Happy DayZ - The Survivor Diaries

After many months of badgering me to get in on the DayZ Alpha, my friend Dan finally convinced me to give it a try. I say 'convinced', he actually brought me the game via the Gift Option on Steam, so really, he put me in a position where I had to play it. Nonetheless, I'm glad he did.

Day 1: The Beginning

As I spawned on the rather lacklustre beach coast, armed with a T-Shirt, a pair of jeans, shoes, battery and a torch, I did the first thing I could think of. Shout for help. Luckily, Dan was on Skype, so he heard the cry and we embarked on our first mission; find each other.

In a game with no map, no guides, we had to figure out each others location via visual landmarks.
"I can see the ocean" I shout out, hoping that the massive watery domain would be enough of a landmark for him to come and find me.
Unfortunately, as Dan pointed out, the ocean is rather large, and there was a very good possibility that we were in fact on opposite sides of the map. "Can you see a lighthouse?" Dan asks, calmly, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. "No...wait...no, I can't, but I can see a zombie" I reply, with next to no idea of the controls, no weapons and no idea as to where the hell  I was, let alone where Dan was. 

Dan informed me to stay clear of the Zombie, so I began strafing to the right, keeping an eye on the promiscuous flesh muncher that stood in the distance, checking up ahead of me every now and then. "You might want to stay out of the water too, as you're clothes will get wet" Dan pipes up, his words of wisdom astounding me. I check my position, and I am infact knee deep in the water, so I scuttle back to the dry sand, but as I look up, the zombie is tearing forward at me "ARGH!" I scream, as I start running away, "what? What!?" Dan asks, his voice slightly more concerned this time round.

I don't acknowledge him straight away, until I see the text in the bottom left of the screen. "Dan..." I begin, as my screen goes grey "I'm bleeding, I think that zombie got me" I sigh as my screen flashes again, followed with the black screen "you are dead"

"Dan..." I sheepishly pipe up "I'm dead"

"For fucks sake" Dan replies, already annoyed at my incompetence to travel more than 50 yards across the beach. 

As I respawn as a new survivor, I ask the only thing I can think of "Are you still by the lighthouse?"