Zombie Tag is an annual tradition at Malden High School, hosted by the Fine Arts Club, that occurs around the time of Halloween. This year the event was held on Friday, October 27th, and it was a big hit.
“The tradition behind our event is to get the student body into the Halloween spirit as well as the spirit of October, for those who do not celebrate,” Derek Lam, the secretary of the Fine Arts Club stated. “Everyone wants to pretend they’re in a zombie apocalypse and that clearly shows here at Malden High School,” Lam joked.
The tickets were sold for $5 at all lunches for a week. If a student was unable to get a ticket by then, the tickets were still available before the game, but they were priced $7 at the door.
“Students are always very excited the week the posters go up and we always get lots of traction from them. Many tickets were sold just on the first few days of being advertised,” stated Joseph Luongo, one of the advisors of the Fine Arts Club.
At 2:45 PM, all the students began to gather in Cafeteria B where Luongo began to explain the rules and roles for the game. Students were split into two groups, humans and zombies. To identify who was a zombie; they would have a bandana around their neck but humans on the other hand would have a bandana around their arms.
Humans were also given a sock which if thrown at the zombies, would freeze them for 10 seconds. If the zombies caught the sock the human would turn into a zombie and would then tie their bandanas around their neck.
Students were not allowed inside classrooms, bathrooms, on the fourth floor, or in the basement to keep things fair for both teams. To ensure everyone was following the rules, the Fine Arts Club surveilled everyone through the main office camera monitor.
Daniel Flores, a participating survivor of the game, said, “I liked how despite its simplicity, it still had unique features to it and was easily replayable each round and had a variety of options of different paths to take in order to stay alive.”
After everyone understood the rules and put on their bandanas, the game had begun. The humans dashed off into stairwells rushing to find the best spot to hide from the zombies.
After a minute or two, there would be an announcement of “an outbreak of zombies in Malden High School” over the loudspeaker. The zombies were now free to roam the school for the humans. Hoards of humans rushed from building to building running for their lives.
“Students really enjoy the idea of running and screaming around the whole school, because they can’t do that on a normal school day. In my opinion, that might be one of the most intriguing parts to students,” said Luongo.
In the first round within what felt like seconds every human had turned into a zombie. This was just a warm-up round for both sides as the game got harder and harder each round.
The second round is when the first few winners began to show through. That number would continue to grow as the rounds proceeded but everyone continued to get smarter and gain more strategy.
Survivors hid around walls and ran as fast as they could while zombies snuck up on survivors and tried their best to catch them. More spots were found and more zombies were ready to run. Diego Mejia, a sophomore at Malden High School, stated, “I liked that even if you didn’t know people you still were able to work with them and created a sense of community.”
Adding onto that, Flores mentioned, “Considering how I don’t usually participate in school events, it was fun and thrilling. I will definitely be attending more events.”
Winners of each round were given candy on a first come, first served basis. Though this system did bring some critiques from students, “I didn’t like how sometimes if you won you wouldn’t even get candy because you had to be first. There were also a few cheaters but overall it was still a great experience,” explained Alexander Bernal, one of the winners of a few Zombie Tag rounds.
In order to win these last rounds, the survivors needed to be smart. They played well and hid creatively in order to not be found. “Out of the five games I won two times and the places I hid were near the trash barrels and near some lockers in Boyle. Most zombies walked right past me in the few minutes we had,” Bernal detailed.
Mejia added, “I hid behind a table that was placed near the doors and ended up not being found even though there were other people with me.” He continued, “Some of the people I hid with were being loud and laughing a lot when the zombies were near but still I was dedicated to the spot and won in the end.”
The last few rounds, everyone was out of breath and tired but still had their game on, hungry for candy. Soon, the last two rounds came to an end and everyone left with a smile on their face.
“I attended because my friends were going but in the end I really enjoyed myself and even though I was tired I was still up for another round. Even if my friends weren’t attending next year I would still go,” said Mejia.
