By Alexei Summers (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 1, 2012
UFV’s Abbotsford campus became the outbreak epicenter of a deadly zombie virus last Friday evening. The origin of the organized outbreak was traced to U-House in the official investigation that was launched by the journalistic efforts of those at the UFV student newspaper, The Cascade. The objective of the game was to stay alive, not be zombified and to have some fun by firing Nerf guns at those infected.
The event, aptly titled “Humans versus Zombies” on Facebook by its creators, was organized by UFV student Jonathan Bayrock, and UFV Student Life Programmer Martin Kelly. “We had somewhere between 44 and 60 people come out to play,” said Bayrock about the event. “I think the event went pretty good. There were a few hiccoughs, but we managed to work around those. I think the next game will greatly improve from the issues we encountered this time around.”
Nerf and zombie enthusiasts alike flocked to U-House just before 5 p.m. to check in, and get their bandannas which represented their humanity, and lack of zombification.
When asked where he got the idea for the Humans versus Zombies (HvZ) event, Bayrock replied, “Last summer a bunch of friends and I got into Nerfing. As I was looking up Nerf game types on the internet, I stumbled upon the HvZ official website.”
The event began promptly at 5 p.m. and went on well into the long, cold night. Safety precautions were taken by event organizers to ensure that no one was injured by the Nerf guns. The guns were individually tested on a volunteer, wearing goggles before the event began. Bullets were shot at his forehead to make sure the guns were not too powerful.
“Martin Kelly and I decided to break up organizing the event into two parts: Selling the game to the school, and selling the game to the students,” said Bayrock. “I started off walking around the campus with a signup sheet to see if there was any interest in the game. Once I had about 30 people sign up, I started coming up with missions and poster ideas. About a week from the event, we put up posters, created an event on Facebook, and started recruiting people to be moderators.”
A second HvZ event is in the works, according to Bayrock. No word yet on when it is to be expected. In the meantime students have been advised to stay indoors, and to avoid anyone whose flesh seems to be in a permanent state of decay, or whose mouth is covered with blood.
