Walking side by side, the three young men were on high alert.
When one glanced behind, another’s eyes would sweep their surroundings.
Keeping their weapons at their sides, Gary Adams and Zack McVey, both 21, were talking strategy while 19-year-old Eric Glaubman walked just a bit ahead, remaining wary all the while.
The bandanas of different colors wrapped around their arms made them stand out. Everyone knew who they were with: the humans.
The three aren’t part of a tactical unit at war or in a gang. They’re students at the College of Coastal Georgia taking part in the Zombies vs. Humans game sponsored by the school’s Urban Gaming Club.
A popular event on college campuses across the country, it’s basically a giant game of tag, Adams explained.
“Except when you’re ‘it’ you stay ‘it.’ Once you become a zombie, you have to try to tag other humans and convert them to zombies,” he said.
Humans, like Adams, McVey and Glaubman, use plastic Nerf guns, balled up socks and marshmallows — yes, the food — to repel those who have become zombies.
Humans wear different colored bandanas and cloth around their head or arms, while zombies, once infected — or tagged — must put their item of choice around their neck.
Those who have signed up, 135 in all, will be playing all week long.
“It started Monday at 8 a.m. and will end Friday at 5 p.m.,” he said.
The students are susceptible to attack in any outdoor space on the college’s open campus but are safe when inside buildings.
The three said there’s a lot of communication that goes on throughout the week-long event.
It can also be a catalyst for exercise.
“We had one student that had to run from the student center (on one end of campus) all the way to the other side of campus to escape last year,” McVey said with a laugh. “It always starts out pretty calm, but by Wednesday there’s a lot of paranoia when the number of zombies starts growing.”
The Urban Gaming Group hosts the zombies vs. humans event at least once a semester and has for a few years. McVey and Adams said the group uses their Facebook page — CCGA Urban Gaming Club — to get some campus-wide events happening, including Nerf Gun wars.
It’s just one more opportunity on the growing campus for students to interact, he said.
The Brunswick News
SARAH LUNDGREN
Photo by SARAH LUNDGREN