If you happen to see a few zombies on the University of Michigan campus today, don’t be alarmed. It’s just a trial run for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Zombies Lindsay Downs, left, and Ginny Hunter, center, walk with others on the University of Michigan campus during the 2012 Ann Arbor Zombie Walk in September. Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

U-M’s School of Public health is hosting a zombie invasion Tuesday as a preparedness exercise for a real public health emergency or disaster.

The invasion will include students dressed as zombies, and apparently quite a few folks were dying to participate.

“We have been overrun by zombies. We had to close the registration,” the School of Public Health said on its website.

“The exercise is designed to make students contemplate likely scenarios in disasters and the appropriate response,” the school said in a release. “They are asked to think about community partner organizations and the role each group would play, what to tell the public and when, how to respond if essential services like utilities are lost, what contingency plans should be in place for the elderly and handicapped, and even how to manage the family pets.

The exercise is modeled after a curriculum designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On its website, the CDC notes, "If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack."

Though zombies are invited to wear makeup and engage in some ordinary zombie behavior, the School of Public Health has listed a few rules on its website to keep them from running amok. Among them:

Makeup may not drip or flake off or create any residue or mess within the school

Zombies may not bring weapons or simulated weapons.

Zombies may NOT menace, threaten or make person-to-person contact with individual participants, observers or visitors (a little slow motion chasing is fine. But please do not induce screaming among the chase-ees)

Zombie noises are acceptable, within a reasonable volume. And we all know that zombies lurch around and wave their arms. Can't help that.

The event begins at 10 a.m. at the School of Public Health with Michigan Department of Community Health representatives on hand to provide disaster preparedness information and kit checklists for home use. The zombie invasion gets underway at 11:30 and is not open to the public.

The invasion will be over, except for the “cleanup of any unexpected zombie remains,” by 1 p.m., U-M says.