A story of Love, Explosions, Heroism, And Tragedy This story starts on the Loading screen. As I am sat and waiting for my character to spawn, random & unknown survivors who are also loading the game are talking over the Group Chat. I join in with some silly banter, and all of a sudden a voice starts saying my name... "Daan.... Daaaaaan... I love you man. I love you, Daan." His tone is kind of sleazy, but it makes me laugh. "Daan," he says again, "I'm serious, I love you man. Not in a gay kind of way, this is not about sex. I just love you man!!" Though feeling slightly bewildered, I do see the humour in this strange conversation, so I chuckle a bit until I finally spawn into the game. Being a fresh spawn with no weapons or loot, I quickly make my way into Elektro. My play style tends to be rather careless, as I enjoy encountering other players even though 9 times out of 10 I get shot in the face. Nevertheless, I often enough do meet friendly players and those encounters have always led to the best DayZ experiences. So here I am running through Elektro in an extremely busy server, continuously talking over the voice chat in Direct Communication with the intention to attract the attention of nearby players. As I enter the school (police?) building near the supermarket, still randomly calling out for survivors, I suddenly hear a voice coming from the first floor: "Who is this? What is your name?" I call out my name and lo and behold, it turns out to be the sleazy voice from the chat on the Loading screen. "Daan! It is me! I love you man! Daan, come upstairs!" Having nothing to lose, and my curiosity prickled by this weird character who is so intent on proclaiming his "love" for me, I make my way upstairs, fully expecting to get shot in the skull as soon as I head out the stairwell. Upon entering the first floor, I see two survivors in ghillie suits, and one of them immediatly continues his awkward proclamations of love, until he points his gun at me and shoots me in the leg. He starts to laugh, "Oh no oh my god! I think I have broken your leg! Hahaha! Look at your leg!" He then tells me that he has a grenade, that he's never seen somebody being blown up by one, and that he would love to try it out on me. However, for whatever reason he then proceeds to bandage my wounds, and his friend gives me a shot of morphine to patch up my leg. Meanwhile the first guy, whose name turns out to be Tom Twice, continues to tell me that he seriously loves me, but -to my relief- "not in a sexual sort of way." Nevertheless, he does make certain comments about my virtual physique. My responses are generally just laughter and random jolly remarks, as I am still expecting to be shot as soon as they have enough of this strange roleplaying game they have going on. After a few minutes of random banter, things settle down a bit and the conversation descends into normality. Tom Twice has finally grown tired of saying that he loves me, and now plans are being made to team up and look for a vehicle. I tell him and his friend Ben that when I was on this same server a few hours ago, I saw a couple of broken vehicles west of Cherno, and so we decide to head in that direction. Predictably, as we make our way out of Elektro, we get shot at by various snipers, but we press on and get out of town unscathed. As we are running through the fields towards Cherno, the conversation has now entirely turned to casual banter, with no traces left of the awkward start we made. Tom Twice even apologises for his earlier remarks, which I shrug off as I see the humour in all of it. Anyway, to cut it short, eventually what happens is that I lose sight of them near the edge of Cherno due to it being dusk and them wearing ghillie suits, and after pressing on alone I find four satchel charges inside a tent. I quickly check the vehicle spot, notice that they're all gone, and then decide to head into Cherno to try and blow up some stuff. Having never used satchel charges before, I'm curious to see if I can take down some buildings. Cherno is full of life: someone's lit a a road flare, and gunshots are aplenty. I sneak my way into the firestation, lay down a satchel, arm it and make my way the hell out of there. Just as I am running out of the station and around the corner, I hear a voice: "Daan! Daan! It's me, Tom Twice" - my friends have managed to locate me. And then BOOOM my satchel goes off, scaring the shit out of them. "What the fuck was that!!??!" It went off only a few meters from our rendez-vous. Unfortunately, the building is unscratched. After they have calmed down we decide to head to the church and try the same trick again, as I'd seen a video on Youtube of someone blowing down the roof of the church somehow. We lay down a satchel - massive explosion, yet still no result. Meanwhile, we hear plenty of sniper shots coming from the general direction of the industrial area, so our next plan is to go there and try to take out the sniper(s). Sneaking our way through the lanes, buildings and alleys of Cherno, we eventually pinpoint what we think is the sniper(s) location - right on top of the tallest industrial building. I elect myself to be the first to climb up on the long, long ladder, as I personally don't mind dying, especially having no loot other than 2 remaining satchel charges, and a Lee Enfield. When I am near the top of the building, I predictably get shot, as the sniper(s) must have heard us talking, idiots that we were. Ben and Tom Twice are in light panic, asking me what is going on, whilst I simply lie there on the second landing / balcony of the building - I can't get up, but I don't see any blood loss either. I'm basically stuck, but I don't appear to be dying, and when I tell this to my friends they heroically climb the ladder in an attempt to save me. As they are climbing up, the world is set on fire. What must be easily 20 explosions all start going off in quick succession, all around us - we have no bloody clue what the hell is going on, all we know is that we're in deep shit. Explosions are everywhere, in what seems to be the entire city, but definitely in very close proximity to us, though it is difficult for me to tell where exactly as I'm still lying there, unable to move. Then a rain of gunshots, and both my friends are killed in quick succession. I feel a pang of loss, regret and guilt, and hope that they will log back in to claim their dead bodies' loot. Meanwhile, I am still stuck, paralysed on the balcony with no visible blood loss, and so I decide to abort and log back in to see if that clears up my predicament. Upon logging back in, I now see the hourglass to indicate that I am passed out, so at least things have turned back to normal. As I'm lying there, slowly losing blood, I can hear someone climb up the ladder that is next to me. I'm asking myself, "Is it Tom Twice, is it Ben?", but I can't communicate over voice chat as I'm still passed out. I hear bandaging sounds - this guy is patching me up! Next thing I know is that I am being dragged away, presumably to a safer place. The hourglass is still half full, my saviour waits for a bit, and then proceeds to give me an Epipen. I wake up, stand up, and thank this kind sir - whose name turns out to be Sgt.Potato. He says nothing, turns around, walks away, and goes down the ladder. Gone. Did he just climb up there to save me?? And I don't hear sniper shots anymore... did he take out the snipers as well?? I see that there are at least 4 dead bodies of unknown survivors around me on the balcony. I loot one of them, and find the entire kit: NVGs, GPS, Coyote pack, everything. I have just survived the world being blown up around me, then got saved by a random hero, and now I am fully kitted out - luck is clearly on my side! I make my way down the ladder, still hoping that Tom Twice and Ben come back into the game. When I reach the ground, I hear a groan really nearby... somebody is lying somewhere, dying. I must be his Sgt.Potato! I must save him!! I try to locate the dying survivor. Walking around a bit in the general direction of where the groans are coming from, I suddenly hear a quiet sigh, followed by a message in the bottom of the screen that somebody has just died. I despair, I came too late... I take another look around, setting a few steps forward... ...BOOOOM!!! Out of nowhere, another massive explosion goes off, the metal structure to my right hand side is falling to pieces and sinking into the ground, and I am killed instananeously. To the fallen survivors: Ben, Tom Twice, I love you too - and not in a gay kind of way :) To my hero saviour: Sgt.Potato, press on and stay safe! Heh... :)
