Dear diary... Last night was nerve-wracking to say the least. Mako, Geng and myself all met up at Rog Por. We had a plan to meet with some other survivors, but Mako had had strips torn off of him by a few zombies and was in a bad way. We'd stabalised him but he'd lost so much blood he was fainting every few minutes. We decided to head for Elektrozavodsk for medical supplies instead. We knew there was a hospital in there, although we imagined it'd be pretty dangerous to get to. We started the walk, pausing to slap Mako around every time he flaked out, and eventually came around the Dobryy hill and had Elektro in view. We started moving cautiously down to a low hill above the city, figuring we could look and listen for activity and plan a route in before making the move. The three of us lay on the hill, passing a set of binocs about and getting the lay of the town. Things looked peaceful. There were zeds of course, but they were well spread out and just wandering around in that ponderous way they do. We hadn't heard gunfire in the five minutes we had been there, so we started down the hill, hunched over to keep a low profile. We moved into the first few buildings, avoiding several zeds, before we found an accessible townhouse. We moved into it to check for supplies and found a rifle, a revolver, and some food, which Mako scoffed before we had almost noticed it. While we were in the house we noticed the zombies outside getting riled up, but it wasn't us. Some fool had got himself trapped in a large building across the way from us. He'd made the most common mistake made by people hitting trouble in town. He'd opened fire on the zeds and pulled all of them from the surrounding area. They were swarming in through the smashed front windows, doors, even scaling ladders to get in the second level. We watched nervously, not wanting to offer help in case it announced our presence to the zombies. He vanished deeper into the building and out of sight, zombies boiling around the entrances. From the windows of the townhouse we had spotted the hospital, so we made the most of the distraction and legged it out the back and across a couple of roads. We picked up a couple of strays on the way over, but made it to the building well enough ahead of them to be in no danger. The front doors were barricaded, but we found a ladder leading up to the roof and left our tail behind as we scaled it right to the top. Up on the roof we struck the jackpot. It was mad, we couldn't believe our eyes. Two large boxes stuffed to overflowing with painkillers, blood bags, morphine and epi injectors, and rolls of bandages. It was a bounty, much more than we had hoped to find. We gave Mako his transfusion and then filled our packs, ditching some of our old supplies that would be easy to replace to make room for as much as possible. Across the way, things were quieting down at zed central. We couldn't see the dude, and the zombies didn't look quite as animated as they had earlier. In fact some had wandered over to the base of our building, attracted by the howling of the lads we had left at the bottom of the ladder. It was fast becoming quite a gathering... We examined our castle a little closer and found another ladder down to a second floor balcony. Unfortunately there was still no way inside the hospital, and the zeds were now thick as flies at the bottom. Luckily for us, the hand of god reached down and killed the server. When it came back up the area around the hospital was clear, but Mako had not rejoined us. Geng and I dropped down the ladder to ground level and hid in the corner of a wall. We waited, watching the few roamers in few shuffling aimlessly about the road. We got sick of that pretty quick and started to move out, but almost immediately pulled a couple of friends. They ran at us like the crazed freaks they are, but we took them down pretty quick with our pistols and didn't seem to attract any other attention. Or so we thought... Almost as soon as we re-broke cover, shots rang out and Geng heard the buzz of bullets passing close. They were shooting at us no doubt, and it turned out we had dragged in a few more friends than we initially thought. They came running as we scrambled for cover. Geng made it back to the ladder and started up to the roof of the hospital again. I had too much heat on me and bailed in the opposite direction, deeper into town. Stupid really... But Geng was left injured on the roof. I wasn't going to bail. Well not yet anyway. I circled round while Geng indicated through the radio that the bad guys seemed to be in the building the zombie chum was trapped earlier. I knew where that was so I doubled back and noticed a ladder on the side of the building in question. Up I clambered, zombies nipping at my heels, just in time to see one of the bandits come out a door and head for the lip of the building, looking over toward the hospital. He didn't notice me. I took a couple of steps closer while pulling my winchester off my shoulder. Pumped a solid slug into him from behind from about 4 meters. Didn't feel the least bit bad about it as he dropped without even crying out. This isn't Hollywood and he wasn't coming back for revenge, but I put another in him anyway. I didn't think he'd be alone, but I had no idea where his mate(s) were, so I crossed to his body in the hopes of finding anything that would help. As I passed the doorway I glanced in and saw his buddy crouched at the far end of the hallway. I didn't stop at the corpse, but continued right around the building to the entrance I saw behind him. As I approached his hiding place I knew in my guts that he would have predicted my move and be waiting for me. I edged out around the doorway expecting to get a muzzle in my face, but no. He was still staring, transfixed, at the door at the opposite end, where his friend had been dropped. I put a slug in his back and he went down in much the same way as his bud. I gave him another to be sure as well. I did a quick lap of the second floor. No more baddies. Went back and examined the bodies and by god, what a treasure trove. Aside from the two AK-74s and 5 clips of ammo, they had big backpacks, hunting knives, gps units, maps, compasses, watches, entrenching tools, a toolkit, fencing kits, a tent. They had gear coming out their ears. While my eyes were growing larger and larger I heard Geng again on the radio reminding me he was hurt pretty bad. I grabbed the essentials and cleared a few zeds out of my way on the way back down the ladder. I legged it back to the hospital and got back up top quick to help Geng with a transfusion. He assisted me in kind and we were both feeling pretty happy about ourselves. We knew there was a buttload of loot still over the road, but we also assumed the dead bandits would have mates that would be here soon, with little to lose and all their buddy's gear to gain. So we headed back down. We were headed back up to the lookout hill, but Geng couldn't resist the chance for some phat lewt, so he detoured up to the building-of-continual-conflict to try his luck. I continued out of town. Perhaps it was a little rough leaving my pal to scavenge for himself in there, but I had some treats I never even knew existed before, and the toolbox I had snitched was our key to one day fixing up a ride of our own. I reached the crest of lookout hill at about the same time as gunfire erupted back at shit central. I scrambled into a bush in mute dismay as I heard Geng gunned down by more bandits. I found a position from where I could see the building that had given us so much trouble, and sure enough, there were two ill mannered fellows scampering about on top. I figured I was about 300 meters out and had no faith in my aim from that range, but the trigger of my new found AK was giving me an itch. I watched them scamper around the rooftop firing at some other unfortunate bastard. I lined one up and let off a few rounds. He got down fast, but I hadn't hurt him. He was crawling frantically around the rooftop trying to find cover with no idea of where the shots were coming from. I was almost amusing, continuing to oppress the prick. And I got him. Took me about half a clip of ammo, firing careful, but he eventually went down. Revenge semi-sated I decided not to push my luck, so I pulled back up the hill and waited to hear from others. There were a group of allies approaching from the east so I moved out and joined up with them. We had another couple coming in from the east of Elektro, some of whom required medical attention, so we decided to try for the hospital again and hope the bandits figured hanging around in town was a bad idea too, and had pissed off... Well we can live in hope, right?? What the heck, there were five of us and even a makarov is plenty deadly as long as you can hit your target. We moved back in cautiously, about 30 minutes plus after our last encounter in the town. Everything was quiet. Zeds were doing their typical, shambling thing. We knew this end of town well by now, so moved straight to the building-that-will-not-be-named and headed back up on the roof. Wow there had sure been some more action since I had last been there. The roof was a litter of bodies and congealing blood. There were a good 30 dead zeds and maybe 5 ex survivors, including the three I'd downed. Still there and ripe for the pillaging. We did a quick check of the building but were feeling pretty good about ourselves. That's the thing about the scavenging life. It doesn't matter how much great gear you find, you can only take what you can carry. So we all picked over the corpses like a flock of crows. There was more than enough to go around, but I decided it was enough for me and that I'd end the night on a high note. I found a safe spot and bunkered down for the rest of the night. I wonder if I was dreaming, but I think I heard gunfire and screams as I drifted out. Dear diary... Last night I died three times. First time I was doing a loop scavenging deer stands. I was at the ladder to one when I heard a crack and dropped to the ground, bleeding out. Didn't have much gear and the bandit was at least kind enough to come a finish me off instead of leaving me to bleed slowly before I could respawn. Second time. I respawned south of where I died and consciously decided to avoid the place of my death, but somehow found myself back there again. Figured I may as well check my corpse and the deer stand, after all I had called out the bandit's location last time and they wouldn't have stuck around, right? But there they were, five of them ahead of me in the forest. I hit the dirt but they had seen me. Bullets started kicking up dirt and they were approaching slowly. Staying in place was suicidal, so I jumped up and ran, zig-zagging madly. There were plenty of shots and bullets whizzing through the air around me, but they only clipped me with one shot. I was bleeding, but not terribly. I left the forest and ran across a field toward some trees. I ducked quickly behind a low one without even looking back, and quickly bandaged myself, then lay under the tree. Sure enough, like a pack of animals with the scent of blood in their nostrils, the were out for the kill. I waited quietly, Makarov in hand. They approached and drew level with the tree I was under. I did not think I would escape notice, so I opened fire, hitting one who then dove for cover and out of my line of sight. He friend joined me under the tree shortly later. I got a couple of shots off before *click* *click* *click*. "Damn." I said, into the muzzle of his barrel. If I'd had a whinny I reckon I would have taken at least two of the pricks... Third time. I was with four friends. We had worked our way all the way across the map and were approaching the airfield in the NW corner of the map. We were still hitting deer huts as we went, and we had just found one. I was in front and moved in to mop up the four or five zombies there. I shot one and the others all pricked up their ears and came running. I moved back into the tree line where the rest of the lads were waiting to cut the zeds down. I moved right out of the line of fire and they opened up. *Bam* *Kapow* *Pap* *Pap* *Pow* *Bam* And I dropped like a sack, dead before I hit the floor. Everyone went very quiet on Teamspeak. "Well guys.' I said, 'Either there's a bandit with eyes on us, or one of you have just taken a humanity hit..." "Err, looks like I owe you a beer." said friend Daffy. On the flip side a server glitched spawned me only about 500m away with all my gear.
