Wyatt Waggoner is the last man on Earth.
In a traumatic ending to a standoff between the last human fighting force and the zombie horde, he ran off from his comrades as they were mercilessly devoured by infected beasts. His whereabouts are unknown, though teams of zombies have taken to combing the campus. Last seen at the battle next to Hendricks Hall, he is the last of the uninfected.
On any other Saturday, the EMU Amphitheater is empty, its usual occupants enjoying a much-earned break after a week of studying. But not today.
Instead, it’s full of survivors — men and women who have spent the last six days in the throes of a zombie apocalypse. They’re here to brief each other on their final mission. They’re here to save humanity.
A fundraiser for the Red Cross, the event tasks players with a real-life adaptation of a videogame-style zombie outbreak. They’ve raised $1,500 for the charity over the past five years.
This spring, more than 100 players signed up for the game, between 30 and 40 showed up for the daily missions. Turnout has risen and dipped over the years, with many students graduating.
Even some non-students come to participate. But they have a consistent group of players who are bound to return.
“A lot of people return to play from year to year. They realize we always put on a good game,” said University of Oregon alum Taylor Robart, one of the game’s head moderators.
They’re always looking for new players to lead the game in coming years, and often organize small events between HvZ sessions on its official Facebook group.
You’ve probably seen them on campus, sporting orange headbands and wielding mammoth Nerf blasters. Every player starts as a human, aside from two Original Zombies who spread the virus by tagging other players.
For one whole week, the disease spreads and humans must be on constant alert to stay alive.
Every outdoor area of campus (excluding the graveyard, construction zones and the street) are open season. Setting foot on campus as a human becomes a dangerous proposition as gangs of zombies may be out and about, hunting for unsuspecting humans.
Ry Miller is playing the game this term. It’s the sophomore’s second time participating.
“One of my friends got turned this morning, and I’ve got class with him every day,” he said on the first day. “So that’s going to be super tense for the rest of the week.”
Miller revealed himself to be an Original Zombie, claiming the lives of two teammates on the first mission. You can usually tell the humans and zombies apart from how they wear the neon fabric distributed at the beginning of the game.
Human players wear it as an armband, zombies around their heads. Every term, the color changes. Last week, it was orange. In fall, it was a bright green and before that, pink.
One of the community’s longest-standing moderators, Rachel Torrey, helps craft the game’s various missions and challenges. She’s interested in a career in game design and uses HvZ as a platform to express her skill.
She also creates a ton of the group’s props, which this year includes dozens of painted flags.
“It’s all for the love of the game,” she said.
The streets are quiet on the last day of the contest, free of the typical foot traffic that dominates the UO campus. Like any good apocalypse, there’s an uneasy calm in the air.
In order to win the game, the human team must replace a series of flags spread across campus. The zombies will face them head on, equipped with shields to deflect projectiles and special weapons to pin the humans down.
After a lengthy period of tutorial and setup, the final operation begins.
Nerf darts and sock grenades litter the sky alongside human players who sprint from the bumbling horde. Others stand their ground and fire into the crowd, defending their territory. The humans shout strategy, pushing forward as a united front against the zombie mass. They trade specialized weapons and warn one another of zombies creeping in bushes and trees.
From the outsider’s perspective, it’s all quite odd. It’s not often you see gaggles of twentysomethings roaming about, either paranoidly treading campus in fear of an attack or not so subtly hunched over in active hunting mode.
You can see the incredulity in the faces of random passersby, unaware that they’re walking through the fantasy of others.
“There are some people who think it’s dorky or nerdy, but I don’t care. I find it cool,” digital arts major Evan Schlesinger said.
For the first few skirmishes of this final battle, the humans are the dominant force.
They have a distinct advantage in range — those Nerf blasters have quite a reach, after all. When a zombie comes close, the humans are quick to disperse and reform elsewhere.
This war is sprawling, moving quickly from point to point. One moment, they’re in front of Knight Library. The next, the fighting migrates to the Pioneer Mother statue. The zombies spread out, surrounding the human base from all angles as they take a flag in front of the library.
Strategies are discussed and implemented at a brisk pace by human and zombie teams alike. Long-standing players get tagged and instantly switch allegiances. The zombies are becoming more efficient.
And their ranks are growing.
At the lawn in front of Hendricks, a quick mistake traps the resistance fighters: somebody dropped the stack of flags necessary to capturing the zombie-occupied zones.
It is now closely guarded by a few dedicated zombies. Unable to make progress, the humans are forced to hold the line, pushing into enemy territory. The move costs them many players, leaving only a few.
The zombies move closer, edging in on all sides. Unseen by the descending horde, Waggoner escapes the fray.
In the meantime, head moderator Robart has become a Spider Zombie, which allows him to pin human players to the ground with specialized socks. He captures the last of the human force, and shouts to his minions: “Devour what the spider provides!”
The field goes quiet.
Heads turn looking for their next target, only to see none. The zombies cheer and gather closer, chanting in celebration. It is short lived though, as word spreads of one final human roaming the field. Zombies run off in all directions, forming a swift yet methodical chase.
Deep in the field between Lillis and Columbia, zombies on patrol keep their ears open for any signs of life. A shout from back near Hendricks calls them closer. He’s been caught.
The last man on Earth joins the zombie hive.
“I realized pretty quickly that I was the last one left,” Wagoner said after the final battle. “I went AWOL and sprinted off, before realizing I was out of ammunition. I could have run off campus, but chose to face my fate.”
His sacrifice brings an end to a week of horror and excitement. The zombies have dispersed for now, but they’ll be back soon enough.
Fall term, to be exact.
Follow Chris Berg on Twitter @Mushroomer25

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Battle of the brains: Humans vs. Zombies takes over UO campus for the Red Cross