The students wearing bandanas this week are not making a fashion statement. They’re zombies.

A campus-wide game of tag called “Humans vs Zombies” put on by the University Programming Board started this week and will conclude next Friday, April 24.

Juan Mercado, sophomore radiology and UPB low budget/no budget chair, said, “Students will be given bandanas to wear around their arm if they are a human and around their head if they are a zombie.” He also said the game will feature one original zombie known as the O-Z who serves as the source of the “infection.”

According to the rules, zombies cannot tag “human” participants inside buildings, and humans can stop zombies by throwing socks at them.

“The campus police said that we can’t use Nerf guns for our HVZ game so we had to get creative and we decided the humans could throw socks to defend themselves, the plus side to that is that it would be a lot cheaper than buying all those Nerf guns,” Mercado said.

Mercado said the last five surviving humans will receive a custom HVZ shirt as a prize.

Zach Davis, history sophomore and Pierce Hall resident assistant, said he already signed up and has informed all of the students on his hall about the game.

“I like the thrill of being chased and I think this will help bring everyone together and get involved so I’m looking forward to it. The more the merrier,” Davis said.

Ashley Hay, undecided freshman, said she signed up for the game despite never having heard of it until UPB started advertising the HVZ event.

“It basically sounds like tag. Tag is fun so I’ll sign up and play, especially if there’s a free T-shirt on the line if you survive till the end,” Hay said. “That should be enough to get anyone around here interested to play.”