WSU club upgrades the childhood game of tag to a campus-wide battlefield that pits a team of humans against zombies in a weeklong outbreak.

The Humans vs. Zombies Club began in fall 2005 at an east coast college and quickly spread to various college campuses across the U.S., club officer Zachary Cutter said.

In the game, humans have several missions to complete while avoiding getting tagged or “bitten,” by the zombie players, Cutter said. On the first day, they have an “OZ,” or Original Zombie, who walks around campus without a green headband, that would normally identify them as a zombie and infect humans who wear a green armband.

“You’ve probably seen them wandering around campus over the past few years,” Cutter said. “If you see someone — not quite a nut job — carrying a nerf gun and yelling out ‘humans vs. zombies!’ that draws more attention than people carrying a poster.”

For the upcoming game, the club has three set missions, like a scavenger hunt, Cutter said. To keep humans engaged, they will earn advantages with each mission complete and get a disadvantage if they fail.

For example, last year’s human players started with six-dart clips to fend off the zombies, club officer Cooper Allen said. Once they completed the next mission, they could use an eight-dart clip, then an 18-dart clip once they completed the mission.

“I like this game because it gave me a group of people to hang out with, something fun to do and a way to explore campus,” Allen said. “What better way to do that than running from zombies?”

Human players carry an ID code through the Humans vs. Zombies Source website and have to stay outside for at least 30 minutes during the course of the game, he said.

Each player has a specific number, and if they get tagged by zombie, they must give up their number so the zombie can register it online to mark that they tagged that person. Then the human, joins the zombie forces.

Humans, along with wearing a visible green armband, can carry a nerf gun and balled up socks as weapons against the zombies, Cutter said. Once a zombie is hit, they are stunned for about 15 minutes before they can start tagging humans again.

“How relaxing can it be to go out and hunt people?” Cutter asked. “Watching your back constantly, it makes great connections.”

Several years ago, the club made a training video that goes over the basic rules of the game, Cutter said. This includes the types of weapons used and where players can tag each other.

As a general rule, the game takes place outside of buildings all over the WSU campus. Players can hide between alleys and duck for cover, but must remain outside, the video said.

Players cannot tag each other inside of vehicles, on bikes and at the bus stop once the bus has arrived, the video said. However, Segways are completely fine for open play.
“Hills are the killer,” Cutter said. “If you see someone running uphill, you know they’re doing it for a reason.”

The color of the bands designate the type of player in the game, the video said. General players wear green, and blue determines the moderators.

The non-playable characters are the organizers and they receive yellow arm bands. The red bands go to zombies with special abilities.

Nerf guns must have bright colors and orange tips attached at the end as a general safety precaution, Cutter said. Any players with realistic looking nerf guns will be banned from the game.

“It’s a strict rule,” Allen said. “It’s just like if you were playing airsoft with your buddies or along those lines; safety first.”

While the officers have alerted Pullman police about the game, they want to prevent any false alarms from concerned observers calling the authorities, he said.

The next Humans vs. Zombies mission will be 24 hours of open play per day from Nov. 7 – 11. The event is free to participate.

Interested students can register on the Humans vs. Zombies’ OrgSync event page or message the club through Facebook with any questions.