the following is a very long read for entertainment and to offer some survival tips. all characters in this story have generic names to protect their ingame identities. the story takes place from my perspective of events, this character i have kept alive for 20 days (my current and second character). i've been meaning to write this for a while but dont really have a starting point so i'll explain sorta how i've survived and put some examples in for depth. when i started i had nothing apart from some bf3 clan mates in a team speak channel. they got me onto dayz so i was describing all surrounding lands marks and signs to help pinpoint my location. after some travelling and vague directions i came across a barn where i thought i'd find some supplies. i found some basic supplies to keep me going while my friend travelled to the barn. after some stressful waiting as there was zombies outside my friend said "hey you inside?" and i was like "yeah" he then asked if i was crawling out and im like nah thats a zombie. funnily enough we saw the same thing at the same time. through some confusion describing some outside features of the rural property we were both at 2 different points. so i said i'd go towards the coast so we can easily link up. i ended up at another barn which looked like the one he formely descirbed. irony set in and we had swapped, i was at the barn he described and he was at the one i described earlier. i decided to wait and we linked up. we were no on a journey to meet up with another friend but we past through a few settlements on the way to gain more supplies. at this stage i had found a lever action winchest shotgun with some ammo and my friend 'Tim' had an enfield rifle. we found our friend 'Rob' and we set off to other towns to find loot. 2 days later now Rob doesnt play much and he gets bored so he always wants to kill zombies and isnt very patient. we have talked him out of getting us killed a few times. when we would check barns on would stay back and get a good picture of the front while one of us would go to watch the rear (if possible) while one goes inside to get supplies. we would do this in turns so we wouldnt get caught off guard by a zombie while leaving. after some good trekking we come across a town which is pretty infested and the one barn on the skirt of the town had quite a few walkers and hoppers around it. Rob kept wanting to try out his double barreled shotgun out and we kept saying no. so we agreed to check the barn even though Tim and myself didnt want to risk it. Tim heads in and just before the door a zeds comes out of nowhere, he's been found, shit just got heated. Rob fires his shotgun and alerts half the town, we all fire sparactically to help but tim makes a break for the barn cos there was too many. Tim immediately ran upstairs in the barn using a lever action he had swapped for his enfield (we agreed the enfield was too loud as we had a major brush with death a while back thanks to rob, i cant remember the exact story so i didnt mention it. at this stage my character is probally 14 days in). Tim fires shot after shot, the zombies keep pouring in as fast as he's dropping them. me and Rob had to do something, i say "dont worry man just keep killing them we're gonna help" i get a good distance away and start firing my CZ550 (scoped hunting rifle, loud as shit as i was about to find out). i took out maybe 5 zeds then i reload and seem a mob leaving Tims area and coming my way, i yell "Rob bloody run they're coming i split away to even the zombie ration but they were chasing rob. he makes good haste and Tim had a good window to exit the barn. i switched to my makarov (small pistol, weak and easy to find) and tim helps pave the way for Rob but Rob ran into the barn tim was caught in. rob is now trapped inside with the same predicament Tim faced. tim opens fire at the mob on the bottom floor of the barn from 150m and is scoring killing hits as i was watching from my CZ scope from an easy 250 meters. Tim tells Rob "Man you gotta run out of them, you keeping them and making noise they'll just keep coming you'll eventually run out of ammo". now at this point the stairs are a good bottle neck but its a shit position to be when theres a mini horde. Rob makes a good run, Tim and I are keeping the heat off but a mere 20 meters from me and tim the 5 remaining zombie took rob down. me and tim got good distance and then decided to kill the bastards. Rob had some good supplies which helped us. me and tim were now on our own, we were better off in a way. we kept to the forests and avoided contact with all people, snuck into towns and collected supplies while Rob was on the other end of the map making his way to us from a respawn. at a chance of rotten luck another friend who doesnt really play got fed up cos he was starving in game to shoot another person out of desperation not knowing it was also his friend..... 'Mike' seemed like the kind of player who was more of a opportunist rather than a typical survivor. he later joined me and tim but we didnt like the idea of him being there if that was the play style he was gonna have. tim and I were keeping to character. we head deeper south i think it was on the way to meet rob. whilst in the forest me and tim hang back and observe the town Rob was in, Mike decided to head down the main road from the forest we were in which was no more than 50m to see if Rob could see him. BANG *pause* BANG, mike had now been killed by what we were pretty sure was a bandit. mike now said over teamspeak "ohh gay ive just been shot". tim and I hit the deck and we crawl back into the forest. i sorta felt bad cos i didnt say anything to mike cos i thought to myself "nah he'll be ok, nothing will happen" (boy was i wrong), what i never said was "man i dont think going out in the open on the road is a good idea". ok so now me and tim are hidden, we have no idea where the shooter is facing or who is with him only the direction he was in, we were in no position to engage. we crawl through the forest and become seperated. rob says he sees people up ahead followed by "Oh, i think they've spotted me" in the distance i hear gun fire, maybe at 400-500 meters away. he later announces he's been killed. me and tim finally regroup after a tense 20 minutes and continue. 2 days later Robs back with me and tim (mike hadnt logged on for days). we're travelling to the big relay tower. our forest comes to a halt, theres a road with an open field next to it. tim spots a cow, and another 'survivor' was near it facing us. he asks "hey Rick, you friendly?" i reply "depends wheather you shoot at me or not" . Biggs (name of the guythat found us) then asks "mind if i tag along im sorta new" and i reply "yeah man". at this stage he was out in the middle of nowhere without anyone and armed with a cross bow, there were 3 of us and i sorta felt bad for the guy. after some running he says an icon above a 'drop' icon was red in which case we said "your thirsty man". he replied "oh crap i dont have anything". i kindly gave him a canteen of water and said "keep it cos you can refil at fresh water sources" (i always carry 3 water canteens), i also gave him a can of beans to get him going. we enter a forest and i made sure he ran infront of me but also he was following my mates. this was incase he shoots at least someone will get him but also it was the onyl way of doing it. cos if he was gonna shoot he'd pick somone, someone has gotta die with that choice thats just statistics right? he's later fumbling around and causing unwanted atension with zeds on a few occasions i state to my mates over team speak "i dont want him around cos he's gonna either get us killed by bandits or zombies but then i also want him around cos i feel bad for him". after anothe indedent my mates and i came to a decision to ditch him. we ran in random directions and he lost sight of us. to do this tim lured him near the tower and then ran after Biggs alerted a zed. we later regrouped without biggs. as we travelled all i could read was "hey where you guys gone" followed by "HELP" "My legs are borken i can only crawl zombies are killing me. Player 'Biggs' has died i felt bad but we couldnt let that stop us. Biggs later made a new character and he was a gutsy guy, i remember reading text asking if other people were friendly so his death didnt put him down. Biggs if your reading this story and know your real ingame name. Im sorry. Few days later at this stage its been a few days and i cant remember what happened to rob. i think he hadnt played for days and me and tim wanted to play. Tim and i agreed to go to the big airfield. we get in fine no dramas, even check out a few small buildings. tim startles a zed who was in the big shed and we're being chased. we down a few zeds and now we're running back towards the forest. 2 zeds down me, my legs are broken! as i lay on the ground get stomped by these monster tim is trying to outrun the zeds but he has no ammo either. i throw my CZ away whilst getting smashed and quickly take my hatchet from my tool belt and put it in the weapon slot, i frantically 'reaload' it while taking hits at that moment i sent those 2 bastards back to their graves. i tell tim to lure the 2 zeds on his tail round my way and i kill them whilst crawling. he gives me morphine and i become healed. we agree to keep searching the airfield reguardless of this brush with death in tims exact words "well it cant get much worse right, like we've almost died". we now sneak to the hangers and buildings. he finds an m1014 (semi auto shotgun) and i take my own hangers to save time. we relay loot to see what we want. i sneak around cutting down zombies in my path like a viking, then never stood a chance. i see a building that has a ladder and i climb it and spot some awesome loot inside but there was no window access. at this point some zeds on the ground floor spot us and start chasing, i wait by the ladder axe in hand but they didnt climb. i hid out of sight and they lost intrest and went away. i climbed down with Tim and we went in the front . i enter the building and chop down another zed, and put my hatchet back in the tool slot cos i found an ak74 with red dot sight. Tim found an ak47. we checked the remaining hangers and got jumped by a zed. it must of been a proffesional boxer in a former life cos it knocked me unconcious in one hit. i tell him over teamspeak to open fire, he wastes some of them but also attracts more. i desperatly curse wanted the hour glass icon on my screen to empty. i get up and switch to a makarov and enter the fray killing off the rest with tim. we take painkillers and search a final building on the way out. surprising that we didnt encounter any people through this ordeal. 2 days later/current day we search around a town. sneaking around prone with high tension as zeds stumble about. we get some more basic supplies, food, drink and leave stuff we dont need. we find a small military outpost. Tim swaps his ak for a silenced mp5. theres ammo for it aswell as some ammo for my weapon. i only took 1 mag which puts the count included by already equipt to 4 mags. i could of had more but i wanted more other stuff. since receiving such a weapon i havnt fired it. tim suggests we check out the town with the hospital, we both knew there would be a good chance there'd be people there but we've been alive for a while and needed to up the stakes. we get to the town and tim spots a 'survivor' on a industrial scaffolding. we watch, we study him to learn of any possible intensions of weather he's a survivor or a bandit. Tim says he's going to go sneak his way upto him. prior to entering we heard gunshots at what we thought were at us but after we took cover we heard more gun fire and figured the unknown guy was killing zombies. ok so now tim is slowly making his way over while i use my binoculars to see where our 'friend' was facing. tim gets on the same floor of him. i have eyes on both. the unknown man is prone aiming into the distance , i ask tim "what weapon has he got" tim replies "looks like an m16". i reply with "hmm he's got good loot and hes in a popular area looking at the town from a elevated position im pretty sure he was a bandit". regular survivors dont camp spots like that and they avoid all contact with zeds as much as possible. in order for us to proceed into the town (right now we're on the edge) the threat needed to be neutrilised. Tims heart pounding, he'd never shot a person, he felt guilt, pressure and survival instincts. he shoots and i observe with binoculars, clean kill. no sounds, single bullets to the head as the blood splatter suggested. the bandit alt f4'd. i cover Tim and guide his movments. he gets to the forest line again. unknown to us tim had been spotted while on the scaffolding and had led a bandit to where we were. Crack vvvt "ive been hit" i yell "run away theres a guy shooting at us". im bleeding my vision impared my arm is broken i run through the forest and bandage up. however tim is still being shot at no doubt cos the assailant had lost sight of me. i begin to crawl through the forest. once again im in a situation where i am unable to locate my enemy and choose to avoid him if possible. my mate Tim now has been executed by an unfriendly ak. we chat over team speak, i lay tense in the trees, keep constantly checking the time on my ingame watch (as its real time) and wait 10 minutes before risking running across the field where my friend died so i could go back the way i came. through a small down and away. after consulting with his map further Tim apolagises and states we were actually in a heavily popular area among bandits. i was now behind enemy lines! i run through the forest ak in hands only to switch to pistol when zeds are near to avoid high sound and wasting ammo. i now come to a road that runs inbetween to forest sections, i pause and hit the deck, i see 2 men running together sporting firearms. i switch to 3rd person view and keep sight of them. and they enter the forest to kill a zed they had alerted. they had semi automatic black assault rifles, i figured they were m16s. i lay prone with my camo outfit keeping my eyes on the 2 men. they communicated with each other with direct chat, asmuch as i wanted to confront them i knew it would surely end in tragedy later down the track when they decide to shoot me in the back. they eat some food and heal up, and then continue along the road. i thought "you guys are going in a bad direction especially running on a road". i continue to run through the forests and fields. i come upto a pig, i need meat to replenish some of my lost blood, i drop my ak and use my axe to kill it to avoid noise. i switch back to my ak and start a camp in the middle of the next forest. i regain some blood. im currently searching for me friend tim who has respawned and worked his way back to me. i really wanted revenge when he died but wasnt willing to risk getting killed in order to get it as i've tried that before with a random friend in my first character and it ended in death. i've survived for so long by avoiding people and assessing wheather the loot is worth the risk. i have 73 zombie kills (more than half are thanks to rob for alerting them) and 0 murders. if your a survivor then keep surviving, trust no one but dont shoot on sight unless your gonna defend yourself. at the end of this i sorta feel guilty, everyone around me has died and i've cheated death an uneasy 8 times. the worst is seeing them die and then being alone.
