Although it was a clear night, paranoia and suspicion fell heavy on the dozens of armed students standing outside of the Rec center on Oct. 25.

The scene was one pulled from countless high school films that depict cliques; groups of five or six huddled close together and staring down the other players, silently judging them.

Each group measured up their competition regardless of the fact that, at that moment, they were all on the same team.

It was 10:30 p.m. when the mission objectives came down the ranks. Moderator Zachary Hoffman stood atop a bench and shouted the updates.

“There have been reports of an infected person somewhere around the quad,” he said. “Your mission is to investigate these reports and patrol the quad. Return here at 11:15 p.m. for a debriefing.”

With that the teams made their way to the quad.

There was one thing everyone knew, that if they found the infected person he wouldn’t look like a zombie, at least not this first night, he would look human. That meant it could be any one of them.

At 10:37 p.m. the squads arrived at the flagpole without any resistance. It was quiet.

Too quiet.

The squads knew that the zombie had to be nearby and it could be anyone of them. Whispers of who would be the first victim swept across the teams.

“It’s not going to be me,” said Brooke Branson, raising her gun at the other squads nearby and taking several steps back with her team. “I swear I’ll shoot anyone who gets within 15 feet of me!” Branson’s teammates followed suit, raising their pistols to anyone who wandered too close to them.

This scene was repeated by nearly every group and in no time at all, the entire quad was filled with Mexican standoffs like a scene from a spaghetti western.

Teams shouted at each other, guns were pointed and somewhere in the dark AJ Thomas, the alpha zombie, lurked.

• • •

“I don’t trust anyone,” said Chris Biesel a member of Team TKE. “Not even my own teammates… Especially my teammates.”

The TKE team at a glance was seemingly the most tactical of all the squads in the game. They appeared to be the most ruthless as well.

“The only good zombie is a dead zombie,” remarked Tom Burford when his team had discussed the mission at the flagpole.

The other members of Biesel and Burford’s team were Nick Kerr, Josh Quay and Josh Drusbacky and all of them were ecstatic to begin the game.

None of the team was particularly interested in helping out the other squads they were patrolling with.

“Sacrifices must be made,” Quay said coldly.

The TKE team more or less took point when they arrived at the quad. They fanned out to find the infected, a decision that would lead to the first kill of the game.

“Let the games begin,” Drusbacky muttered.

• • •

On the west side of Founders Hall the Alpha zombie devised a simple plan to infect his first victim.

“Hey I think I dropped my phone,” Thomas said loudly.

Without hesitation, TKE member Chris Biesel, walked over. He knelt by the bushes that Thomas said he dropped his phone in. Thomas placed his hand on Biesel’s shoulder, one touch was all it took, and Biesel joined the ranks of the undead.

“This is what I get for trying to help out my [Accent on Success] student,” Beisel said before racing off and trying to infect the group.

• • •

Two people would be infected on Oct. 25, a small number but merely a sample of the carnage that followed on the next afternoon.

• • •

Oct. 26. 4:30 p.m.

Icy rain was falling on the battlefield as teams gathered around the quad flagpole.

The mission objective was to grab salvage from the south side of Bixler, where zombies were sure to be waiting and preparing an ambush. They would then have to return the supplies to the quad.

“We were going for the last of the supplies,” Drusbacky said. “The next thing we knew there were a large amount of zombies guarding them. However, someone must’ve drawn them to the north side of Bixler because they all seemed to disappear around the side of Bixler.

“I went for the supplies but I got detected. I did manage to grab all of the supplies for the team and went back to the quad flagpole. When I arrived I realized I was the only one from my team who was still alive,” Drusbacky said.

He reported that when a zombie attacked Sara Lautzenhiser near one of the staircases, TKE member Josh Quay went to save her but was killed on the spot.

Nick Kerr and Tom Burford were reported missing and presumed dead.

“I wish I could have helped them,” Drusbacky said. “There was nothing I could do because I didn’t even know they were in trouble.

“They didn’t even scream.”

• • •

Rain prevented any further operations that day, but minor skirmishes and confrontations lead to several more deaths by the end of the day.

Rain continued to hang over Ashland University on Oct. 27 when the final two missions were held.

The operation managers had now authorized the uses of heavy and automatic weapons. Many of the survivors now carried guns with drum clips that were holding more than thirty bullets.

The first mission began at 8:30 p.m. and the survivors were instructed to gather containers and fill them with water from the last clean water source on campus, the Founder’s lawn water fountain.

The fountain offers little in the way of cover; sitting at the top of a mound surrounded by knee high bushes. The mission would be a slaughter and everyone knew it.

“This is going to be bad,” Drusbacky, the sole survivor and participant from team TKE, said.

Teams fanned out in a wide semi circle at Founder’s lawn, slowly creeping towards the fountain from a few hundred feet away.

Finally, one team called “Black Stealth” raced to the fountain, took up a defensive formation and began to fill up their water jugs.

The zombies swept in and the gunfire began, pushing the zombies back. One survivor from another squad offered cover to the Black Stealth team with his giant fully automatic machine gun. He gunned down several zombies before one crept up behind him and jumped him.

The survivors not at the fountain were getting slaughtered since they were essentially standing in the middle of a field without any cover. Survivor numbers were dwindling quickly and cries for help were becoming more and more frantic.

After he filled his container Black Stealth leader, Christopher Goffos grabbed his teammate and girlfriend, Amanda Sivik and ran away from the bloodshed, leaving the remaining members of his team to die.

Fewer than ten survivors returned to the flagpole after the mission.

Drusbacky was not among them.

• • •

At 11 p.m. judgment came to Ashland University’s campus in the form of a tactical nuclear warhead. The bomb was set up on Founder’s lawn with a 15-minute fuse, allowing the pilots who delivered it to escape safely.

If the bomb detonated the outbreak would be contained but in the process all of the survivors and uninfected Ashland residents would also perish in the bomb blast.

The survivors numbered only ten and faced a force three times their size.

Avin Klinger stepped into the circle of survivors and came up with a plan.

“Two runners go and grab the bomb,” he said. “The rest of us draw the zombies away from the bomb until we are sure the bomb is back here safely.”

The team swapped guns according to who would be running and who would be shooting. As the team split into two the countdown timer began.

15:00…

Group one, headed by Klinger himself, ran around the east side of Founders and stood a great distance away from the zombies who lurked in the trees.

Group two took a longer path to the lawn; they went west to Bixler then north, hooking around the library.

14:00…

The rain continued to fall and chill the battlefield as humans and zombies stood staring at each other, both waiting for the other to strike first.

13:00…

The zombies taunted the humans and one danced, hoping the humans might be provoked into combat.

12:00 …

No one moved. A zombie yawned.

11:00 …

The west team made a run for the bomb dodging and shooting zombies on their way to the nuclear weapon. The east team followed their lead and made sprint for the bomb.

10:00…

Both teams were taking heavy losses. There were simply too many zombies to keep track of. Klinger was taken down as was the runner from his team.

9:00…

Finally, Jon Hart raced through the chaos and grabbed the bomb. Cheers sounded from the survivors as all the zombies ran after him.

8:00…

Hart arrived at the flagpole and horror struck. He was only holding two of the four components necessary for bomb defusal. The bomb casing had fallen apart during his run.

7:00…

The few survivors rallied and stood on the outskirts of the lawn, desperately trying to think of a new plan to retrieve the last bomb components.

6:00…

The zombies cheer at the news of the survivor’s failure.

5:00…

The zombies stopped lurking and now formed a circle around the bomb components.

4:00…

Hart made another run at the bomb.

3:00…

The other survivors moved to assist but are surrounded. They instead concentrate on shooting a path to the quad.

2:00…

Jon Hart, now surrounded by zombies, stops dodging, stands and accepts his fate.

1:00…

The last of the survivors, Amanda Sivik, Ben Bushong and Shayne Smith retreat back to the flagpole empty handed.

0:00

The bomb blast levels the city and chars the zombies and survivors alike.

There is an official cover up and no one hears the story of the 2012 humans versus zombies game at Ashland University.