Zombie Plague and Other Sicknesses, Part Three

This the third post in my series about this quarter's Humans Versus Zombies match at WWU, which ended last night. You can go back and start from the beginning to catch up.

Let's see, what happened since Saturday evening...Sunday was a tame day (for many, including myself): Even though Zombies had temporary 4-minute stun times from winning the previous mission, many were sore and tired from that mission; and a lot of Humans stayed in because of the 4-minute stun times.

Monday some hunting was happening, but people were still recovering, hiding, and surviving. That night there was another mission. Humans and Zombies were spawned at separate locations, and the Humans had to locate and transport seven "wounded soldiers"--moderators all bandaged up and wearing their green headbands on their heads. Upon locating the soldiers, Humans had to move them from wherever they were to a designated zone, and the soldiers could only move if they were touching a Human. Zombies' goal was to stop the soldiers from being rescued.

For me, the majority of the mission was just a lot of waiting around, so it wasn't overly exciting for me. Once my group stumbled upon a soldier, we established a very large radius behind the Chem, Bio, and SMATE buildings, and embargoed every Human. For a while there was a group in these buildings, but they never made it close to the soldier. In the end, it was revealed there were about 50 Zombies against 14 Humans, and none of the soldiers were fully rescued. As a reward, Zombies' stun times were reduced to 7 minutes--which, according to the moderators present--is the lowest stun times have ever been at WWU.

 [Humans in blue, Zombies red, and the Wounded Soldier in green. Locked down.]

On Tuesday there was a mission that I was unaware of because I slept in a little bit and was almost late to class--so I rushed out the door without checking the website. Between two of my morning classes, I decided to grab a snack and relax in the sun on top of the "stair sculpture" on the Communications Lawn (south campus). As I sat down and started munching, someone darted over the peak of the stairs and huddled down low near me. They were holding a Nerf gun blaster, a strap of darts slung around their shoulder, a dark bandanna over their face, and had a Zombie headband. I sat there confused as two other Zombies peaked and jumped next to me as well, and then the first person pulled down the bandanna-mask. It was Zombie General Scotty.

I sat munching away at my doughnut and chocolate milk as I was briefed on the situation. As part of the final mission-tree (for Humans that wanted to Survive without making it to the Extraction Mission), the Humans had to track down and tag the Zombie General and get his signature as proof. To confuse and counter the Humans' efforts, Scotty disguised himself to look like a Human and play very stealthily, building-jumping all over campus while not in class. The Nerf gun blaster and darts was a great distraction because Zombies don't usually carry them, but it was still legal in-game because it wasn't loaded. Also, whenever Scotty ran from cover to cover, an escort group of Zombies would run behind him, making the disguise even more legitimate. And even if a Human did catch on, there were always that pack of Zombies to help deter them.

I ran around campus escorting Scotty (codenamed "Robbie" when we talked out loud) before I had to get to my class for a test. Once my classes were done for a while, I joined with the escort group again and we all watched out for the big pack of (maybe 10) Humans that came together and creating a Hunting Party for "Robbie." At one point, the Zombies decided to camp out in the copse outside of Old Main, and start turning Humans in the area. A group of humans figured out that the bandanna'd Zombie was Scotty, and he ran toward the copse, where 7+ Zombies jumped out and overtook the humans.

[Zombies red, Humans blue. Ambush achieved]

The rest of the day consisted of escorting Scotty all over campus, away from the Hunting Party, and trying to get more tags. For a while Humans were trapped in Miller Hall, and we slowly picked them off as they tried to leave. At one point Scotty did get tagged, but by someone he knew and tried to tag himself. In the later afternoon, an escort group of about ten Zombies took Scotty to the bus stop so he could make an appointment.

Wednesday I didn't hunt until around noon, and I came across a pack of Zombies guarding two Humans who had perched themselves on top of a sculpture and were trying to get the I'm Bored achievement: "Stand in a public zone and declare yourself a meal of the horde. Take out at least seven zombies and LIVE!" The two Humans had big guns blasters with them, and a bag full of extra ammunition and weapons. About seven zombies were already there, and more kept coming.

Because the sculpture was so tall one had to jump and then pull themselves up, the Zombies didn't know what to do. A few would occasionally run up to it and jump, but would get tagged. And then, we found out that a nearby tree was designated a respawn point. After that, waves of Zombies would try for the Humans, run to the tree, and back. Then a moderator designated an even closer tree. Finally, the Zombies had numbers full working on their side, and we made it. After the first Human was tagged, the other ran out of darts, threw a few socks, and jumped off the sculpture, and was immediately tackled by about seven zombies.

Read about the final mission and a wrap-up piece.