The Survivors

The Survivors are people in the world who have not yet contracted the infection, however the term is commonly used to refer to the four playable characters. Although they are immune, a comment by Bill suggests that they could become an Infected at any point. Fortunately, this does not happen during the game. It is never explained thus far how these people all have met each other, or how long they have been together before the start of the game.

Playable Survivors
Each playable Survivor has his or her own unique appearance, personality and backstory, making them easier to identify at a distance. Players can choose which Survivor they control in the lobby, or be automatically assigned to a Survivor that is not being controlled by a player when they join a game that is already in progress.

Every Survivor plays the same, their differences have no effect in gameplay.

Bill


Bill is a Vietnam veteran who served in the US Army 1st Special Forces Group. His combat skills have helped to keep him alive, he is also the oldest of the group. In official media, he is usually seen wielding the assault rifle, probably to complement his backstory. He and Francis have a strenuous relationship. He is voiced by Jim French. He often has a lit cigarette in his mouth.

Francis


Francis is a large, tough biker with tattoos covering his arms and neck. His tattoos identify him as a member of "Hell's Legion", a name possibly inspired by the real-world Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Since his character model has changed, it has been speculated that Francis' new face was modeled after the head developer of the game, Mike Booth, and that he has the Lambda symbol from the Half-Life series cut into his hair. In the official media, he is usually seen wielding either the pump shotgun or the auto shotgun. He is voiced by Vince Valenzuela.

Louis


Louis is another of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead. His original concept was an assistant manager at a local retail electronics chain store. His design was changed and he was made a Junior Systems Analyst in his company's IT department. His clothing resembles the typical business man, but bears a resemblance to Shaun from Shaun of the Dead, who wore a red tie and white shirt. In official media, he is usually seen wielding a submachine gun or dual pistols. He is voiced by Earl Alexander.

Zoey


Zoey is the teenage daughter of a wealthy family. Being in her first year of college would make her at least 18 (She could be older depending on what age she was when she entered college). Zoey's original design was based off of Alesia Glidewell, who also worked with Valve on Portal as a model for the character Chell. However, when the character designs were updated later in development, Zoey was made to resemble actress Sonja Kinski instead. She is voiced by Jen Taylor.

Coach


Coach was a high-school football instructor for a well playing team, but he suffered a nasty knee injury. Ironically, he's now a health teacher pushing 40 years old, but he's gone to seed since his collegiate glory days. The zombie apocalypse makes him wish he'd watched his own fitness more closely. Faliszek says Coach has "a great hatred for a few of the zombies; the Witch in particular" but naturally, he wouldn't explain why. He appears to be Bill's replacement. Coach is voiced by Chad L. Coleman.

Ellis


Most people would be scared witless by the zombie outbreak. Not Ellis—he's 21 and indestructible, so there was no way he was getting infected. The Savannah native respects his mother, loves his job and enjoys the simple pleasures in life. A little cocky, it remains to be seen if the end of the world will show him fear for the first time. Ellis is voiced by Eric Ladin.

Nick


Nick is a gambler and a conman in a slick, expensive suit, and so takes the Louis role as the "business man" of the group. Nick joined the other three in their quest to find salvation but is unsure about whether or not he can trust them, often comparing them to The Three Stooges. Still trying to figure out the best "angle" to get from the recent zombie apocalypse, as the time goes by, he starts to value his Survivor compatriots. Nick is voiced by Hugh Dillon.

Rochelle


Rochelle is 26-years-old and comes from Cleveland. She likes to communicate with the world and therefore became an associate producer in journalism. She was recently promoted and was sent to Savannah, the location of the first campaign, to produce a story on the odd occurrences that were happening. Rochelle is voiced by Rochelle Aytes.

Anonymous Survivors
As well as the four playable Survivors, there are also known to be many more uninfected humans fighting the Infected and trying to escape the area that the four campaigns take place in. All except the chopper pilot remain unseen and most remain unnamed; however, they are evident by graffiti left around most of the chapters, mainly in the safe houses. The safe houses themselves are proof of other Survivors, as they are pre-created before the playable Survivors get to them, which implies other humans have created them to give other Survivors a place to rest and stock up on ammo. In some graffiti it is also stated that there were more Survivors who were immune. The only other Survivors you encounter are only spoken with, either through radio in an evacuation finale, or in the case of the "Church Guy" who locks you out of the safe room and tries to kill you by attracting a horde.

"Church guy"
A crazy man who can be found in chapter three of the Death Toll campaign, The Church. He appears to be afraid of Infection, locking himself in the safe room that the Survivors must get through. It is later revealed that he was bitten by his friend (who claimed she was immune), who became an Infected, and deemed himself immune to the virus after waiting an hour. Ultimately, he also becomes an Infected. He is suffering from extreme paranoia of the Infected, and it has obviously driven him to insanity. He often says "better safe than sorry" and causes a Crescendo Event where he rings the church bell to attract a horde to kill the Survivors. After the event, the safe-house door can be opened and a Special Infected will be in there, providing a conclusion to his change (he will never turn into a Witch or a Tank, despite popular belief). You can also hear him start to growl before you open the door. After opening the door and ascending to the second floor of the safe room, the Survivors can see that the Church guy has written his motto all over a wall, over 180 times. His voice actor, Nathan Vetterlein, also voiced the Scout from Valve's Team Fortress 2.

The Survivor who infected him is a female, you can see a corpse of a female slumped against the wall in the safe room when you walk in. It does not appear to be a common infected, but a body that spawns there to set the mood like the dead soldiers on the roof of Mercy Hospital. However, this may be a slip up by the creators, or she could have been killed by biting him.

There have been ongoing rumors that there is a very slim chance of the Church Guy transforming into a Tank after the crescendo event. However if players were to examine the left4dead/scripts/population.txt file, it appears that there is a 50% chance of a Boomer appearing, and 25% each of either a Smoker or a Hunter appearing. No mention of the Tank or the Witch are included in this file, making it clear that there is no chance of the Church Guy becoming a Tank unless there is a serverside mod in use. Alteration of the population.txt file to force the Church Guy to transform into a Tank or Witch can create very strange results, thus verifying the fact that the Church Guy will never spawn as a Tank or Witch.

Evacuation Personnel
During the finale of each scenario, a Survivor in a vehicle must arrive to rescue the four main characters from their evacuation point. These Survivors are never seen, as they are usually concealed behind the windscreens of their vehicles, excluding the helicopter pilot from the No Mercy campaign. These Survivors include the aforementioned helicopter pilot from No Mercy, the boat drivers (John and Amanda Slater) from Death Toll, the C-130 pilot from Dead Air, and the APC driver from Blood Harvest. In all cases you communicate with them via radio. It also indicates more Survivors in Blood Harvest when contacting the driver of the APC. After you answer the radio, one of the radio communicators yells back to another one. One of the two is presumably the driver.

Each rescuer has separate motives for rescuing the Survivors:
 * The helicopter pilot appears to be affiliated with either the military or CEDA, regularly evacuating civilians to an unknown safe zone (However, since he flies the News Chopper 5, it can also be assumed he was a news reporter evacuating civilians out of good will).
 * John and Amanda Slater (the boat pilots) are civilians hoping to gain additional firepower as they escape from Riverside.
 * The C-130 pilot appears to be stranded at the airport due to a lack of fuel, refusing to leave his plane and expose himself to the infected.
 * The APC driver and soldiers in Blood Harvest seem to also be affiliated with a larger organization (Most probably the US Army, as indicated by Francis' lines), evacuating Survivors to an unknown, presumably northern safe zone.

Below are the captions of quotes stored within the game files, but not actually heard or used within the game.

John Slater

 * "Hello? See Amanda, I told you someone was still out there!"
 * "Hello? Honey, it's the police!"
 * "POLICE, RADIO US BACK WHEN YOU ARE READY FOR PICKUP!"
 * "Yeah! Yeah... ok.. Amanda. They're doing fine. yes. boy. go..."
 * "They're not doing that well. Listen, if I had guns I could do the same thing."
 * "Great. Okay, okay, sweetie. Yeah. It's... Okay."
 * "On our way. But let's be clear: once you get on this boat? Your job is keeping our asses alive."
 * " ...guessthatmakestoouvus..."
 * "You were against buying the boat too, Amanda."
 * "Your problem, Amanda, is that you don't think about the little guy!"
 * "We're not coming in with that Tank there. Take care of it or you're on your own."
 * "Almost there! Get ready. We don't want to sightsee when we get there."
 * "Amanda, goddamnit, this needs to get done."
 * "Amanda, if the world is ending - well, then it's ending. Can't hurt to spend our last hours trying to do some good, eh?"
 * "So what, then? We leave 'em to die? I can't do that, Amanda."
 * "You know, I could come to my senses and start listenin' to my smart beautiful wife here."
 * "You know, we can hear you right now. You need to press the button again to get off the frequency."
 * "You know, my wife's been making some very good points here. You want me to put her in charge?"
 * "Yeah, go ahead and weigh your hundreds of options."

Plane Pilot

 * "Someone gonna help that oldtimer?"
 * "Man, that thing looks like my ex-wife! [chuckles] Don't forget to tip yer waitress, I'll be here all week."
 * "Ain't nobody gonna help that pretty young thing?"
 * "Nobody gonna help that little girl?"
 * "Hey, guys, I think suit and tie's down."
 * "Holy shit, lookit the size of that thing!"
 * "Man, I almost wish I was down there! That looks like fun!"
 * "Look out, folks. That sneaky zombie's around somewhere."
 * "Uh oh. You see where that sneaky guy went?"
 * "Hey, that big greasy fella's down!"
 * "Hey, vest! Behind you!"
 * "Man! No offense, but I can't believe you guys're still alive right now!"
 * "I'd be out there with you if I didn't have all this pilot stuff to take care of!"
 * "That thing's jumpin' around like spit on a hot skillet!"
 * "Man, that thing's got a big tongue!"
 * "Yeah yeah yeah, I'm a coward for not helpin' ya. Guess I'll just sit up here in my cockpit, flyin' you out of this hellhole, like I flown everyone else who came here lookin' for help. But no, thank you for bein' honest!"
 * "I been riskin' my life flying people outta this airport all goddamn day! Then the government dropped a bomb on me! So excuse me if I don't skip down there and pick a rifle!"
 * "You callin' me a coward? Get this straight! I can fly planes! You can run around gettin' killed! In a post-apocalyptic world, that makes me valuable and y'all worthless!"
 * "You sayin' I'm yellow? I been riskin' my life flying people outta this airport all goddamn day! Then the government dropped a bomb on me! So excuse me if I don't skip down there and pick a rifle!"
 * "Jesus Crow, look at the size of that one!"
 * "Uh oh. Well, nothing wrong with a lighter load."
 * "Shit. Well, there's more room for the rest of us, I guess."
 * "Man. I bet that fellah works out."
 * "Looks like we just got an opening for first class."
 * "Hoo. Well, I guess the rest of us can stretch out in the plane now."
 * "Ohhhhhhh, shit. That is unfortunate."
 * "Huh! I thought your bacon was cooked for sure!"
 * "Uh oh! Fuel tank's leaking! Nah, just kidding!"
 * "Hooo! Bet you don't want to do that again!"
 * "Did you guys shoot that plane down?

Soldier

 * "Sit back and enjoy the show. We can take it from here."
 * "Glad you made it. Why don't you sit back... and enjoy the show."
 * "We're gonna send these things back to hell."
 * "BOOOOOM!"
 * "Ah ha ha ha! Yeah, baby!"
 * "Blow it up!"
 * "If you'll look slightly to your left... boom!"
 * "And to your right, boys... bam!"
 * "BOOM!"

Chicago Ted
Chicago Ted is an evidently egotistical Survivor, known for scrawling "No zombie is safe from Chicago Ted" on the wall of a safe room. Whether or not he's still alive is unknown. He presumably originates from Chicago, Illinois.

Distant Survivors
In the campaigns Dead Air and No Mercy, occasionally, a distant gunshot, explosion, or gun burst may be heard. It can only be assumed that these are other Survivors fighting off the Infected. As they are infrequent, however, it is likely that few of them survive, or simply move out of hearing range. Not to say that none of them do, as, from The Sewer, looking very closely at the roof of Mercy Hospital in the distance, the helicopter can be seen flying in and out, hinting at more than one evacuation. The helicopter pilot will also sometimes comment to the Survivors, "Looks like you're gonna be my final run.", further indicating that he had been saving other Survivors from the rooftop.

Trivia

 * The Survivors were changed from their original looks to the new look to make them appear like someone you may encounter in real life, to make them look more "realistic". Survivors in Left 4 Dead 2 started from this, but still, have changed from the first screenshots and videos (everyone but Nick).
 * It seems possible that each scenario is geared towards being the "home" of one of the four Survivors.
 * Bill makes a comment about the trailer in Blood Harvest, asking Francis if it reminded him of home, although this is most likely an insult to Francis saying that he is poor.
 * Louis seems to know somewhat trivial pieces of information involving the sewer system of Riverside.
 * Zoey said that she always liked the main street in Riverside, and also, in some early Left 4 Dead articles, she is referenced as being from a farm, indicating a possible relation to Blood Harvest. She also stated that she had been to Newburg before.
 * Bill appears to know his way around Fairfield. Knowing that the Redline Station heads straight to Mercy Hospital. He also knows that it is possible to reach the hospital going through the Water Works (which leads into the sewer).
 * Chicago Ted is a meme on Internet forums, assumed as being the best of the best in a zombie outbreak.
 * In the beta of Left 4 Dead, Zoey and Francis show some sort of affection towards each other, this proved to be too distracting, so it was removed.
 * The beta of Zoey looks like Chell from the popular Valve game Portal.
 * Chicago Ted's graffiti is based on a piece of graffiti found by Erik Wolpaw and Sean "Seanbaby" Reilly
 * The 3 male Survivors in Left 4 Dead 2 all bear resemblances to characters in the Dawn of the Dead remake; the Coach being Kenneth, Nick being Michael, and Ellis being Terry.
 * The helicopter pilot in the No Mercy campaign is the only Survivor that players can actually see alive in person (Not counting the "Church Guy" who is never actually witnessed until becoming Infected).