By Samuel Medina III/ south news editor

The South Campus writing center decorated the building for Halloween, but decided it was missing something — zombies.

With a lot of planning and preparation, the writing center opened its doors to the community for anyone who dared to go through the underground haunted house Oct. 29.

Writing center student assistant Chloe Parker said she was impressed with how many students attended.

“I didn’t know if people were going to show up to this. It’s a community college,” she said. “But it blew my mind. In such an impersonal world, it’s easy for people to be skeptical. But to get the response we got, it was a really cool thing.”

A line was still forming when the event was scheduled to close, but the volunteers decided to stay open an extra hour. The haunted house became an instant hit with 165 people showing up for a good fright.

“We just wanted to bring TCC together for a couple hours, and I think we really did that,” Parker said.

Instructional associate Angela Mack said they plan to do the haunted house next year and hope to make it an annual event.

“For a first-time event to this scale, I’m incredibly proud,” she said. “We wanted it to be more of a community event, and it became a community event.”

The writing center, hallways and even a classroom were all given an entirely different look. With a zombie-infested maze, psych ward and getting chased by zombies down a hall, there was not a space wasted.

“I didn’t realize the type of space that we have until we transformed it,” Mack said. “The people were really scared. I heard a lot of screaming.”

Although aimed to frighten everyone, a section of the building was specifically geared toward younger children. The eerie look of the Victorian-styled room and actors were sure to spook any child and set the tone for the rest of the attraction.

Writing center student assistant Hannah Quintas said the writing center’s haunted house went exceptionally well.

“We had so many great students who just volunteered their time,” she said. “We all pitched in and worked together. It was so much fun setting it up.”

The entire event was made possible by many donations and 26 volunteers who helped act, set up and take down the haunted house.

South student Serenity Nelson said she and her boyfriend were impressed with how the haunted house turned out.

“That was a lot scarier than I expected,” she said. “It felt like an actual haunted house. I really hope they’re going to keep doing this in the future.”

South student Kevin Richards said the haunted house was a lot creepier than he anticipated.

“I heard a couple of my friends talking about it, and I thought it would be fun if I brought my girlfriend,” he said. “She says she wasn’t scared, but I know she was. I’ve never seen her run so fast when the zombies started chasing us.”