Elizabethtown College’s Office of Student Activities (OSA) hosted a zombie escape room Oct. 28. The event was led by senior Victoria Vaughn.
Vaughn mentioned the planning for the event began in Sept. However, according to Vaughn, they only “started making [the props] two weeks ago.”
It took Vaughn four hours to make all of the posters. She also went to the Baugher Student Center (BSC) Room 211 to begin setting up five hours before the event began. The escape room was carefully set up with the posters strategically hung on the walls, the lab journals laid on the tables, cabinets closed concealing hints and a zombie hiding. The zombie was played by senior Cas Stence.
When students arrived with their groups, they were warned to not get too close to the zombie. Stence was crouched behind a table where some of the clues were and stayed there for most of the game.
“Students were scared to approach the table,” Stence said.
However, as time would be running out, they would get out and chase the students. Students were given ten minutes to make it out in time.
The story was centered around a zombie virus that infects the students. The groups have to work together to try to find the antidote before time would run out. At the very end of the game, students would be tasked to choose between the blue and green antidote. If they chose the wrong one, they would lose the game.
Some of the hints were cleverly hidden. On the one white board, the sentences were written in green, except for the word “NOT” that was in blue, senior Allison Ambsbaugh pointed out.
A lot went into the planning of the escape room such as, “planning locks, how to set it up, getting approved by [Assistant Director of Housing and Residence Life for Student Activities] Rina Carpenter and getting items from Amazon,” Amsbaugh said.
Unlike many events, the escape room did not have a sign up beforehand. Students were welcome to show up with their groups of four to six. In the first hour, four groups went through the room. The event lasted three hours.
“Students really enjoyed the puzzles and the hints. We thought to do it because puzzled-based activities are really fun for people to do,” Vaughn said.
