A woman with a green headband darted among students crossing the Case Western Reserve University quad, eyes fixed on a man wearing a green armband and brandishing an orange, plastic dart gun.

He zigged and zagged, avoiding her outstretched arm as she tried to tag him. Then he whirled and fired, darts bouncing off the wet grass as she became the hunted on Wednesday -- the first day of the Humans vs. Zombies game at CWRU.

Once struck by a dart, "zombie" Emily Wixted couldn't tag anyone for 15 minutes. The male student ran for cover inside a classroom building.

"It's a lot of fun," said Wixted, a sophomore Japanese studies major, whose headband sported three red safety pins -- each indicating a successful tag. "You meet people from every major and talk to people you would have never talked to."

Humans vs. Zombies, essentially a glorified game of tag, originated in 2005 at Goucher College in Baltimore. It is primarily played on college campuses throughout the world, including Ohio State University, Ohio University and John Carroll University.

Although each campus sets its own rules, essentially zombies tag humans to turn them into zombies and humans try to avoid zombies by stunning them.

On the Web

You can give yourself a virtual scare with an online zombie chase that uses Google Maps and your own neighborhood for realism. (Google's Chrome browser recommended)

This Flash version uses a Washington suburb as its backdrop.

At CWRU, the game is not allowed indoors, so humans and zombies sit together in class, then chase each other out of the building. A Nerf blaster gun is the weapon of choice but humans also use rolled-up athletic socks.

The extensive rules bar players from using non-players as shields and prohibit the use of wheels to get around campus. If a stun and a tag occur simultaneously, it is settled by playing rock-paper-scissors - best two out of three.

Everyone who plays the game begins as a human except for three Original Zombies. The humans have an ID card, which they give to a zombie when tagged. The zombie enters the number in the game's elaborate website, registering the 'kill.'

Both zombies and humans at CWRU speak with reverence about a student who tagged 15 humans last semester while hiding behind a bush outside the dining hall door, dressed in camouflage.

Faculty advisor Bradley Ricca, a lecturer, said university administrators and professors support the game as long as students play only on campus, obey the rules and don't harm any property. This is the third year for the game at CWRU.

"They have followed the guidelines," Ricca said. "This school has a reputation of people sitting in their rooms doing chemistry homework so to see someone running around campus at full speed is good."

Humans battle zombies at Case 9 Gallery: Humans battle zombies at Case

There are 150 students playing the 10-day game this semester. That's about half the number who played last fall.

Freshman David Subak said his experience in the fall made him more determined to succeed this time.

"About 15 minutes into the game last semester I was tagged because I was not paying attention and someone came out from the bushes," said the 19-year-old aerospace engineering major.

So on Wednesday, he awoke at 6 a.m. and arrived at 7 a.m. for his 8:30 a.m. class to avoid the zombies.

"I'm not a fast runner," he said as he cradled his plastic dart gun. "I rely on firepower and stealth."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: kfarkas@plaind.com, 216-999-5079