‘GOOD NIGHT. GOOD LUCK.’ DIARIES: DAY 1

DAY 1: Praise the Sun.

The post apocalyptic rendition of this Turkish city drew me so close that I had to cancel my superstition of decking physical copies and jump straight into action after the initial 5 gigs were booted on my Playstation 4. This is Techland’s return to the zombie fest, and there was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity to showcase my parkour skills in a decaying world order. So here I was, as Kyle Crane, an American GRE agent assigned with an undercover mission to find out what went wrong in Harran, dropping from 500 feet, in my parachute into the heart of the action. As I touch ground, a group of bandits ram my head against the ground and I go shooting at them, killing one instantly. The leader of the pack senses something wrong in the town, and deserting the injured agent, they run for their lives. This was my first encounter with the inmate zombies of Harran, as one of them drop on me like a bomb and tear my flesh away. In those dying moments, I spot a group of survivors rushing to help me out, a guy who gets torn apart by the zombies ( a typical mainstream sacrifice) while his compatriot, a girl called Jade, saves my ass and sends me backpacking to their nearest Safe Zone – called a Tower.

Waking up from my injuries I realise that my name has been taken from me. Why are people referring to me as Number 31? Why are kids running around like I’m a ghost reawakened? Why is a young boy called Raheem being referred by others as the Leader of the Tower? Add to that the GRE’s nagging ways to disorient you from blending in successfully with the citizens. Decisions, decisions everywhere. I followed Raheem’s orders to kill an inmate zombie and help save his brother, quickly escaping the scene I find myself on the rooftop of The Tower. Raheem wanted me to meet him at the gym, and this is his idea of a gym. Running through a crane, looking below at the infested streets of Harran, with smoke coming out of the Horizon as the sun rays blinded my eye sight. Jumping off the crane, here I was, on another rooftop watching Raheem freefall to his death. Well he didn’t die, that’s what amazed me. And he asked me to jump in too, should I? Is he mad? Christ on Crutch, that’s what Kyle Crane swore before he jumped in. And I exactly landed on a pile of soft material. Here’s what was going on in my mind back then:

From there I figured out how the gym must look like in this free, post apocalyptic world. It was time for a parkour tutorial. Hurdling through scaffoldings, jumping off ladders and leaping across buildings, Raheem said that I was ready for some real action now. The world of Dying Light looked absolutely brilliant, with the sun rays illuminating every tower and rooftop I swung by, installing hope where there isn’t. The world was hollow and long dead and gone, it would sometimes send out frail agonizing sounds or at times survivors murmuring to each other. If an aeroplane hovers above the city, you will feel the Dualshock 4 (breaking the fourth wall) shaking up and dancing to its reverberations. I’ve been in post apocalyptic worlds before, but there’s none like Harran, there is pain and loss in every corner of the city. The overpasses are full of empty cars and hungry zombies (reminds me of The Walking Dead’s iconic poster), the slums are bleeding dry with sometimes helpful items to scavenge, the shops are empty with the feeling ‘take whatever you can’, and there’s only the sunlight to solace. Sprinting through the disfigured city I found my first group of survivors, who sent me out on my very first mission, free up a Safe House and help a fellow survivor to fend off a bunch of zombies. On reaching the place, I found out that he was already gone. Swinging my nailed floor plank left and right, I did manage to break the jaws of some zombies. I could see time slowing down, as their bones broke in X-Ray vision; I rushed to free the station. There was no respite in Harran, and I raced against time to set up traps before the sun came down. My heart beat fast and my eyes were always on the rays of the sun, as I counted each step towards my mission marker.

Reaching an abandoned railway station, I headed straight for the traps, without giving any hoots whatsoever to the eavesdropping undead around. In a spring of a step, I was thundered by 3-4 zombies slapping me from all sides, and I rushed for the nearest outlet before I was doing to a trickle of health for the rest of the evening. Charging them with my sprint, kicking them in the face, I ripped the zombies apart from the comfort of a higher ground and then rushed for the traps again. By the time I was done I could already sense the night drawing in, jumping through heaps of zombie hordes, bouncing off walls, rolling through gaps in fences, there it was – home sweet home, in this case Safe House. As I locked myself in, I could see a disfigured, naked zombie running rampage on the rooftops further away, this had to be the infamous Volatile that took so many lives. Prompting the ‘go to sleep until morning’ button, I wished the day to be nicer.

Upon reaching the Tower, I was congratulated for my efforts, but was also informed that the traps were of no use since their Leader – Bracken, was injured during his mission. There were a couple of airdrops to be made in Harran, carrying the antizin that kept the bitten still in their human form. There is no permanent cure available in Harran, and the quarantined city only survives on temporary antizins to slow down the rabies virus infecting more than half of the city. I was sensing that there was an important chapter drawing close, and upon meeting up with Jade, I was informed that it will be ideal if I could do what Bracken couldn’t last night. Sure thing, here I was, being cornered by day zombies, what fun would it be to be lurking around after sunset in Harran.

As I stepped out, my dear GRE contacted me, they seem to be monitoring whatever I was up to, wherever I was going. With this formal ‘I am alive’ check, I went straight for the first night mission during my stay in Harran. I could hear Iron Maiden’s iconic ‘Fear Of The Dark’ playing in my mind. Leaping across ledges, jumping from rooftops, I made way to the venue where the parcel was dropped, and to my utmost mainstream surprise I figured out that the parcel was empty. Jade mentioned two other places where they dropped supplies, gazing at the sinking sun, I ran with my lungs blipping red. Reaching the spot, I found two sincere zombies munching off an officer. Kicking them in the gut, crashing them against the spiked wall and dodging away from the others claw, and counter hitting him in the head, I rushed to open the parcel of antizins. It was night already, I could tell, there were strange sounds, howls, creaks and sounds of footsteps around, but I wasn’t backing off having come this further.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFVRqWc2pg

The GRE contacted me again, with one of the greatest bitchass plot ever, dump the antizins into fire and lie to the Tower that there wasn’t any. Being Crane, a mainstream puppet and a godlike errand boy, I dumped them for the agency’s welfare. Little did I know that the antizins will burn up like crackers, and draw attention of the night creatures upon me. And it so happened, as two nearby Volatiles started chasing me with mouths wide open. Should I switch on the torch and draw more attention, or should I just hurdle through the darkness like a blind man? Decisions, more decisions. One thing was for sure, this wasn’t the Harran that I was glorifying a while back, this was hell let loose, as the zombies started chasing me from literally outta nowhere. I heard the word ‘Run Forrest Run’ before, but this was actually the time that I experienced what it is to be like to be a weakling. Dashing through maddened zombies and falling off from dodgy rooftops, I had to make peace with two deaths before I could actually outwit the volatiles with a blaze of my UV torch and strategic stealth crouching, until I rushed for the tower with my heart pounding to come off my chest.

This is Dying Light, and this is the Ajay Ghale turned Kyle Crane bringing you your worst nightmare encapsulated in a Diaries series, watch out for what happens on Day 2. Till then, Praise the Sun. Avoid Sundown.