By Catherine Sanders
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
To some fans, AMC’s The Walking Dead is simply a fictional show to occasionally binge-watch on Netflix.
But to others, the zombie apocalypse depicted in the series is part of their everyday reality.
The University of Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC) is one of the many college campuses across the nation that runs a student organization called Humans VS. Zombies, or HvZ.
It’s a game of tag in which students who play the humans must evade fellow classmates who act as zombies. A game can last several days or several weeks, with the last human-student who can avoid all the zombies being named the winner.
Jess Altman, 21, the president of UMBC’s version of HvZ, said the student-run organization was officially founded at the school seven years ago.
“We credit Peggy Barnett and Bennett Marschner as being the two founding members who made this an official club in the eyes of our college,” Altman said. “They wanted to play HvZ as it was around other campuses.”
HvZ is a recreational game that combines elements of Nerf wars, manhunt, tag and capture the flag with unique mechanics that allows its players to safely live out the fictional zombie apocalypse that many fans enjoy.
“Being part of HvZ gave me an excuse to get exercise,” said Chase Potter, 20, a UMBC student as well as the advertising and recruitment chairperson of HvZ. “It also gave me a chance to use toy guns as an adult.”
The rules of the game are simple: Humans must complete various objectives while fending off the zombies who are constantly trying to infect the humans. The humans defend themselves by shooting the zombies with Nerf guns that temporarily paralyze the zombie for 15 minutes.
The overall goal of the game is to be a live human at the end of the game.
“It’s a nice relaxing way to escape from school work and provide a source of exercise while increasing player’s social interaction to help new students and players develop friends,” said Laura Roth, 21, a UMBC student and secretary of HvZ.
According to the HvZ website, the game began at Goucher College in Baltimore in 2005 and grew into an international phenomenon, with campuses on every continent but Antarctica having regular contests.
Like many campuses that have HvZ, including Goucher and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, UMBC participates and hosts invitational contests. These are events in which students from different colleges complete in full-day competitions.
“Most schools play about two games a semester at most on average,” said Jay Gordon, the treasurer of HvZ. “We have two games a week with an occasional third, while also still having the two-a-semester week-long games.”
Throughout HvZ’s seven-year presence on UMBC’s campus, organizers say they have seen continuous growth. This consistent increase in membership has assisted them in achieving their goal: growing a reputation among all college HvZ clubs through their common interest of zombie tag.
UMBC will be hosting its HvZ invitational on Saturday, which will be an all day game open to the public.