Spring Break Shenanigans: HvZ

This is what a zombie looks like.

During a zombie apocalypse, your job is not to get eaten by one.

This is what a zombie apocalypse looks like.

Well, this happened to me over my spring break. . . twice!!! It was quite fun, actually.

Under normal circumstances, having a zombie apocalypse incidentally erupt upon your college spring break would be a nasty way to spend your time back at home. However, the whole scenario didn't really breed smoke, anarchy, and catastrophe. Admittedly, it looked more like this:

"Auuggghhh! It's a zombie!!!"

It's called Humans versus Zombies (HvZ).

It's a game played between two opposing teams, the humans and the zombies. Human players traverse a designated game zone armed with NERF weapons and sock grenades, identify each other through bandanas tied around their arms, and attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse for a select period of time. Zombie players tie their bandanas around their necks or heads and go around doing what all zombies do during zombie apocalypses: zombie-fying everything that moves. So unfortunately for the humans, if you're zombie-fied, you have to join the zombie team. But fortunately for the humans, HvZ etiquette does forego the traditional zombification by way of bite for favor of the "tag, you're a zombie" method.

Now, in many ways, one can still say that HvZ is a worse kind of apocalypse than the ones you see in movies and TV series. HvZ zombies are actually intelligent, can navigate terrain, may prepare ambushes, and are able to communicate with one another. But the worst part about this zombie apocalypse? Our zombies can run.

OH SNAP!!!

But given the NERF guns, you're most likely thinking, "Oh, wow. Not a real zombie apocalypse. What a relief. That's not so scary at all. I mean, I got NERF! Get at me, bro!!!" Well, try saying that during the end-game when you're the last man standing... against a dozen zombies... with one NERF bullet left... Terrifying, I know! (True story, by the way)

You see, the thing about zombie apocalypses is that for every zombie that you NERF, there's always twenty more that you didn't NERF. You start the game with 18 bullets. Do the math.

Oh, and did I mention that they respawn? XD

So for effect, while you're playing HvZ:

What you see (Early game)

 What you see (End game)

What you think you look like

What you really look like

The first game we played consisted of a mix of 14 high school and college players at Finch Park in Ramsey, NJ. I played as a human. The zombies did their horde thing and wiped us all out after perhaps eight or nine skirmishes. It was pretty straightforward.

The second game was hosted on the campus of Don Bosco Prep, also in Ramsey, NJ. I played the original zombie that game. The following is an actual battle-log of a human player I was stalking during that game.

I like to think my zombie games are a little more interesting.