Day Four

The day got off to a bad start.  Well, kind of.  As luck would have it, I didn't spawn anywhere near Kamenka this time.  My approximate location flashed up on the screen: "Cap Golova" and I set to scanning the coast on the map.  Starting at the north-east corner, I worked my way down to the south-east and found a little rocky outcrop jutting out to sea: "Krutoy Cap".  Is that right? I wondered.  Yeah, must be, there's nowhere else around here that matches this coastline.

Looking around, I could see the miniature peninsula to my right and a lighthouse on top of it (1).  I was a little upset by the fact that I wasn't where I'd planned to be, but my new and interesting surroundings immediately got me excited again.  I figured I could easily stick to my strategy in this new locale, it would just take a little longer to get to know the area.  To my back, across the water, I could see a dark island rising against a hazy sky, and to the west the road ran by an ominous-looking, featureless concrete tower in the distance, which had no apparent purpose and put me in mind of Half-Life 2.  I made for the lighthouse first, hoping for some loot and a good view of the surroundings.  I took it slowly, sticking to the coast line and keeping below the horizon.  I made a near-circuit of little near-island, just to make sure it was clear, then headed for the lighthouse on the hill.  It was completely empty but gave me a great view at the top.

To the north, I could see the coastline dwindle away into gently rolling hills and could just make out a few buildings at the junction (circled in green).  Directly opposite the lighthouse over the road was a steep, wooded slope.  I noted a cluster of buildings there on the map and decided this would be my eventual destination after heading north and seeing what I can find in the Three Valleys.  To the west, I had a better view of the mysterious tower and a small inlet (which appeared on the map as a small lake instead), and then hints of a larger town beyond, which must have been Kamyshovo.  I knew better than to stray too close to the dazzling lights of the big city, Elektrozavodsk, that lay just down the coast.

Instead, I climbed down the lighthouse and edged up the east coast towards the junction.  Along the way, I found a handful of buildings not on the map (2) and managed to get some loot there without being spotted (I've forgotten the exact contents of each loot since I found so much on this expedition!). I returned to the coast and carried on north, stopping occasionally to climb the low rise between the water and the road to survey the land.  Up ahead I spotted another group of building, presumably the junction, at a point where the road crossed over the railway line.  I found it slightly odd that this wasn't shown on the map, but then again, neither were those buildings nor the inlet.

I was making my survey (3) when I suddenly heard someone shout "Yo!"  My gut reaction was to drop to the ground and crawl away.  "Yo!" I heard again and suddenly another player ran from behind me into my view. That's it, I thought, I'm dead.  But he didn't shoot.  He didn't even appear to be armed.  Then I realised what was happening.  A zombie was hot on his heels, but now that it was closer to me, I was under attack.  My vision blurred and I was losing blood, but the idiot who brought this on me didn't run off, he just stood there watching.  That was his fatal mistake!  Two can play at this game, I thought, charging at him full speed.  I dashed past him and glanced back to watch the zombie change targets again and follow him instead of me.  The player came after me again but I kept up my sprint, heading north as quickly as I could.  The two of them kept following me, though, and I knew I had to lose them before I hit any bigger populations.  I managed to double back quickly round a tall bush (4) and head south again.  I glanced back once more to see the poor sucker running off into the distance with the zombie in hot pursuit.

A little further south, having abandoned the north after that little scare, I crossed the road (5) and head uphill towards Tulga at the summit.  Some time later, I reached the peak but there was no sign of Tulga or anything else, other than forest as far as the eye could see.  Looking more closely at the map, I figured I was at the wrong place (6).  Tulga would be a little further south-west, nestled between the two crests of the mountain. On I trudged through the forest, in what I guessed was south-west, but truthfully I was no longer sure.  It's an easy thing to lose your way in this game, especially with no landmarks to help steer your course.  After far too long, I decided I had gotten lost.  Perhaps I'd turned too far north trying to ascend the steep sides of the mountain.  I pressed on, hoping to hit the road before long, which would take me back to the town at the top.

Instead of the road or Tulga, however, I found a campsite.  At first, the sight of it scared the crap out of me.  I went prone and crawled away from it, in case there were other people around.  After watching for a minute or so, I decided the area was empty.  Could this be the base of a group of mercenaries who were out on some raid mission?  Could I have hit the looting jackpot here?  I approached slowly and, one by one, searched each of the 8 or 9 tents.  Not a fucking thing in any of them!  Unsure of whether this site was the relic of some Arma 2 mission or perhaps some randomly generated scenery, I knew at least that there was no one around and there never was.  The distraction of stumbling upon the camp site had scrambled my bearings even more.  Had I approached from that direction?  Or was it slightly more to that direction?  I carried on in what I hoped was a north-westerly kind of direction, aiming for one of the many paths that criss-crossed this region.

After what seemed like hours of running through the trees, I finally came upon a town.  But which town?  Where the hell was I and why hadn't I seen any of the roads I expected?  An easy approach to the town was  hindered by zombies, but I eventually made it in and found a large amount of loot, including a ghillie suit, two bottles of water, several cans of soda, a hatchet (about 8 hatchets, actually), some glow packs and a shit ton of ammo that I had no use for yet.  I spent a long time in the town, trying to find out its name and therefore locate myself on the map, but I couldn't get near the road signs because of zombies.  I later found a backpack of some kind, which, when I picked it up, replaced my existing one and all 16 items in it, leaving me with an empty backpack.  But I still had my toolbelt with hatchet and bandages, as well as a few other items like my water bottles.  The inventory seems to include, alongside around 12 other item slots, the backpack itself, which in turn contains more items.  It's very confusing and has hints of Inception about it.  Anyway, I resigned myself to the loss and moved on.

It was only when I was leaving the town by the north road that I recognised the pattern of roads and buildings from poring over the map earlier.  I was now fairly sure I was in Pusta, approximately 3 km west of where I should have been!  I had no idea how I'd ended up this far from my intended destination, but I guess that's what running through the forest for hours does for you!  I decided to move north-west from here to another nearby town, Mogilevka.  Here I found another good load of loot, including more soda, about 18 hatchets, copious empty tin cans and more ammo.  I also found an Enfield rifle, but since I'd lost my previous stash of ammo and had found no rifle ammo since, it was useless to me.  I elected to leave it behind and use the hatchet instead.  By this time, I was quite confident at approaching lone zombies and safely taking them down with the axe.  My ghillie suit had made it much easier and safer to move around and stay hidden.  Zombies usually don't have loot but occasionally have some food.  I'd taken all I could from this town, so I moved on.


Then I went into a field and murdered a cow with an axe.

From Mogilevka I went south until I emerged from the trees above the large town of Chernogorsk, one of the largest populations on the map and therefore one of the most perilous.  From my spot at the edge of the forest, I could see the sea and the coast running south, and in the distance I could make out the silhouette of a lighthouse on a hill.  Another lighthouse on the coast?  Then the penny dropped.

I checked the map.  It all made sense.  My spawn point was not at Krutoy Cap on the south-east corner of the map as I'd first thought.  It was here at Cap Golova (just like the HUD said!), just east of Chernogorsk.  Map A below is where I thought I'd spawned, map B (rotated) is where I actually spawned.  But the shapes are remarkably similar!

There was the point where the road crossed the rail (1) that I'd noted was missing from the map; there was the peak I'd climbed (2) in search of Tulga at the summit; and there were the buildings I'd found that weren't on the map (3).  There were so many similarities between these two places that are so close to each other that I didn't even notice until I'd come back to it.

From that peak, I'd headed what I thought was north-west but was actually north-east, and that's how I found myself in Pusta.  When I'd run from my attacker and his zombie shortly after leaving the lighthouse, little did I know I was running directly at Elektrozavodsk instead of away from it!  I was still trying to take all this is when I saw sudden movement below in Chernogorsk.  This wasn't the slow shuffling of zombies though.  I watched two figures run in a straight line across the fields below.  They were fast and they were armed.  Then I watched them join a much bigger group of soldiers.  There must have been at least 20 of them, seeming to swarm across the landscape.  This was the most I'd seen of other players in the game since starting it!

I was sorely tempted to go down to the town and scavenge in some of the more remote buildings.  I could see several large barns from where I was, and the troop of soldiers seemed to be moving the opposite direction. But on the other hand, I'd come so far and found some really good provisions, including at least a couple of days' worth of food (from the cow I killed) and water, and my invaluable ghillie suit.  Was it really worth risking all of that?  For all I know, those guys could turn around and be on me in moments and everything would be lost.  Mulling this over, I kept my eye on the other players.  Suddenly, a large black object popped out nowhere in the middle of a road.  Two or three guys seemed to climb inside of it and a high pitched whir could be heard, from at least a kilometre away.  A huge cloud of dust went up and a helicopter rose into the sky.  I made sure I was well concealed and decided to get the hell out of there.  I suspect they must have used cheats to spawn the chopper like that, and so figured they weren't the kind of guys who would welcome me with open arms.

I slunk off back into the woods and headed west for Balota.  It looked more my size.  En route, I found some kind of electrical substation and that's where I'm currently sheltering until I next log on.

Strategy: Day Four

Strategy, strategy, strategy!  Before I begin day 4 of my survivalist nightmare, I'm going to try to concoct something of a strategy that I can execute.  I think I have the basic tactics mastered: staying low and off the horizon line, crawling or playing dead near zombies, sticking to wooded areas and away from roads and paths, etc.  But the more times I'm killed, the more I realise how ill-prepared I was.

So here's a list of the basics I need to at least survive a day:

• Water canteen (or other receptacle, perhaps?)
• Canned food
• Water source
• Shelter of some kind

Now that I understand how to operate a water pump, the latter two on the list shouldn't be hard to obtain.  The canteen and food might prove trickier.  I've only ever come across each item once during my three days (about 4-5 hours total play time).  Maybe my map can help me pinpoint likely spawn points for these items.

After establishing the basics, I'll need the following:

• Hatchet (for fire wood)
• Matches (for lighting a fire)
• Hunting knife (for skinning - and maybe killing? - game)
• Ranged weapon (for hunting)

With these additional provisions, I should be able to sustain myself indefinitely, so long as I can find animals to hunt and ammo to hunt with.  Since Kamenka seems to be my spiritual home, I'm basing all of the following on the probability that that's where I'll spawn.

Kamenka has 18 residential buildings and 6 industrial.  My map actually shows more buildings than this, but doesn't list their types, so presumably these are the ones I can enter or that spawn items nearby.  My chance of finding loot at a residential building is 40%, but there's a 70% chance that look will be "generic" or "trash", and likely useless.  Industrial buildings have a 30% loot chance, with a greater chance of the loot being something useful like a hatchet or hunting knife.

Each of the buildings in Kamenka has a 30-40% chance of zombies, numbering between 0 and 2, meaning there could be a total of 48 zombies in and around the town at any time.  

In theory, there are enough buildings in Kamenka to supply at least one of my essential items, but much of the town would likely have to be searched, risking much zombie wrath.  I think it would be wiser to relocate to somewhere less populous to start with.  There will be a smaller chance of zombie attacks, but also a smaller chance of loot.  However, Kamenka has various sites within a few minutes' distance that could provide good loot, and at least one water source that isn't heavily populated.  If I have the chance, though, I should loot any clear or more remote buildings on the edges of Kamenka, just in case.

Within about a kilometre (I'm guessing that's the scale of the grid lines) of Kamenka are 3 deer hides (circled in red).  Deer hides have a 50% loot chance, and the loot is almost 50% certain to be "military", which might mean a projectile weapon of some kind but could also be ammunition, binoculars, a hunting knife, etc.  East of these is the barn I visited yesterday, with a water pump (circled blue) and apparently a bicycle.  Half a click south is another bike, should I need it (circled yellow).  North-east of the barn are another three hides, with more chances of finding a weapon.  Between the two sets of hides are two buildings, residential and industrial, which can be looted en route.  Further north-east is the town Bor, where I ended up yesterday.  By the time I reach it, there's a fair chance I'll have some kind of weapon with which to pick off the odd zombie and perhaps find some food and water.  Then I could return to Kamenka better prepared to loot the town.  Alternatively, there are further hides and remote buildings that might offer up some goodies north of Pavlovo.  

Something to bear in mind is not to get overly ambitious or greedy.  I discovered that yesterday when on a bit of a high.  I'd evaded detection for quite a while whilst running around town and before I knew it, I'd been busted big time.  The key is to get in, get something and get out.  I think I'll be content if I manage to build a fire and cook something, then survive a night.  I'm not sure how weather and temperature affects you when you're logged off, but I'll assume the worst and try to find safe shelter.  I'm also unsure as to how zombie spawning is handled: can I kill an entire town and then safely roam that town forevermore or will they start to respawn there after a time?  It's something I'll have to find out in time and be wary of in the meantime, like much else in this game.

So far I'm really enjoying finding out how everything works and how difficult it is just to stay alive in Chernarus.  I feel I've learned enough now to at least stand a chance of living for an entire session and logging off safely.  What do you think?

Day Three

Once again I found myself washed up near Kamenka, this time in front of the railway station.  A quick look around showed no immediate danger, so I took a moment to plan my third life in Chernarus a little more carefully.  Now that I was more familiar with both the game controls and the behaviour of the zombies, I figured I had a better chance of exploring this town and finding some loot without getting myself killed.  Sure enough, upon exploring the platform, I found some goodies (just some empty cans, but still).  I snuck around Kamenka for a while and was rewarded with more empty cans and an extra bandage!  Maybe I got a bit cocky, however, because I was suddenly attacked from nowhere by a zombie.  The mad dash into the hills seemed all too familiar.

I managed to lose my assailant behind a large rocky outcrop just north-west of the town.  As I lay in the grass waiting for him to bugger off, I reflected on how difficult it was to make a plan in this place and stick to it.  Nevertheless, consulting my map, I decided it was pertinent to head for the nearest source of water; north-east of Kamenka there appeared to be a couple of deer hides and a barn.  I headed off in this direction, skirting the road for a while before heading north into the valley.  I couldn't find the hides (1), because I was apparently looking in the wrong place, but after climbing the far side of the valley and leaving the forest behind, I eventually came on a road, which I crossed (2) and followed north.  At a junction I found a lone house with some zombies nearby, but there was nothing to be had (3).  I followed the north-east road from here and found a small village infested with zombies, crossing the road a couple of times to avoid them.  I made my approach very slowly and carefully, and found the barn with doors wide open (4).  In I crept and up the steps to the second level, and there was my prize: an Enfield rifle with ammunition!

What's more, on the second level of the barn, I found a hatchet!  Looking down the barrel of my first gun, I found that I was shaking considerably, probably from the attack earlier, having lost a few thousand units of blood.  I decided not to use the weapon unless my life depended on it, and considering I only had 10 rounds, I didn't want to waste ammo on pointless kills.  I figured I could use the hatchet for zombie kills and save the rifle for hunting and PvP encounters (though couldn't figure out how to equip the hatchet instead of the gun).  I looked around the village some more but couldn't find a source of water other than an unusable pump (which I later realised I need to use with an empty canteen, or rather, use an empty canteen with it), and the zombies were plentiful here, so I crawled away to the north-east and carried on towards another water source ahead.

En route to a village called Bor, I found one of three nearby deer hides (1), but it was empty.  Sticking to the forests, I made my way back towards the road and descended on the town from the west (2).  Bor was considerably bigger than the village I just came from, and therefore was host to considerably more zombies.  It wasn't long before I was spotted and chaos ensued.  I took down the first zombie with my rifle and searched the body.  I found can of pasta and some empty tin cans.  I had to use a bandage to stop bleeding and eat the pasta to restore my blood level, which was still alarmingly low.  I managed to roam the town some more, but again I was spotted and chased this time by perhaps half a dozen monsters.  I was severely injured during the gunfight, during which I spent another 5 rounds, and had to run away again.

After losing the zombies and patching myself up again, I made for the forest of Windy Mountain, stopping on the way to shoot a rabbit (3), which I figured I could eat to restore my health.  Unfortunately, my injuries had left me drifting perilously close to unconsciousness, causing me to use 3 rounds in my hunting attempt.  Then I found I couldn't even pick the rabbit up! (Any tips here, anyone?) I stumbled into the woods, barely able to see, and chopped some wood (4), hoping to make a fire and perhaps find some more game.  It then occurred to me that I had nothing with which to start the fire!  With only 1 round left in my rifle and about 3500 units of blood and no apparent way to recover, I was sure to die soon, if not from an attack then from hypothermia or something.

Then suddenly, inexplicably, I was instantaneously transported from the relative safety of my forest (5) to an open plain full of other players, who were running around me like crazy.  Half a second later I was shot and dead.

Day Two

Interestingly, I spawned again in the bay west of Kamenka, this time in broad daylight and therefore full Technicolor!  Everything seemed so much larger and  more open in the daylight.  I headed for the bridge again and decided this time to avoid the town altogether and head north into the woods.  I figured the sooner I got to a larger town with supplies the better.  Into the woods again and this time without all the chaos of being chased by a zombie.

After some time, passing through the woods and several open spaces, I spotted some kind of wooden structure nestled amongst the trees.  Lying in the grass and zooming in, I could make out several zombies around it (two shufflers and a hopper).  I decided it was worth approaching on the off-chance there would be some supplies inside.  As I drew closer, the building appeared to be a watch tower or perhaps a deer hide.  Checking my map, I couldn't see any hides near where I thought I should be, but there it was.  Before I could reach it, however, I was spotted by a zombie and chased off into the woods again.

I managed to lose the tail fairly easily by hiding behind a low wall in the forest, but I had lost my bearings and was no longer sure which way I was heading.  There were several deer hides up north of Pavlovo but surely I hadn't come that far already.  Or had I?  I carried on what I guessed was a northerly direction and encountered several buildings scattered throughout the countryside.  Eventually I came across another deer hide and managed to approach.  Inside was nothing, so I crept away from the surrounding zombies and continued my journey, not really knowing where I was.

But at last I found somewhere familiar: the walled in complex I'd ended up at last night.  I approached from the west and waited till several zombies wandered out of my path.  I searched the buildings again but again found nothing but rubbish.  This time I took the empty cans, though, and some scrap metal.  At the east end of the compound, I spotted a tent that wasn't there last time.  I crept south around a large building and into another so I could approach the tent unseen.  The coast seemed clear and when I reached the tent, there was no one there and nothing to be had.  I peeked out the north gate, near to where I was killed last night, but saw no one.  I didn't want to take the chance, however, and returned to the west side where I came in.

Just north of the compound I found some houses on the hillside.  Crawling past some patrolling zombies, I entered a large garden and bingo!  There were pumpkins growing here and an axe lodged in a chopping block!  Now to get to them without attracting the attention of the zombie standing in the yard, swaying from side to side.  I made it to the pumpkins, only to find that the one and only food source I'd found in the whole game was unattainable!  A few minutes later, risking my skin by walking directly into the zombie's line of sight, I discovered the axe was also just window dressing!

My hopes dashed, I crawled out of the village to the north and into the woods east of Zelenogorsk.  Thankfully, I had a little more luck here than in the other towns.  One of the first buildings I encountered contained a crowbar.  At last, a weapon!  Further into the town, I took out two zombies Gordon Freeman style, but during my attack I was fired on again!  I think two or three shots hit me, but I managed to escape and hide behind a building.  Unfortunately, I'd already used my bandage after an earlier zombie attack and it wasn't long before I bled to death.

Day One

I washed ashore in a small cove in the dark of the night, somewhere in the vicinity of Kamenka (019 131).  A cursory scan of the horizon revealed nothing but dark, swaying grass all around and a distant hill straight ahead when my back was to the ocean.  A sudden metallic clanging noise set my heart racing, but it turned out to be just a part of the soundtrack.  Now decidedly on edge, I made my way towards the hill, heading for higher ground, glancing around often and crouching all the while.  I soon found myself at the top of a grassy ridge where a railway line ran.  I consulted my map and found the railway running the length of the coast around Kamenka, so that didn't help pinpoint my location.  Shortly thereafter, however, I spotted a bridge just to my left.  I figured that put my spawn point at the 'X' on the map below.

I crossed the railway line and turned right, due north-east.  Having heard a bit about the game beforehand, and having played some of Bohemia's earlier military sim games, I knew to be very cautious.  I went prone in the grass and crawled the rest of the way to the road.  I knew there would be zombies at some point, but I was more wary of other players in the game, who would undoubtedly kill me on sight for whatever inventory I might be carrying.  I scrabbled across the road, briefly stopping the middle to scan in each direction: no movement.  On the other side of the road, I found more grass and continued due east.  I soon ran into the edge of a forest and so allowed myself to stand up and run for a while.  It was still dark and there seemed to be no one around, so I used the opportunity to test my flashlight in the woods. Neat.

Just as I reached the end of the forest, still going parallel to the road, it started to rain.  Heavily.  I crouched down again and from here could see a town slightly below my level.  I scanned it for hidden snipers or players moving around, but what I saw was much worse.  Through the rain, shambling slowly towards the forest was my first zombie (1).  Just as I caught sight of him, I saw another one a little further way, wandering down the main road in the town ahead.  I was officially terrified.  In a bit of a panic, I turned south and darted across the road, out of the path of the oncoming zombie.  Suddenly, every swaying blade of grass, every drop of rain was a zombie coming to get me.  Nervously, I followed the road again toward the town and found a road sign: Kamenka, which confirmed my whereabouts.  But at the same time, something else happened.  The memory is a bit of a blur because it all happened so fast, and the route above is just my best guess at where I ran.

The first thing I remember is the sound: a very angry, yet totally inhuman growling, yammering noise.  I spun around and there it was in the flesh, a soldier of the legion of undead!  A zombie!  I bolted in whichever direction I was facing, which happened to be south, and found myself across the railway line again.  I turned, still running, to follow the rail east, then eventually darted back across the line (2) towards a building I spied, hoping to gain entry and lay low.  It was at this point I discovered that not all buildings are enterable, however.  I seemed to have lost my zombie tail, but my sudden presence in the town immediately attracted another follower (possibly two).  Possibly crying at this point, I legged it south again, barely able to spot zombies through the torrential rain, and found another building (3), praying to the Creator (of the game) that this one would shelter me.

No such luck.  I ran through hordes of zombies getting there and could hear their terrible anguished moaning behind me, so I didn't stop to count them.  I circled the building and headed north again towards the town, almost coming back to the first building again.  I saw more zombies that way, so ran north over the road again and tried a few more doors.  It seems like the whole town was in lockdown!  I kept running, past the remaining buildings with at least one angry zombie on my ass.  I abandoned hope of hiding out here, so I just pegged it down the main street until I was pretty much clear of the town.  I managed to glance at my map whilst running and decided to cut north into the woods, hoping to lose the zombie (4).

As you might expect, this plan didn't work either.  I entered the woods north of Kamenka and ran up the hill, zig-zagging as much as possible, trying to lose this demented zombie bastard who was screaming after me.  I eventually found the path (1) that leads to Pavlovo, and ran along it for a little while until I realised this makes a lot of noise.  There was no way I'd lose the zombie making a racket like that.  I went off-road again, heading across a moonlit plain and then back into the woods.  I crossed the road again (2) and continued into the woods, desperately running for my life.  It was at this point that I realised I was bleeding profusely, in fact watching it spray out behind me in little clouds, presumably into the grateful zombie's mouth.  On and on I ran through the forest in the dark, all the while being followed by a grunting, howling beast.  I'd lost over half my blood at this point, and various icons on the screen had started to turn red.  Things weren't going well, but luckily my character seemed to hold the world record for long distance sprinting through dark woods whilst haemorrhaging.

At some point during the chase, the rain had ceased.  I only realised this when it started again.  Ahead I could see another town, which I knew had to be Pavlovo.  Coming now from the south east, I approached the church (3) at full speed, figuring that if there was anyone in the town, maybe they'd take pity on me and kill my pursuer.  I found the church doors unopenable but I realised I had finally lost the zombie who had chased me all the way from Kamenka!  I immediately dropped to the ground and crawled into the shadows.  This town had its own zombie population and I was in no state to deal with them.  Staying low and sticking to the shadows, I zig-zagged through the town, trying every door and avoiding zombies.  Thankfully the rain had gone off again.  None of the other buildings here were enterable either, but I took this chance to observe the zombies.  I concluded that the ones that sort of shuffle along on their hands and feet, then get up and screech like a banshee when they see you are the most terrifying.

I eventually gave up on finding any kind of shelter or resources here and decided to move on.  Just as I reached the north end of town (4) however, I was spotted by zombies again.  So I fucking legged it again, along the side of the road and into a forest.  Glancing back, I counted four of the fuckers this time!  Tired of running, I took a chance: I delved into the darkest part of the woods I could see and dropped to the ground. I remained still for a few seconds and could hear the zombies groaning somewhere behind me.  How close they were, I couldn't tell, but I dared not move until I was sure I was safe.  Eventually, they seemed to drift away, so I started crawling back to the edge of the forest.  Looking back down the road, I could see all four of them shuffling back towards Pavlovo.  Victory!

Up I got and crossed the road, heading uphill and over a small building I could see ahead in the road.  I scanned the area below and when I saw it was clear, I climbed down the hill again and finally found my first openable door (1).  It was nothing but an empty shack, but it was somewhere I could lie down and hide while I checked my map and made some kind of plan.  After gathering the courage to carry on, I crossed the road once again and headed downhill and north toward a cluster of fenced in buildings in the distance (2).  When I reached the huge fence lying across my path, I found zombies at either end.  Unsure of which way to go, I stopped for a while to examine the fence and realised one section had a missing board at the bottom.  I was able to crawl under the fence and into the compound, which I guess was some kind of farm or something.

There were a couple of buildings here that I entered, but found nothing.  The next phase of my plan was to continue north-east toward Zelenogorsk, but just as I was leaving the farm compound, a zombie burst out of a door and started chasing me.  A short Benny Hill sequence later, I'd managed to double back on the zombie and into the door front whence he came.  Closing it behind me, I found my first loot.  Unfortunately, it was just a couple of empty cans and an empty bottle.  Leaving it behind, since I figured that stuff was useless, I headed for Zelenogorsk.  I stopped midway, crouching in the grass, between the farm and the town (3), just to get my bearings and plan my approach.  One, two, three gunshots ripped through me and it's here that I met my untimely demise.