I dedicate these to the remaining humans in tonights last stand :

YouTube - Survivor - Eye of the Tiger With Lyrics


YouTube - The Final Countdown - Europe (with lyrics)

 

11:45. 3/29/2010. Around 300 college kids. Status: Just another 19 year old kid  .

It began at 10:00. I walked over to Weston house to find a crowd of around 50 zombies already there. God god were we decked out. I saw kids with professional movie makeup slathered all over them, making it look like they had oozing sores, exposed gums, massive gashes, and even a couple people completely shirtless, drenched in fake blood. I felt underdressed, in only a hoodie and...uh...a hoodie. The crowd began expanding FAST, until around 200 zombies stood outside the courtyard. With all of us gathered, we moved over to Dyson field to be briefed.

We squared off on either side of the bridge to Dyson Bridge (which was the site of the infamous Dyson Bridge massacre of last year), 240 zombies on one side, 60 humans on the other. A mod stood in the center and began to explain the rules. The humans had to recover four objects, a laptop, a microwave, a TV and an Xbox, and return them to a location in the corner of Dyson parking lot. The zombies just had to stop them. Humans were ordered to start in Dyson field, zombies were ordered to begin on a bridge on the opposite side of Dyson. It was about 10:30, 15 minutes to go.

The Witch split us up into two groups, which would go around either side of Weston house. We waited, as the Witch and his top general entertained us with some zombie gymnastics. 10:44 arrived. The Witch began a chant:

WHAT DO WE WANT?
BRAINS!!!
WHEN DO WE WANT EM?
BRAINS!!!

Finally, the mod yelled "ZOMBIES GO!" and we charged. We charged in a horde a hundred strong and sighted a large group of humans in the corner of Dyson Courtyard opposite the extraction point. We descended upon them screeching like the choirs of hell, and decimated them. I myself tagged two humans. But in the fracas, around half the zombies were tagged. We retreated to the front of the pool to wait out our respawn, with the ten minute respawn time we knew we would be back for another charge by the end. More zombies began arriving, until around 120 zombies waited in front of the pool. We waited.

Finally, we respawned, and charged en masse to the extraction point, where around 30 humans waited. I must admit, in the chaos I didn't catch what exactly happened.

At last, the mods called an end to the game and ordered us to return to Dyson Field. We waited for the results, spirits high. Finally, the mods revealed that the humans had retrieved all four components, and defended them until the end time. However, a letter was found inside the box the humans were told to place the components in. It revealed that ANMRI, the AI responsible for the zombie invasion, had staged the entire thing as a way to judge the way the human race would react to a zombie apocalypse, and she was pleased with the results. As a token of her appreciation, she would allow us to keep out memories of the events, but we would only remember it as a clever game of tag we played in college. HUMANS WIN!

With that, a massive cheer went up from humans and zombies alike, and everyone fired their guns into the air. I must admit, the darts flying into the night sky to be illuminated by the glow of the streetlamps was...well...almost beautiful.

 

That must of been quite an experience. Man I wish my school did something like this.

 

that sounds like quite the experience, is it weird i feel jealous?

 

A two day long siege? Things must have gotten hot fast. I usually heard about 5-6 day long sieges. Well played, though! You lasted for a while.

 

Humans won. Wow, I'm quite impressed, there's hope for humanity yet!

 

My college never has things like this   Prolly because someone would wind up actually shot or run over.

You're a very lucky guy, and ye had a good run. I salute u, sir!

 

True, but they won more on a technicality than actually eliminating the zombie scourge.

 

That sounds incredibly cool. Glad you had a good time.

 

That sounds awesome. My school did something similar, but the zombies have to act more like old school zombies, moaning and shuffling instead of running, and head shots are lethal. It was a blast.

 

Just one word for the zombie horde of next year:

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIINS!!!!!!

 

So I figured it might be interesting to tell you guys this convo I overheard on my way to class this morning. Looks like I might have caught some of the game moderators of Humans vs Zombies having a discussion about the state of this years game, and ideas for future games.

Apparently, they are planning to make Humans vs. Zombies a bit more viral in the future by having an on-going storyline that carries on through out the year even when there isn't a game on. They posed an interesting question of: How would they be able to keep the continuity up between games?

I didn't want to interrupt their conversation with my own commentary/input, since my seat was a few rows away. I was thinking what would be great is to have sort of an anti-viral website that would be in character all year round.

Like any war, you have reporters and it would be interesting to add that class to Humans vs. Zombies. They could either be a sort of NPC where they weren't allowed a gun, maybe in a Fatal Frame-esque element of supernatural their cameras stun zombies for half the time of them getting tagged. Guarding them as a human is a prerogative, because maybe the longer they survive then maybe fallen players could get resurrected; to symbolize outsiders learning the information and joining the fray. They would have the duty of recording information about the game, reporting zombie movements, etc. Of course you'd need to get slips from the players, okay their photos/video geing taken but it would add an interesting element.

At the end of the game, each years Reporters documents would be put up on the website and have it have sort of the same vibe as the websites mentioned in RotF; where people put zombie photos but no one believes it because the memories are altered.

Also how to keep it an over-arcing story would be simple also. You'd just have to keep the AI that is connected to the infection around, and have it be pulling the strings. Whether it be via being a secret founder of bio-chemical organizations, or by having Michael Bishop ala Alien 3 like character that is an android that works as the mouth piece of the AI.

Also, I have to say one thing I was proud about hearing. They were discussing how the Zombies were very respectful due to the leadership; aka the Witch was respectful. They mentioned a player was walking home with a cake in her hand and other groceries. Normally this would seem like a prime opportunity to tag, but also a dick one; since in a panic she'd probably ruin the cake. The Zombie leader told the zombie players to leave her alone, out of common decency and respect; admittedly, in the future, maybe there should be a rule about this sort of thing just so that it's not a "make it up as you go along" event. Either way, it makes me happy to hear that my fellow students don't forget common deceny even when it's game time.

P.S.: I heard them discussing what they were thinking of for next year. Throw out some suggestions for the name of an evil Zombie-related organization for future games. The one that came to my mind was Lazarus; due to the Pit from Batman and the religious context.

 

man, we never did anything that awsome in my college

 

if we did this in my school I could have just either
a) try to hold up in a easibly defended location (enctrance way in view and able to be barricaded, food/ water/ toliet if this would have lasted more than a day, and if I was with a group we keep watch and patrol the inner perimeter)
b) stay home (I went to a community college, no dorms)
c) try to stay step ahead of the zombie horde, hopefully with some of my college buddies (safety in numbers after all)
d) probably would have been "infected" early on