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FIN



Thank you very much if you made it all the way down to this paragraph, i hope you enjoyed it. I made this story to commemorate a pretty special day, and I'm not talking about this being my 50th post on my blog, which is very cool though, yet insignificant compared to what i actually mean.



This story is dedicated to Stealthkilla, the guy i met exactly three years ago thanks to DayZ. A survival game that i have been able to experience exactly as the story I told on this page only thanks to him, every time a new story, every time a different ending. That son of a bitch has given me as many joyful moments as heart attacks in this game, and is making me cry while writing this.



Never change man, and i hope i can die many more times by your side. Cheers my friend.



Peace



DHR_000x

I'm damp, I feel cold... and my neck hurts, which makes my current head ache even worse. Why do I feel like this? I just woke up but, it is dark. Where am I? The soothing sound of surging waves hitting the beach, this salty smell in the air, it feels familiar. Have I been here before? What happened?The night is clear. I can see the huge carpet of stars covering the sky and the huge gibbous moon brightens my otherwise pitch black surroundings. It's not very cold nor windy, but the strong humidity and my already wet clothes are making me shiver. I don't like this feeling, I need to concentrate. I can tell that it must be very early in the morning, but where am I heading? I can still hear the waves yet I can't, I just don't know where the sound is coming from, it is everywhere. Am I on an island? I should better get to higher ground.I found the ruins of an old fortress on top of a nearby hill, there are some stands inside the battlement, probably from a medieval fair. This doesn't look right, they are old and rotten, how long has this been standing here? I can't even find a piece of cloth or anything at all to warm up a little. There's a staircase inside of one of the towers, hopefully I can see far enough to know where to go next. The stairs are slippery and there's neither a handrail nor any kind of light source to let me watch my step, but I need to know what's out there.As I reached the top of the tower my fears became reality. I am indeed on an island. From still far away from my eyes reach, the sun reflects its light on the moon, showing me the silhouette of this little rock I am trapped on. In the distance I recognize a mount that stretches out from left all the way far right, where it's end is visible by the presence of a lighthouse. All around this fortress are nothing but trees, staying here doesn't seem like a good idea, I need to find a way over to that lighthouse.I've been walking along the beach in hopes of finding a boat, a raft or anything that can help me get over to the other shore. So far luck doesn't seem to be by my side, but I need to get away from this island, I can't stay here. Should I swim? It is already cold enough that I can see my breath, I would freeze to death in the ocean water. Staying here isn't better either, and it only looks like 200m, I should be able to do that.I've been thinking about it for what felt like half an hour, this is going to save my life, I'm doing it.I. Am. Freezing. I reached the shore and I'm so cold I can't even breath normally. I'm trying to get out of my shirt, my arms are trembling so hard, every movement is a challenge. There must be somebody in that lighthouse, they are soon going to get a visit of a half frozen naked man. I had nothing on me as I woke up earlier and I don't remember ever wearing this trousers before, so I just throw them to the ground next to my shirt, and start heading towards the lighthouse.This can't be happening to me, no way, the door to the tower is locked. "Is anybody in there?!" I am shouting and banging the door but no answers. I can hear the keys hanging from the lock on the inside of the door, there must be somebody inside. There's a car parked next to the tower with the trunk open, let's have a look inside. A suitcase with a dry change of clothes? The gods listened to my trembling prayers, thank you, thank you so much, even a pair of shoes, nice. What is this? I found a piece of paper in my pants.I sit in the car and take a look at it. It's a map. It looks like shit, but I can recognize the area, even the lighthouse is marked on the right side of the road. Wasn't such a bad idea crossing over after all. I am clearly on main land now, otherwise there would have been a bridge over to the side where I woke up. I need to find more clothes to help me get through this night, maybe I'm even able to make a fire. Until now nobody answered from the light house, so I suppose I'll be heading up to that little village up the mountain, maybe I can find someone that can help the lighthouse keeper.I'm walking up a steep trail through the woods up to the village and I am already sweating again, I really don't want to keep these clothes dry huh? I hope for a better welcome than down at the coast, I could really use some hot tea and something to eat. I still don't know how long I've been on that island, but my stomach knows it has been for way too long. I can already see the roofs of the first few houses, I'll be there in a moment.Not a light, not a sound, pretty normal for this time of the night actually, I swear I'm getting paranoiac. I can't see much but I have a really strange feeling in my chest right now, and it's not because I'm cold. I knock on the door of what seems to be a family house, nothing, "Hello?". I knock again. Still nothing. I check right next door and again after knocking a few times, nobody answers. As I walk around the house to check for some signal of life I notice their backyard door is slightly open. Should I go in? That would be massively frightening for anybody inside and I could get into trouble. On the other hand I'm hypothermic and starving, I need help, it is justified. I slowly open the door and step into what looks like the living room.It smells like the attic of my grandmothers house, and this humidity, it's kind of hard to breathe in here. This house is abandoned. I need some light to see where I'm stepping, I better check those shacks in the backyard of the first house I knocked at, and maybe that house is empty as well. The few things I see are old, rusty and decaying, I don't think that this village has had any visitors for a while.There is nobody here, not one soul. In one of the shacks I found a working gas lantern. I turned it on. That was the first time I saw color since I woke up, not only that, but also the lifeless houses surrounding me, witnesses of the time past since the last time they were inhabited. I went from house to house looking for clothes and maybe some food and water, I still had that salty taste on my tongue. I found a nice old jacket that should help me get through the night, a hat and some gloves were also lying around, can't say no to that. To my surprise, one of the houses had a gun rack in the basement, which kept a perfectly pristine Mosin-Nagant, sadly without ammunition, but I couldn't just leave it there. Haven't found any food though, yet I was able to get myself some potable water from a fountain. I think that should be enough for me to survive the night. I'm packed tight into my new clothes, barricaded the doors of one of the buildings and I'm going to spend the rest of the night here.What a wonderful morning. I woke not long ago with that pleasant feeling of wearing dry clothes, filled up my canteen one last time and I'm ready to head to god-knows-where. That piece of a map I found yesterday doesn't show much more of this area, and I have a strong feeling that I shouldn't follow that road to the south-west, so north it is, in hopes of food. Please let there be food.It's around noon and I just found these signs next to the street I've been following the last twenty minutes. Looks like russian, am I in Russia? I mean that would explain the rifle but, what am I doing here? The signs look like they are pointing towards the next town so, that's the best chance I have to get some food and maybe find my way out of here, wherever "here" may be.I was indeed welcomed by a lovely little town while walking down the hill and again, absolute no life as far as the eye can see. This time there were not only family houses, but also barns, a cafeteria and many other abandoned buildings. The storage room of the cafeteria had enough food cans for a week, I opened one with peaches and they were still good! I forgot how awesome eating is. Good thing I found a little backpack laying around to take all the cans with me, would be a shame to leave them there. In a shack I also found a hatchet, I took it with me to be able to make a fire tonight, or if it rains and I get wet. I found another jacket with a few more pockets, but that one isn't waterproof either. I did also put on a helmet, it's the most illogical thing to do, but it makes me feel safe. Once I took everything I was able to carry I went on, and decided to walk over the next hill when suddenly I hear a loud noise coming from behind me, from the buildings I just looted...What was that? I don't even know from which exact direction that came from. It sounded like a car crashing or a gun fir... A gun fire? Did I just hear a shot from down there? I get some cover between the trees and keep looking over the town, maybe I see somebody. Right as I was about to stand up and change position I hear it again, this time long burst fire. *RA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA* and again *RA-TA-TA-TA-TA*. Then complete silence. I decide to wait, if there's somebody down there, I'll see them sooner or later. But for the longest time nothing happens.I know the shots came from the upper half of the town, probably one of the first houses there, so very slowly, without exposing myself, I sneak down looking for the shooter. If things get hairy I need to react quickly, the jacket I found had five bullet for my Mosin in it, and I need to chamber each shot manually, so the first shot needs to land. I am now moving from house to house towards the southern end of the village, checking every corner, every room. I haven't heard anything since the last shots, I can only hope he didn't see me.As I am checking one of the older wooden houses I start to hear steps outside, little branches breaking and gravel being kicked around. I hide underneath the windows and slowly peek out to see who was responsible for the shooting not even ten minutes ago. I... I can't believe my eyes... It's *ZIOW* SHIT I'M BEING SHOT AT. I immediately drop to the ground when a second and a third shot burst through the windows covering me in shattered glass while i scream and beg him to stop shooting. A forth shot never comes, but a deep calm voice tries to talk to me. "Don't move a muscle or I'll make you another breathing hole" he says. I comply, i have nothing to lose but my life right now, and I am sure it is him, i need to talk to him. On the ground i can see the his shadow approaching the door, aiming down his rifle, slowly walking through the doorway.It... It is him... It's Stealth. I remember him. He is still aiming at me, so i slowly put down my balaclava to show him my face. It is in that moment when all his muscles just relax, shoulders go down, he lets go of the gun letting it fall into the sling, I can see the relive in his face. He just shakes his head in disbelieve and says "How are you still alive?", and we go on to give each other such an intense hug that could end all wars in the world. I don't want to let go now. Never.I still have no concept of time, how long must it have been since we saw each other the last time? I remember the crash, and after that i woke up on that island. He looks different, scarred, why is he in full military gear? Has it been that long? I need a minute to get my thoughts clear.Our last time together was on our trip to Chernobyl, we had been wanting to do that for quite some time. We had been driving for hours and at some point while crossing the Czech Republic we got pulled over by some military guys. They told us we were approaching a restricted area and we needed to go back to were we came from. I remember thinking how that was possible, we weren't even close to Chernobyl yet. One of the armed soldiers shouts something, there was another car behind us, the people inside it were moving frantically, shaking the car from left to right. As they approached the car, the window of the passengers door suddenly bursts into pieces and a woman jumps at the soldier standing right next to the car. He started screaming, and you could see blood spatter over both of them as well as the side of the vehicle. Everybody began to shoot the car, from all directions. Two soldiers were aiming at us and ordering us not to move a muscle, they were very nervous, I thought that was it, we wouldn't get out of that.The noise stopped, everything went silent, except for that one injured guy screaming on the ground. I was on the passengers seat, when my door opens and what seem to be a higher ranked officer, with a heavy Czech accent, orders us to evacuate the vehicle and follow him. The car behind us is smoking and the soldiers are taking care of their injured friend. We still had no idea what's going on, we are following the officer through the barricades they have set up what looks like yesterday. He talks to one of his guys and tells him to take us with him, and points towards a nearby standing Huey. They didn't tell us anything, just that we would be save, they would take us to one of their bases of operations. The capital, or any other place wasn't save anymore, "rage has broken out" they told us. We were already sitting in the helicopter when the injured soldier was carried over by his mates, they lift him in and all four soldiers sit around him. Doors close and the rotors start to move, it was here when I first got time for a deep breath and a second of time to assess the situation. Stealth notices that two of the soldiers, even tough they are wearing Czech military uniforms, are carrying M4s. And why aren't we sitting in a Russian Mil chopper? Something is off...We lift off and we get a look at our car one last time. The one behind us is burning by now, and we were still able to see the smoke column from quite far away. We just were taken by the military of a foreign country, under the promise of safety, safety from what? Rage? What does that even mean?The soldiers next to us were still treating the wounds of the injured kid as he starts to moan in pain, louder and louder. They try to hold him in place because it looks like he's having a stroke. I couldn't be more wrong. He's eyes were injected in blood and the four guys were really struggling to hold him down. He starts kicking and punching like a mad man and biting at every chance, and manages to knock one of the guys unconscious . They can't hold him anymore, letting him jump on one of the soldiers biting him right in the throat. The guy right next to me panics, cocks it's gun and nearly unloads his whole mag into the mad mans back. The helicopter gets out of control, he has hit the pilot, I saw blood everywhere. We were spinning faster and faster, I couldn't see the ground anymore, I was just trying to hold on to anything in reach. I look over to Stealth one last time, this was it...I am still hugging him, he's alive, I'm alive, how's that even possible? "You smell like shit", he says. I tell him my story, how I should have died like three times today and why I'm wearing clothes of mysteriously disappeared people. He laughs. "You are a survivor of the plague. This people didn't disappear, they have been dead for quite a while now. All those zombie movies we have seen together? That is here and now". I don't understand, I haven't seen a zombie the whole day, not even corpses laying around, everything is just desolated. "We went on a trip to see a deserted city...", he says, "...now we have to fight in a deserted world". That gave me the chills.He tells me he is heading north-west, from some abandoned military vehicles he found out that there may be a base with an airfield, a ticket home, where ever home may be. Stealth has been out in the wild for over two months looking for me, hoping to survive long enough for this day to come. We both survived the crash, but he was badly injured. When he regained consciousness after the crash, he just saw people from some kind of special unit carrying me away, leaving him for dead. He didn't know who they were, nor where they were taking me, they just drove off leaving him laying in a pile of hot steel and smoking carcasses of the deceased soldiers. He wandered aimlessly through the woods with the little things he was able to scavenge from the crash site, until he was able to recover and start looking for military checkpoints and bases in hopes of finding any traces of me. He has been fighting many zombies since then, but he hasn't seen any in the last week or so, he tells me that they must be dying out. "Have you encountered any other survivors?", I ask. He looks out of the window and says, "I wouldn't call them survivors any more". He didn't go into more detail, I'm sure the last two months haven't been a holiday for him. "Stealth, we should get on our feet, lets get out of here".We have been walking for a while, talking, he has been getting me up to date, and he still is the crazy bloke I remember. I asked him what was he shooting at back in the town where we found each other. He said he had a third gun in his backpack that was getting to heavy, so he wasted the bullets before throwing it away. I can't argue with that logic. He also told me he once was starving for about three days because he didn't have anything to eat, and he wasn't going to eat the sardines he kept finding. Not even a zombie apocalypse will make him eat fish, but look at him, he's still alive.The bad weather is gaining ground on us, we will have to chop some wood and find shelter for the night. We need to stay dry, I already know what a night with wet clothes feels like.We spent the night in a little two story house in the surroundings of what looked like a bigger city. We made fire and warmed up some cans of beans and tactical bacon, took off our gear and are now enjoying each others company. I only have been alone for one night and I'm so grateful to have somebody by my side, a person to talk to, that feeling of security. I can't imagine what two months of solitude can do to a person, But he hasn't lost his sense of humor and now calls his helmet Wilson.We can't sleep, we just chill in that old living room. I'm sitting in a chair and Stealth is leaned against the wall, sitting on the ground lightning a cigarette. "I can't remember what smoking feels like, it has been to long" I say. He just turns his head and looks into the fire. I've been noticing that behavior, every time I mention the time I was unconscious, he just phases out, changes the topic or just doesn't say anything else. "Is there anything I need to know?", I ask him. He looks at me funny, as if I was talking nonsense. "You know what I'm talking about. You found out what happened to me, didn't you?". He looks me in the eyes, takes a deep drag from his cigarette and comes over to sit next to me. I wait for him to say something, he leans over to me and asks, "have you found any scars on you?".I stood up, got out of my clothes and checked myself but there was nothing unusual, everything is still in place. "You're lucky", he says to me, "I have seen much worse". He has been seeing half naked people reach the shore, wet and confused. They run into the woods and either freeze or starve to death, others try their luck in the cities and end up getting shot by other scavengers. Many others don't make it to dry land. He has found piles of dead people at the beach, some of them had big scars or surgically amputated limbs, probably drowned because of it, others were disfigured to a point of no recognition. He has been seeing many helicopters flying over this area, at least one a day. Stealth starts to tell me different theories of what may be going on, where those people, as well as myself, come from and where's everybody gone. I can see he has been giving those ideas many hours and days of thought, but he still looks as lost as I do. "I may know where you were for so long" he says, then opens his left shoulder pocket and pulls out a photograph."I took this from the dead pilot after we crashed, it looks like a laboratory, but I have no idea what or where Taviana is" he says before handing me the polaroid. I look at the picture in silence. I have so many questions, but I know he hasn't found any in eight weeks. We stay quiet, contemplating our existence, and eventually falling asleep.It is early in the morning and the sky is still covered in rain clouds. The fire we did the night before is out by now, I feel the cold in the bones. Stealth woke up a bit earlier than me and is already geared up. I take a quick piss and pack my things as well. We were close to a city which we wanted to check out so, I suppose that's our next destination. It doesn't take us long to cross a field and find a path through the woods and we were already seeing the city.But something is wrong down there, there are a lot of agitated birds flying around, and we can see a huge dark smoke pillar out in the distance, probably a car burning. I don't know if we should keep moving, we should head north-west as planned, if there are other people around that will attract them, and we wont be safe anymore. Stealth agrees. As we turn around to walk away we hear an explosion coming from the city, there's even more smoke now, which only confirms that it was a burning car. "Maybe military? I haven't seen a working civilian car in ages" Stealth says. I don't really care, cars don't usually explode by themselves, "Let's get the hell out of here".We have been running for the last ten minutes and I still have that feeling that we are being followed. I know its very improbable, since we where well hidden the whole time, and we didn't leave the woods since back then. Now I know that we are really not alone around here, and that the others probably are armed as well, which means everybody is hostile until proven otherwise. No laws, no rules, survival of the fittest. I better keep running.We found another little town after going over a quite steep hill back there and we are going to check it out, we are running low on food supplies. If I'm lucky I find another can of peaches, those were surprisingly tasty for canned food. One of the first buildings is a police station, maybe there's a gun locker or something. "Hey, look at that", says Stealth while aiming into a holding cell. There a corpse lying sideways on the ground, clothes torn apart and handcuffed. The two empty bottles of disinfectant laying next to him tells me his last meal wasn't how he expected. This is inhumane, what the hell is going on with some people? "Are we this crazy already?", I whisper to myself. Stealth kneels down next to the corpse and slowly removes the handcuffs, "no, we are not" he answers.We check out the rest of the station. We found some ammo and a tiny little derringer pistol. "Hey Stealth look at this, if by any remote chance we happen to play some hands of poker around here I can hide this beauty in my stockings just in case I need to get rid of some cheater bandito". "I just imagined you in a western woman's attire which is priceless", he answers smiling. I haven't seen him laugh since we met again, this is very refreshing. As soon as I get out to the roof of the building I call him up, "Hey Ste! I'm on the roof, check this out!". He sprints up and I point him out an object far out in the field. "Looks like one of the choppers you've been seeing crashed over there" I say.It is completely burned out and must have been sitting here for a while now. The wreckage is empty, we can't find any reminders of any possible victims of the crash either. There's some clothing laying around, but nothing usable. "The nose of the chopper is aiming north-west, which means they probably crashed when flying back to the base we are looking for", I say while thinking, they probably suffered the same grim fate as we did. Who knows. We take a short breath and walk away, back into the woods.This wont make us lose hope. There must be something at a military airfield right? I mean we can make use of nearly everything. It doesn't matter if its a dirt bike, a car or a truck, Stealth can drive tanks and I think I would even be able to get a little civil cessna-like plane up in the air. A helicopter would be a whole new difficulty level, but we would have to try. "There's a perimeter fence" Stealth says, "we may have arrived". We follow the barb wired fence to the next gate, walk along the street until we arrive at the fist set of buildings. We can't see much, so we get up a nearby deer stand and scout out the area.We actually have two range finders, he gave me one, but only his got batteries. I wouldn't have thought that batteries would be so scarce, but it makes sense since the greatest part of the power grid is down. "I can see the airstrip, and there's a huge improvised military camp in front of it", he tells me, "we should be careful,I can't see any movement but you can't be cautious enough". We decide to split up, I will approach the camp from the north-east, he's coming from the north-west, and we will meet in the first sandbag emplacement. I walk all the way up to the last line of trees, still about 200m away from our meeting point, sit down and observe. It is really quiet, only the wind can be heard combing the trees around me and the occasional bird whistle. Nothing moves. I can see Stealth to my right, slowly coming out from between the trees and walking towards the emplacement. There doesn't seem to be anybody around, so I join him as planned. We decide that I should take watch while he checks out the many tents set up in the camp for anything useful, I can't get rid of the feeling that we are being watched.It didn't take us more than ten minutes to clean the site and we found some additional mags, ammo, a pair of binoculars and new black military boots. We are now at the northern end of the roll way and can see about eight hangars to our left, two garages and a distant military base to our right. I suggest to go to the garages first, that way we are able to see into the open hangars, either for any kind of vehicle or in the worst case, other people. I wouldn't be surprised if this place was a magnet for survivors looking for military equipment.There's nothing, the whole airstrip is empty, not even a forgotten bike is standing around. We walked all the way over to the barracks on the other end of the strip aside of tons of used clothes, there's not much to take with us. So many clothes laying around and I'm still wearing gloves with holes in them, unbelievable. I'm not going to take them off, the last thing I want is to cut myself and get a dirty wound now. We take one last look over the airfield before giving that place up. "It has been like this the last three bases I found so, get used to it..." he says to me. I mean, I want to get out of here back to my normal life, if something like that even exists anymore, but I'm happy that if I am stranded, at least I'm stranded with somebody I can trust my life with. "And you are motherfucking downer." I say. "You are now with me out here, and even if it takes us another two months to find out of this mess, even if we have to look for another hundred bases, I'll be here giving you hope and cheering you up so, get used to it". He sighs, looks at me smiling and with his head signals me to follow him.I just got that feeling of a classic hiking trip. Clear blue sky with the sun warming me up bringing up the vibrant colors of the autumnal trees and the green grassy field we are running across. I'd love to take a break and just lay down in the weed, watch the birds fly over me, relax a little bit and forget everything that's happening around us. Maybe even eat some peaches if I had found any but yeah, you can't have everything.We have been walking south since we left the airfield, we want to try our luck by following the coastal road to the west. We left behind wide plains and dense patches of forest before finding the first street in the last hour or so. "We are pretty close to two towns" I say, walking towards two blue street signs that say Сосновка 1 and Зеленогорск 2, I suppose the numbers mean kilometers.As we approach the first village we decide to split, just to get a little bit of overwatch, because the terrain is going down into a somewhat narrow valley, I go right, he goes left. I walk around the field right next to the village, so I can stay hidden in the woods. Halfway on the other side I check with my binoculars if I'm able to see him, because we never did really plan where to meet again. I can see him in front of me, probably 300m away, he has walked down the hill and he is giving me signals pointing down the valley. What is he trying to say? I'm spotting the area but I can't see anything, and the deepest part right in front of him is covered by trees. Stealth has now drawn his gun and is walking backwards. What is going on? I see a shot, and another, and a third one, at that moment I see a group of five cows charging towards him. They are not scared since he's using a suppressed AK, he dodges the first two cows and the others sprint past him nearly running him over. He turns around and keeps shooting, until one of the cows running uphill falls over. He walks up to the now motionless cow, gives it one last shot to the head to make sure it's neither alive nor suffering, and starts butchering the animal.I've been checking the surrounding hills while he takes care of what is probably going to be our early dinner today. I can see the second town down to the south. As he finishes, I signal him to come over to my side, it looks like safer approach to the next town, and we can cook that meat quite hidden back here in the woods. It will take a few minutes until he's here so I start chopping some wood.He has wrapped up a few chunks of meat with a napkin and brought them over to me. He helps me to gather some kindling to get that fire up and running. The 7.62mm ammo my Mosin uses came in labeled cardboard boxes, so I empty them into my vests pocket, and tear the boxes apart to use the scraps as tinder. We have dry matches, but just to make sure it wont die on us I pour the gunpowder of one of my bullets over the tinder, the ground is a little damp. The fires starts perfectly and the kindling is burning in a matter of seconds. We can't wait to taste some delicious beef.He brought some steaks, the liver and intestines with him, what a choice since he had like 400kg of meat to choose from. We cook it all anyways, we don't really have anything to put the meat on, so we just lay it on some stones we have put into the fire beforehand to heat them up. We nearly burnt the steaks but I think they are ready to eat, next to some warm canned spaghetti this is quite the nobles feast. "When is the last time you ate fresh meat?", I ask. "First time since we're here" he answers, dribbling half-chewed steak onto his lap, "aside from birds, that's the first time I see any animals at all". Have they all fallen victims of the plague as well? Maybe we just found the one herd of surviving cows. I swallow, "Enjoy". He nods back.We finished eating a while ago, and were just relaxing a little bit next to the fire. "Let's keep moving" Stealth suggests. I get up, and we both empty our bladders over the fireplace. We leave it behind still smoking, and head up towards the town. While chopping wood I had spotted some military barracks at the southern town entry, so that's where we're heading. And I have a funny taste in my mouth, the guts weren't as enjoyable as I somehow expected.In the police station next to the barracks we found a pristine looking sewing kit, which I immediately used to mend some holes in my jacket and backpack. While sitting there fixing my gear I notice I'm getting more tired every minute that passes, and my stomach ain't reacting well to what we ate, I feel nauseous. "You shouldn't have ate those half raw but burnt intestines" says Stealth jokingly, "but I don't think it mattered because I'm feeling sick as well".I feel heavy, I can't concentrate and everything is blurring out. We need to get this out of our system. "Take out your canteen and follow me" I say. We find a well with a pump and fill our canteens. "Drink until you cant drink no more, until you throw up, otherwise this is going to kill us". Stealth listens and we both start to chug canteens full of water. He pukes, so do I shortly after.We sit down for a minute and try to recover. "This sucks" I utter while cleaning my balaclava. Stealth looks back and says, "we forgot to check one of the barracks back there, lets go". We are walking, jogging isn't possible right now, we are to weak. We are now both with an empty stomach but we don't feel relieved yet. It will probably take a while so we concentrate on looting the remaining buildings around the barracks as well.I'm still sick, I can feel it. I'm getting dizzier and my view is still blurred. We both can't walk a straight line anymore, this isn't over. We tumble back to the well, look at each other and at a slow pace start drinking water again. "I need to puke again" I say while having difficulties swallowing the water. We both try and end up throwing up again. I'm so wasted, I don't have the power to stand up again. We sit down and lean against the building right next to the well. We are both covered in sweat, breathing short and fast. "I don't know what else to do, Stealth, this is eating me from the inside". "Don't give up man, come with me". He gets himself on his feet and grabs my west from over the shoulder and pulls me up, I follow him. He walks around the house to the intersection, looks across to the other building and points to its gardens shack. "What?" I ask, but he just walks over without a word, jumps over the fence, opens the shack and looks at the ground. "There".What are those? Charcoal Tabs? "For what are they good?" I ask frantically. He reads the package, "Activated Carbon in form of tablets used to trapping chemicals to stop some types of poisoning when used as a part of standard treatment." Those tablets help against food poisoning! We immediately consume four tablets each, leaving us with another eight in case of an emergency. "This is a miracle, man! How the hell did you know they where there?". Stealth, still chewing his tablets says "I didn't, I just... I don't know". I actually don't care how this just happened, I'm happy that it happened at all.We enter the house and sit on the sofa for a moment, the tablets seem to be working, I'm exhausted, Ste looks wasted as well, but I don't feel like throwing up anymore. I'm in a dire need of salt though, but eating isn't probably the best idea right now, we need to take care of ourselves now and stay hydrated. "Stealth, I'll give you my saline IV, that will make you feel much better". I'm looking in my backpack but I can't find my medkit, I must have dropped it where I mended my jacket. "Hey, I need to go back the police station to get my medkit, you can stay here or otherwise we'll meet later at the church, okay? See you in a minute".I found my medkit and walked back to the house, he isn't here anymore so I suppose he went on to check out the neighboring houses. I can have a look at the supermarket two blocks away from here.The supermarket is nearly empty, nothing useful, so I moved on along the street and can hear Stealth looting one of the building so I join him. I enter a little hallway and go right into a kitchen and start opening drawers looking for food. Suddenly I hear this Russian voice shouting with a very strong accent "Don't move or we shoot, don't fucking move!". I can see one guy aiming at me through the kitchen window, he's standing on the walkway outside in full camo, ballistic helmet and an AK. My heart is pumping, "Put your hands on your head right now!". I can feel the adrenaline reaching every cell in my body. Another guy with a black cap is now aiming another AK at me from the hallway. I am still crouched with my hands now on my head. He comes in, the guy from outside joins too and they close the door. I try to calm them down, "don't worry, don't worry, I'm not hostile, please don't shoot" but he interrupts me, "Shut up!"."Are you alone?", asks the guy with the cap. "Yeah, I am" I answer shaking. I didn't really think that answer through. I didn't know who they where, just that they are probably Russian, and that if they knew that there was somebody else outside that they would take me hostage, so I played my cards. "Do you have ammo for that mosin?" "Yes, I do". There's a short silence, he turns to his friend and tells him something in Russian. His friend agrees. "Do you have any food?" I tell him that I have eight cans of food in my backpack. "You're lucky, we killed two other survivors not an hour ago, they got nervous, you know? We are going to let you live, drop your backpack and give us your food". I slowly take off my backpack and open it in front of me."I told you I'm not hostile, don't worry about me, you can have the food". They look way less tense than a minute ago, I think they wont hurt me. "I am sick with food poisoning from a cow I killed and cooked a while ago, and since I'm alone, could you help me administering me this saline solution as a deal for my food? I'm very dehydrated". "No problem", he says, he hooks me up with the IV and tells me to hold the bag. This feels nice. "Thanks". They discuss something while I feel the solution crawling up the veins of my arm. A thought shoots through my mind, what if I actually had the little Derringer pistol in my stockings, or in this case in the pocket of my jacket? I could have pulled it out and *POP* *POP* both down before they even were able to aim at me. Nah, I'm not that crazy, so I think at least."You can pick up your backpack now, we'll be gone in a minute". I pick it up and he tells me to go stand in the corner, face against the wall and to count to sixty, so I'm not able to see in which direction they leave town. I do what they tell me. They exit to the hallway and close the door to the kitchen behind them. This may be the luckiest day in my life, not only didn't they harm me at all, they also gave me medical aid. *THUD* *THUD* *THUD*. Ow shit! They're getting shot! Multiple bullets just hit the facade of the building I'm in, probably right over their heads as they ran out. I need to get out of here. *WHUMP* The door in front of me slams open and the two russian guys jump in taking cover from the windows. "You said you where here alone!" the one guy screams, completely out of breath. "I swear, I have no idea who's shooting, I stayed here like you said!". He starts to curse in russian, while his friend carefully checks out the buildings in front of us. I'm just hoping that Stealth knows exactly in which building we are and has me covered, i can't do anything with two guys aiming at me. "You are coming with us!" he orders me. We go out into the hallway, doors closed on both exits, and i ask him "can i draw my mosin? I want to be able to defend myself". He says "No! Just follow!". I comply."Three... two... one... GO!" He kicks open the back door and we storm out, black cap in front, me in the middle and the other guy following me. We ran around a hundred meters out into the field until we reached and hid in a bigger wooden shed. There's no way Stealth has seen in which direction we were going, and i haven't heard another shot. The two russians are nervous, looking out through every door checking if they see the shooter or anybody following us. I try to calm them down, "Nobody shot us this time, I think we are safe, let's flee into the forest". They don't listen to me, they are talking to each other. One of the guys runs out, probably trying to force a shot, so he knows where the shooter is hidden, but nothing happens, so he runs all the way around the shed to check again. From the side of my eye i see him coming back in from the door behind me, so i turn around. The guy with the black cap, who stayed inside, is aiming right at my face, we make quick eye contact and i can hear the the trigger go click...