(Courtesy of D.C. Dead)

“Hoo-rah – new recruits! Grab your gun and lace your boots!”

Folks in military garb greet you with this chant when you arrive at Anacostia Playhouse. You’re lucky you made it to D.C. Dead: Mutation when you did. Shortly after you traveled over, the Resistance blew up any bridges that connected to north of the river. The whole area is overrun with zombies.

If you’re reading this, you survived last year’s zombie apocalypse, courtesy of the same organizers. Don’t call yourself lucky just yet. The strain of staph infection that overtook D.C., turning regular folks into brain-craving “Staphers” (say it out loud), continues to spread. You’ve got to do whatever you can to save the world.

You and five others head with your guide into what was formerly the theater and backstage at Anacostia Playhouse. You have a mission: find the schematics and materials for a “Z-Bomb,” which will liquify all of the Staphers north of the river.

This scavenger hunt/real world choose-your-own-adventure story has one major complication: zombies roam the halls. The gory undead are looking to make you one of their number. If they tap you twice (D.C. Dead has some cutting-edge technology to determine when you get got), you turn into a Stapher yourself, and spend the rest of the time haunting your former co-recruits.

You’ve got to find the Armory to stand a chance of making it through the building. A head shot will stop a zombie, sometimes only temporarily, from coming at you. If you’ve ever wondered why people freeze up in the movies, try attempting to lock, cock, and rock a Nerf gun with trembling hands as a zombie bride gets ever closer. Beginning the adventure sans guns is one big change from last year’s D.C. Dead.

As any undead apocalypse aficionado will tell you, the hardest part isn’t staying alive. It’s keeping your humanity. Your guide (Phil Reid, Kyle McGruther, Amanda Duchemin or Reginald Richard) stays in character throughout the performance as a jaded survivor and part of the Resistance, the organized response to the onslaught of the undead. But as you collect water, foodstuffs, and journal entries to earn points, you start to learn more about this Z-Bomb you’re working to build. It has some pretty disastrous-seeming consequences. Plus, do you really want to detonate if there’s a chance that you’d be killing survivors north of the river?

This ambiguity over the rightness of your mission distinguishes this year’s version from the previous iteration of D.C. Dead. Last year, you met individuals along your route and decided whether to risk adding them to your crew. You still must make those choices. One scientist offers his expertise in exchange for one of your guns, for instance.

Now, though, you also run into survivors like Ana (Tamieka Chavis). With desperation, she warns you that the Resistance is a bunch of liars and the Z-Bomb will kill thousands of innocent people. It’s up to your group whether you want to heed her call to screw over the movement you’ve joined and scuttle what may be the only chance to survive. There are four potential endings to this story, and your group gets to decide which one you’ll see.

Mutation is more ambitious in scope than its predecessor. It focuses on whether a good omelette really requires breaking a few eggs. And here you are, with a bunch of strangers, deciding the fate of the world while distracted by the eerie sounds of imminent zombie attack. You may not be proud of your instincts. Or who knows, maybe you’re a real mensch. A real undead mensch.

DC Dead: Mutation is an active and immersive theater experience, and an impressive logistical feat. You’ve got to walk (and you’ll often find yourself running, if you know what’s good for you), so wear comfortable shoes.

D.C. Dead: Mutation is open Thursdays through Sundays through Nov. 1, plus Tuesday Oct. 27 and Wednesday Oct. 20 at Anacostia Playhouse. Performances start every 20 minutes from 7 through 11 p.m. Tickets cost $35, ($40 on Halloween weekend) and are available here.