“BRAINS!” That what many Stroudsburg students were yelling as they were taken over by the horde of zombies this past past Friday, February 3.

This event has occurred several times over the past few years, starting back with the senior class of 2015.  It was a unique idea by former senior class president Woodrow Battle. Battle got the idea from a similar event his brother attended at the University of Philadelphia.

“Most students my age have tons of nerf weapons gathering dust in their house somewhere or have been trying to sell them at yard sales without success (because the potential buyers are probably trying to get rid of theirs too!). I figured why not put them back to good use.” said Battle

The 2017 class adviser, Mrs. Jennifer Batt, credits the success to the fact that “Nerf Zombies appeals to many different students. It’s appealing to anyone who wants to come out and have good clean fun on a Friday night.”

The simplicity of the game also serves to boost its success. Students arrive at SHS with an approved nerf blaster and hang a pinny out of their pocket, shooting zombies and avoiding having their pinny ripped out by the undead. Once they have their pinny taken, they are turned into a zombie, reporting to the gym each time they die to be released back into the halls to try to eat more brains. There are various rule changes throughout the night, with special invincible zombies being released, or allowing humans to fire on one another for a brief time. These rule changes always serve to keep the game from slowing down and always keeping the energy up. Another way that the energy is always kept up is through background music.

“My favorite part was the background music playing over the fighting on the intercom system,” said Battle. “Everything’s better with background music.” The success in music could be seen in these past years, as at any point in time students could walk the halls and see a group of zombies dancing to Micheal Jackson’s Thriller. This year a specific theme was taken for the music. “We’re going be playing music to heighten the intensity, we have a gaming music playlist,” according to Batt. Those who attended heard tracks from several horror games and various first-person shooters. Unlike previous years, this first nerf zombies game was held relatively late in the year. According to current senior class president Taylor Flanagan “We had nerf zombies scheduled for December because of the potential strike we decided to go with a safer day of February 3.” According to Flanagan,  “This will be the only Nerf Zombies sponsored by the senior class this year.”  The event was a large success. As the night wore on, the human survivors dwindled, while more zombies came to life, leaving Stroudsburg High School as a living graveyard.