Winston the Willing - A Shoutout

[Chiron 23]

EDIT: SORRY! IT WAS WINSLOW, NOT WINSTON! FORGIVE ME, WINSLOW!

Just a heads up: I know this kind of thing, and whackier stuff, happens probably all the time. Nevertheless, I feel that this one needed to be shared and acknowledged.

I guess this is a tale for newbies who are raging hard and have low morale - don't give up. This game is only just warming up, and the experiences on offer are pretty awesome.

My friend and I, Aussies, went through the often tedious process of finding a good Server last night, and then set about finding each other. I've been playing for a little while now, on and off, but it was more or less his first time. He'd had the game for 2 days.

Long story short - due to him dying, me getting lost, etc. etc. etc., we ended up finding one another after maybe an hour of cursing and sprinting through the open forests of Chernasus. Once we finally did, the pair of us were chilling out on a ridge overlooking Kamyshovo, and I started loading him up with supplies - I had an Alice Pack of general supplies, a handgun, a shotty and an AK47.

I offed some food, water, the shotgun and the handgun to my friend, though during the exchange we started taking fire from the opposite side of town. We'll call this individual Mr X. I'm guessing he had a Lee Enfield, but we're not sure. Anyway, he was firing seemingly blindly, the bullets hitting the ground all around, but we didn't get hit and just slunk away, out of range. The damage had been done, though. As we finished the exchange, my friend hit the deck and started swearing about two others guys, Mr A and B. And so they were there.

I figure the pair heard the gunfire and came running. As soon as we saw them, they both dropped tot he ground, and my friend just started shooting. I managed to down one of these guys with the AK while my friend got gunned down, but Mr B managed to headshot me with some rifle and we were both death and confused a few seconds later.

Pissed off, but kinda amused, we both respawned, cursing A and B (and X) and started to get our bearings again. That's when the epic began.

"Oh shit, there's a 4WD coming." My friend was shocked, as he'd only run into one vehicle so far and hadn't been sure that they were actually usable. Laying int he grass outside Cherno, zombies lurching nearby, I just listened as he commentated the pickup. Some random guy - Winslow - swung in, picked up my friend, and nonchalantly asked 'where to?'. We quickly liaised and my friend request they go to pick me up - just in time, too, as the zombies had just started chasing me.

I ran down the main road for a while, feeling a fool and being the most open with my position that I'd ever been since playing the game, but sure enough the 4WD came into view on the horizon, horn beeping and a horde of zombies following.

And so the journey began.

Once I hopped in and we got to safety, we thanked Winslow and were losing our shit in hysterics (on skype) when he pulled over to bandage me and offer us equipment. In the trunk of the vehicle: numerous assault rifles, snipers, piles of ammo, meat, food, GPS... everything. Hesitantly at first, the pair of us helped ourselves to the weapons and gear, thanking Winslow the whole time.

There were points where we wondered if this dude was a hacker, but it just didn't make sense. He'd clearly just done the legwork and was ok with sharing. Or so we figured...

With no real direction, we offered the go with him wherever he went, which turned out to be "there was a sniper in Cherno before - let's go see him". And so we did.

The sniper ended up being just that - a lone wolf holed up in a tower with a rifle. Needless to say, after three guys pulled up with sniper rifles and Winslow started calling the guy a pussy, he disconnected.

Next, with no other location in mind, Winslow offered to take us to the NWAF - North West Airfield. Obviously neither of us had been there before - I'd only gone, on foot, about half way up the map at this point. So off we went.

I guess due to driving, we didn't get much out of Winslow on the way up there, but once we arrived (without incident, would you believe) he started popping zombies off with his silenced handgun and we checked out the barracks etc. It was all pretty exciting for folk who'd never been that far north.

We ran into a few other survivors, one with an ATV. Without question, Winslow headshotted the guy and offered us the quad bike. We started the worry at this point. Why didn't he shoot us? But we went on for the journey anyway.

Another survivor, another headshot, and the pair of us rode along behind Winslow on our quad bike for some time, searching for helicopter crash sites.

Eventually, though, he pulled over and offered us the 4WD and everything in it - it was time for Winslow to get some shut eye. We thanked him, minds boggled about just how changed the gaming experience had been that night, and we parted ways with our guide.

After driving around, looking for a place to fuel up, and somewhere the hide the vehicle, we found ourselves back South and approaching Elektro. I guess it wouldn't have been such an experience if it didn't end the way it did. Bam, bam. Two shots, through the windscreen. Two headshots. Two dead buddies and an abandoned, stocked up 4WD.

I can only imagine the look on my face before we started cracking into hysterics, and I can only imagine the journey of the guy who shot us when he found the vehicles contents.

It was a hell of a night. the most immersive gaming experience I've had for a really, really long time. What started out so bad, with us getting killed after finally finding each other, ended up being such a crazy ride, enlightening in a sense, and I know that my dwindling love for the game was fully renewed. I'll be logging on again tonight with a whole new outlook.

Winslow, you're a gentleman and a scholar. I hope our paths cross again.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Apollo14

[MichaeLK 16]

well regardless of the assumption that he might be a hacker...he was a really cool guy and that was a great story.

[Chiron 23]

The reason we decided he wasn't hacking was that all of his equipment was mis matched - a lot of guns with no ammo, ammo for guns he didn't have, etc.

It was an amazing experience, that's for sure.