The deer stand didn’t offer too much, just some basic supplies. I then legged it to the barn in the next valley north and found one more clip for my revolver. I also found an Enfield and a Winchester but I decided to leave ‘em as I already had an AKM. From there I ran out to the north towards the comms tower and Solnichniy and picked up a couple of irritated zombies so I had to lose the tail before continuing.

I then headed west towards Dolina and planned to check the farm and the factory. I never got that far. As I entered the open field next to the farm I heard a shotgun go off quite near me and felt the pellets sink into my flesh. I quickly tried to shout “don’t shoot!” and scanned my surroundings, but the shots kept landing from an unknown location and after the third shot I was dead.

End of an era

I didn’t have anything really valuable but losing the survival gear pisses me off. Now it’s gathering it all before heading inlands all over again and I could’ve kept on going. I never wanted to shoot players and I always travelled with my revolver out to appear less of a threat but apparently my assailant didn’t think I should be left alive. So no more niceness in the sense of trying to appear friendly, now it’s guns out no matter what. You live and learn. Or die and learn in this case.

Let’s go hunting

I had everything I need for making food except the game so it was time to go hunting while moving inlands. I found some rabbits while running around in the forest but decided to leave them alone as they’re fast and give only one piece of meat. I ran across any fields I could reasonably plot into my course on my way to Pusta and then to Staroye. I was also looking for helicopter crash sites in case I’d find some binocs, range finders, NV goggles or a better rifle. No luck though.

Finally on the outskirts of Pusta I spotted a cow or a goat in the distance grazing on the pasture northwest of the village. I approached the animal through the open and checked my surroundings for zombies and possible survivors and when I turned my eyes towards where the animal was last seen there was nothing but an empty field. What the hell? I moved closer and indeed there was no animal anywhere to be found. I ran around in the field hoping to find something else to eat when I spotted zombies spawning near the village. I guess it was my presence that made them spawn, but now I had to be more careful. Luckily I found a sheep and managed to gut it for six pieces of meat. At this point I was really hungry (food indicator flashing red) so I rushed into the woods, harvested some lumber to make a camp fire and cooked the meat. I was relatively exposed at this point but not knowing what’d happen if I let the food indicator keep flashing long enough I decided to take the risk. Nothing happened and I filled my stomach with fresh game, yummy.

Now I was truly ready to move forward so I decided to continue towards Staroye. I planned to go along the open fields and try to spot any heli crash sites and would also check all the deer stands I could find. I crossed the road between Pusta and Staroye carefully and moved uphill towards a big open field. I then approached Staroye and checked a couple of buildings there but didn’t find anything of interest. I had to shoot some of the zombies as they were becoming a bit too friendly. Can’t beat the cold shoulder, now can you

From Staroye I moved east towards Msta checking the fields and deer stands on my way. I managed to accidentally attract some unwanted zombie attention, but a couple of of 7.62mm bullets to the chest silenced the resistance and I could move on. From Msta I headed south and checked the barn in the village outskirts but didn’t find anything useful. I checked one more deer stand and an industrial loot spawn but nothing of interest came up. I’m still without binocs, range finder or NV goggles so I need to be very careful when moving in the open. Can’t scout too far ahear without binocs or range finders and moving in the night is sort of hard without the NV goggles. A bigger backpack would be nice also but I can manage with the current one. I think I’m carrying too much bandages so I might ditch some of them.

I decided it’s time to log off so I hugged a tree and disconnected. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be going towards Kamyshovo, Tulga or three valleys. All of them have their pros and cons but I kinda need those optics so can’t be too picky. Also might join some finns later on and they might take me somewhere else than what I had planned.

Short struggle and a recovery run

I woke up near the Balota airstrip and was in pretty bad shape. I kept loosing my consciousness every now and then, my vision was blurry, I couldn’t hear very well and so on. Everything to make surviving in a hostile environment a tad harder. It was night time so I resorted to the gamma cheat and headed to the civilian hangars. Didn’t find anything useful there and the close by medical camp was equally fruitless. At this point I decided to make a rush for the Cherno supermarket and managed to get there. Found some basic supplies but nothing to make my blood count go significantly higher.

I then moved on to the adjacent civilian building and then to the fire station. I didn’t find anything of interest so I decided I’d head towards the hospital. At some point I realized my vision stopped blurring and zombies were nowhere to be seen. That’s weird. I proceeded to the hospital, found some med supplies and moved on to check if there’d be any vehicles around. No luck. I then checked the apartment buildings in the outskirts of Cherno, the ones next to the other hospital. I managed to scavenge a watch and a revolver with some extra ammo. It was time to move on.

Red Streak

I moved north through the east side forest and followed the power lines to Vysota. My plan was to check the farm north of the power lines and see if I could get my hands on a hatchet. I arrived to the farm, vision still blurring and quickly went through the large barn. Didn’t find anything useful there. I moved on to check the adjacent cowhouse and finally I found the hatchet I had lost in Cherno. No, wait, what the heck? I had a hatchet in my backpack even though I thought I had lost it :O The entire trip here was useless. I decided to pull out of the cowhouse towards south and decide later where to go. I crawled out of the building and could hear a Z somewhere close. I tried crawling slowly, but managed to alert the zombie, so it was time to put the pedal to the metal. I sprinted out and jumped over a fence. I went past a bush and quickly threw myself on the ground to lose the zombie but no luck. The bastard got me regardless of the numerous .45 revolver shots I put into its chest. Being already low on blood it was the end for me, so back to the beginning.

Blue Streak

The next spawn was in Kamenka. Crap. It was miles to the body of my previous reincarnation. I thought I’d try to find some wheels while on my way there, but no luck. I did manage to find two dead survivors so I got some more bandages for me. I checked some of the buildings in Kamenka, but there was nothing for me, so I decided to leg it. I ran along the road and took a detour to the north to get past Komarovo without attracting zombies. I approached the Balota airstrip without hesitation, I hadn’t collected anything irreplaceable this far. I managed to find a G17 and an extra clip to it from the control tower and continued my way eastward.

From the civilian hangars I turned towards the inland and took course to intercept the power lines leading to the substation. My plan was to follow the power lines to my corpse and in general everything went as planned, just a slight detour as I took the wrong power line when almost there.

I quickly looted my corpse and dropped some junk to make more room for the necessities. I was out of food and food indicator was turning more and more red by the minute. I kept following the power lines east and took a small detour north in Kopyto to check if the helicopter was there. No luck. I kept going east along the power lines and this time I decided to leave the notorious barn alone. Instead I had decided I’d check the Pik Kozlova for the possible ATV. Still no vehicle for me

From Pik Kozlova I wen south to check the lighthouse at Cap Golova and if there would be some hidden tents. Didn’t find anything (not even the bicycle) so I headed east towards Elektro. I knew I didn’t want to go into Elektro but go around it. Sooner or later I must go into Elektro if I don’t find food elsewhere, but that’ll be another story. At the time of writing this the plan is to head inland and hope to find some game to slaughter and cook. Otherwise this will be another short incarnation for me.

Anyway, east I went and I crossed the Pusta road right where the road enters the forest. I continued east and headed towards the farm where I knew some high-end loot might pop up. Before I got there I heard someone cough and immediately hit the dirt. There it goes again! Wait, is that me coughing?I popped up the debug monitor and saw my blood drop in small fractions. Damnit, too much outside in the night, I caught cold. Luckily I had found some antibiotics from the Cherno hospital so I cured myself and went on.

Soon enough I arrived at the farm and went in. As I was rummaging around the barn I heard an engine somewhere quite close and I was sure the driver was coming to check the barn. A quick check for any valuables and a even quicker retreat into the forest. Didn’t hear the engine anymore but didn’t want to stay around in case they were onto me.

I decided it was time to log off and searched a nice location where I could hide, laid flat on my face under a conifer and disconnected. Gonna try and find some fellow finns to play with tonight, hopefully they’ll have some spare food for me.

I respawned at Drakon and decided I’d circle via Dobryy to the Elektro fire station. I spotted a tent laid in the conifer where the snipers usually camp, but the tent had been rendered unusable because of the bug/feature when laying them into the tree  branches. I advanced to the fire station and managed to grab an AKM with some ammo. I could’ve taken a Winchester instead, but I decided to not to. I also found a PDW with a couple of clips, so now I was relatively safe from zombies. While searching the fire station I heard a player walk outside but never saw anyone, so I decided to leg it and headed north along the road.

I went past the Topolka dam checking the places as I went and then headed west towards Pusta. I had no food or drinks and I was starting to get dehydrated so I needed to move fast. I reached Pusta and rushed inside one of the red bircked houses, ignoring the zombies and managed to lose them. Finally some drinks, I was safe for now. I then continued southwards until I hit the power line and then followed it west until I arrived to Prigorodky. This is where I died the Death 2 and again I met another player inside the notorious barn. He wasn’t armed, so I told him he could keep anything he can get from the adjacent cowhouse and headed north into the woods.

I continued following the power line westward via small detour to Kopyto to walk across the little dam there and shortly arrived to Vysota. The barn there has possibility to drop quality loot so I went in and dug around a while. Next thing I know I pop into an airfield with seemingly all the other players on the server. Seems like I’m in Balota. Screams about “fucking hackers” in multiple languages ensue as evasive actions are taken and guns fired in order to survive. I get hit somewhere, start bleeding but manage to switch to my AKM (I kept the PDW in my hand and the AKM on my back to appear less of a threat to anyone possibly observing me go). I then fire my first shots at a survivor who was firing at me but I’m not sure if I hit or kill him. Either way, he deserved it with his bandit outfit even when it makes me feel bad to be forced to shoot at a survivor.

Still bleeding and in shock I rush towards the control tower to get some shelter and I have to shake off a couple of zombies on the way. I hide under the stairs and bandage myself. When the bleeding stops I’m around 1800 blood with blurred vision, degraded hearing and all the fun stuff. I had collected a couple of tins earlier so I eat them trying to reduce the constant loss of consciousness. The blood is now up around 2300 and I’m scared stiff as I hear local voice chat around me, hear guns being reloaded and hasty footsteps around me.

I keep hiding under the stairs for a while, pointing my AKM at the direction of the possible assault, but then decide I can’t hide there forever. I head upstairs and find some loot on the way and a body on the floor. I hear flies so I think he’s dead. I keep looting the top of the towers and when I turn around I see a guy taking a closet look at the body. I immediately ask him not to shoot and he agrees. Suddenly the body starts to move, so he was just unconscious and his buddy came to help him. They give me morphine and I think it helps some but they can’t help me more so I decide to leave. Before I head out I give one of my spare AKM mags to one of them as a sign of gratitude and then head out into the forest.

The post visualized on a map

At this point I hear my kid wake up from her nap so it’s time for me to log off. I throw myself flat on my face under a conifer and log off with low blood and no food with me, so this may turn out to be death 3. Unfortunately there’s no way to know until I log back in so fingers crossed.

He immediately starts checking the bodies and doesn’t mind the two zombies gnawing on his buttocks. I observe him and then he turns towards me, I don’t realize I’m holding my newly acquired G17 pointed at him and I hear a panicked scream on the voice channel. Turns out he’s a fellow finn trying to shoot a video with his friend and he was equally scared of me. We decide to stay in the barn and wait for his friend to arrive.

Soon the third guy turned up and we decided we’d head north to see if we can get me a better gun than the 1866. I certainly didn’t object getting help. While we were planning, the zombies had gathered in the barn and were wandering aimlessly. We tried to sneak past them, but I got caught and tried to get rid of the one harassing me. No luck, the zombie broke my leg, got me bleeding and unconscious. I could hear how the fellow survivors were a bit puzzled first and didn’t realize what was going on. When they did, it was too late, I was dead. I hope they looted my body as I re-spawned way across the map with no chance recovering the loot any time soon.

Local DayZ scene I spotted one day.

A screenshot from the game. Compare with the photo above.

This spawn was in Kamenka, a city  had’t seen before. A quick check on the http://dayzmap.com revealed some loot spots around my area, which I checked just to get my hands on a hatchet. I headed towards the Balota airstrip and checked the game towers while on my way. I was just about to enter the civilian hangars, when I saw another survivor zoom past me without realizing I was there. He was unarmed like me so I decided I’d follow him into the hangar and try to make friends. Turned out he didn’t hear much of my voice but was able to chat locally in English. We agreed to go shopping in Chernogorsk but on the way we got desynced and I lost him. I kept going towards the supermarket and checked the red bricked house on the way. Nothing but five or so zombies which luckily left me alone.

I went into the market and heard flies. Great, a dead survivor. Wonder if I’m gonna end up like him, as I had no idea what had killed him. Found binocs and some other stuff from the front and the body, so I then headed to the back. While looting in the back I hear footsteps from the front and checking the doorway I see zombies coming in. A survivor drew them with him and he was armed. I still had my hatchet and I kept my distance while trying to tell him not to shoot me on the local voice. No luck, he knee-capped me before he realized I was harmless, so there I was on the ground, bleeding, in shock and with a broken leg. I bandaged myself but I had lost so much blood that I had trouble hearing. I managed to hear he was sorry but I guess not too sorry to stay and help, as he zoomed away. I decided to see if I can find something to help with the leg and constant unconsciousness’.

I slowly crawled towards the fire station and finally got in, after going around because of a barricaded entry. Now, this might sound silly, but I actually trird getting into the tower. Crawling up the ladder isn’t the easiest task, when you have no space in the corner to turn and you can’t walk because of a broken leg. I did manage to drag my butt to the second floor, but the third floor turned out to be too much. I fell from the stairs on my stomach, went into a shock and bled to death. A valorous end in a puddle of blood, lying flat on my face.

I think I need to stop being so careful in the beginning and just rush into some place I know to have loot. I might drag half the zombie population with me but who cares as long as they’ve got weapons and I don’t?