First time survivor. Still not dead.

[Jane Past 2]

This is my first time playing the game other than bootcamp in arma. Miraculously I'm still alive and from what I hear that's pretty damn rare. So I'm putting this down on record for any interested viewers. I will be updating this as I go along, so I won't be giving any locations or directions to avoid bandits trying to track me.

Day 1

I started in between a farm house and a town, I checked the house first but as I got closer I saw a zombie glitch through the wall, so I went over to the other option. I went into the first large building I saw I found alot of things I couldn't use other than a couple cans of soda, but as I was doing that the surrounding parking lot filled with zombies. I started to look for a way out but there wasn't one, atleast not until someone started shooting nearby. I took the opportunity to escape with a bike I found outside of the building. I was pretty scared and I just rode down the road as fast as I could.

I went for sometime and I was planning on keeping that bike to head inland quickly, but that dream was crushed when I heard more gunfire. I got off my bike and headed up a small hill into the nearby woods. A car came down the road and stopped right next to my bike. They were talking over their mics and I could hear them trying to decide whether or not to go looking for me, if the loot was worth the effort. I didn't stick around to hear the rest. I crouch ran through to the other side of the woods where I was met with a large field with a small town in the middle of it. I thought about looking for loot there but decided the field would be too dangerous to risk in case those bandits were following me.

I was getting pretty hungry after a while and I decided I would go into the next town I found. While it wasn't a town, there were a few buildings at a cross road. I tried to go into one house but it was locked, I went across the street and hugged a fence next to the road but when I got to end of the fence there was a zombie right there, and so began the chase. I got up and ran past him through into the house, he got a swipe at me when I did that and I was bleeding so I used a bandage to heal up and then I continued through to the back door and ran out and zig zagged through a small line of trees hoping he would glitch on one. It worked he stopped chasing me but I still had no food.

The next town I went in to it seemed all the doors were locked and only one of them I could enter, thankfully that one had a can of food so I ate that. When I left that house I decided to look for more open buildings but that was a mistake and I soon had zombies on my ass again. I did the same tree trick, it worked again thankfully and I found my self in a forest again. I was pretty frustrated about how most of the houses were unenterable and as I was going over a hill I saw through the trees a large rusted building in the distance. Thinking there's no way that building is unenterable I made that my target. As I got out of the woods I saw a deer stand, I went up and found an AKS lying beside, DMR ammo. I was really glad to have a gun but at the same time I was kinda frustrated with having the wrong type of ammo. Now that building was in sight, there was a large group of zombies in between there and where I was. I got out of the deerstand and was greeted by a zombie, guess what I did? Ran through the trees. I thought maybe I could get to the building through the town next to it.

Along the way through the town I saw a house that looked different than the others, I went into it and gladly found a good amount of food and drinks but as I went into the second room I could hear someone open a can of soda and drink it. I hid in the corner and started trying to figure out how I would confront him. Should I hold him at gun point knowing I have no ammo? Should I put my gun away and hope he doesn't kill me at first sight? As I was still deliberating he came crawling through the door and sees me through his peripheral vision. He freaks out and just starts flailing his gun on full auto in my general direction but stops when he sees me stand perfectly still and put my gun down. He asks if I am friendly, at which point I panic not knowing the key to start typing. He starts demanding I respond or he would shoot. I finally found it and eeked out a "yeh". We decided to group together, I offered him some of the useless ammo I was carrying around and he let me have the pistol we found in that house. Afterwhich we assessed the situation of location and zombies, which was pretty bad. Half a mag of gunfire has a tendency to attract zombies, and our only entrance in the house opened straight on to the street.

We just rushed towards the nearest forest with a large group of zed on our asses. From there we talked about heading to a town a little ways away from here. We stopped at a few places along the way, a couple small towns and a deer stand. At the deer stand there were three zombies just standing under it, the other survivor with me suggested we check it out and take them out with a couple headshots. His words were "we don't want to waste ammo so we should go for headshots, which means we have to get pretty close. If you miss just keep firing until they go down. I'll take out the one on the left you go for the right." I aimed carefully and took out the first one and then immediately tried to take out the crawler but it was jerking around so it took a few shots. Once that was over my friend sighed with a humorous "And I'M the one who misses". As he went up the deer stand another zombie spawned and I put 2 shots into him, the last of my mag. Sadly there was nothing in there but once we were clear I told the other that I was out of ammo and he kindly gave me another mag. We walked on for quite some time and the thought came to me I never told him my name. So I did, "btw I'm jane"

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm jesse"

I think it was somewhere around here that it was the first time I felt safe in this game, we knew where we were going, we had eachothers backs, and we had a good amount of food and drink. We continued onward to a barn on the outskirts of a village. There I found a hatchet and a winchester, the basics to survival. We, as always head to the nearest line of trees, there we stopped and rested, he said something about lunch on the way. I thought he might have been talking about ingame but I had been playing for a while so I was hungry and tired. I gave him my steam and he gave me his, we said goodbye. I haven't been able to contact him since.

Day 2

The next day I went to the town we were heading to, as I approached I saw a cow, I decided to try to hunt the cow and get some meat. Problem was that it was pretty close to the town and if I shot it I would probably alert alot of zombies. So I cleared some room in my back pack for my winchester but instead of putting the gun in there, it put the ammo in and deleted the gun because there was no room. I killed the cow with burning rage.

I carefully entered the town and started to loot a couple houses. It seemed to be going pretty well until a couple gunshots went off. They continued intermittently so I was able to figure out where he was. I slowly approached the building and went in from the back, announced I was there and asked that he respond. He did not. I looked into the room he was in and caught a small glimpse, and became quite frightened when I saw he had an LMG strapped on his back. I waited a little bit and looked again but I couldn't see him. I was afraid he was going to try and flank me, so I moved into another room and grabbed some loot from in there. I sat in there gun fixed on the door for a quite awhile, just trying to work up the nerve to go in there and confront him. When I went into the room he was looking out the window with his back facing towards me. I had my gun at his head, "don't move" he was frozen for a second and then I started to type again to tell him to drop his guns, but as I was doing so he spun around and shot me in the leg. I panicked and released half my mag into his chest and another into his skull just for good measure. But that wasn't the end of it, soon I was being rushed by zombies so I used the rest of my mag to keep them from tearing me to shreds, and I was bleeding the whole time I was fending them off. By the time I bandaged all up and looted the bandits body I noticed I was shaking, in real life.

It took me a while to calm down and start thinking clearly again, at which point I did another sweep of the building and found a larger backpack, I swapped it out for mine and then grabbed all the stuff I had left behind, except the LMG, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it carrying that around everywhere, mostly because the bandit had no ammo for it, but he did have plenty of ammo for his revolver. Seeing as I was out for my own pistol I took his revolver. Thankfully he had morphine on him so I could get out of town with the broken leg he gave me. I was really tempted to stay longer but I didn't know how long the morphine would last and I had some meat I wanted to cook. Once I was deep into the woods I started a fire to cook the meat I had, I ate most of it to try and regain enough health to the point I could see clearly again. I decided to stop there and plan my next move.

My thoughts as I was closing down the game were dominated by "I should have shot him right away"

Day 3

I attempted to continue my survival but was relentlessly harassed by connection issues. I tried for probably an hour or so, after a while though I decided to take a break and try later. When I did it worked on the first server. I was very pleasantly surprised. After yesterday I had found a map online, with that and the compass I got from the bandit I knew pretty much where I was going. A situation that gives me a strange sense of safety, that's probably a bad thing though. Now that I think about it though, having that shred of something to hold on to, a goal, a direction, it's something that keeps me sharp and thinking clearly. I had a few places I wanted to stop off by, to look for some extra supplies, maybe get a primary weapon.

On my way through the forest I thought I saw a man to my seven o-clock, I take cover under a pine tree and look towards the same direction. I laid there for a while with my eyes fixed on the trees down hill until I was sure there was nothing left to see. I continued on through this surprisingly large forest and came upon a small meadow, which was quite pretty. Half way through the meadow I had a quick thought back to the man I saw, so I did a quick alt-look around as I was walking through the exposed meadow. I saw another survivor running through the forest to my left. The first thing I did was bolt forward into forest and look back to see where he was, a few seconds later I see his name through the grass. I put through direct communication the same message I gave the bandit I killed before, but this time I knew his name and I was fairly well hidden. So I added to the end "tom? I don't want to hurt you". Still, no response. I flanked around but once I was in position I lost track off him until I saw him get up from prone in the meadow and start running straight for me. I was hesitant to shoot him because it looked like his gun was down, but then I heard a gunshot. At which point I just reacted and shot tom in the chest.

The gunshot I heard sounded distant so I was pretty sure it wasn't from tom, so I grabbed toms rifle and ammo and ran for fear of others hearing my gun. I ran for quite some time through the forest, as I stopped to catch my breathe I thought back to the encounter. I probably wouldn't have seen him if Jesse hadn't taught me how to press alt while looking around to be able to continue walking forward. I probably would have felt comfortable enough in that nice meadow to not be looking around if it wasn't for the man I saw in the forest before. Would tom had shot me if I didn't shoot him when I did? Sometimes I wonder if I would be still alive if it wasn't for the actions of others around me.

I found a small town nestled against the forest, it seemed to be pretty sparse with zombies so I thought "eh maybe I can find some more ammo for this rifle." I slowly checked the houses door to door, it took me a while to find a house that was enterable. All I found inside the first room was a flashlight, but when I opened the door to the next room all I found was a zombie. I dispatched his face very quickly, soon after though I could hear alot of aggressive zombie screams. I ran out of that house and through the streets back into the forest, but they were still following me. I really didn't want to waste my ammo, but I also didn't want to risk them catching up with me. So I decided to take out the revolver, which I had more ammo with, crouch and turn around. I waited for each of the four the get close enough so I could get a definite chest shot before firing. My zombie kills went up from 3 to 7.

To cut my losses, I decided to move on from that small town and I'm glad that I did. The next thing I found was a large barn with alot of revolver ammo and a truck with engine damage and no fuel. From my experience with the bike I had before, I remembered a "save" option. My guess is that it becomes persistent with your character so that you can go to different servers with that vehicle. Small problem was that this thing was pretty much as far away from any place I could possibly get parts to repair it as possible. So I saved it and sadly moved on, but as I did I noticed a huge amount of zombies around the field by the barn. With so much ammo in the barn and a damaged truck just outside, this looked like someones last stand.

Not much happened for a while, I just walked through the forest for quite a long time. The last thing I ran into on my journey through the forest was a deer stand, with one lonely can of beans mourning his dead tin can brother that laid beside him. I put this can of beans out of his misery. My game, overcome with emotion, crashed.

Tom if your reading this, and you were friendly, I am sorry.

Day 4

I woke up from the rain pounding against the aluminum roof of the deer stand I spent the night in. It was sometime close to dawn but not there yet, it felt kinda symbolic of my situation. Walking along that dirt road in the forest, I could only see a small ways in front of me and where I was before. The dark rain surrounding every corner of my vision but that of the horizon and the sky above me. It was almost pitch black, yet I knew where I was going, I knew the sun was just about here, I knew that soon, I could feel safe.

I was walking on the edge of a farm next to the forest when I looked over to the tree line across the field and saw a silhouette of a church cast by the the morning sun. My destination was just over that ridge and I was quite eager to scout it out with my binoculars, and start planning my route through potential loot. I don't know why but I found the name of one of the towns on the map quite enjoyable to say. The process of carefully crawling in between zombies through the town became a routine and I gleefully passed the time by repeatedly saying "Pustoshka!". Although my rampant butchering of the word was abruptly stopped when I heard a gunshot from, what I could tell, somewhere around the church. I looked over in that direction for a little while then I continued towards my closest target and noticed a group of zombies huddled in a dark corner of the small shed I was about to go into. I decided it would be better to avoid that shed rather than risk it.

I found a hole in the solid wall surrounding the church and circled around to the front. Once I was at a front corner, I tried to communicate with the other survivor. No response. I wait a few seconds, then start to crawl forward. But as soon as I do, the guy sprints out and into the street. I couldn't get a good look at the guy because he was out the front gate within a fraction of a second, the only thing I could make out were blue clothes and I think a winchester. I tried to see where he was going but by the time I got to the front gate he had moved off the street. As I entered the church I closed the door behind me and looked in all the corners and found an M1911. A favorite pistol of mine in just about every shooter, and if there really was a zombie apocalypse, this would be the gun I would want at my side. Well this or a Glock. At the same time though, I had more ammo for my revolver and the iron sights seemed clearer.

This dilemma plagued me for quite some time in that church, and I ended up thinking about everything else at the time as well. Kinda like when you go to the bathroom to pee and you realize half an hour later, after contemplating life, the universe, and everything, that you stopped peeing along time ago. Well this time, I thought about how the survivor in the church reminded me of father gregori from half-life 2. How it would be a fitting place for him and his winchester. And that got me thinking about the winchester, the sound of it's gunfire. How many times have I heard the shots of a winchester on my journey? How many times has that sound decided my fate, possibly even save my life? Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, or maybe I'm making connections where there are none, but. Being surrounded by zombies? Running into a bandits car? Finding a bandit in a supermarket? Firing on Tom when I did? The zombies in the shed? Fitting place as any for me to contemplate the possibility of a guardian.

I finally decided to go with the M1911, the extra few seconds between bullets of the revolver may be the end of me.

So I left my revolver in that church, the gun that took toms life should be left in a place near to where his innocence will be decided. Or maybe some lucky soul will find a one shot kill with 42 rounds of ammunition. From there I slipped out of town without incident, out into the fields yet again. I skittered between different groups of trees across the fields. It seemed to go on for a really long time, so I checked my compass and looked around. As I did that I found a lone sheep, in the middle of the field grazing away at the long forgotten and barely living crops that littered this field. I thought about shooting it and taking some meat, after a while of deliberation though, I decided I had enough food for quite some time. I can leave him around for the next desperate fellow along the way.

I replenished some water in a pond just outside the town I was planning on scouting out for the future, possibly grab anything useful on the way. But as I brought my head up from filling the bottle I saw a really beat up looking car coming down the road I was near. I just fell down into the water and hoped the 50 mph bandit wagon didn't notice me. They went into the town, and that's when it started. A vicious firefight between the two bandits and a survivor that was already in the town. I waited a little while but it just kept on going. I finally brought myself to try and go help the guy out, but as I got into the town. There was simply silence. I crept along trying to see what was happening, looking carefully around corners. But I saw nothing. As I was going along a road towards a large building, I jumped when another flurry of gunfire broke through the silence, I stood there anticipating an attack from every direction. But there was none, only the last shot fired and the death of another survivor. His name was jack.

I watched as 2 bandits looted their dead friends and put their things into the car. I was tempted to try to take them out to avenge jacks death, but I didn't know if they were the first to shoot or not. Maybe this group was simply passing by. Either way, I was in a bad tactical position to try to take them out. Once they had left I investigated the combat site and found alot of ammo for my guns. I found jack dead, laying on the grocery store floor. I think he ran out of ammo for his FAL before the fight because I don't remember hearing anything more powerful than the M4's and jacks M1911. That got me thinking, this guy held off 4 bandits, killed 2 even, with the same sidearm I was carrying in my hand at that very moment. I had a look around and realized that this place has a very good tactical advantage. It has ample supplies, it has several sources of water, there was nothing bad about this place I could think of. The concept felt weird but, I think this would make a good home.

Day 5

I had a survival routine planned, hunt for food, go into Vybor for supplies, refill my water bottles in the pond to the south. Now that I had a good anchor point, a home if you will, I decided to go explore, not because I had to. Because I felt like it. So I took the natural route I've been taking this whole journey, north. I was surprised at how much exposed field there was, more than I've seen so far anyways. It made me feel kinda uneasy, like I was being watched. I took up the practice of crouch running through fields a while back but never have I felt like I really needed it until today. After searching another deer stand and going through a spattering of trees leading finally to some solid forest uphill.

I was walking through the forest when, to my surprise, there was an ATV right in front of me. Just sitting there next to a large pine tree. I probably wouldn't have even seen it if I wasn't walking through that pine tree. There wasn't a whole lot in it, but I didn't take much either. Just some med supplies and a toolbox, which the guy had 2 of anyways. I thought about stealing the four wheeler all together, but my conscience got the better of me and I left it there for its rightful owner. The walk further on was quite enjoyable knowing I had just about hit a reasonable peak of survivability. This delusion faded away as soon as a dust cloud burst from the tree next to me.

I fell to the ground and rolled behind a large root jutting out from the hillside. I got out my binoculars and looked out into the fields nearby. I saw a building in the middle of the field as well as a group of trees quite a ways to the left of it. From what I could tell the shot had come from the building, but I wasn't sure. With a steep hill behind me and not a whole lot of trees, I had to find some decent cover and fight this out. I alt-looked around for awhile and saw nothing, but when I moved around and looked beyond the tree. I saw a large rock that would work well, but I also saw a flurry of shots hit the ground around me. I'm pretty sure he was using some type of assault rifle without a scope of any kind, because he missed every shot throughout the fight. Once I was at the rock I started to return fire, until I saw on my screen the death of simon17 by my hand. What surprised me though was the enemy fire was continuing for a while, but then it stopped. I must have hit the shooters friend because a few seconds after he stopped firing they both disconnected at the same time and when I went over to where I was shooting there was no body to be found.

I decided to head back home at that point, things were getting a little too rough up north for my tastes. On my way down I found I had gotten off course and I had ran into the airfield. As it came into view I could also hear a firefight in the distance. At that point I decided to just leave it alone. But as I circled around it, my thoughts drifted to the encounter with the buddies up north. What if that guy had a gun with a scope?

I was also somewhat blind firing towards them, for quite some time I might add. If a sniper comes along while I'm wandering the wasteland, there's no doubt that he would be able to take me out. I needed a long range weapon if I'm thinking of any long term survival, and the place to get one is right next to me. But not now, maybe some time tomorrow.

As I said before, I'm still going, so if you have any suggestions of how I can keep on 'not dying', they are very much welcome. Also if you wish to point out all of my horrible mistakes, that is welcome as well.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Jane Past

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

holy wall of china

[Jane Past 2]

holy wall of china

Yeah I didn't realize how big it was until I posted it. Oh well

[LukUs 4]

whats the TL;DR version?

[bassist05 69]

holy wall of china

Yeah.... Use paragraphs and maybe I'll read it. For now this is definately TL;DR.

[Ragdrazi 7]

Pretty awesome story.

[thehumandove 344]

The hunt. Is. On.

[Jane Past 2]

whats the TL;DR version?

Edited. OP now has it

[Coldgrid 1]

Great story. :)

[Wilkysheen 3]

Great story.

[bilbobangboom 0]

hahah awesome add me on steam if you want to play with someone looking for people capable of cooperation :P, i have skype and TS so we can communicate,steam name is: bilbobangboom

[BNZ Solid Snake 9]

Pretty good for a first time survivor. My first time playing went more like this: Joined game, didn't know wtf to do so started running. Zombies chased me, I unloaded all my Mak clips (back when starting gear was a pistol and food), ran out of ammo, ran for 20 minutes with 20 zombies on me and got eaten eventually.

Your death is inevitable though by some wretched means..

[-NGR- Larkinto 87]

[BNZ Solid Snake 9]

The next day I went to the town we were heading to, as I approached I saw a cow, I decided to try to hunt the cow and get some meat. Problem was that it was pretty close to the town and if I shot it I would probably alert alot of zombies. So I cleared some room in my back pack for my winchester but instead of putting the gun in there, it put the ammo in and deleted the gun because there was no room. I killed the cow with burning rage.

And always make sure you have 10 inventory spaces plus one space per addition round before you start putting primary weapons in your backpack.

[Jane Past 2]

Day 3 complete. Still not dead.

[DemonGroover 8836]

My first life consisted of, WOW look at that huge crane i think i'll climb to the top, WOW what a view.....pfffffffffftttttttt! You Are Dead. I was hooked.

[omgwtfbbq (DayZ) 1069]

holy SHIT! you survived 3+ people?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! i always get shot without reason on the very first person i come across

[Jane Past 2]

holy SHIT! you survived 3+ people?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! i always get shot without reason on the very first person i come across

I came really close to dying when the bandit shot my leg in the store, and if it wasn't for jesses bad aim and good conscience I probably would have died from his assault rifle.

[omgwtfbbq (DayZ) 1069]

I came really close to dying when the bandit shot my leg in the store, and if it wasn't for jesses bad aim and good conscience I probably would have died from his assault rifle.

thats still ridiculously fantastic luck.... this "jesse" would have shot me the f*** up if i was you. i now avoid contact with others due to dying unnecessarily so much.

[zenshou 12]

My mate joined up with me and another of my friends on his first life and still hasn't died, even though everyone else has multiple times, he's a baiter and overly cautious...which i find boring. He stopped playing after a week but made it to 7 days before logging off for the last time.

Still hasn't died.

[idunc 62]

Good story. Perhaps you could have successfully robbed (if that was your intention) that bandit with the LMG if you used a mic. It provides for quicker communication and less confusion, and less bullets to your face for not responding in time.

Edited July 16, 2012 by IDunc

[Jane Past 2]

My mate joined up with me and another of my friends on his first life and still hasn't died, even though everyone else has multiple times, he's a baiter and overly cautious...which i find boring. He stopped playing after a week but made it to 7 days before logging off for the last time.

Still hasn't died.

He went seven days without even leaving the server!? (<--nvm mind on that one, misread)

also, what's a baiter?

Edited July 16, 2012 by Jane Past

[Jane Past 2]

Good story. Perhaps you could have successfully robbed (if that was your intention) that bandit with the LMG if you used a mic. It provides for quicker communication and less confusion, and less bullets to your face for not responding in time.

Actually my intention was to end the conflict without blood shed, just get him to drop his guns and leave me alone.

[Jane Past 2]

Day 4 complete and in the OP. Still not dead.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Jane Past

[Jane Past 2]

Day 5 (also in OP)

I had a survival routine planned, hunt for food, go into Vybor for supplies, refill my water bottles in the pond to the south. Now that I had a good anchor point, a home if you will, I decided to go explore, not because I had to. Because I felt like it. So I took the natural route I've been taking this whole journey, north. I was surprised at how much exposed field there was, more than I've seen so far anyways. It made me feel kinda uneasy, like I was being watched. I took up the practice of crouch running through fields a while back but never have I felt like I really needed it until today. After searching another deer stand and going through a spattering of trees leading finally to some solid forest uphill.

I was walking through the forest when, to my surprise, there was an ATV right in front of me. Just sitting there next to a large pine tree. I probably wouldn't have even seen it if I wasn't walking through that pine tree. There wasn't a whole lot in it, but I didn't take much either. Just some med supplies and a toolbox, which the guy had 2 of anyways. I thought about stealing the four wheeler all together, but my conscience got the better of me and I left it there for its rightful owner. The walk further on was quite enjoyable knowing I had just about hit a reasonable peak of survivability. This delusion faded away as soon as a dust cloud burst from the tree next to me.

I fell to the ground and rolled behind a large root jutting out from the hillside. I got out my binoculars and looked out into the fields nearby. I saw a building in the middle of the field as well as a group of trees quite a ways to the left of it. From what I could tell the shot had come from the building, but I wasn't sure. With a steep hill behind me and not a whole lot of trees, I had to find some decent cover and fight this out. I alt-looked around for awhile and saw nothing, but when I moved around and looked beyond the tree. I saw a large rock that would work well, but I also saw a flurry of shots hit the ground around me. I'm pretty sure he was using some type of assault rifle without a scope of any kind, because he missed every shot throughout the fight. Once I was at the rock I started to return fire, until I saw on my screen the death of simon17 by my hand. What surprised me though was the enemy fire was continuing for a while, but then it stopped. I must have hit the shooters friend because a few seconds after he stopped firing they both disconnected at the same time and when I went over to where I was shooting there was no body to be found.

I decided to head back home at that point, things were getting a little too rough up north for my tastes. On my way down I found I had gotten off course and I had ran into the airfield. As it came into view I could also hear a firefight in the distance. At that point I decided to just leave it alone. But as I circled around it, my thoughts drifted to the encounter with the buddies up north. What if that guy had a gun with a scope?

I was also somewhat blind firing towards them, for quite some time I might add. If a sniper comes along while I'm wandering the wasteland, there's no doubt that he would be able to take me out. I needed a long range weapon if I'm thinking of any long term survival, and the place to get one is right next to me. But not now, maybe some time tomorrow.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Jane Past