Thanks to Bloody reader ‘Mayday’ for an interesting read out of Hampton Roads, a Virginia paper, about a group of volunteers who want to prepare people for tan emergency.

The papers explains that Josiah Mills, dressed as a member of the walking dead, with fake blood dripping from his cheek, strolled up to people passing through Town Center on Thursday asking, “A zombie walks up to you. What do you do?”

In a pause that would have been detrimental in an actual zombie apocalypse, most passers-by around noon that day struggled to come up with an appropriate answer. But Mills had one ready. “You be prepared.”

Mills is a volunteer with the Virginia Beach Community Emergency Response Team, the group that on Thursday handed out comic books filled with information on how to prepare for an emergency, they explain. Group members walked around the fountain at Town Center in Virginia Beach. Around the same time, members of the Norfolk Community Emergency Response Team fanned out across light-rail stations near City Hall and MacArthur Center.

They chatted about what to put in an emergency kit and why knowing what to do is important. They had one message: “If you can prepare for a zombie attack, you can be prepared for any type of disaster.”

September has been declared National Preparedness Month.

“These preparedness events are going on all over the country. It’s timed well for us because it’s at the height of hurricane season,” said Cookie Ketcham, program manager for the Virginia Beach CERT.

CERT, which has more than 1,000 volunteers in Virginia Beach, trains them to help others in the aftermath of a disaster. The team assists city officials and residents during hurricanes and other emergencies.