Zombies Come To Hesston
By Tihani Palomares – Horizon Features Editor
For as long as we know, America has had a great fascination with the un-dead or the more familiar term: Zombies. From the horror movies to the fear of a world-ending zombie apocalypse, the topic of a man-eating monster that you can only kill with a gunshot to the head never gets old. Hollywood takes full advantage of this fascination and every year there is a new hit movie that people are lining up to see. From the comedy movie “Zombieland”, to the action packed film “World War Z” or even the weekly television show “Walking Dead”, it may seem as if there is no end to the obsession.
On October 29, 2013 42 people at Hesston College decided to take part in this obsession with the 3rd annual Humans vs. Zombie game.The game was run by Bryan Kehr, women’s soccer coach/ Professor/intramural directer. Students started off as humans(indicated by wearing a bandana on the arm) and were given the task of “surviving” until Midnight of November 2, 2013. As the Zombies(who wore bandanas on the head) arose the only way to stop these man-eating monsters was to stun them with either throwing a marshmallow or hitting them with a sock. This will only stop the zombie from eating (tagging) you for 15 minutes, which is just enough time for the human to get away to a safe place. Once a human was tagged they turned into a zombie. The goal for the Zombies was to eat (tag) all the humans and the goal for the humans was to simply survive.
The game was a hit. Students ran, hid, tagged, ducked, dodged and did anything necessary in order to stay alive. This was not an easy task.
“Getting dinner was super challenging”, Megan Redd,a survivor says. Ashenafi Tadese, also a survivor, explains how difficult it was to get around without getting eaten.
“The most challenging part was when my whole MOD except my roommate were all Zombies and I couldn’t get to my own bathroom or walk through the door”.
So how did he overcome the huge threat of being eaten?
“I had to leave through the window conspicuously and find another bathroom and that’s how I got to my meals as well.”
Regardless of the difficulties the game came with, both students agreed it was well worth the struggle and would “definitely play again”.Why go to the extremes for just a game? Well for the free t-shirt of course! Special thanks to Jill Schlabach and Kevin Wilder for providing the shirts for those who were still “human” on November 3rd. Students are now able to prove to everyone that they would in fact survive if the world was to come to an end by a zombie plague.
Survivors were: Rachel Short Miller, Karli Mast, Jordan Waidelich, Megan Redd, Cayla Bromlew, Civia Hernandez, Junau Louis-Jean, Nemo SUkmark, Ashenafi Tadese, Ellise McGowan
Now the question is..would you?
