On Monday, April 6, don’t be surprised if you see a number of students and faculty with bandanas cinched around their arms or across their foreheads, throwing balled up socks at one another. It’s not the start of a new fashion trend or hip fad. It’s part of a campus-wide game called “Humans vs. Zombies.”

Humans vs. Zombies is a grown-up version of the game tag and will be played 24 hours a day over five days. Anyone can participate, including students, faculty and staff. Freshman Jordan Vorrie said it is comparable to the game, “Assassin.”

A Facebook group was started where students can register.

“I was really surprised when I found out we actually had a date set,” Vorrie said. “It’s really come together. It’s a group now, and I think it will be moderately successful.”

The game will start with five people dubbed as zombies, while the other players are humans. The zombies will wear a bandana on their foreheads, while each human will be identified with a bandana around the arm and a note card with his or her name and E-mail address.

The goal of the zombie is to feed on a human by tagging the person. Once tagged, the human surrenders the note card and becomes a zombie. The humans can retaliate and stun the zombies by hitting them with balled-up socks. This will prevent the zombies from tagging someone for 15 minutes.

The tags will be recorded on a Facebook page so participants are aware of the zombie/human status.

At the end of five days, the humans who haven’t been fed on are the winners.

“They get the pride and satisfaction of being one of the last humans on earth, which is a substantial reward,” Nick Proctor, associate professor of history and faculty adviser for the event, said.

Students at Goucher College in Baltimore started the game in 2005. Since then, many colleges across the country have picked up the game. This is the first installment of the game at Simpson College.

The idea for the game started as a collaboration of students talking over lunch.

“I think that several of the people simultaneously, independently read about the zombie game at other campuses and then it was just one of those things where it was like, ‘Oh you know about that? I know about that too,’ and then we quickly moved onto, ‘Oh, well we should do that,'” Proctor said.

The game will feature some stipulations, however. Humans cannot be tagged in dorm rooms or apartments, bathrooms, academic buildings, the library or dining halls. Another rule is that each zombie must feed, or tag someone, within 24 hours. If they don’t, they’ll be eliminated.

The cutoff date to sign up for the game is Tuesday at midnight. The game will likely begin again during May Term or in the fall. October 26 is National Zombie Day, when campuses across the country embark on the game.

“If it’s successful, hopefully we’ll be able to do it again and maybe have it longer than a week,” freshman Kraig Thomas said. “It usually goes on for longer than a week, until all the human players are turned into zombies, or the zombies starve so that the humans have a way to win.”