Next week the Case Western Reserve University campus will be overrun by the undead horde as Big Games Club’s main event, Humans versus Zombies (HvZ), enters its eighth year on campus. From midnight on Oct. 2 until the final mission on Oct. 11, humans and zombies will clash in this cross-campus zombie apocalypse.

This week-long event will be prefaced by a commitment-free practice mission at 1 p.m. outside of Leutner dining hall. Registration will be open until Tuesday, when a mandatory rules meeting will be held to educate players on the rules of the game. Last fall, over 400 players participated in HvZ, and a similar number is expected to participate this fall.

Players of the game will be distinguished from their peers by wearing a neon green bandanna on their arm as humans or on their head as zombies. Humans are allowed to have Nerf blasters and balled-up socks to defend themselves against the zombies and try to survive until the final mission. Buildings are classified as safe zones, and when humans are inside them, they become immune to the zombies. Zombies must tag humans in order to feed, as prolonged time without doing so will result in a zombie’s death. Humans tagged become zombies themselves, making the horde stronger. However, they must be cautious; if their prey hits them with a dart or sock, the zombie is stunned and cannot participate for a short period of time.

The game will be played across campus, with the north and south residential villages, the apartments on Hessler, the Mather Quad and the Main Quad areas all in play. Uptown and, most notably, the Triangle Apartments are classified as out of play, requiring players who live there to check in at Nord or Wade at least once a day.

Missions, a part of the game introduced in 2009, are also an important aspect of HvZ. They are played out every other day and, like last spring semester’s game, actions taken within the mission will impact the storyline of CWRU’s zombie apocalypse, which will be revealed as the game progresses.