I just sat there, wearing someone's clothes and a backpack full of stuff that I knew wasn't mine. I couldn't remember anything at first, but I sat there, the ocean behind me looking up a grassy knoll at the roof of a house to my right and an industrial crane to my left. It sounds stupid but I concentrated really hard on just finding memories, and then I found one. It went along the lines of someone walking into an office, with me sitting down in a chair; "Frank Jones, solicitor" I said as I stood up and shook his hand. Processing that memory, I was British, I had a British accent, I also knew my name and my occupation, but there was another one; I was lying down in bed watching a television that had a news story about the "ex-soviet state" of Chernarus and how the whole country has declared a state of emergency because a disease similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease has infected something like 90% of the country and under the influence of Russia and Takistan has become the first country since North Korea to close all its borders. I looked about and practically told myself; "Well Frankie, you're in a zombie apocalypse, what do you do?" I guess that's where the story sort of begins.
I looked into the backpack on my shoulders, and there was a map. I knew where I was immediately, the city of Elektrozavodsk, or Elektro as I started to call it.
A big city means big zombie hordes, so I wanted a weapon.
I started walking into the city, through the Industrial area, past the port for the Oil Tankers, the silos and down the roads into the suburbs.
For a zombie apocalypse, there wasn't many zombies, funnily enough, which really only meant that other people had killed them, which was worrying.
I reached my first zombie the same time I reached the suburbs actually; passing broken walls and burnt out cars, I searched the first few buildings, but they were all empty, and eventually I reached the road again.
I walked up the road and a large hill overlooking the suburbs took my notice, followed by vision of some sorts; I was in control I guess and I was wearing a shirt over my head like a bandana, the man next to me in a military ghillie suit, both armed with AS50 Anti-Material Sniper Rifles. I looked down the scope and saw someone, in the same position I was in real life, and then I fired, and the .50 calibre bullet almost tore the poor guy in half, and I laid there watching him bleed to death. I snapped back into reality and continued my journey.
I avoided the road, fearing the snipers on the hill, and crossed the train tracks to my left to reach the train station. Then I saw the first face I could look back on and remember, well, looking back now I can't remember his face, but anyway. He was running up the train tracks, wielding a Fire Axe and running away from two zombies.
"Oh shit, that is not good, that is not good" I said out loud
Dude, friendly, friendly, dude, don't attack with that Axe, man, I've got no Equipment" I continued
He didn't seem to acknowledge me, but then again, he was being chased down by two zombies.
"Hey, can you understand me?"
He ran off before I walked away.
"I can tell he isn't going long" I muttered under my breath.
Then I felt the club like fist of one of the zombies behind me, actually knocking me down and into the train station. I scrambled to my feet and jumped over shanty made barricade, I took off my backpack and found a bandage to stem the bleeding from an open gash in my back. Suddenly another flashback of sorts ensued; I was at this building, the exact same train station, but there were backpacks and canteens on the floor. I walked up to one, and reached out to grab it, but as I blinked, it was gone and in the doorway, the zombie hunched slowly towards me, seemingly slowed.
I ran out of the doorway on the other side and reached another road. Suddenly a swift movement took my eye, in a branching off street, was something entering the Fire Station.
"There's the axe dude again" I said to myself
I didn't like the fact that he was going over to the fire station, he could get any type of weapon, and he didn't want anything to do with me, that could mean getting rid of my, permanently.
I continued through the backyards of houses of the suburbs, looking for loot, with little success.
Through the hole in a concrete wall and across an intersection however I found the hospital, I small speck of gold in a bleak desert of death. The hospital however lack all of its windows, a sure sign that not too long ago they were smashed, possibly in a shootout over the supplies.
I crossed each street one at a time, within ear shot of zombies down the road, but only if I was noisy.
The hospital was practically empty, but a few boxes remained. I opened it up and it was untouched, filled with valuable medical supplies which wouldn't all fit in my backpack.
I opened up my backpack and placed in; two blood bags, five morphine auto-injectors, one box of painkillers, four bandages and one epi-pen.
I thought that was enough medical supplies, especially with a lack of ammunition and a weapon, I left half empty. I exited through a broken window and began following a concrete wall, but the sound of a gunshot halted me as it echoed through the empty city. I got the feeling someone was behind me, I took cover but no one came, I looked towards the top half of the office, it seemed nostalgic to look at, and something about a pub came to mind when I kept thinking. A voice saying "There's a pub on the left were people can hang as well" It seemed like nothing until I rounded the corner.
It made me feel more sombre when I said it, there was a war for this city and it was evident that we lost.
I noticed something chilling by the office, however, a large amount of barbed cat wire, to keep out the undead, or even the living. There had clearly been action around that area before.
The shed nearby however was what I needed to get my mind of it. In one word; paydirt; there were a few boxes of .45 ACP ammunition, but I took only the speed-reloader, I knew that another neighbouring country, Takistan, had sent soldiers to Chernarus and that officer's carried Taurus Tracker Model 455 Revolvers, which took .45 ACP ammunition, I just didn't know why. I thought, but my thoughts were interrupted by gunshots.
Suddenly my brain went into the mode of a computer. The sound of the gunshot was distinguishable and with a skill I thought I never had, I went through a database of sounds until I thought of a gun that suited the sound. The M14 Designated Marksman Rifle. It spooked me that I knew all these guns, and how I could distinguish the sounds that no man should be hearing, but at this time, I knew I must try and keep my composure, so I grabbed some simple gear; a canteen and to my astonishment, a compass, which to my grief was broken.
I snuck past a zombie and into a house before being greeted by more gunshots, this time the computer in my brain telling me it was of a Winchester Model 1866 Lever-Action Rifle.
"That sounds like a Winchester…Oh my god, this is very risky" I said to myself as my composure began to fade away.
I scouted the street before more gunshots rattled the air around me.
"That has to be a M14" I said to myself, as some sort of moral boost as I sprinted across the street and up the hill that I had flashbacks about earlier.
I stopped one last time at a remote shed.
"He's not giving any….well….he's not bothered at all by his position and such" I said, commentating the gunman's actions.
"Okay, let's see what's down here" I said as I leant over and checked the backpack.
"Not much else either" I commentated as I grabbed a magazine for an M1911 Pistol and a watch as gunfire erupted again.
"You can bet your ass Frankie that if stuff like this is happening, people are gonna shoot you on sight when they see you" I said to myself, almost as a conversation, as if I was controlling someone else and was warning him about what lies ahead.
I stopped by the corner of a house at the foot of the hill and studied the office building down the road. It spooked me, for some reason it was scary to think of going there.
I eyed the office again, watching the chilling building, abandoned, the building itself felt dead. I knew there was loot, but I was scared of what I'd find.
"I'm not gonna go into the office" I said to myself, finding excuses in my head to make myself feel better. "Because its way way way way too risky"
I darted up the hill, thinking it over. The guy with the axe had just gone to fire station, and it felt like there was another across the hill, maybe I would be lucky, and maybe I already knew where it was.
I reached the first peak of the hill, I was heading up the second step, on a dirt road when I saw the tower of the fire station, and it seemed like I knew exactly where I was going.
I started to walk down the hill and cross the road to the Fire Station, eyeing the city to watch for any signs of life, when the gunshots of an M1911 Pistol rang out from over the hill. It was obvious the people here were not friendly, but did they know where I was?
I walked into the fire station through the broken up pieces of the Concrete wall, walking past a rabbit, a sign that nature was taking pack Chernarus, and through the shed, passing Helicopter parts. I guess someone was using the fire station as a base, the keyword being was.
The sound of flies was becoming louder and louder. I found a small gap in the wall, and another piece of my memory along with it. I remember walking through the gap, the exact same one, and tripping over, and watching in horror as my leg snapped.
I shook the thoughts out of my head and walked on to find the source of the noise.
I rounded the corner of the wall, giving me a clear site of the garage that the Fire Trucks were once parked. However, on the ground was the source of the noise. The flies had been feeding of the corpse of a man, still bleeding from his chest were the bullets fired from another man had impacted.
"Well there he is" I said out loud, surprised at the lack of remorse I showed.
I looked at him as I walked around to a small building to avoid the open field of concrete that had sentenced him to death.
"Also looks like he doesn't have anything" I explained to myself. "You can see from where the blood pours out…but from where you ask?"
I felt myself get slightly agitated at however shot him, whoever had done it had just done it because he felt like it, not for any reason in particular.
"And who shoots an unarmed person? I mean seriously, that is a dick move really" I continued.
I rounded the corner and found a small Emergency Exit door to the back of the Fire Station. I entered, but what I found was surprising.
"Um, there's no loot in here" I exclaimed as I entered the back door of the fire station, finding it completely empty.
"This is worrying, this is very worrying".
The sounds of flies returned as I ventured further into the building.
I began scaling the stairs to the top of the tower.
I cleared the first floor and my eyes lit up.
"Oh, Oh my goodness" I exclaimed as I laid eyes on a M24 Sniper Rifle.
I picked it up and examined the weapon.
"Pity there's no rounds for it though" I said out loud in frustrations
I continued scaling the stairs until I reached the top. I stood there still for a minute and looked at a girl, wearing a blue jumper and grey cargo pants and sporting a navy blue baseball cap, holding back here blonde hair in a bun, holding a pistol of some sort.
I slowly walked down the stairs, but soon the walk escalated into a run.
"Oh that's a person, that's a live person" I said to myself as I ran down the stairs. Then suddenly my brain seemed to click into survival mode, replacing fear for anger when I pieced together the puzzles.
"Fortunately it's clearly a retarded one."
As I ran, a zombie cut of the path to the stairs.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" I said as I jumped over the rail and down the remaining stairs to avoid the zombie
"Run, run, run, run, run" I exclaimed, motivating myself
"That is a live person up there and given that she had a gun, the one who killed that guy across there" I said, piecing together what happened in my mind what had just happened as I ran out of the grounds of the fire station, but something just didn't add up.
"I'm just hoping that zombie goes up and attacks here" I said as I looked for a hole in the Cement wall.
"Oh my goodness, there's gunshots over there as well" I said slightly panicky as I looked for a hole in the cement wall surrounding the Fire Station.
"God that person was stupid, if I actually had some rounds for this I could have actually held her up".
I paced up and down the wall frantically, there seemed to be no way out, not until I noticed a small gap in the concrete wall that I would only fit in crawling on the stomach.
"Let's get the fuck out of here" I said as I crawled under the small gap in the concrete wall.
I began jogging back towards the city, but I stopped and thought for a minute.
"Better plan" I said to myself, deciding to avoid the city and head for the hills.
I walked past the Fire Station and towards the hill, but thinking about that person on the tower. Something didn't feel right about it.
"Was that a live person?" I asked myself. She never moved, and I had been talking to myself out loud the whole time, and I could hear flies feasting on something. Maybe she was dead, and had a gun with ammo just waiting for me.
I walked back in the front gate and asked myself. "You reckon it's worth going back and checking if that's actually a live or dead person?"
I grabbed a canteen on the way up.
"I wonder, I really hope that…" I said as I finished the last of the stairs. I pocked my head up enough for me to see what was up there.
The barrel of an AKM was rested only centre metres away from my forehead as she aimed in on the Iron Sights of the weapon.
I ducked and collapsed down the stairs as she fired.
"Yep, that's a live person, oh my goodness" I said as I got to my feet and ran down the remaining stairs.
"A live person shooting on sight, what the fuck do you expect" I said as I reached the bottom of the stairs and sprinted out of the garage of the fire station and out to the courtyard by the dead body.
"Don't take any sympathy on her cause she's a women" I reminded myself as I reached the collapsed Concrete Wall that I entered from.
"Okay, next plan" I said as I ran through another small shed for cover.
"I'm gonna get some rounds, and given that she's just taken a shot at me, I'm gonna count her as fair game"
I thought back on what had just happened as I reached the road.
"That was an AKM too, that is a two bullet kill that right there." I didn't know it, but that was a taste for the world I was in.
I crossed the road and ran back up the hill to the dirt road and followed it for a while, until I saw an old barn.
I began to walk towards it, but the sounds of an AS50 rang through the air, I knew what he was doing, he was sniping people in the town, no-one would waste such high calibre bullets on zombies. I knew he needed to die, but I needed bullets.
"Even an axe, I mean, I could take that guy with an axe cause I'm pretty sure he's gonna be absorbed just looking down into the town" I said as I walked into the empty barn, almost praying to someone for a weapon.
"But if there's nothing in here I can't really do much…..unfortunately" I said as I began looking around.
"Come on, please be kind, please just, even an axe" I desperately prayed.
I gasped when my eyes noticed something, a Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk. I Bolt Action Rifle.
"Oh, this guy is fucked….I'm gonna flank the long way around and get him" I said out loud as I began devising a plan in my head.
I passed a Double-Barrelled Shotgun and a Winchester 1866 Lever Action Rifle, but the Lee-Enfield seemed the better option, especially when hearing the guy shooting his AS50. I thought that if I didn't hurry up and get him, people would die.
I knew that I had to get rid of my M24, the chance of finding bullets for it was so slim, but if someone else found it, I would be in trouble. So I grabbed the gun, and snapped the barrel over my knee.
I grabbed the Lee-Enfield and loaded a ten-round stripper clip into the opened bolt and made my way towards the snipers.
I back tracked my way over the hill and walked through the forest looking vainly through the forest.
I could see the Fire Station, but before I could take my revenge, I had to get rid of the sniper.
"Oh, there is definitely a guy down there, so many zombies" I said as I kept walking through the forest.
I finally reached the tree line on the hill, without any success of finding the sniper.
"That's a little bit worrying, a little bit worrying" I said to myself as I proned underneath a tree.
I studied the zombies in the field, the power station by the fire station and the city. It all seemed still and I didn't have any food, so I made a plan in my head. I was gonna head to the Fire station and get rid of the girl in the tower, then make my way into the city.
I kept walking down the hill, and continued to the road. Then the sound of fire from an M14 erupted through the air from the hill behind me. They weren't directed at me, but at hill behind me, coming from somewhere in the field to my right.
I sprinted towards the concrete wall looked around. I couldn't see anyone, but I could hear something, it was footsteps, coming from behind me.
I turned towards the road, pulled the bolt back to check if I had my bullets, and ran towards the road where someone was running with a Sniper Rifle and sporting a Ghillie suit.
He began running up the hill as I took my position next to a bush and behind a guard rail at the foot of the road.
I followed him with the Iron Sights and fired, I watched the dirt explode behind him. I missed.
I pulled the Bolt Back as he sprinted off. I shot a second time, and again missed.
I pulled the Bolt Back and took a third shot, but again I missed as he ran down the hill, unaware of my position.
Suddenly I felt the clubbing blow of a fist to the side of my head. I turned to see a zombie right by my face, knocking me off balance as I squizzed the trigger for my forth shot.
I ran out to the road as he ran to the road as well. I aimed and with my fifth shot, hit him in the side of the abdomen, and then in the shoulder with my follow up shot. He twisted awkwardly to the ground the zombie approached me again.
It also crumpled down however as the sound of M14 fire. I hesitated for a second, but took off when a bullet landed only millimetres from my feet. I ran zig-zagged towards the concrete wall and ran into the hole for cover.
"Ve have two snipers" I said jokingly as the sound of gunshots subsided.
"It sounded like both were at the hill or something.
I could hear gunshots still, but this time not directed at me, but a large snapping and echoing snapping sounds followed, as if someone's leg had been broken by the bullets.
The gunshots continued as I walked around the power station. I thought I was in cover.
"Well there's someone over there shooting at me" I said as I heard the tell-tale pinging sounds of bullets landing not far from me as the sound of M14 fire shifted across the hill.
"Holy fuck, we have got a lot of enemies".
I heard the shooting continue, followed by a scream in the mountains.
"Well that's ghillie guy down" I said as I realised there was a shootout in the mountains. Well more specifically they were fighting like bears over who gets to kill me.
"Okay, that guy is defiantly across there, there is no doubt he's in those trees somewhere….with his good ol' DMR" I said as I started thinking of all the position the snipers were at, listening to the shots that were being fired.
I knew one was hiding in the bushes in the open field, another in the tree line at the hill, but he could already be dead, and a third by the dirt road by the smaller hill.
"Let's take a drink and reconsider a position" I said as I opened up my backpack and grabbed my canteen, shaking it to reveal it was empty. "Oh, we don't have a drink".
"Okay, we got problems, we gotta get outta here" I said as I began leaving the safety of the concrete wall.
I crawled under the wall and looked out onto the road. It was too dangerous to loot the guy I had killed.
"Well, let's just piss of this zombie" I said to myself as I sprinted past it and over the road. "Cause at the moment, no fucks are given".
I thought of my plan, they never seemed to work, but I had to make this one. I had to run up and over the hill in front of me, without being seen by the sniper further up the hill and not being seen by the sniper on the other hill, go around, fill up on water at a lake that I had a gut feeling (which by know I had put down to instinct) was nearby and flank around the hill and take out the sniper.
It was the only option for me really, every time I had this gut feeling, I was right. Maybe something godly was telling me were to go, a Guardian Angel of sorts. I knew I couldn't go into the town because there was too much action there, it was safer to trust my gut, or guardian angel and find the lake.
I continued down a dirt road to where my gut angel was telling me, until at least when Sniper fire again drew my attention. I was thirsty, but all these snipers, they made me angry; they were like bears fighting over their prey. They seemed like the real monsters, slowly releasing any humanity left in them until there was none left to give. I had to get rid of them, to make sure no-one else walked into their trap.
I started walking down the forest, not far from where I was when I returned with my Lee-Enfield for the first time.
I found the tree I was before, the tree that was bigger and greener than the rest that I rested in just before things turned to shit. This time I could hear flies, the sniper that had been shot, it could have been him.
I walked down a bit to the next tree, where a dead man in a ghillie suit was lying, and right next to him another ghillie suit. We turned and looked to each other at the same time, our eyes locking, but my trigger finger being quicker. I watched the bullet pierce his head, sending it jolting back before impacting on the ground.
"That's our second sniper, could there be a third?" I said out loud, trying to rile up a response.
No one responded. I opened up the first snipers backpack. I was hoping he has something to drink. I found a small box of anti-biotic material on the first sniper before shifting over to his friend, or enemy.
"So that was a good day, three snipers" I said, again trying to scare away anyone hiding. "I have a sneaking suspicion there's one more somewhere….but"
"So this is the DMR guy" I said out loud, trying to explain everything I was doing out loud to anyone listening.
I searched his bag found a 375mL can of Coca-Cola. I immediately opened it, and in two or three gulps, swallowed the whole thing.
I emptied his backpack completely and put all my belongings in it, it was bigger and seemed to be of military creation. I also took his M14, fitted with a Bipod and 10x Scope and two magazines.
I felt as if either the gunfight, or my constant talking, had brought the attention of someone or something, so I decided to back off and do a big circle, leaving some important gear behind as bait to try and find the missing sniper.
Eventually though, I was becoming tired of waiting, especially when I could lose valuable gear in the process.
"I guess one can be only so cautious and then say fuck it" I said as I made my way back to site of the massacre.
I grabbed another three M14 magazines, a canteen full of water, a compass, a Taurus Tracker Model 455 revolver, with was useful since I had the speed reloader for it and the .45 ACP ammunition it took, a small toolbox, Night Vision Goggles, a map, a Hunting Knife, a Hatchet, a GPS, a box of matches, a military grade entrenching shovel, a cooked steak in a plastic clip-lock bag and two more speed reloaders for the revolver. I switched to the other sniper, whose backpack I was yet to search and found a pair of military grade binoculars, the one's that you wrap around your head and flip the actual binoculars down. It dawned on me that these guys seemed to be something else. They were Chernorussian Special forces, the first one was a sniper, the second the spotter. I was mesmerised by the fact that they were ordered to fire of people, or maybe they saw me kill the guy on the road, but still, I heard them shooting before, wasting bullets on an infinite amount of zombies seemed unlikely. I didn't know what to think of it.
Deep in my thoughts, I barely noticed someone walking up the hill, he didn't see me however. I jumped behind a tree, whispering profanities to myself as a grabbed my Revolver, firing two shots, the second of which struck the side of the abdomen. I ran behind the next tree over into cover, reloading the two bullets I shot off whilst he returned fire. I ran back out as he ran off and repeated my process, firing two shots, the second of which struck him in the chest, somewhere near his heart. I ran past the trees as he fired, again reloading my lost two bullets. I watched him from past the tree collapse, pistol still in hand, ready to fight to the death, at least take his murderer with him. I knew I was the bad guy here, but I also knew I had to show no remorse, it was bad luck that he came this way, he was probably friendly, but then again, what kind of friendly guy walks into the area where a shootout just happened. Either way I had to finish it.
I popped out and fired three shots into his head, killing him swiftly and as painlessly as possible. I felt bad about it, which was a good sign considering I had just killed three people and couldn't give the slightest shit, at least I knew I was human still, but for how long.
I reloaded my revolver, again having six shots left.
"Cannot risk shit like that" I muttered to myself, trying to get my mind of it, or at least find an excuse. But for some strange reason, it felt like I've done this before.
"So I think the best thing for me to do" I said to myself as I started running off up the hill. "Is get the hell out of here.
