At the beginning of the game, between one and four participants from the Facebook group will be notified by e-mail they are the original zombies. It is then their job to tag, or “bite,” as many humans on campus throughout competition as they can, aiming for a complete zombie takeover.

If you’re a human, your duty is to avoid being tagged by a zombie. When a zombie goes 48 hours without “biting” someone, they starve and can no longer participate. The humans aim to let the zombie population die out before the end.

A human can be tagged at any point during the day if they’re both outside and on campus. In order to categorize yourself as a human or zombie participating in the game, participants must wear bandanas. Humans wear their bandana on their upper arm while zombies wear them around their heads.

The nearly weeklong event, informally called a “zomb,” began as a Facebook group, which has more than 450 people participating.

Event creator Jessica Oakes, an electrical engineering sophomore, said she’s never organized or participated in a game such as this before.

“I’ve never played before,” Oakes said. “But I have friends at different schools that play and they talk about it. So I got back to State and thought I’d try it out here.”

Oakes said despite the event’s nature, she’s not that into zombie culture.

“I’m not excessively into zombies, it’s kind of just funny,” Oakes said.

Ethan Dailing, a political science and pre-law junior planning to participate this week, said unlike Oakes, he feels passionately about the zombie culture.

“I love zombie survivor movies and horror movies and stuff like that,” Dailing said. “So to be able to do all that sounds like a lot of fun.”

Besides the game temporarily stopping during Saturday tailgating, the competition is non-stop until either humans or zombies defeat the other or time runs out. When a zombie tags a human, it must be reported to the game’s website so total numbers of each population can be monitored and determine a winning group.

Ethan Tate, a professional writing sophomore who organized a similar event and has participated in a large “zomb” in Grand Rapids, said the game brings back childhood fun.

“It felt like when you’re a kid playing cops and robbers,” Tate said. “You get really into the game. We’re all like 20 (years old), but when we play, it feels like the feeling you used to have.”