How the 'Bluelight District Alliance' came to be.

[Blitzy 12]

It's not often you encounter other survivors inland from the main cities, so finding another living human being can be quite the experience: can they communicate, can they be reasoned with and can they be trusted?

With lone survivors, it's often a question of kill-or-be-killed. But what happens when two equally-matched survivor groups accidentally bump into each other at night, in the middle of the woods?

Hilarity ensues.

It's been several days since FREELANCE established themselves inland. City supply runs were becoming increasingly dangerous, and the political situation on the south coast currently consists of policies like: "Kill or be killed", "I need your can of beans more than you do" and "70 newbie murders in 1 hour - I'm so totally awesome".

As such, we decided to pitch a concealed campsite away from all civilisation - where we could stockpile our supplies and use as a main base of operations. Our group is big enough to co-ordinate multiple supply runner groups to different towns/villages/cities, and return to base with a consistent supply of resources - we've got everything we need now to continue surviving away from the PK'ing coasts.

That's just the background. Now, hear our story:

It was a normal night. Under the cover of darkness, three of us decided to head to our nearest water source and refill all the empty canteens from the tents. We moved in woods/treelines with only blue chemlights for light, so we hardly had to worry about being spotted or coming under fire.

About 10 minutes past, with zero sign of life. We were moving in the middle of a forest, climbing uphill, discussing over Teamspeak what other supplies the campsite needed restocking on and what towns/villages we should hit next.

While lost in conversation, I merely continued examining our surroundings. The thought-train ran something like this:

"Tree. Tree. Rock. Tree. Tree. Bush. Tree.

Oh hey, that small bush looks like a wolf. Grrr!

Oh look, those leaves kinda look like a backpack.

Hahaha, those rocks looks just like survivors going prone!

OH GOD, THOSE ARE SURVIVORS GOING PRONE!"

By the time we noticed, it was too late. We'd ran practically into them, and suddenly, we were in a Mexican Standoff. The group we'd bumped into had gone prone because they hadn't seen us until just before we'd saw them - and neither had prepared/anticipated running into another survivor group this close in the dark!

Direct Comms lit up like crazy. It's immediate panic. Everyone's holding up guns, flicking between each-other with absolutely no idea what to do. They're circling each-other, slowly moving back into cover, getting prepared for the worst.

"WHOA, WHOA, FRIENDLY! FRIENDLY!"

"DON'T SHOOT! OH GOD, DON'T SHOOT!"

"WE'VE GOT CONTACTS HERE! AAAAAAHHH!"

We stood there in the dark, our side aiming at theirs - with no idea what we should do. If this explodes into a firefight, it's going to be brutal, but we've met so far close it's impossible to have planned a form of attack. It's silent. It's tense. It's about to get all kinds of ugly.

By the time one person opened fire, both sides would light each-other up and both groups would either take massive casualties or be wiped out completely. No-one would come out unscathed, and both sides had too much to lose to commence hostilities. It was like both groups had instantly found themselves in a 'Cold War': we were both so scared of the other's firepower and retaliation that neither groups wanted to fire.

Someone lowered their gun. Then another. And then, mutually, we slowly dropped our guns and the genuine laughter at the situation from both sides washed over to calm all our nerves.

Guns were lowered, and brief introductions were made. The five survivors we'd encountered were all they had, and they were exploring the North for the same reason we'd moved up there - they wanted to find safety.

After a brief food/water break, we told them we were heading to Stary Sobor for supplies and wished them good luck in their adventures. Both groups said their goodbyes, and backing away from each-other cautiously, went our separate ways.

Fast forward to Stary Sobor. Our group's now in a treeline overlooking the town, and we're scouting it out with our binoculars for zombie/survivor presence. The town was dark, the level of zombies indicated that no-one had tried to take the town and the lack of light anywhere suggested that we were all alone.

Just as we were about to move out, we saw it. To our right, in the treelines, I saw a group of survivors darting between cover - also headed to Stary Sobor. They were scurrying through the trees, doing their best to remain unseen, and they looked like they were trying to move fast.

Seeing the group again wouldn't have been much of a worry. But...didn't they say they were exploring the North?

Because from where we encountered each-other, this wasn't to the North. They were heading in the complete opposite direction.

They'd pursued us! They were planning an ambush!

We stayed hidden, and watched. The group was indeed the one we'd just encountered several minutes ago, and they seemed to be in a hurry. Suddenly, trust levels had dropped to an all-time-low again; if this group was pursuing us, what were they after?

This time, we'd seen them before they'd seen us. This time, we had the opportunity to make the drop on them.

"I have a shot! Do I take it? They're after us, man!"

"If we fire, we make an enemy of an entire survivor group for life! We can't risk losing a potential partner up here inland, let alone making an enemy of one!"

"But they're going to kill us if we don't kill them!"

"We can't! We won't!"

After several minutes of silence, watching the team move, I took the risk. I opened the chat panel, and announced that both groups had seemingly found each-other again. Naturally, I said, the fact they'd pursued us had made us incredibly cautious. We were concerned of their intentions.

"We had the opportunity to fire upon you before, and we didn't take it. ;)"

Heh. They were right, they'd gotten the jump on us before. Our blue chemlights were what had given us away (even though we thought they were dark enough to stay hidden that far on the woods). They'd slightly outnumbered us, and yet, that would have been their best chance to get us.

But this time, we had the drop on them.

We could take them out right now, and this time, we'd have the advantage. We could get their gear! We could keep the supplies for ourselves!

...Screw that. We gave the chance up.

We decided to start discussing co-operation, and forming an alliance between our groups. Both teams were using Mumble/Teamspeak to talk privately, and we both invited the other into our servers. Since our group had both softwares installed compared to theirs only having Mumble, we moved onto their own. We'd begun talking to each-other properly.

What followed was a night of total awesome. Just over 20 survivors (FREELANCE plus their group of 6-7) had now grouped up and formed an alliance, and we instantly began sharing stories and cracking jokes, laughing over the campfire. We started sharing supply locations and tips for surviving inland of the coast (we'd been established longer than they had, it seemed), and reasons why we'd started exploring North of the coast (for both, it was to get away from bandits and other survivors).

"Dude, you had no idea, we're just exploring these woods when out of nowhere, these three Bluelights come sprinting towards us! I was like: OH GOD, WHAT DO WE DO?"

"Hahaha, I know man! I thought you guys were rocks! We practically tripped over you when I saw you were survivors! Gave me a heart attack!"

"Man, that whole situation could've went South so fast..."

In a world of cruelity, deceit and total brutality, here was a moment where a large group of survivors could enjoy meeting up with different people and share their own tales and experiences without worrying about being shot down or being backstabbed. What good would killing anyone here do? Imagine the possibilities: trade routes, co-ordinated assaults on the military zones, player switch-ins when one group's lacking online players...

Several days later, we're still working together under the 'Bluelight District Alliance' name. We're still two different groups, but we're co-operating well and we've run several attacks on the Airfields - with both teams sharing the loot. We've traded supplies between us when necessary (our group needed water, their's needed food) and all in all, I'm pretty glad we didn't take the decision to shoot them and DAMN, if I ain't glad they didn't take the decision to shoot us.

Because at the end of the day, in this world, we need all the allies we can get.

So that's our story. Here's proof that shooting everyone you see ain't always the correct choice to take, and proof that meeting up and working together as a group CAN work out for the better. We understand that teamwork's not for everyone and if you're the lone wolf type, good luck to you, but it's a warm feeling when you know there's roughly 20 survivors willing to pick you up when you fall down and back-up's always available when needed.

(But dammit, I'm never carrying Bluelights again! :rolleyes: )

[my_shortcoming 8]

Epic tale and more than once I've bumped into these guys and provided/received assistance. Excellent story and good to see we aren't alone on eu3.

[Foolski 13]

Nice story, I know what you mean by feeling that you have a group to back you up.

[oktyabr 53]

Super story!