On Friday night, zombies took over part of Grand Valley State University’s Allendale campus at the second Humans vs Zombie Run event.

The event, first held in November of 2012, began at 8 p.m. on Friday night, with two groups of humans at different starting lines on GVSU’s campus. Humans wore bandannas wrapped around their arms to identify themselves, while zombies wore them wrapped around their heads.

The humans were given a riddle at the starting line that would lead them to an individual on campus who was dressed as a doctor – once they found their first doctor, they were marked and given another riddle to find two others.

This differed from last year’s event, which had human participants seeking safe zones with unknown locations.

“Before, there wasn’t a riddle system…we just said ‘go and find them (the safe zones),’” said Sean Pollard, who created the original event and helped arrange this one. “This wasn’t the best idea because we had people running off into the Ravines, and there was no one out there. Having the riddles kind of guides you more, I think.”

Pollard said the safe zones, where zombies can’t get you, were outlined in chalk this year to make them more easily identifiable.

“The event went great,” Pollard said. “One of the bigger obstacles (we faced) was making sure we had enough zombies to start the run off.”

He said the number of zombies did change from last year’s game, dropping from about 20-25 zombies to around eight this year, placed in secret locations around the grounds, with the group getting denser as the humans got closer to campus. Those who survived the undead attack and found all three doctors were given immunity from the zombie virus. Those unlucky enough to be tagged by a zombie had to move their bandanna to their head and go out in search of some tasty brains.

“I would say it was probably a roughly equal zombie-to-human ratio by the end,” Pollard said. “Many people got turned into zombies, and many people were able to find all the doctors with the riddles, which I think helped this year.”

Despite that initial difficulty, Pollard said they were able to fill their “zombie quota” and get the event going on time.

“The run went off without a hitch,” he said.

The event lasted until about 10 p.m., and they held a party afterwards in the Kirkhof Center.

“Thornapple (Room) was full of humans and zombies, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves,” Pollard said. “It was great to see so many people that we second time runners, and everyone said they would love to do it again.”

The Laker Village Community Council and the RHA, along with GVSU’s Student Senate helped allocate funds for the event, mainly for food for the after party, Pollard said.

“The event would not have been possible without the help of everyone on the LVCC and RHA for helping with funding,” he said.

Though Pollard will not be on the Allendale Campus next year, he would like to see this event continue.

“I believe now that, with experience from our first run last semester, and this run, we are able to make some tweaks to make this run even better for the next group who does It,” he said. “I will not be on Allendale’s Campus next semester, so I hope Laker Village will pick up the tradition we have left for next year.”
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