The survivors held the fort effortlessly. Fifteen of them scattered among the three levels of the wooden structure, aiming their pistols and shotguns down on my team as we weighed which way into the fort was best. Our only real choice was to rush the fort, but we'd have to withstand gunshots and wounds from swords, mallets and chainsaws.
When I felt we'd lingered too long, I decided to rally my teammates with an impassioned speech.
"I have question," I shouted. "What we want?"
"Brains!" they yelled back.
"When we want them?" I asked.
"Now!"
And with that, we all ran forward and screamed, "Brains!"
I was shot three times before I reached the tower, so I lay on the ground, massaging the areas of my chest where the pellets hit. From there, I watched my fellow zombies suffer the same fate, some opting for far more histrionic deaths. We were not victorious, but the charge ended with both teams laughing.
On a crisp morning in late October, Apocalypse Paintball in Poynette opened its doors for the eighth annual Airsoft pellet gun match dubbed Operation Plague, The attire of the attendees ranged from horrifying to hilarious.
"I had 35 people show up to the first one," says organizer Ryan Jopp of Baraboo. "And last weekend, it grew to 260 people out on the field."
Operation Plague was well-organized, safe, high-energy and bizarre. For three hours, half of the attendees pretended to be zombies trying to eat humans, or "survivors," while the survivors hunted them with pellet guns and foam weapons. Then the teams switched sides for the next three hours.
"Operation Plague is like a campy, B-movie zombie game," Jopp says. Each year, there's a slightly different scenario created to base the action on.
Much of the fun comes not from trying to kill your opponents, but simply in acting things out. At one point, a horde of us trudged through the woods, groaning and mumbling, "Brains." When that got old, someone pulled out a smartphone and began playing Jonathon Coulton's "Your Brains" and we all sang: "All we want to do is eat your brains/We're not unreasonable/I mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes."
The silliness extends to the costumes. "There have been some absolutely crazy costumes over the years," Jopp says. "I think I saw a Zombie Gumby walking around."
There was also a Zombie Jesus, a Zombie Abraham Lincoln and Zombie Mario Brothers.
"What I really like is when someone takes the time and effort to make a really cool-looking costume, not just a goofy one," Jopp says. "Where they really take ownership of the costume and pay attention to smaller details."
Game rules are fairly simple. Zombies try to "eat" the survivors by tagging them, that is, by touching them with both hands. Once a survivor has been tagged, both players must stay touching for 10 seconds. During this time, most players act out a struggle and the zombie makes eating sounds. If a survivor pulls out a fake knife or a second survivor comes to help, then the zombie dies, and the potential victim moves on. If a second zombie comes to assist the first, or the 10 seconds run out, then the survivor dies and the zombie moves on.
After three hours (and a break for a delicious spaghetti and meatball lunch provided by the organizers), the teams switch sides. Zombies are easier to kill, and they have an easy time respawning. To kill a zombie, a survivor must shoot it three times with an Airsoft gun (but not from closer than 10 feet) or bludgeon it three times with a foam weapon. To respawn, a zombie need only lie on the ground for three minutes. Then it can, well, resurrect.
The event was also a food drive. Jopp started this custom for the third year of Operation Plague.
"I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner," he says. "Why not have people bring canned food and then barter with it to get ammo? Players can come to the event with a couple of cans of green beans and have a blast." This year Jopp collected three shopping carts full of canned goods for the Baraboo Food Pantry.
Initially, I was a little wary about Operation Plague. It was my first time even holding an Airsoft gun. I was under the impression that shooting sports like this attract a rough crowd who play unfairly and don't follow the rules. What I found, though, was all players wanted to make sure that everyone had fun and stayed safe.
One rule is that all players must keep their face masks on while on the paintball field. Players have been suspended in previous years for removing their masks just to scratch their faces.
At one point during a particularly fierce battle as a survivor, I swung my sword at a zombie too hard and my mask flew off my face. Immediately, someone shouted "Blind man!" and all players stopped what they were doing. I curled up into a fetal position and four players surrounded me while a fifth retrieved my mask for me.
There are even health benefits: A friend wore a pedometer to Operation Plague and discovered that, in six hours of play, she'd run about 15 miles.
Jopp also organizes a monthly live action role play (LARP) event called Last Hope.
LARPs are immersive, sometimes days-long fantasy events in which participants invent a character to play and act out the roles in a prewritten story -- Last Hope is based in medieval times. Also held at Apocalypse Paintball, the next event takes place Dec. 13.
Jopp likes the active nature of the role-playing games he hosts. "It's a different feel than just staying inside and playing video games," he says. "Yeah, I may be dressed up as a bloody banana suit zombie, but I'm still coming at you full speed."
Jopp knows that some people judge these games as being dorky without ever trying them. But he also agrees that they can at times be very dorky.
"I tell people I'm one of the biggest dorks out there," Jopp says. "But that's okay. If it's your thing, that's all that matters. It's all different forms of fun. It's all different ways to get involved in a community of like-minded people who enjoy a hobby that you do."
For more information on these events, see lasthopelarp.com, operationplague.com, or email Jopp at lupine_productions@yahoo.com.
