Interferon

Evening chaps. Joined the forums just to post this story. It might be a bit of a long one but I thought it one worth telling. Pull up a chair, put the kettle on and read on. I'd been surviving for about 3 hours at a time before this spawn, so I chose Male or Female skins at random. For this adventure I went with the Female skin in the lame hope that people would think a split-second longer about shooting a female on-sight compared to a Male. Worth a try... I spawn to the west of Kamenka, which by now has to be regarded as the absolute worst place to spawn on the map. Nevertheless I'm on a mission to meet two of my buddies who've made their way to the lighthouse between Kamenka and Komarovo. In the very distance I see they've lit it up like a christmas tree and in the pitch black I sprint to it without stopping to look at any other building on the way. When I get there I meet my hombres, one of them has found a bicycle and the other has a hatchet for me, I feel like all of my birthday's have come at once as we proceed eastwards towards the Balota airfields. As this was an older version of the game the airfield was graphics glitching all over the show but we managed to hatchet our way out of there with some degree of style, bicycle still in tow, but still without any projectile weaponry. We headed North-ish hoping to find a few better supplies and dodge Cherno, but soon became hopelessly lost. By this point I'm still a complete n00b at DayZ but somehow have a bit of a penchant for navigation in real life. I manage to decipher the hills and roads around me and let my buddies know that we're actually next to Vysota hill, just north of Cherno, and soon after we are attacked by about a dozen zombies. We do our best to hack as many Z's as possible but my friend (who isn't chilling on the bike) breaks his leg and we are all bleeding out and dropping into greyness, I assume we're going to die and prepare for the cold embrace of death. We make one more pledge to sprint to the hospital tents in Cherno and vow to die fighting rather than bleeding out in the woods. Despite not being able to stand with his broken leg, my partner manages to ride a bike perfectly fine so he lights a flare and leads the way on his two-wheels to Cherno. Despite wading into the city with such an obvious fanfare we escape detection from every human player on the server and actually manage to get patched up. After assuming that Cherno must be just about empty we do some looting and I finally get a weapon in the shape of a Lee Enfield with about 10 mags. Our last stop for the night is the Cherno firestation and I'm leading the way on my belly towards the front doors. As I crawl in my blood runs cold as in the corner of my eye I see a survivor aiming a revolver up the stairs. By now my two other buddies are by my side and they sneak up to and hatchet the guy to death - at least they would've if he was alive, he is merely a glitched out body that hasn't disappeared yet. He has a better pack than me so I swap my pack and log off for the night. The next day we raid the supermarket and manage to get some wilderness survival tools between us, then we set out for the NW airfield. To my horror I realise that my pack swapping from the night before has left me WITHOUT a pack at all, and worse still, my Lee Enfield was in the pack. In what feels like forever, we run north towards the airfield and I am feeling like the biggest noob in existence without a pack (and somehow without a flashlight too, I don't even know...). Luckily we manage to stumble across a helicopter crash site and I go from zero to hero after finding a Bizon with 3 mags. Suddenly I feel like one of the team as we continue to the airfield. We head towards a shed next to the soutern-most barracks and by now it's pitch black. We've got a few flares but I'm still hopelessly without flashlight and I have no idea about the gamma slider trick yet! We all crawl into this shed and I anticipate that something has gone very wrong. We sit in total stillness for about 3 minutes, proned on the floor, thinking we may not have aggro'd any zombies...and then they came. From both exits in pitch darkness the Z'd pile in. I am letting fly with my Bizon like there's no tomorrow, desperately trying not to hit my buddies in a room that is about the size of a car. They just keep coming and coming and once again, I assume that we're going to die. Not today! Just as my Bizon empties and the smoke settles on the new zombie carpet, we get a few minutes respite and I blood transfuse and medic my buddies to full health. I ditch the Bizon and we all agree to have another crack at the NW Airfield once daylight arrives. In the mean time we head north west towards the vehicle spawn point but find it empty. We log off once more. When I log back in I am completely alone. My buddies began long before I got home from work, so I find myself utterly stranded - still without pack, flashlight and projectile weapon - in one of the most remote parts of the map. At least I have my health! I agree to meet one of my buddies at the NW airfield so I can get some of my shit together, when on the way across Bashnya mountain, I see a Ural parked in the trees. I suddenly hit the deck and watch the truck for about 15 minutes with my binoculars, just waiting to see movement. There's nothing. What the hell, I'm going to get that truck! I make a mad desperate dash, hatchet in hand, climb into the drivers seat and gun it off of the mountain. I run a few circles to confuse any would-be persuer but I couldn't hear any shots or see any action in my rear-view. Now I've got no weapons, no pack, but a truck, which is probably one of the rarest things in the game. My buddy finally meets up with me - now some way from the airfield - and to my shock he has brought me a DMR. What a hero! We agree to stash the vehicle, and to this day I'm shocked nobody heard the engine starting up when we drove it to safety. We logged out. When we logged back in the vehicle was gone. I'm alone again, but feeling genuinely more badass with my DMR. My friends are at Stary Sobor so I hotfoot it there only to find them embroiled in a tense sniper situation. I crawl up to the ledge where just about everyone overlooks the military tents and I find one of my guys there. The other is down in the tents under sniper fire. We skirt around for ages trying to find the sniper but to no avail. Eventually the gunfire stops and we assume he's logged out. Suddenly in the distance we hear the roar of a Ural engine and from the ridge we see it thundering through town. It was too far away to take any decent pot shots but we assume it's heading to Novy Sobor to refuel and so we leg it at breakneck speed towards the fuel dump. Sadly our predictions were incorrect and nobody was there. Instead we head to the Church, loot it, and log off for another night. There is about a two-week break here before I logged on again. I'm in the church again and this time I've picked a server with only one other person on it just to try and re-learn the controls again. It's pitch black (again...) but now I've finally got a flashlight. As I spend about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get my flashlight into my hand without losing my pistol I hear faint footsteps and to my absolute horror a road flare comes flying in through the open church door. In sheer absolute panic, I'm ashamed to say, I disconnected. Despite the fact I had the drop on this guy (who was probably a new spawn in Stary) and had a DMR, I was so petrified I could only think to quit! When I finally pluck up the courage to play again, I'm solo once more, I make my way again to the NW airfield. I'm a lot more confident at the game now and I'm a bit of an expert at patiently avoiding Zs. I find a G17 at the barracks and finally an ALICE pack so I can actually carry some shit at long last. I also find a tent and a ghille suit. Being female I can't wear it so I stow it away in case I ever run into my friends again. After nearly dying in the aircraft hangars because I didn't realise Zs could run in them, I patch myself up at one of the airfield buildings and then crawl to the northern-most hangar. Again, there's only one other person on the server, so imagine my horror when I hear gunshots from where I'd just been patching myself up! My spine undergoes the familiar freezing and I scan the open airfield through the scope of my DMR. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I see a guy running South across the runways followed by about twenty Zs. I bite the bullet, decide not to shoot, and instead ask across Direct if he 'needs any help?'. He starts frantically looking around trying to spot where I might be before finally he STOPS DEAD to try and type a reply. The inevitable happens and he gets sacked by about 6 zombies at the same time. The rest catch up to him and as I ponder whether it's worth a DMR mag to try and save him, I see his death message. At least there are bigger noobs than me playing this game. From here my story gets boring as I live off of the land and don't see another human player for days. I start hunting for vehicles and possible stash locations but find nothing. Becoming aimless and bored I decide to pitch my tent and stuff it full of goodies for when my friends return to the server. I test out several potential hiding spots before settling for one just north of Gvozdno, a godforsaken town where nobody would ever stop to visit. I pitch my tent and run around the outside doing concentric circles to see how well hidden it is and to be perfectly honest, it's almost invisible. Great! I walk towards my tent to put the first loot inside but I can't seem to get the menu up. I go prone and crawl closer to the tent - LEG BREAK. For no reason at all I suffer a broken bone. No problem, I have the gear to fix it, I access my gear - SANDTIMER. The time is running down over my head and I still hold out hope that I can heal myself... YOU ARE DEAD. My 53-day-old character was dead. She died from crawling into a tent and glitching. Back to the beach.