//------------------------------// // Day 4 // Story: DayZ of Hardship // by Nightwish //------------------------------// I thought I would be able to avoid a nightmare for another night, but the dream I had was worse than any nightmare. --- I groaned as I woke up and rubbed my eyes. When I took my hands away, I knew there was something wrong. I was back in my house in Elektro. "Fuck," I muttered, only to jump to feet as I heard something smash downstairs. I knew that couldn't be good, but seeing as how it would probably get worse, I decided to go down anyway. Hoping that I would wake up back in my tent, I went downstairs and looked around, then almost jumped out of my skin as I heard the TV in the living room. Peeking around the corner, I saw two heads sticking out just above the back of the couch, with the recognizable hair of my mom and dad. "Mom?" I asked. "Dad?" When they offered no response, I stepped closer, and then I noticed the smell. I recognized it instantly, the smell of decay, so I walked even faster to the other side of the couch, only to gag as I saw them. Their bodies were emaciated, with blood splattered from head to toe. "You could have saved them you know," a voice said, and I turned to see myself, but it wasn't me. It had my voice, but it looked like a zed. "They didn't have to die," it said, its mouth barely moving as it spoke, its dead eyes boring holes into me. "They're not dead," I said, wishing I had an axe. "How do you know?" it asked. "You've seen their home, you've seen the blood." "They can't be dead," I insisted. "You speak like a child." It laughed, and it was the most horrifying sound I've ever heard. "Children believe their parents are invincible, then refuse to believe it when they die." As it spoke, color began to return to its face and skin began to grow back. "They're not dead," I repeated, shaking my head in denial. "You know that hope is pointless," it continued. "You could have saved them if you had left at the first warning signs, but you didn't, and now they are dead because of it." "SHUT UP!" I shouted, covering my ears to block out its voice. "He's right you know," said the voice of Dmitri, and I turned to see him cleaning out his nails with his knife. "You see?" my copy asked, looking more like me with each passing second. "Even your friend agrees with me." "NO! HE'S NOT EVEN HERE! NONE OF THIS IS REAL!" "Oh, but it is. You are just too stubborn to see it." "This is all just a fucking dream!" I hissed, and punched my copy to prove my point. His head lashed back at the blow, and a spray of blood jutted from his nose. "Anger will not bring them back," it said, looking at me with a glint in its eyes. "THEY'RE NOT FUCKING DEAD!" I shouted, punching him again. It only laughed at me as it clutched at its chest "How does it feel," it said, "to know that you've gone insane?" "I'M NOT INSANE!" "Yet you continue with your pointless quest to find your parents, when you know they are dead. Haven't you realized by now that there is nothing you can do anymore? All of you will die eventually." "No," I snapped, "we're going to survive. We're not going to turn into those things." "Oh, but you will," it replied. Still clutching its chest, it walked over to my parents and looked at them. "One by one, you will die. Dmitri, Martin, not even Vinyl Scratch will survive." As he spoke, I found my head being turned, forced to look at disfigured and rotting versions of my friends. "NO!" I cried. "I won't let this happen." "You can't do anything to stop it," my copy said, turning to look at me and removing the hold on my head. "Just like you can't do anything to bring your parents back." "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" I screamed, tackling him and trying to strangle him. "Everyone you knew is dead," he choked, his face turning blue even as he grinned at me. "And you couldn't do a single thing to save them." I tightened my hold, but it didn't even affect him. "How does it feel to be powerless?" he asked. "How does it feel to know that you could do nothing to save the lives of those you loved?" "WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING DIE!?" I shouted, dimly aware that I was being watched by the dead monstrosities behind me. He chuckled, which came out as more of a gurgle with my hands still around his throat. "You really are foolish, David. Don't you know that fear cannot be killed?" --- It was a drop of water that woke me up (Sometimes, I get woken up by the stupidest things...). My heart was pounding as I took in the familiar interior of the tent, and I sighed with relief. One of my feet was sticking out through the tent flap, so the drop of water must have dripped down onto it. Shit, I thought, that means that it rained last night. Being careful so as not to wake Vinyl, I poked my head outside and looked around. Sure enough, the ground was wet and muddy (though luckily there wasn't much water in my boots when I put them on). and the fireplace was drenched. It would be pointless to even attempt to build a fire until it dried out, which it probably wouldn't do for a while. Looking around, I finally noticed that neither Vinyl nor Dmitri had woken up. When I tried to stand up, I felt a sharp flare of pain, reminding me that my thigh was still not doing well. Grinding my teeth, I quickly replaced the bloody bandages (there was a lot less blood this time thank god) and took a couple pills to dull the pain (which they didn't...). I was about to shake Vinyl awake when I heard footsteps approaching. Grabbing my winchester from the back of the tent, stepped over to the fire place and listened. Sure enough, there was something walking towards me from the left, but it didn't sound like a zed. When I looked that way, I was surprised to see Martin coming out of the trees absolutely covered in mud. "You look like you've been wallowing like a pig," I said, lowering the gun. "You'll never guess what I found," he replied, ignoring my comment and grinning under the mud covered hood of his ghillie suit. "Hold on, let me wake Dmitri up first." "Little late for that, my friend," Dmitri said, crawling out of his tent and stretching. "So what have you found?" "I found a bandit fort at Krasnostav airstrip," he said. "What the hell were you doing way up there?" I asked. "I got lost and came across it when I tried to find my way back." "You must've gotten very lost," Dmitri said. "Anything else?" "They had a helicopter there." Now I was very interested. "Really? What condition was it in?" "Still broken, I saw them working on it, but it doesn't look like it will be ready to go for a while." "How many bandits did you see?" Dmitri asked. "About three working on the chopper with a fourth on watch, and I caught sight of a sniper in the control tower." Dmitri tapped his chin, probably trying to come up with a plan. I calmly held onto my own idea, knowing that speaking could interrupt his train of thought. Suddenly he grinned and turned toward his tent. "I don't know what you're doing, but I don't t like that look on your face," I said, thinking of it as more of a maniacal look. "You speak as if you haven't seen those undead beasts," Dmitri said, returning with a bag full of who knows what. "What's in the bag?" Martin asked. Smiling, Dmitri dumped out a pile of explosives. "Where the fuck did you get all that!?" I hissed. "Same place I found my new gun," he replied, shrugging. "And what exactly do you plan to do with it?" Martin asked. "If we can rig it to blow up the control tower, it would make a good distraction, don't you think?" "What's all this about explosives and distractions?" Vinyl asked. I turned to see her yawning and rubbing her eyes with one hoof. "Martin found a helicopter at the airstrip, but it's surrounded by bandits," I replied, trying not to freak her out (Looking back on it, I don't know why I was worried about freaking her out. I mean come on, she's been teleported to a world full of undead monsters ready to tear her limb from limb, then puts her trust in a human who proceeds to murder two people right in front of her. If I was in her place, I probably would've been going insane.) "Yes, now lets get going," Dmitri said, picking up the bag of explosives and heading for the car. Martin rubbed his hands together (like one of those bad guys from the movies I might add) and followed him. "Come on Vinyl," I said, "I'm not leaving you here." I snatched my bag from the tent and did my best to catch up with Dmitri and Martin. --- The drive was longer than I expected (Mainly because Dmitri insisted on running over every zed he saw) and Vinyl fell asleep again in the back seat by the time we arrived. When we arrived, we hid the car near a few trees then went the rest of the way on foot (Vinyl complained about forgetting her headphones after I woke her up). Krasnostav airstrip wasn't really a place that I expected bandits to make a fort, being generally in the open unless you were in the hangars or the control tower. The most likely place for a fort in my mind was Devil's Castle (I always avoid that place like the plague because it's a perfect place for bandits to hide). So when we reached a good spot where we could see, I was surprised to see the place almost completely surrounded by barbed wire. "Looks like they don't want any company," Dmitri said. "No shit," I replied, wondering how the hell they had gotten all of it. "I can see the helicopter from here," Martin said, ignoring both of us, "and the sniper in the control tower is asleep." "And he's probably not alone in there. I would say from the amount of barbed wire, there's probably around fifteen to twenty bandits." I looked at Dmitri skeptically, doubting how he could guess how many bandits there are. "When are we gonna blow stuff up?" Vinyl asked, looking bored. "Very soon," Dmitri said, smiling at her. "Why do you say that?" I asked. "Shouldn't we be trying to get extra supplies before we do that?" "Why would we?" Dmitri countered. "If those bandits are in such a hurry to repair the helicopter, then they must have all the parts, and I'm sure they have plenty of weapons and ammunition that we could take off their hands. I'm sure we have enough ammo to handle them, and if not, we just borrow the weapons from the dead." (I hate to admit it, but Dmitri was right.) "Alright, so what's the plan?" Martin asked, looking a bit too eager. Dmitri tapped his chin. "David, you plant the explosives on the walls of the control tower, and inside it if you can. I will go around and wait by one of the hangers. Martin, you keep an eye on the helicopter in case they try to escape. When the explosives are all set, wait a couple minutes before hitting the detonator, giving us time to get ready. When the explosion goes off, start shooting." "Got it," I said, grabbing the bag of explosives and heading for the control tower. "Wait up!" Vinyl called, hurrying after me. "Why are you following me?" I asked. "Why not stay with Martin where you're not as likely to get shot?" "But then I wouldn't have a good spot to watch the explosion!" she replied, grinning at me. (I just hope all ponies aren't like this.) "Fine, but stay behind me." She gave me a little mock salute, then started walking beside me. I could see Dmitri in the distance, his M249 in his hands as he jogged toward the hangars. When I reached the back wall of the control tower, I set the bag down and grabbed as many explosives as I could carry, sticking them to the walls near the corners and anywhere that I thought would bring the building down. Surprisingly, there was an unguarded back door, so I was able to get inside without trying to get past barbed wire. And despite what Dmitri had said, the tower was deserted save for the sniper (Who was snoring very loudly), so I had no trouble planting the explosives. Exiting the building, I grabbed the detonator from the bag and started heading for the trees. "Worried about getting hit again?" Vinyl asked, glancing at my leg. "That, and I'd rather not go deaf from the explosion." "Good point." With the trees safely between us and the rigged building, I waited a minute just as Dmitri had instructed, then hit the detonator. Now, I've dealt with a lot of explosions since the zeds started popping up, but the one I just set off knocked me flat on my ass and I was lucky my ear drums didn't explode from the noise. When they finally stopped ringing, I grabbed the M4A1 from my bag and headed for the hangars. At the sound of gunshots, Vinyl spoke up behind me. "I think I'm gonna go wait this out with Martin," she said. "Good idea," I replied, keeping my eyes trained in front. A couple bandits were still staring at the remains of the control tower, so I took them out with a couple trigger pulls before they could shake it off. Dmitri was obviously in the farthest hangar, because I spotted a bandit running from it, only to get cut down by about ten bullets, his body jerking with each impact until he hit the ground. When I finally reached the entrance, the gunfire had stopped. "That," Dmitri said, "was satisfying." His M249 had smoke rising from the barrel and an empty magazine. "You're completely insane," I replied. A motion caught my eye, and I saw a bandit lifting himself onto one shoulder, pistol in hand. He aimed at Dmitri and fired. I raised my gun to shoot him, but Dmitri snatched a knife from his boot and threw it, sending it spinning into the bandit's head, but not before he fired two more times. "Dmitri are you alright?" I asked, looking to see if he was hit. "It takes a lot more than a puny pistol to kill me," he replied, pointing at the bullet holes in his shirt. Through them, I could see a black material. "You're wearing a bulletproof vest?" "Military-grade. Stops pistol rounds like that easily." "You're lucky he didn't aim for the head." Dmitri chuckled and retrieved his knife. "Now, lets see if they were kind enough to leave us a functioning helicopter." With Dmitri leading the way, we left the hangar and walked towards the helicopter. Martin was also making his way toward us, with Vinyl close behind. "How come you guys get to have all the fun?" Martin asked. "I didn't even get to shoot anyone!" "Maybe you should start paying attention and not staring at me all the time," Vinyl said. "Huh!? I wasn't staring at you." "Sure you weren't." Vinyl rolled her eyes (Did I mention that she forgot her shades?) and smirked. "Not even a scratch on it!" Dmitri said happily, inspecting the helicopter. "And it looks like it's all fueled up and ready to go." "Looks like we caught them right as they were about to leave then," I said, grinning at our luck. "I call driving!" Martin shouted, running around to the opposite side. "I'll be co-pilot," Dmitri replied, "just in case you can't fly worth a damn." "Hey!" Martin said indignantly. "Don't give me that. Have you ever really flown a helicopter?" "Well, no." "Then don't complain." Instead of listening to Dmitri, Martin continued to argue. Meanwhile, I just climbed into the back and strapped myself in. Vinyl had a little trouble getting situated, but I managed to help her get it to work. When the arguing didn't stop, I decided to speak up. "SHUT UP!" I shouted, surprising them both. "I don't care who flies, but you two need to make up your damn minds." Glancing at each other. they mumbled their apologies and climbed into the helicopter. Martin had to have Dmitri show him the controls at first, but once he knew where everything is, he acted as if he'd flown it a thousand times. Seeing as we were lucky enough to get a helicopter with side doors, I shut them both so we wouldn't have to deal with the noise that it would make. "This is so cool," Vinyl said, grinning as she watched the ground grow more and more distant. "Yeah, I've never been in a helicopter," I replied, remembering that I had used to be afraid of heights (It used to be so bad that I refused to look out the second floor windows of my own house.). "We should head back to camp first," Dmitri said, checking the controls in front of him. "Got it," Martin replied, turning the helicopter in the direction that we came from. --- The helicopter got us back to camp about ten times faster than the GAZ could have, though we did have a little bit of trouble finding a spot to land. When we finally did get back on the ground, we were only about a minute or two from the camp, so nobody complained about having to walk. "Something doesn't feel right," Dmitri said as we neared the camp, looking around at the surrounding trees. "Oh come on," Martin replied, "you're just being paranoid." "Actually, he's right," I said, stopping them and pointing ahead. Sitting in the middle of our camp was a small pile of logs. As we looked at it, I heard a faint whistling. Ducking behind a tree, I watched carefully as a man walked into our camp, more logs in his arms. Setting them down, he stretched and popped his back. "Who the fuck is that?" Martin whispered. I shrugged, having never seen the man before. His black hair was spiked up (I think the bastard was hording hair gel) and he looked around with hazel eyes. "Where the hell are they?" he asked the air, still looking around the camp. "Are you looking for us?" Dmitri asked, startling me. Apparently while Martin and I had been observing the intruder, Dmitri had decided to sneak up on him, and he was holding a pistol in his hand. "Yes," the man replied, smiling at Dmitri and ignoring the gun. "I wanted to thank you for sparing my life." "You're the bandit that we let go?" Dmitri asked, cocking his head. "Yes! You remember me!" Still ignoring the gun, he grabbed Dmitri in a bear hug. Figuring that this guy was harmless, I stepped forward into the camp. "You're both here!" the man said, releasing a very confused Dmitri and stepping toward me. "Woah," I replied, "calm down." "Okay." He stopped walking and instead looked at me with a huge grin plastered on his face. "My name is Aleksander." "I'm David, that's Dmitri, and this is Martin." "I am very happy to meet you, but aren't you forgetting your pony companion?" I raised an eyebrow. "How did you know about Vinyl?" Hearing her name, she stepped forward from the trees, eying Aleksander curiously. Aleksander blushed. "I have actually been following you, but I was too nervous to show myself. When you left in your car, I saw that you were running low on wood, so I decided to get some while I waited for you to return." "Ah, that makes a little more sense," Dmitri said, though he still looked at Aleksander with suspicion in his gaze. "I'm surprised you didn't steal anything," Martin said, having gone through his things in his tent. "I would never steal from the people who spared my life!" Aleksander replied indignantly, his smile turning to a frown. "Thanks, but I think that we might be packing up and moving out," I said. "Is that so?" he asked. "May I come with you?" "If you can hold your own weight, then I don't see why not." Grinning again, he went into the trees, returning moments later with two weapons and a backpack. "Does it look like I am helpless?" he asked, turning the weapons to give us a better view. In his hands, he held a FN FAL and an AS50. "Where the hell did you find those?" Dmitri asked, his eyes widening. "Group of dead bandits on the side of the road. Killers didn't bother to search them." "Well you certainly have the firepower," Martin said, "but do you have the supplies?" Aleksander took his backpack off and opened it, revealing a neatly packed assortment of supplies, including a tent, cans of food, ammunition, medical supplies, and a small toolkit. "I have enough to survive for some time," he said, zipping the pack shut. "Since you already have everything packed and ready, you wouldn't mind helping us clear things up, would you?" Dmitri asked. "I'll be happy to help." Eager to prove his statement, he stepped over to Dmitri's tent and began systematically clearing it out and disassembling it. I sat by and watched, a little surprised at how quickly he was working. "I'm guessing you've had a lot of practice at packing up tents," said Martin, who had paused in his own tent deconstruction to watch. "Yep, I moved around a lot in the first few months." Moments later, he was finished, so I started packing up my tent as well, packing away my extra supplies into a second backpack. --- An hour later (I think. STILL NO WATCH DAMMIT!), we were flying above Elektro, looking for a place to set down (It was getting dark, and I don't really trust Martin that much.). "What about over there?" Vinyl asked, pointing to a large building that was flat on the top. Martin immediately headed for it, but I would have rather gone anywhere but there. The place was right next to my house, and I didn't really like to relive the memory of the day I left it. "Looks like there's a place next to it that we could stay in," Aleksander said. (Fuck) "You are right," Dmitri replied. "Lets set down and I'll set up some traps to guard the heli while the rest of you get settled in there. "Sounds like a plan," Martin said, touching the chopper down and turning off the engine. We all filed out, me somewhat more slowly than the others. I followed Aleksander down the stairs, out the door and across the street. I followed him all the way into my own living room, then I broke off and went upstairs. Scenes of the day I left flooded back as I made my way to my room, ignoring the pictures of myself that hung on the walls. I opened my bedroom door, any feeling of surprise at its familiarity dulled by the painful memory. I kicked my shoes off and climbed into the bed, curling up under the covers right next to where it happened. Tears stung my eyes as I looked at the empty pillow next to me, remembering who used to lay their head there. "I'm so sorry," I said, letting the tears run freely.