DayZ Storytime is a brand new feature we'll be running periodically, giving the community and our staff a chance to share their favorite stories from the popular ARMA II mod, DayZ. DayZ is about surviving, about building yourself a life and a future from essentially nothing - knowing that every passing minute may be your last and that a single bullet may bring your whole world crashing down, for good.
When you play DayZ, you're creating a story - here is your chance to tell that story.
Zombies in the Distance
As told by Nate Rios
I didn't know what to expect when I fired up DayZ for the first time. I had been dragging my feet on picking up ARMA II: Combined Operations for a few weeks. "Just wait a week," I would tell myself, "The game is guaranteed to go on sale during the Steam Summer Sale and you'll regret spending this money!" The Steam Summer Sale was surely going to start in the next few weeks, and ARMA II would undoubtedly go on sale. Should I just wait and save my money or would the allure of DayZ too much to resist?
Turns out the allure was too much. I caved in, spent the money and haven't looked back since.
Click 'Read More' to read the rest of this story.
My first journey into Chernarus spawned me just outside Balota, near the coast, just West of Chernogorsk - DayZ's biggest city. I had heard quite a lot about DayZ, so my first reaction upon spawning was to just take a look around and see what the game world was like. It was dusk when I spawned - not the best time for new players to enter the game world for the first time.
I made my way towards the coast to take in the sights before setting my back to the water and trudging towards Balota itself. The world was so barren, I could feel myself physically on the edge, just waiting for something to pop out and take my life. Crouching in the undergrowth, I checked my bag to see what I had that may be of use against the zombies I had heard so much about. Nothing. I had nothing that would help me against them. If you haven't played DayZ yet, know this; you don't spawn with a weapon. Those have to be obtained as loot in the game world.
Darkness was rapidly approaching and I knew I had to have more than this damn flashlight if I expected to survive very long. Getting up out of the tall grass, I crossed a set of railroad tracks and continued towards Balota, hoping to find out if anything in one of the buildings I could see would be useful.
That's when I saw them.
Zombies, a dozen of them, in the distance towards Balota. Right where I was headed. Instinct kicked in and I dropped to a crouch before they could see me. Creeping towards the town, I gradually realized that were quite a few of them and just one of me.
Wishing to stay connected to my limbs (I've become rather attached to them), I turned around and decided to see where those train tracks led.
Following the tracks West, I came across an apparently abandoned construction site, with just one building that I could see, surrounded by solid pieces of metal that served as fencing. The building itself was tiny, but the door was operable so I made my way inside...cautiously. Creaking open the door, I breathed a sigh of relief to find a lone toolbox on the ground and a distinct lack of undead. Pleased with my bravery and looting success, I exited the building and came face to face with a rotting corpse.
I'll be honest with you, at this point my courage failed me and I did the single most foolish thing one can do when confronted with the undead in DayZ - I ran. Heading for the woods in an attempt to lose the zombie who was following me, I led myself straight into a pack of undead who picked up on my trail in no time, thanks to the noise I was making in my frantic attempt to reach safety.
The one thing I had going for me was that I was faster than the zombies chasing me, but alas, my first journey into Chernarus was destined to end in failure. I ran towards the coast, thinking I could lose them along the shoreline but it was too late. I was losing blood and fast. As my screen began to fade in and out from grayscale to color, I reached a fatalistic acceptance of my fate. It was done. I had challenged the waste of Chernarus and come up empty handed.
The undead had won, and their reward was a grisly meal at my expense.
Have a DayZ story you want to share? Fire up your favorite word processor, write up the story and send it to nrios@curse.com. Bear in mind punctuation, structure and spelling. We will add images but can't correct poor grammar or spelling.
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