On a whim, I decided to purchase DayZ SA. I have never played the mod but decided the premise was good enough to give it a whirl. Upon first launching the game, I decided the first thing I must do.. well, actually, the first thing I must do is build an actual gaming PC. The second thing I decided to do was explore the abandoned village I was near. And I quickly became prey to a small group of zombies. The third thing I decided to do was practice circle strafing. Check. ---- The fourth thing I decided to do, was respawn. I quickly noticed I started in a much larger but similarly abandoned city. Interesting. I did notice some zombies off in the distance so I got low and found myself staring at something resembling a hospital? Maybe school? It was a multi-story big white block building. I began my ascent up the stairwell, clearing each floor. On the first floor, I found a blue bandana and shirt. Nice. Clearly I am on my way to acquiring all of the necessary tools to surviving an apocalypse. On the second floor, I found a can of tuna. And.. down the hall I saw it. A rifle. I snuck to the end of the hall and picked up the mosin. No ammo. No attachments for it. But fret not, for I also found a red fireman's axe. I felt invincible! As I trudged my way up each flight I became more and more confident. I finally arrived to the top floor... and a well armed "gentleman" was crawling down. Crap. I immediately drew my fireaxe ready to fend myself. I raised one hand as a gesture of goodwill. And I found myself staring down the barrel of his M4. I turned to the right thinking I could run for it.. and I was staring into my own reflection of the deep dark eye cutouts of a gas mask. And another M4 barrel pointed to my face. Both hands went into the air. "Are you alone?" Instead of being barraged by a hail of gunfire, I was being barraged by questions. I replied, "Yes, sir. I am alone." "Do you have any supplies?" "A can of a tuna, some rags, this here rifle and axe. And that is it". Deep inside, I hoped that my paltry equipment load out would earn me some pity from the bandits. It didn't seem that it would. "Turn around. We are going to handcuff you." I couldn't believe it. I was going to either be robbed and executed, or my new rifle and axe were going to just be taken. They stared at me a minute and seemed to be having a conversation amongst themselves. "Would like an M4?" I was confused. Was this a trick? I didn't know how to respond. I had just found a Mosin. Why would they be offering an M4? Is an M4 worse? I don't know. But I was in no position to be arguing or be debating the finer points of ballistics between the older Mosin or the modern M4. "Yes sir, I would appreciate it." "We are going to unhandcuff you now and drop the M4 over in the stairwell." One of the gentleman removed my Mosin from me and unhandcuffed me. The other dropped a fully modded M4 on the landing as promised. I cautiously made my way to the landing eyeballing the sleek black M4 laying before me. I picked it up and inspected it. A grip. Some kind of iron sights. Some kind of guard. Interesting. "I really appreciate it guys," was all I could muster. I didn't know how to thank my recent captors. "Stay safe.... ....oh, you will need these. We don't have any ammo we can spare so hopefully you can find some but these should help". The generous rogue then dropped two 30-round magazines on the ground before me. And before I could say anything else between my stuttering and stammering- they were gone. ----- I don't normally try to write in any kind of RP fashion, but.. I am not sure who my generous captors were but thank you. It was a great experience, especially for a first one in DayZ. It inspired me to post here and hopefully "Pay It Forward" as much as I can in my time in DayZ. Now I am considering purshing ARMAII:CO so I can play the fleshed out mod.
