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Green Wolf and human Sean Schilling wait for the zombie walk to begin.
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The living and undead joined together outside Luke’s Cafe on the Quad today at Utah State University. The humans were dressed as zombies — giving them a temporary respite from the threat of contracting the zombie virus until 1 p.m.
Predators and prey walked alongside one another, interacting without dispute for a short time following two days of intense violence.
Human Sean Schilling said four zombies attempted to attack him while he was walking to a safe zone earlier in the morning.
Such attacks represent the typical human-zombie interaction. Schilling, who is visually impaired, said it was a relief to be able to get closer to the zombies without risking his mortal life.
“I usually don’t get to talk to people that much because I can’t see very well, so this is great because I get to meet all humans and zombies in a safe-zone,” Schilling said.
Zombie Sam Hellewell, though, was hesitant to be part of the gathering of enemies.
“I am a little bit skeptical about these humans who just want to act like zombies," he said. "They don’t know how it really feels to be a zombie."
Todd Hicken, a zombie death captain, said the walk was a great way for the opposing sides to have fun together.
Nonetheless, Hicken said, appetites must be satiated.
“At 1 p.m., war is back on," he said. "The humans had a feel for zombie life. They will have to return to being a human and fighting for their life.”
While some critics said the walk normalized zombie killers, League of Supernatural Nations President Tori Winslow said the event was a great way to show the public how powerful the zombies are and what they are capable of doing.
“This walk is the key to raising awareness to the plague that is spreading," Winslow said. "We need to get the word out to the people who might not be fighting it actively. Everybody needs to know about this because it does threaten everybody.”
For their part, some humans used the temporary respite from attacks to investigate routes between zombie-free safe zones.
It is nice to be aware of where the zombies are and what they are doing," said human Bryce Walker.
Zombies, meanwhile, relished their freedom from such concerns.
“The cool thing about being a zombie is being able to go around where ever you want without being paranoid,” Hellewell said.
UnDeadline reporters Scott Hall, Caroline Peterson, Itzel Leon, Kris Hyde, Madison Maners, Stacey Worster contributed to this report
