The Undead Take Over Pitt

Zombie culture will never die in Pittsburgh, and the uprising of the undead recently at the University of Pittsburgh can testify to that. Marked by their red bandanas, students posing as zombies chased those participating humans who had yet to be “infected”. This past Monday, only two “survived” the outbreak. Go to The Pitt News to read more about the undead swarms.


A group of humans raced across campus on Monday, a rainy April night. They tried to avoid swarms of zombies while attempting to reach a safepoint. Only two survived.

This isn’t a scene out of the latest horror film.

This dash from Posvar Hall to the OC Parking Lot on Allequippa Street was the final event in the Humans vs. Zombies(HvZ) games, which the Pitt Urban Gaming Club organizes annually.

Although HvZ players frequently infect Pitt’s campus with the zombie virus, Oakland isn’t the only yinzer home for zombies to roam. In the half-century since serving as the location for director George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968, Pittsburghers have remained fascinated with the undead. From zombie games to zombie walks to zombie stores, the city may bleed black and gold, but it lives on brains and gore.

Welcoming more than a few stragglers with arms outstretched, Pittsburghs annual zombie festival and walks often have record-breaking turnouts, such as “The It’s Alive 2007 Zombie Fest” in the Monroeville Mall, which set the Guinness World Record for the “Largest Gathering of Zombies.”


Meg O’Malley, a writer for the website Popular Pittsburgh, said the festival’s success inspired cities worldwide to host similar events and compete to have the most undead in one place.

“People [in Pittsburgh] get creative,” O’Malley said. “I’ve seen guys with pipes through their heads, and it looks real.”


Since they have to go to class inbetween roaming through moonless nights, the HvZ players may skimp on the costumes, but they make up for it with competition.


Players must buy their own equipment, and show up to battle in camo gear, packing the latest nerf gun models, according to club president Todd Silber.


“Players are engrossed in these games,” Silber, a senior majoring in philosophy, said. “We rarely see them take this casually.”


Students are eligible to play HvZ after they pay a $2 registration fee for a red bandana to mark their participation in the game.


The games begin with three designated zombies who wear their bandanas on their heads. Their ranks grow when they tag other players with their hands — which, according to the rules, “infects” them. Only a handful of players, typically less than 10, make it to the end without being tagged.