Last time I left out, and it was a long while ago, I’d had a close encounter with a voiceless stranger in the old NE airfield. Originally my plan was to move on towards Svetlo and see what was going on, but at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to head West via Devils Castle. In the mod Devils Castle used to be a pretty popular PVP spot, but from what I could tell no one ever went there any more. As I hadn’t been there since the standalone was released, I thought I would check it out, just to see how it looked.

As I was already well stocked with supplies I didn’t need to prepare for my cross country journey, so I just set off straight away. I headed out North of Kranostav and followed the road as it took me toward Gvozdno. It’s pretty quiet up here, so figured I would be safe on the roads. Along the way I took in the scenery, and despite me not being able to play on the highest settings, DayZ can still look pretty great at times.

The only other signs of life I encountered along the way were a few animals, a deer being one. I wanted to try out some of the new hunting mechanics but didn’t have all the necessary tools to do it…. You got lucky this time deer!

After jogging for what seemed a like an age, I broke free from some trees and could see Devils Castle proudly sitting atop its hill in the distance.

I made my way up the winding road leading to the entrance of the Castle grounds, it looks like this used to be a tourist attraction before the apocalypse judging by the sign posts and what looks like some kind of ticket office.

There were a few zombies, but nothing that my ol’ axe couldn’t handle. I set about exploring the area, taking in the views around the perimeter walls. I then headed up to the highest part of the Castle, carefully making my way up the stone stairs that had no hand rails – health & safety nightmare if you ask me! The view from the top lets you see for miles all around you, I was hoping to be able to see my next destination, the North West airfield, but it was just out of sight.

Once done with my sight seeing, I started to make my way further West towards the airfield.

After a few Km I reached the forest area surrounding the east side of the airfield, and decided to enter from the North and make my way down. All seemed quiet, all the buildings I entered were fresh, a good sign that no one was around. I made my way from building to building with ease, only encountering the odd zombie here and there. I stocked up on some more ammo and and found a new military vest for extra storage space. I now had around 100 mosin rounds, but no mosin, I had about 20 rounds for my SKS, and some ammo for my handguns, so was doing ok.

I headed further down the airfield, and reached the ATC building. I headed inside, again it was fresh. In the top of the building I found myself a new backpack, and quickly swapped over my supplies. I also spied an ammo box just outside. As I had loads of different ammo types, and as the boxes were pretty rare, I wanted it! I snuck out on to the balcony area and started to switch my ammo over. Just as I deposited most of my ammo a shot flew in and hit me. “Crap, I knew I shouldn’t have stayed out here.” I said to myself, well actually I think I swore, but that’s what I was thinking. I leapt to my feet and made a run for it, “Could I run back around and grab the ammo box.” I thought, I tried, but my inventory was all over the place, it would’ve taken too long to sort, I had to abandon all my ammo. I ran inside the building, a bandaged myself.

I was now pinned in the ATC, not knowing where the shots came from. I soon received a message “We killed that zombie that was chasing you on the ATC, we’re friendly.”…Yea, ok then. “You shot me.” I replied. I nervously waited in the building checking the stairs and windows to see if I could spot anyone.

After what seemed like an eternity, I heard a zombie running around outside, followed by the distinct *thud* of an axe taking it out. “I can hear you outside.” I said, “I can see you camping the stairs in the ATC, we’re friendly.” was the reply. No way he, or these guys were friendly, I wasn’t falling for it.

I sat patient, and silent, listening for any sign of someone outside, but I could hear nothing. Then a zombie wondered in to the building, had I alerted it? I took it down with my SKS, probably a bad move, but I didn’t want to swap out to my axe…. Yup, it was a bad move, more zombies quickly pilled in. I backed away, up the stairs, trying to stem the flow. It wasn’t working, there were too many (and the hit detection too sloppy…) I had to retreat further. I was now on the top stair case, a shot whizzed by my ear, “S**t, that was close.” Then out the corner of my eye, I spotted him. He’d crept up the ladder on the outside. I quickly raised my SKS, he popped his head out, I unloaded my gun, I saw the mist of blood spray, but couldn’t confirm the kill, I was surrounded by zombies and bleeding, with no ammo, I had to run.

I sprinted out of the building, hardly able to see, through the fire station, shots were ringing out behind me, “Were they at me?” I wondered. I didn’t care, I needed to get away to safety. I made it to the woods, and managed to bandage myself after finishing off the last of the zombies trailing me.

I could still hear shots in the distance, but they couldn’t be at me any more. I wanted to see if I could find my attackers, and see if I could take them out. I swept North back to where I’d entered. and moved through the airfield cautiously. After a while of searching and not seeing anything I was thinking of bugging out, until I saw a zombie running across the runway in the distance. I followed it with my binoculars, and found my assailants hiding in the tree line on the West side, at least two of them, possibly three. I used my better judgement and decided against engaging.

I eventually backed away to a safe distance, set up ‘camp’ and reflected on the last few hours. Many mistakes were made, but I came out of it alive, and that was all I cared about… Well, that and the loss of all my ammo…

– Will

Start from the beginning, Episode 1

Catch up, Episode 8