The Story in Left 4 Dead

[KeRupTion]

Story
Although the regular continuity was taken out during play testing, I still believe Left 4 Dead has a continuous story over the four campaigns. I believe the story takes place starting with No mercy and ending with blood harvest, where the military finally picks you up at echo base and takes you to the safe zone. So here is how I believe the story goes.

(Also, if the link opens the entire album click it again. It is a bug with Picasa to open the entire album instead of just the specific picture.)

http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...87157284413474
http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...tary_map01.jpg

No Mercy
The story begins in No Mercy. It has been two weeks since the very first infection, although what was infected first is unknown. The intro movie displays how the No Mercy campaign begins, with the survivors escaping to the apartment roof up the fire escape to avoid the tank. On the map in the pictures above, the city that Mercy Hospital is in is near the bottom area of the map under the two rivers marked with an X. You can see the area marked out with an x saying “overrun.” CEDA, or the Civil Emergency Defense Agency, must have had a variety of extraction points for survivors during the outbreak, and the hospital is the first one the survivors encounter. The hospital extraction point is no longer safe for survivors, although the pilot of the News Chopper 5 helicopter is making rescue missions for anyone around the city. During one of the pilot’s street runs he is infected. Evidence of this can be found in the pilot’s dialogue, where he mentions he just had an “accident.” Certain lines that were not used in the game specifically have the pilot telling the survivors he is infected and that he is “changing.”

At the end of the no mercy campaign the survivor’s helicopter crashes, due to the pilot being infected. Zoey is the character who shoots the pilot, but no one there can land the helicopter. No Mercy then leads into Crash Course.

Crash Course
Coming in September.

Death Toll
Death Toll starts out with the survivors on a turnpike. An overturned tree blocks the route behind them, and a police car that has weapons in the trunk is there initial supply area. Their objective in Death Toll is to get to riverside, a town that the military was holding out in. This is shown by the fact that Riverside is an evacuation area for CEDA, and by the fact that the military has put up various barricades and walls in the city for some protection. One of Bill’s lines explains how only one infected had to get into the town to start the outbreak that destroyed the city’s population. Zoey also has a line where she reminisces about the main street in the town, meaning at least Zoey had been to the town before the initial infection. The church must have been a major safe area, as all the spotlights leads point to it and look like they direct people to the church. In the map I posted, you can read the caption "Riverside" at the area between the two rivers directly where the river in the north diverges. This is how I came to the conclusion that the survivors are moving north. The riverside area is also marked with an X, indicating it was also overrun.

At the end of riverside the survivors decide to take a fishing boat to get out of the city. The survivor’s initial plan was not to get on the boats, but they decide to once they realize the destruction the city has faced. Once the survivors reach a small house next to the river they receive signals about a survivor couple trying to get secure transport to the military outpost up the river. As the map shows, the river does lead to the safe zone marked on the map.

Clues to what happens between Death Toll and Dead Air are almost non-existent. At the moment, only speculation can be made about why the survivors decided to land in Newburg, the city Dead Air takes place in, instead of going up the river to the safe zone.

Dead Air
Dead Air occurs in the “business districts of Newburg,” according to the official Left 4 Dead site. This is the third X on the map of the overall area. In Dead Air, the survivors are fighting their way to the airport to get aboard the C-130 aircraft they see flying overhead. A major theme of Dead Air is the complete destruction of the city due to bombing. The airport has been bombed in the campaign, and many of the major passenger airplanes have crashed around the airport. The airport used to be another evacuation outpost for CEDA, but it is no longer used for that. I speculate that the military bombed the area to prevent the further spread of the infection.

http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...94700893007826

Here, at the beginning of dead air, you can see from the greenhouse the boat that was used in death toll at the harbor. I am unsure if this is just because the model for the boat was recycled to be used in the harbor, or because it is the actual boat the survivors came from.

http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...94695166310418

The idea that the survivors landed here is made apparent by the “Harbor View Hotel,” which shows how the area the survivors landed in is specifically a harbor. I believe that something occurred after the events of Death Toll that forced the survivors to dock in Newburg and work towards the next evacuation area.

At the end of Dead Air the survivors make it to the airport to board a plane that is refueling. I believe the pilot landed the plane their specifically to refuel, but did not want to leave the plane because of all the zombies at the airport. When the pilot saw the survivors, he promises them transportation for their help in refueling the plane.

Once again there is no clues that explain what happened between the survivors in the plane at the end of Dead Air, and their start at the beginning of Blood Harvest. Regardless of what happened, the survivors could no longer make their way to the “safe zone” marked on the map so they must have settled for the final evacuation area at Echo base.

Blood Harvest
The Blood Harvest campaign takes place in Allegheny National Forest and the train tracks around that area. Allegheny is marked by the fourth red X in the map. The survivors eventually reach Echo Base by following the train tracks, advice given by various graffiti all over the walls. The farm has been converted to a military outpost, evidenced by the various signs explaining how it is one and the warning signs telling any survivors to follow military orders in the corn field or they will be shot.

The survivors are picked up by the military in an APC and should be escorted to the safe zone. Whether the survivors make it or not is entirely speculation. It is also speculation in assuming that the “safe zone” is still even a safe haven for the survivors, free from the infected.

The Last Stand
The Last Stand is the final piece of narrative shown for the characters in Left 4 Dead. Chet Faliszek has said that the survivors are not dead, and therefore the nature of the survivors dying at the lighthouse is merely a result of the survival game-mode, and not what actually happened.

There is some evidence that The Last Stand is in the narrative and that the survivors actually go there. In the link section of my post there is an interview in which Chet states how the characters traveled from "Philadelphia to the Great Lakes." Philadelphia has already been stated to be No Mercy, as evidenced in previous interviews, also in the link section, but the more interesting comment is the fact that he says the game goes to "The Great Lakes." Therefore, it can be assumed that the location in the Last Stand is actually bordering Lake Eerie, which geographically is further north and follows the path the survivors previously have been traveling.

Also, it can be assumed the survivors made it to the lighthouse area from the military safe-zone, so therefore the safe-zone might have been overrun or something happened that forced the survivors to flee to the lighthouse, possibly seeking refuge across Lake Eerie.

Overall, from this evidence, it can be assumed that the Last Stand is actually a part of the story and is important in the narrative. What actually happens at the lighthouse, however, is unknown.

My Idea on how the infection is transferred
The infection is only transferred by fluids. This includes saliva, blood, mucous, or any other bodily fluid. The infection, however, is NOT airborne. This means that while it can be transferred through fluid in the air, it can not be transferred in the air itself. This means that sneezing or coughing are plausible methods of transference, because in a sneeze or a cough fluid can come from your mouth or nose. This is the reason that the CEDA still asks to wear masks to avoid the coughing and sneezing.

The cities or areas in which the campaigns take place

No mercy: Fairfield (Based on Philadelphia)
Death Toll: Riverside
Dead Air: Newburg (Based on Pittsburgh)
Blood harvest: Allegheny Forest and Echo Base

The overall campaign takes place in Pennsylvania, as evidenced by developers comments as well as all the license plates being from Pennsylvania.

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...tary_map01.jpg

At the bottom you can read the words Fairfield, where the river splits into two is where it says riverside, Newburg is above where riverside is, and above Newburg exists Allegheny national forest.

Thanks to Valve and their official site which really explains the locations of each campaign. It talks about No mercy being in Fairfield, death toll at riverside, dead air at Newburg, and blood harvest at Allegheny national forest (although you can figure that out from the very beginning of that campaign).
http://www.l4d.com/l4d/campaigns.htm

[KeRupTion]

Some other interesting ideas

Originally Posted by Duskofdead

I have to browse forums during my lunch break so I'll confess, I haven't been able to read every page of this thread even though I would very much like to. So I beg pardon in advance if I ask or touch upon things already mentioned and discussed.

My comments are brainstorms or questions from my own observations of the game, after reading the original post.

1) This might be "common sense" to anyone who played through at least the early portions of No Mercy, but it didn't seem to be covered in the original post. It appears that the first response to infection was to try to individually quarantine buildings and impose curfews and even not letting people enter/leave buildings they were in once the whole city was under quarantine. This raises a few questions. If they would quarantine a building after someone inside had been exposed, why wouldn't the military just remove that person and isolate them in a central location? Instead of locking whole apartmnent complexes in with one or two infected, REC-style? Similarly, if they were evacuating survivors... it makes no sense to lock in all the survivors in quarantined buildings with infection exposure victims.

2) I believe the military was not SO MUCH conducting evacuations as conducting quarantines and trying to retain tight control over which evacuations they allowed. Reasons? Tons of wall writings allude to no help/no evacs. In Dead Air in the apartment buildings people have scribbled things like "board up and wait" (sounds like radio advice maybe?) and someone else has graffiti'd on the end "to die." And "where are the evacs?" People even imply the military holdout locations are mythical. That implies to me that a lot of survivors, even ones who made it to safe rooms in areas like the airport where they should have seen the military conducting evacs, did not see the military conducting evacs. In fact we see quarantine signs all over the hospital. It looks like the military is focusing on containment more than evacuating survivors. This leads to

3) the destroyed planes. If the military had been using commercial airliners to evacuate people... why would they then bomb the airport and the planes? Unless they were not conducting the evacuations. It looks to me like the airport was operating as normal, until it was quarantined. Perhaps on the promise that the military was going to come in and handle the final evacuation, which they then never did, or never planned to do. Perhaps at that point airline staff and survivors trapped inside with a growing infected population took it upon themselves to merely get in planes and leave, which prompted the destruction of the planes and plane terminals.

4) the graffiti throughout safehouses implies a lot of survivors on the move on their own, with no clear idea from the military or the radio what they are supposed to do. They are leaving each other information message board style as they leapfrog from safe house to safe house. In fact we don't hear from the military that they've been mass evacuating anyone... that seems to be an assumption that some survivors made and wrote on safe house walls, usually to be scratched out or "corrected" by later survivors who posted that they have seen no military or military evacs. A lot of it is rumors, as well, so we don't know which bits are for certain and which bit aren't.

5) was the safe house system (besides being a gameplay feature meant more for the player and perhaps otherwise not going out of its way to be realistic) set up by survivors? Or CEDA? It seems like an awful lot of people are using them like stops along the underground railroad on their trip north. So that implies an organization-- knowing where they are, how far one will be from another, how to find them, etc. Perhaps CEDA set these up in advance? They have formal "infection warning" notices and such in them, which implies that they weren't just haphazardly set up by survivors as they went along. Perhaps initially intended as an "in case you see an infected while in public" type of safety precaution? It looks like a totally insufficient size of space for any serious level protection of more than a very small group, hence the curiosity.

Looks to me like this is what happened. Radio/military gave very basic information about be prepared to board up your location, wear face masks, listen to radio for possible areas where evacuation is being conducted. This was done piecemeal and surgically, rather than on a mass level. (Case in point, helicopter lifts from a hospital which appeared to have been a MAJOR metropolitan refuge center during the crisis.... ineffective if your goal was mass evacuation of a whole city's clean population.) People were FIRST told they could try to leave via the airport which was still open and operating as normal but under safety precautionary procedures (facemasks) and possible military supervision/oversight of the flights... but not complete military control of the evacuation or actually conducting the flights themselves.

Most people could not get out via the airport or other major means of escape (river) prior to those locations being quarantined by the military. Messages scribbed in boarded up locations imply that people ran out of food/water, needed help, or didn't know where to go or where the military was. (That would be odd, if the military had been running the evacuation at the airport and then quarantined the airport, you'd expect the military would still be there.) Instead it appears they bombed the commercial planes and then pulled out, perhaps to ensure no infected flights leaving the airport. So small scale rescues (such as the boat couple and the news helicopter) were going on in these overrun locations to try to get people out, since even if they reached the airport, there was no way for them to leave the area and the airport was quarantined.

The game leads me to believe there was no major attempt by the military to really save as many uninfected people as possible. It looks more like containment. Possibly the infection is NOT worldwide, in fact, from available information, it's likely that it is regional or localized.

Additional Pictures

Originally Posted by The Fortune

These are some of my favourite wall writings that prove beyond doubt this all takes place in the same area, that this is all connected.

Here we have in Blood Harvest references to Riverside (Death Toll) and Metro International Airport (Dead Air).
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3...eld0071ph1.jpg
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/6...eld0075ya2.jpg

Here we have in No Mercy references to Riverside (Death Toll) which is north of the outskirts of the city of Fairfield (No Mercy).
http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/139...way0003ka7.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/2...erior00cc8.jpg

Here we have in Death Toll references to follow the train tracks to Echo, which is the finale at the end of Blood Harvest. Note there is a trainyard in Death Toll and Blood Harvest.
http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/7...useboatkd9.jpg

Also here's the map of the whole area the four campaigns take place in, taken from the game and annotated.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/2...inishedob8.jpg

As the developers said in the commentary, there is a story, but they made it subtle and not something to be experienced fully in one playthrough.

Originally Posted by HTML_Earth

Here's the original map, for anyone who wants it:

military_map01

Originally Posted by HTML_Earth

US state evacuation map
Riverside/Fairfield evacuation map

Here is a picture of the chopper pilot for those who haven't seen him:
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...49627049226578

Various pictures of references to other campaigns:
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...87630329206578
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...87633408785394
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...53565428306194

Some more pictures of the signs around Echo Base, the farm at the end of Blood Harvest, as well as the place where the rescue vehicles escapes to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21194812170770
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21196661539618

Evidence for the Pennsylvania region:
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21192822875010
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21190885395474

Transference of Infection:
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...87633408785394
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1...ers0016nr2.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7...inal005rk5.jpg

Additional Comments

Interview explaining the basis for locations in the game:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169669

Chet talks about how they have a set story for the game:
http://kotaku.com/5118863/chet-flais...o-write-subtly

Chet responded to a question I asked him in steam, response here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...0&postcount=20

Explains Campaign takes place from Philadelphia to the Great Lakes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgEufZppH8s&feature=fvst

The sounds that were taken out of the game of the chopper pilot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGG8-oCD59I

Chet further explains his idea of infection:
http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.c...ews.php/10377/

For those who don't want to watch it; "I always wanted just the zombie apocalypse. I didn't want some evil corporation; I didn't want to have some secret government agency causing the infection. I wanted it to be the zombie apocalypse; the kind of mythos that the movies use."

So that can rule out the government or an evil corporation causing the infection.

If you agree with this, feel free to +rep, 5-star, or post in this thread to bump it and keep it alive.

[The Fortune]

Good summary and I completely agree with you.

Also note, in the passenger bridges to the aeroplanes are several posters, about wearing masks and the precautions for infection. There is also a wall writing about a plan to escape from the airport, adding to your evacuation idea.

I believe the start of Death Toll is north of the No Mercy City, since the entire city is sorrounded by mountains and you find the road which goes underground, probably through the mountainside. The chopper pilot being infected makes it reasonable they got so far as the city limits before the pilot succumbed. Maybe Bill took over? He was in vietnam... anyone know what the badge on his hat is for? He may have been in the airforce.

Also there is an airport in the real location of Blood Harvest, they may have landed there... though I'm not so sure about the geography of it all.

[BBboy20]

I knew it!

[spoonman184]

I think the badge is his rank or his unit

[KeRupTion]

http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...05207677014338

I laid out how it takes place better in this picture. Yeah, I remember the mask posters on the finale of dead air too. Bill could have taken over the plane but he might not have been able to fly very well so he had to land.

[Poddington]

In one of the safe houses i noticed a message from either a katie or sharon who leaes a note for someone they know. They say they have found other survivors who are immune. I can only assume that the reason the 4 survivors we play can't be turned is because they themselves are immune to the infection. It also places an importance on the safety of the 4 survivors because if they are immune they may hold the cure.

So no killing your teammates

[matrix121391]

Originally Posted by Poddington

In one of the safe houses i noticed a message from either a katie or sharon who leaes a note for someone they know. They say they have found other survivors who are immune. I can only assume that the reason the 4 survivors we play can't be turned is because they themselves are immune to the infection. It also places an importance on the safety of the 4 survivors because if they are immune they may hold the cure.

So no killing your teammates

I don't mean to offend, but I'm pretty sure it was stated before by VALVe that the survivors were immune. As for the story, it sure was enlightening!

[tangomango]

This is incredible!

At the end of the no mercy campaign the survivors plane crashes, due to the pilot being infected, and the survivors somehow end up at the start of Death Toll.

Bold - Wow, awesome idea.

[The Fortune]

Labelling that map really helped, it's a lot clearer now. Interesting how this is only set in the same area, there's a lot of potential of where else it spread.

Also yes, the survivors are immune and of course there are just others who arn't infected. I can see it now, Echo Base being stretched to it's limits, survivors flooding in, the shelter becomes a massacre and the immune have to fight for their lives against those who thought they were finally safe.

[KeRupTion]

Originally Posted by tangomango

This is incredible!

At the end of the no mercy campaign the survivors plane crashes, due to the pilot being infected, and the survivors somehow end up at the start of Death Toll.

Bold - Wow, awesome idea.

Yes, it even says it in the commentary and the pilot mentions he had a problem during the finale when the zombies are coming.

For those who want to check out the map I refer to, it is right at echo base (the farm house) at the end of blood harvest. It is behind the radio.

[Pack A Lunch]

This is a really good summary. I really hope Valve isn't holding back cinematics because they decided to drop the story. If they are anything like the intro one, I would love to see them.

[denizb]

Unfortunately, there's no real story, which sucks. I would love to see cinematics as well, they don't have to implement them in the game, they could release them separately.

[Noxn]

I know that the helicopter pilot says something like "I dont feel so good..." and then CRASH.

But the playtesters where all like "O noes we accomplished nothing D:".
So that was cut.

Maybe they cut all the things that connected the movies.

EDIT:

Whoops! didn't read the other posts.

Also, about survivors being immune:
THEY DIDNT KNOW IT!
When i played online campaign, as Zoey, we where doing pretty good.
Then when i was hit for the first time (first!) zoey said something like:
"♥♥♥♥! I hope im immune" Or something like that.
And churchguy always says "Im immune, it happened 1 hour ago, blah blah blah"
I think they simply didn't know until they got infected (Hit by an infected/Zombie)

[KeRupTion]

I just took some more pictures of the signs around echo base. And the place where the rescue vehicles escapes to.
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21194812170770
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21196661539618

Also, the whole event seems to be taking place in the philadelphia/pennsylvania region.
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21192822875010
http://picasaweb.google.com/halflife...21190885395474

Which is supported by the 1up article which says the story takes place in pittsburgh and philadelphia.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169669