DeKALB | It’s the closest thing students can get to a “Resident Evil” or “28 Days Later” environment, outside of a full-fledged zombie attack.

From Oct. 23 until Oct. 27, a group of students will engage in a 24/7 battle on campus for control of mankind between humans and zombies.

“The idea is ‘survival of the fittest,'” said sophomore anthropology major Emily Sturnfield, who is heading the endeavor. “I mean, haven’t you ever wondered if you could outrun a horde of zombies?”

The concept of the game is fairly straightforward.

“It’s basically a big game of tag,” Sturnfield said.

The game begins with two teams: the “Human Resistance” and the “Zombie Horde.”

Players are identified by camouflage bandanas. The zombies, to symbolize their state of living deadness, are required to wear their bandanas on their heads; the humans will wear the bandanas on their arms. This is done to prevent innocent bystanders from getting caught in the crossfire.

The crossfire consists of the three weapons humans are allowed to use against the zombies: Nerf guns, balled-up socks and marshmallows. When a zombie is hit, they are “paralyzed,” and will be unable to tag any humans for the next fifteen minutes.

The zombie horde, though already clinically dead, can essentially be double-killed by way of starvation. When a zombie has gone 48 hours without tagging a human, they die.

The game initially will be divided into teams, which will change drastically once the dining has commenced.

“Everybody starts in a group of ten. Everyone starts as a human, besides the original zombie,” Sturnfield said. “There will be team leaders for every ten people, to tell us if team members have gone MIA or been zombified. We’ll be updating the status of who is a human, who’s a zombie and who’s dead on our Web site.”

The person who instigates the madness is the original zombie, the identity of whom will be known only by word of mouth. This post-mortem hobbyist will wear the bandana on their arm throughout the duration of the game, creating added suspense as players wonder just who is the walking reaper.

When a human player is tagged by a zombie, they die only momentarily. Within the course of one hour, the deceased will rise from the dead and walk the campus as a member of the zombie horde.

All humans will carry three note cards with them. When the living impaired feast on them, they’ll have to give them to the offending zombie. The reason that students carry three note cards is so that if a human accidently misplaces one, a zombie cannot claim a kill they did not make.

Though the hunt will be on 24/7 over the course of the game, there are safe areas.

Zombies will be prohibited from eating their peers in all academic buildings, the library, dining halls, restaurants, students’ rooms and bathrooms. Other than that, any area on campus — including hallways, stairways and even elevators — are fair game.

“The rules are there so that people aren’t being jerks about it,” Sturnfield said.

Justin Weaver is a Campus Reporter for the Northern Star.