This thread is a copy of the original story posted on discord.
A person wakes up in a hospital bed.
"Where am I?" he says with a dry voice. He takes in his surroundings. Its strangely quite. He stares at the ceiling, thinking about his situation. "... Who am I?... Did i really forget that?", he chuckles about the thought. "Its like the start of a bad horror move." A couple of seconds pass until the man in the hospital bed looks around the room once more. He notices a file laying on a table next to his bed. As he tries to reach for the file, he feels a pain in his right arm. The man opens the folder. Name: Daniel Kruger Age: unknown (about 20 years old) Injury: Head injury after a car accident, lower right arm broken He pauses for a second. "Daniel ... is this my name? Daniel ...". The rest of the file is medical stuff he doesn't understand. Daniel moves his right arm. It still hurts a bit but it doesn't seem broken. "How long have I been sleeping? Where is everyone?" he says as he gets up from his bed. Daniels head feels heavy. "Hello?" he shouts but no one answers.
As he enters the hallway of the hospital, a bad feeling catches him off guard. "Something is wrong. I need to find a nurse ... anyone." Daniel didn't know where he was or how he ended up in a hospital but one thing was certain: He needs to find out who he really is.
---Daniel Krugers Notebook---
---Entry Number 1---
Today I woke up in a hospital with no memories of my past. Apparently my name is Daniel Kruger but for all i know, it could be something completely different. All I remember is waking up. Everything still feels so blurry in my head.
I tried to locate a nurse but this entire hospital is abandoned. It looks like whoever was here before left in a hurry. I don't know what year it is or where exactly I am. If only someone would come and help me. Anyone.
But from all I can tell right now, I am the only survivor of a catastrophe of some sorts. As of writing this note I am still in the hospital but my hunger drives me to explore the outside. I tried to peek outside the window but its pitch black outside.
For now I will stay here until the sun comes up again. I survived without eating for god know how long, I might as well stay hungry this night.
---Entry Number 2---
The sun is up again and I didn't sleep a lot during the night. Makes sense I guess. I slept for quite a long time before I woke up initially. My hunger is growing worse and I plan to leave the hospital today.
I gathered some supplies and even found a backpack. Nobody will miss the stuff I took. There is anyone here to complain in the first place. From the windows,
I could not see any people but the outside looks very abandoned so I guess whatever happened while I was "gone" made everyone leave.
---Entry Number 3---
Ok. I think, I know what happened but I sounds so unbelievable that even the thought makes me question my sanity. After I left the hospital, I roamed the empty streets for a bit.
In desperate need of help, I knocked on the closest house but the door was already unlocked. Even this house looks like it was left in a hurry. All the cabinets had been opened and emptied out.
Aside from a couple of worm clothes I found a note from a mother to her husband. Ill add the note to this notebook.The note stated that a virus of some sort infected a lot of people but why was no one in the hospital then? Ill look further into this and follow the instructions of the note.
I don't know the person, who left the note (at least I don't remember if i knew them), but maybe ill find someone who can tell me what the FUCK is going on. I am starting to lose my mind.
At least I found some food in the fridge. It looks a bit stale but at this point I take what I can get.
- ---Note from a mother to her husband---
I took the kids to my parents farmhouse. One of "them" scratched Matildas arm. It stopped bleeding but I think she got infected. I hope you find this note before anything bad happens to us. If we don't meet again, remember that I love you.
---Entry Number 4---
My suspicion has been confirmed. I woke up in a fucking zombie apocalypse. Writing this out makes me think I have gone crazy but I know what I saw.
The house I visited earlier was on the outskirts of a small town and to find the farmhouse mentioned in the note I thought it was a good idea to follow the first road I saw and just hope to find the farm.
I retrospective it wasn't a good idea because I followed the road for about half a day. As the sun was about to set again I saw someone standing behind a treeline. At first I was overfilled with joy. I had not seen anyone since what feels like forever but as I shouted to get his attention he just stood there.
I began sprinting in his direction an as I came closer this bad feeling I had before came over me again. The "person" noticed me and started limping in my direction. Something about him made me feel uneasy. As he came closer I was shocked.
I could see his massive wound on his chest. Half his torso was ripped to shreds. The creature started shrieking and I started to panic. I guess my survival instinct set in when he came to close. I shoved him to the ground as he kept trying to gasp for me.
In self defence I kicked him until he stopped moving. Had I just killed someone? No. Whatever this "thing" was, it was already dead when it tried to attack me. I don't think I want to take the risk and go to this farmhouse anymore.
If the information in the note is true, the family at the farmhouse is probably long dead. I don't want to risk another attack on the road as well so I decided to follow a nearby river. My instinct tells me that i might find a saver place down the stream.
But where is safety if everyone who once lived in this area turned into a undead zombie?
---Entry Number 5---
Following the river turned out to be a good idea. I had found another town where I could restock supplies. At first I was sceptical about just taking stuff that isn't mine but what other options do I have? The town I found myself in is called "Riverside" and seems to be quite overrun by these zombie-like creatures. I had no other choice tho because I lack the survival skills to stay in the forest. How am I suppose to live in the wilderness if i don't even know who I am? I also still need to find other survivors. The area I entered Riverside in is very rural. I hopped the fence of a junkyard to gather some more supplies and maybe find a vehicle I could use to travel easier or to leave when things get to hot. One of the cars had the keys still inside. It seemed oddly familiar but was a total wrack. A different car was unlocked but had no key in it. I don't know how but I managed to hot-wire it. Maybe my old self knew how to do such things. It felt really natural to do it. I can't explain. The car I hot-wired had a lot of gas inside it so I drove of back to the woods to spend the night there. I don't know why but something inside me wants to go back there and take the unlocked car. It gives me such a familiar feeling. Maybe I could repair it? Before I "steal" another car however, I need to find a save place to stay for the next couple of days.
---Entry Number 6---
The last two days have been very eventful. I plundered at least a dozen houses. Riverside is very overrun. My sneakiness helped me avoid most of the zombies but I had to kill a lot of them. I found a lot of books that could help me adapt to this situation but my reading is pretty bad. I don't think I read a lot in my life before I lost my memories. Did I even visit school? I haven't found any other survivors jet, tho I heard some chatter over a radio I found. Its good to know that there are at least some other people out there. While scavenging for supplies I found some cigarettes. Something deep inside me was longing for a smoke break ever since I woke up. Did I smoke back in the day? I still don't know a lot about who I am but this won't change anything about who I can become. If I survive long enough, that is.
---Entry Number 9---
I knew the day would come but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. The emergency broadcasting system warned me about power fluctuations and now the power is gone completely. A couple of days earlier I found a generator but due to my car being broken at that time, I had no other choice then to hide the generator for now. When the daylight comes, I will drive back to the storage place and pick up the generator. I hope it is still there. Last night I had this weird dream. In that dream I was racing a red sports car. The car I drove had close resemblance to the one I saw at the junkyard. The dream ended with me crashing my car against a tree at high speed. Are these my memories coming back or is the isolation driving me insane? No matter what it is, I will try to get my hands on this car. Maybe it can help me remember my old self but do I want to remember?
---Entry Number 10---
Success! I managed to get the generator to run. Now I got enough power to keep my food fresh and to power the lights in my garage. Would have been a pain in the ass to repair the van without light. While gathering construction devices, I could also get my hands on some tools I needed. On the way back tho my truck got badly damaged. I did't have the manual to repair the tricky parts so I radioed someone who could trade me a manual. Here name was Luna and she lives on the Ponny-Roam-O farm south from my base. In return for the magazine I gave her some of my spare ammo. Not that I need ammo anyway. I am extraordinarily bad with guns. After I managed to repair the van, I drove around and gathered much needed furniture for my base. I don't really care about my house looking clean but I needed more storage. I also found an old oven, which was pretty nice.
---Entry Number 11---
I had decided to go on a trip to Westpoint. This plan turned out to be a really bad idea. The hoards roaming this area are no joke. As I was scavenging a couple of them caught me off guard and I had a nasty injury on my leg. My car got hit pretty hard too. If been inside my safehouse for the last 3 days, reading and taking care of my leg. Never again will I go to Westpoint!
---Entry Number 12---
While I was just sitting in my room, I stumbled upon a frequency with survivors from Riverside. They agreed to pick me up but I had to walk quite a while with my broken leg. When they picked me up, they asked me strange questions like "What can you do?". Well I can do everything! I survived the last month all on my own. I don't need anyone, bossing me around. I think they noticed my disliking of them as they dropped me off right back at my base. What a bunch of jerks! I won't take such actions against me lightheartedly. If they wanna fight about Riversides resources, they have to rip the loot out of my hands!
---Entry Number 13---
Today I was repairing my van and realised, that it would be the best, if I got a second car for quick scavenging runs. So I set out to get a new car. My leg had healed quite well already so it wasn't a big problem to find a suitable vehicle as I also already knew where most of the good cars are located. On my way, I met another group of survivors from Riverside. I don't know if there are affiliated with the others but they seemed much nicer then the other group I met. I will keep my eye on them. As the days get more and more rainy, I have to start preparing for the upcoming winter. My cloths are warm but I am afraid my supplies on food might not be enough for these harsh and cold days. Riverside is picked clean tho. So I have to venture out further into the unknown. I saw a train yard and a small town north of Westpoint on a map I found. I might go there next.
---Entry Number 14---
It has been a month since my last entry. I don't know why I neglected this journal since most of the things I did happened around my garage. I opened up my own car dealership/repair/junkyard/towing service. I hope to make some new contacts by helping others with there car (and I want to get some resources outside from scavenging myself). Even tho everyone needs a car, I only had one customer until now. I helped a guy named Tony by fixing his truck. He seemed a bit paranoid but I like that. Can't be cautious enough these days. While preparing for the grand opening of my garage I also did some changes to my base in general. I have tons of storage space now to keep all the car parts. I took a picture of the Base in all its glory. I will add them to this journal. Now I am more then prepared for the winter AND potential customers. If only there would be any customers...
---Entry Number 15---
A couple of days ago, a guy named Andrew MacArthur contacted me over the radio. He told me to meet him at the Riverside junkyard so I drove there to help him with a car he wanted to repair. I towed his red old timer to my garage and fixed it back up to perfect condition. He told me that he couldn't pay me right then and there so I offered him to pay me back a couple of days later. MacArthur thanked me and drove off. This was over a month ago. I got scammed out of my time and resources and I can't explain how pissed I am about that. I am going to find him. He will pay. One way or another.
---Entry Number 16---
I did some research about this MacArthur guy. As it turns out, he joined the Rosewood-Commune, at least that's what Tony told me the other day. So with nothing better to do and my resources dwindling anyways, I headed out to Rosewood to find some supplies and MacArthur. Less then a mile north from Rosewood my car broke down. I took one of the Sports-cars that I normally use for spare parts and the engine got quite a beating on my way to Rosewood. So I wandered around Rosewood by foot. To make it short: I couldn't find any food and had no idea where the commune could be. So I just scavenged some engine parts to repair my car and drove back to base. On my way back home, I stopped at the farmstead to ask the people there if they had any clue where the commune could be. A girl called Luna offered me to show me exactly where it is located. I took the offer. Luna seemed like a nice girl. She was radiating a certain kind of confidence. Maybe it was the determination in her eyes. Maybe it was her gun she polished in my car on the way there. As we arrived at the commune it was eerily quite. It seemed like nobody was around. MacArthur was nowhere to be seen as well but his car was there. So with MacArthur not around, I decided to just take the car back home. I dropped of Luna at the Farmstead and towed the car back to my base. There I uninstalled every car part possible and pushed the wrack in the river. Fuck this MacArthur guy and fuck those Commune people!
---Entry Number 17---
Winter is here and I have no choice but to leave Kentucky for now. Riverside is picked clean, West-Point is overrun, Rosewood is a lawless hell and Muldraugh as well. If the weather wasn't bad enough, my supplies are running low and I haven't had any customers since Akemi and Tony. Speaking of which, I heard that Akemi got shot the other day. I don't think she made it. I just heard a radio transmission from Tony about it. I wounder how he feels about all this. Anyways. I am leaving Kentucky until next year. If I take the west highway out of Riverside, I should be able to leave the contamination zone. I really hope people don't break into my garage while I am not there. I hid some alarms all around the area so if someone breaks in, they have to get out thru a hoard of zombies first. Not that they are going to find anything there anyways. I took most of my valuables with me. I just hope that nobody touches my cars while I am gone. But even if they get stolen, I can't really do anything about that other then stealing them back when I get back here in the summer. I don't know what lays ahead but I don't know what else to do at this point. Ill start a new journal once I return from my journey. If I ever come back that is....
Due to me having all my Uni exames right now, I am not able to play on Day's End until the next wipe. This is why Daniles story ends here. What happend to him outside Kentucky? We will never know. Maybe he might return in a different season. Who knows 🙂
Characters:
Season 1&2 - Daniel Kruger
Season 3 - Dr. Anton Zimmermann
Season 4 - Zoe Smoker
Season 5 - Nadya Rowlands
Season 6 - Jimmy "Beanz" Carter
Season 7 - Nicole "Nikki" Watson
Season 8 - Toby "Pinky" Silva; Yurei Saito
Season 9 - Naomi Wheeler
