I was looting the barracks in Zelenogorsk when I hear a gate being opened behind me, I turn and see a well-equipped player dealing with a zombie. I have a gun in hands and the advantage, but my entire current playthrough has been rather peaceful, so i opt for a non-violent solution. I duck behind the corner of a barrack and yell over direct chat that I don't want to kill him, and i circle around a stone wall trying to avoid line of sight. He answers, but it is intangible. I can't see him anywhere but I assume he went to the barracks. (1st person server btw) I try my best to not get in an awkward position and run up into the second floor of a house overlooking the military site. By the time I get there i can see that he has indeed closed the door in the prison building.

The reason i was looting military sites was to find some AK74 mags. That was my entire reason for being there. I'd trade my M4 for a couple of those. I think about the chances of being killed versus the chance of him might having such a mag for trade. I know it's risky, but ♥♥♥♥ it. I run up to the prison building and say I'm friendly and just wondered if we could do some trade.

He accepts and tells me to come into the prison with my gun put away. This smells rotten eggs all the way to Rify, but I'm determined that my friendly intentions will serve me well.I enter, he is pointing at the door with an AUG. It's when i get closer to him that i see a second man with an AUG in the staircase. I explain what I'm trying to get and mid-sentence, a friend of theirs come in. He was likely watching the entrance. After a little meet&greet the say 'sorry, don't have any mags'. I say that's okay, and we agree that we wont go the same direction afterwards lest we run into each other again.

I drop a black skull balaclava that i wasn't using as a token of gratitude for the friendly encounter and I'm on my way to Mishynko. Half way there, somewhere in the forest, I'm shot in the leg. Pants ruined, but legs not broken. I very briefly get some vietnam-level flashbacks to the time my roommate taught me the basics of ARMA and combat, and I jump behind a tree instead of just turning around. I count down from 10 and regain my breath. My M4 is equiped with an ACOG, and the shooter must have been about 100-150 meters away.

I peek from the tree and see a man getting down on the ground by a bush. There's no peaceful solution to this conflict. My breath has gone down and I brace myself. peaking a second time with my rifle and shoot three rounds.

One of them hit.

I wait 4 seconds for him to likely have gotten behind a tree of his own to bandage. I start making a wide arch around him, moving as quickly and safely i can while preserving breath. I finally get to him and see he's unconscious.

That's when i noticed it was the third guy from before, donning a black skull balaclava. I'm angry, but not disappointed. this is the nature of the game. While i still have him alive and able to hear me, all i can get myself to yell was "I TRUSTED YOU" before I shot him. Looting his body, I find 3 ak74 mags, an ammo box full of the right ammo, an LRS and some decent stores of food. All in all, most intense thing I've had happened the last few months.