I was laying on the cold wet grass, moisture coming through my jacket as we saw him moving in the distance. He was hiding in some trees, wearing a leafy military outfit on the outskirts of the airfield. He probably had a good old time raiding the barracks and air control tower, after all that's why we were here.
That's when something came over me. I crept closer to my pal M4cr0bat and whispered in his ear "take him out." He looked at me with his eyebrows raised, and I just nodded solemnly. He looked down the scope of his DMR and pulled the trigger. Like a crack of lightning, the bullet ripped the peaceful skyline with a booming command, and a split second later we could see him bleeding all over the place. Before I could even blink an eye, M4cr0 shot twice more, before the guy stopped moving all together.
My first reaction was to laugh; we just killed an unsuspecting guy as he was exiting one of the most treacherous areas of the map. M4cr0bat instructed me to run down to his body, while he kept me covered with his rifle scope.
Then something unexpected happened, I tried to justify our reasons for killing him. With so much sweet loot on him, perhaps that guy would have killed us first, to protect his own life in this hostile world.
It wasn't until I got to his cold, motionless body that I finally felt something - remorse. We just killed a guy, a guy like us, trying to survive a world full of zombies, and we were laughing about it just a second ago. What gave us the right to do that? As I rifled through his bag I then realised how momentous our dark moment had been - this guy had a swag of gear that would have taken hours, if not days to scavenge. Night-vision goggles, tank-wire traps, rangefinders and GPS units were suddenly in my grasp and then it hit me with full force.
On the end of a computer screen, one player was not very happy. We ended his life. His hours and hours of hard word ended with three little bullets fired from our guns.
I genuinely felt remorse. I scavenged all I could and ran back up the hill to our hiding position, and shared the loot with M4cr0bat before we retreated to the forest.
Then something unexpected happened, I tried to justify our reasons for killing him. With so much sweet loot on him, perhaps that guy would have killed us first, to protect his own life in this hostile world.
That is what DayZ does to people. It has them questioning their morals, their humanity and their own station in life. In a few cold moments we went from two guys traversing the countryside, then all of a sudden we were cold blooded murderers who were justifying their means for survival.
We setup a campfire, cooked up some meat and then decided to log out for the night. It was my first harrowing experience with the game, one that I surely won't forget anytime soon.
If you happen to be the poor bloke we killed, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for destroying your hard work, but please take note that I am genuinely sorry for ending your virtual life.
Somebody give me a drink!
By Stephen Heller - Bio