerf war, I received my own personal Humans v. Zombies bandanna. Clearly the week of Humans v. Zombies is the BEST WEEK EVER!

So, the question now becomes, “Are you ready to survive the next zombie apocalypse?”

http://zombies.uchicago.edu/index.html