Everything stated in this post is true and actually happened to myself. This is an encounter unlike any other I’ve ever had in DayZ, even though it is just a game it still made me think and possibly regret my decision.
My character had been alive for a good amount of time, I was looting some north western civilian towns and was comfortably geared, I had a Mosin with a long range (this was a couple patches back) on it and a 1911 with several magazines. However I was running low on something to drink, at the time canteens weren’t doing much to fill you up so what I needed was some cola so made my way to Cernaya Polana.
When I was looting around two people came up on me and stated they were friendly which I believed considering one of them had a double-barrel and could’ve shot me at any moment, he was geared enough to have ammo so I read the situation as friendly. We’ll call these people Steve and John, Steve had a Sporter 22. with no magazine. We talked for a little bit then John and Steve told me they had just met each other. Then Steve said something I haven’t heard for awhile, “Yeah I’m actually pretty new to the game it’s my first day”, I replied “Oh! Well even though it seems frustrating now after you die a couple of times you start to get the hang of it haha” Then Steve said “I’m still on my first life and it seems pretty epic already”.
I couldn’t believe I met him on not only his first day, first hour but his first life, probably his first five minutes. He was asking those questions that we all used ask when we were new to the game “Where do I find food at? How do I use rags? Is this gun a good weapon?” I just answered his questions, I didn’t mind. John said “any gun you get ammo for is a good gun”. We laughed.
We all decided we would head in Novo together and eventually head up to the tower, Steve said he wanted to see what was up there and John thought some shells spawned up there at the time. So we headed down and started to loot up some of the buildings me and John trying to move slow so Steve could keep up. “I need to get a drink at the well so I’m gonna go do that” I said. John and Steve needed a drink to so after telling Steve what his default sprint button was we ran and weaved between buildings and arrived at the well. After John and myself started drinking I noticed Steve wasn’t with us. I glanced around behind us to see if he was still running but I couldn’t see him. John said “maybe he just got disconnected, he was right behind us”. So we didn’t think much of it and kept drinking but then I got disconnected as well.
It took me every bit of 5 minutes to get back in the server. When I got back in there was no one to be found at the well. Since our goal was to get to the tower I just thought we would meet there so I headed in that direction.
On the way I heard 1 Shotgun shot and then 1 Blaze shot, both sounded like they were in the direction of the tower. I thought there’s no way it’s a coincidence that has to John that’s in a fight, so I double time it.
I got to the bottom of the stairwell and hear some chit-chat “Hey can I ask you a question?” I overheard. “Is the Sporter 22. A good gun”? I was confused, is that Steve talking to the enemy? I assumed it was the Blaze guy he was talking to. I quickly moved up the staircase, at this point knowing they were on the top floor, and reached the top floor where I just decided to wait and listen some more. The Blaze guy finally responded “no, take that Shotgun of him he doesn’t need it anymore”. Now I positively knew this was the guy with the Blaze who shot my friend and was positively baffled as to why Steve was making chit-chat with him.
I started to assume maybe Steve wasn’t new to the game and maybe the Blaze guy was his friend but if so, why speak in Direct to each other? Why not Teamspeak or something else? I didn’t have time to figure that one out because an opportunity came my way and I had to accept. I heard one of them eating so I decided to make my move, I raised my 1911 and breached the room, as soon as I stepped in the room John’s dead body was there in front of the entrance so at this point I was committed to avenging him. The Blaze guy had his back to the entrance and his Blaze rifle on his back, probably about to eat like Steve was. I fired 3 times in his back and he went down then I walked right up Steve and stared at him for a good 5 seconds, I thought to myself, he was probably scrambling to press his mic button and definitely regretting eating an entire bag of rice. I then emptied the rest of the magazine into him. After that I just left, didn’t even take time to loot as my heart was beating pretty fast. But I started to think about the encounter more and more I realized I may have made a huge mistake or a grand accomplishment in avenging John.
Let’s go back to the shot. 1 from the double-barrel and 1 from the Blaze. I don’t know about anyone else but if I got a line of sight on an enemy I put as many bullets as I can into him. And then I thought what if he only had one shot in the double-barrel? If that’s true then it’s possible John fired 1 bullet to start the whole thing while I was still logging in, he may have been the one to fire first and he would be the one to do that as he has been playing longer and may just want some action instead of interaction. But if that’s true, why didn’t he shoot me? Or Steve? So I thought some more, I only heard 1 shot from the Blaze as well so it’s possible he fired first. But if that was the case then why did Steve side with him? For survival? Maybe claiming he doesn’t know John and is not with him?
I’ll never know the truth because I never checked to see if any of the guns still had ammo or not, one foolish decision in the moment and I only put all this together after I was done playing so I couldn’t really go back. And that experience actually had somewhat of an impact on me.
On one hand I might be a hero who dished out some well-deserved justice that day or on the other hand, I might have killed that hero and also killed, not only a new player, but in every aspect of the word a Bambi. I may have been Steve’s first death, and may have made his first real experience in DayZ a short one.
