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Moans and screams fill the streets as people with green skin and leaking wounds creep down the road with dead eyes, missing limbs and no signs of their humanity.
There is the occasional living person amongst them, swinging hammers and homemade weapons while trying to halt the wave of evil, but soon, they too will fall into the ranks of the living dead.
While it sounds like a scene out of a zombie movie, this is actually Morgantown’s annual Zombie Walk, which will take place Friday.
A zombie walk is an organized event consisting of a group of people dressed like the living dead who shamble across town, scaring and exciting residents along the way.
This year will be Morgantown’s third Zombie Walk, sponsored by the Warner Theatre and the Illusive Skull costume store.
Paden Wyatt, a senior journalism major, helped start the Morgantown Zombie Walk along with several other employees of the Warner Theater.
"It really just seemed like a fun thing to do. We all really loved zombie movies, and we had seen zombie walks happen before like in Monroeville, Pa.," Wyatt said. "We also figured it would help generate some revenue for the Warner (Theatre)."
Wyatt also said that, while the walk itself is free, those who need help with their makeup can pay a small fee to have artists make them look like zombies.
The Illusive Skull, a Halloween shop based out of Fairmont, W.Va., with a seasonal store in Morgantown, has sponsored the Zombie Walk for the last two years and will also host a makeup workshop for local zombies wanting to do their own.
"The Illusive Skull does not donate anything as far as supplies go, but we do donate much of our time," said Ben Criss, a sales associate at the Illusive Skull. "Once a year, our resident makeup artists hold a zombie makeup workshop to teach those who are interested in learning how to make themselves be the best undead they can be."
Criss, 23, has worked at the Illusive Skull for the past three years and was a participant in last year’s zombie walk.
Criss said the Illusive Skull is in charge of organizing the registration for walkers, with preregistration forms available online at www.illusiveskull.com. The forms will be turned in to the Illusive Skull before the start of the walk Friday.
Those who participate are asked to bring a canned food item to donate to the Morgantown Food Bank, a practice that was started with the second zombie walk.
"It’s a lot of playing pretend. There are a million and one different types of zombies you could be old and decayed, freshly dead, chef, lawyer – you have the chance to really make up your own character." said Jess Boyle, a 22-year-old resident of Morgantown.
"How many people are willing to dress up and walk side by side with total strangers in the freezing cold for the sake of zombie awareness?" Boyle asked, talking about how last year she dressed as a zombie bride and this year will become a zombie "Rocky Horror Picture Show" fan.
According to Wyatt, 258 registered zombies were present last year, as well as several unregistered ghouls, but he expects more this year.
"Frankly, I’d be shocked if we got less," Wyatt said.
Participants will gather at the parking lot on North High Street next to the Chi Omega sorority house at 7 p.m. Friday, and the walk starts at 8 p.m.
The zombie horde will then shuffle down High Street to the Warner Theatre where the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" will be shown for $5, although attending the movie is not necessary to take part of the walk itself.
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