We are all connected

[bain 23]

This is a story with three pretty unique perspectives, and I hope the other two people involved chime in. In any case, here's my perspective on a lesson in how we're all connected in some small way as a DayZ community:

 

I spawned anew at the grocery store west of Kamenka. Immediately I saw a guy with a mosin running around. I figured he had a gun and I didn't so any loot was his. I make a run, and I don't think he sees me. I cut the corner to get to Pavlovo, mostly to get at the water spigot there. I have a good drink, then set to fist fighting zombies and looking for a backpack. I took a zombie out in the street, to then look up and find another survivor down the road. We see one another at the same time, and I call out “friendly, I don't have anything anyway.” The guy waves.

 

BANG!

 

A gunshot rings from somewhere unknown to me and my new found friend is already dead. Having already spoken, my position was already known. So I go on speaking, claiming to be friendly and unequipped. The shooter emerges and says it's cool, he won't shoot. It turns out this guy is new to DayZ. He barely touched the mod, and was completely lost. He shot the other dude because admittedly the other guy was well armed and he felt nervous. I didn't blame him, and said indeed you have to be careful in DayZ. I've been KOSed several times already in SA.

 

We share the loot and I suggest we hit the military base nearby. He agrees, and we share names. I'll call him Brian in this story to protect his name. As it turns out, Brian was the guy with the mosin from my log in.

 

At the base we encounter someone else. This guy was being chased by zombies, and though he had a M4 he claimed to have no ammo. We help with the zeds and he asks for ammo. Brian and I decline and head deeper into the base. The new guy leaves towards pavlovo. Once alone again, Brian asks whether he should have shared. After all, he had enough ammo. I told him it's better to be cautious, and something about that guy's voice made me feel iffy.

 

Shortly after, deeper in the base, the iffy guy returns. He claims to have spotted a dead guy in the streets of pavlovo, and saw 4 armed fellows that he thinks is headed our way. Brian and I stay mostly quiet with our weapons aimed at the door.  I wasn't going to say anything about knowing exactly who murdered the guy in pavlovo, and Brian stayed quiet as well.  But after a long and awkward stand off we decide to tentatively trust the guy. Particularly if 4 guys were coming at us. We all leave the base together and head north towards Zelenogorsk. We'll call our new friend Dale, again to protect his name.

 

Along the way we loot a little. We discuss tactics and marching orders, slowly building trust as we go. At Zeleno we all crash and Dale suffers from some bug that makes him unconcious when he logged in. Brian came back on the wrong server, but thanks to Dale finding us all on steam (a surprise to me) we all end up back in the same server and communicating again. I go find Brian, who was really happy to reunite. It surprised me a little. I've played the mod a lot and it jaded me. It was refreshing to have some one excited to team up and work together.

 

Sadly we couldn't help Dale. He respawns and we all meet up again and recover his stuff. I had real life errands to run, so I told the guys “I have to log soon, but I'll go as far as green mountain with you.” Brian says he'll log out and wait. (High five to Brian, an ultra cool dude). I tell them it's fine to go on, and thanks to steam I'll catch up later.

 

The trust level in the group was really high... so I go out on a limb. We were still enroute to Green Mountain with Dale on point. I say “Dale, I have a confession. That dead guy at Pavlovo...”

 

Dale whirls around to face me, and I can't help but notice the M4 in his hands. “Did you do that?”

 

“Well no,” I say. “Brian here did though.”

 

Brian offers the same story he gave me about being nervous and unsure.

 

Dale says, “I have a confession as well. That dead guy at Pavlovo... that was me.”

 

Brian didn't believe it at first. But immediately I started connecting the dots. Dale died, and probably spawned really close. He came back up, likely hoping to find us and get revenge. Or at least get his gear off his body. But when he found us we had the ammo, and he didn't. That's why he didn't follow us into the base. Because he wanted to check his body in pavlovo. But by the time he had ammo, we'd been working together and building trust. By the time it all came out, it was water under the bridge and now I have 2 new DayZ buddies.

 

Then Brian admitted it was his first DayZ kill. We had a laugh, but after reflecting on it I've come to appreciate that as an amazing connection. I remember my first kill from the mod. It was some weirdo fresh spawn at night running in circles around me like a lunatic and revealing me with his flashlight. I have no connection with that guy. I'll never know who he is or share a laugh with him. I think it's cool that Brian got to have that chance. I hope it helps define his choices moving forward in DayZ. I hope my cynicism and mistrust doesn't rub off on him too much.

[SalamanderAnder (DayZ) 1747]

That's great. I have a had a similar situation happen to me in Epoch. Early on in my Epoch career I had found a barn that seemed out of the way, and I finally had the tools to build. So I got to work chopping trees, boarding up doors, that sort of thing. While I'm out cutting wood, a man appears. I had a very good rifle, and could have killed him, but instead I tried to talk to him in direct. Bad move. He hid behind a tree and popped out and shot me. Whatever.

 

 

 

 

Skip to about a week later, on the same server. At this point I have finally set up an operational base, with 0 raids or anything. I've gotten used to the mod. Somehow I end up meeting up with another player over side (I don't remember the exact circumstances). So he picks me up in his helicopter, and we set off to pick up another player and do some loot runs together. After some successful looting of Sector H and the NEAF, the second guy asks to go by his base so he can put some things away. We leave our comrade with the helicopter (where we had found a crash site) and I start to hike with this guy over to his base nearby. While we are walking we're talking and such, so I'm not really paying attention to where we are. But as we arrive at "his" base, I suddenly realize that this was the first base I had started building! The conversation in direct chat went something like this.

 

Me: "Hey... I think I was building this base a while back..."

 

Him: "Huh?"

 

(We enter and I see the very same workbench which I placed quite carefully.)

 

Me: "Haha, yeah. That's my workbench. I was building this place and someone came up and killed me."

 

Him: "Oh... I think that was my friend. He killed you and we thought that it seemed like a pretty good spot, so... We took it."

 

We laughed about it a bit and he informed me that they were having frequent break-ins and so they were planning on moving anyway, if I wanted it back. I shrugged it off and told him I was already set up pretty well somewhere else.

 

All's well that ends well I suppose. lol