The zombies are coming.
And this time they’re sanctioned by the Student Government Association.
This Halloween, the NERF Apocalypse Society, which has now been organized into an official SGA group, will storm the campus with the second Humans vs. Zombies game. The new recognition will come with some strings attached, but the group’s leaders hope the game will run more smoothly after the NERF gun-toting warriors raised some alarms last year.
“I think it will do a lot for the group,” said society member Sean McCready, a junior fire protection engineer major. “People worry about the group not being safe. We wanted to make sure that the university understood and knew what we were doing.”
He added, “Because this is a campuswide game, we want to work with the university to be less in the way of academics.”
The society is also looking for funding from the SGA for materials such as PVC pipes for their game of capture the flag, which would take place in the spring.
The group’s president, senior philosophy major Matt Karns, said the group’s goal is to have at least one event each semester.
In the game, “zombies” try to seize the bandanas of “humans.” Losing a bandana transforms the player into a zombie. Players are in bounds anywhere outside academic buildings on the campus, including dorm hallways, any time from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4.
Humans ward off their attackers with NERF guns or swords.
McCready said the group is telling members not to paint their NERF guns black anymore so there is no confusion about the weapons students are carrying, though police don’t seem concerned about the group.
“We don’t have a problem with that,” said University Police spokesman Paul Dillon. “They’re NERF guns for crying out loud; we don’t mind. They’re not illegal.”
Karns said the zombie game did run into trouble last year when it was moved inside Tydings Hall. The players weren’t aware that the alarm system had been turned on.
“We want to make sure there are no unsafe events,” McCready said. “The incident was an eye-opener for a lot of us. We don’t want that kind of publicity.”
Karns said a few colleges have banned NERF guns from their campuses to keep Humans vs. Zombies from happening. And members of the society worried about what the police and the university would think if it got any bigger.
“We thought that if we were accepted as a club the university wouldn’t shut us down,” Karns said.
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