Zoey

"Zoey unfolded into an everyday young woman who everyone can relate to."

- Andrea Wicklund, Valve.

"No one left behind, right?"

- Zoey

Zoey is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead. Her original design was based on 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/model Sonja Kinski instead. Her name means "life" in Greek. In official media, she is usually seen wielding dual Pistols.

Zoey, along with Louis and Francis, appears in Left 4 Dead 2 in the campaign The Passing as they meet with the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors. Unlike her attitude in Left 4 Dead, she comes off as somewhat more serious and, at times, angry. This is probably due to the fact that she is hit very hard by Bill's death.

Zoey's facial features are portrayed by Sonja Kinski and she is voiced by Jen Taylor.

Background
Zoey was once a student at Aldrich in Philadelphia under a scholarship to become a filmmaker but instead of attending classes, she spent her time watching horror films and justified this to her upset mother as doing "research". She got her love for this film genre from her father who introduced her to movies featuring zombies, slasher murderers and extra terrestrials at a young age. Her father, Wade, wished for her to become a police officer like himself, often taking her to shooting ranges to get her into some practice. These actions caused tension between her divorced parents one night and started a heated argument between the two regarding their daughter's future. The argument was short lived however when an Infected suddenly found his way into their living room and attacked Zoey's mother, Carolyn. Her father was able to kill the Infected but not before it savaged Zoey's mother. Holding Carolyn in his arms, Wade commanded Zoey to call for an ambulance. Zoey came back to witness her father being mauled by her mother, who then noticed her daughter's presence and quickly lunged at her. Fortunately before she could reach Zoey, Wade shot her in the back of the head. His last request was for Zoey to kill him before he became an Infected. She then reached for her father's gun and after a heart breaking "I love you", pulled the trigger. Weeks later, Zoey was shocked to discover that her father may have been a Carrier and the mercy-killing could have been in vain.

Relationships with other Survivors


Overall, Zoey is perhaps treated the kindest by the other Survivors.


 * Bill: In many ways, Zoey and Bill have a father-daughter relationship. When the tragedy of her parents' deaths is revealed, she hugs him for comfort and later she is seen resting on his shoulder in the evacuation vehicle. Bill generally seems to be slightly more emotional when Zoey dies compared to the others. She also seems to reciprocate by caring about his well-being at all times. The Sacrifice comic exposes the underlying strength of Zoey and Bill's relationship when he willingly sacrifices himself to keep Zoey and the other Survivors safe. However for a while before this event, Zoey is estranged from Bill when she is shocked by how easily he left the Doctor, Jeff and Annie to die back at Millhaven. She questions his motives and harbours doubts about the trust she has placed in him. She accuses Bill of being capable of cold-heartedly leaving his companions in the lurch if it suited his selfish interests, a charge that taciturn Bill is unable refute in words. However Francis has the insight to explain to Zoey that Bill does these things for the right reasons: the welfare and survival of the four of them. While not altogether swayed, she finally understands how much Bill cared for her and the others through the act of sacrificing his life to give them a chance to escape from a land overrun with Infected. Thereafter Zoey takes up Bill's principle of "They come back for their own". Since they cannot save everyone, the Survivors must save themselves: to which end she adopts Bill's plan, and together with the others, sails to The Keys. In The Passing, unlike Francis and Louis, she shows how badly Bill's death has affected her. She rarely speaks of it and takes on an uncharacteristically serious demeanor when she does so. Her aggressive and abrupt way of dealing with the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors also hints at an innately warm-hearted young woman's struggle to cope with Bill's demise, the guilt she may be experiencing in relation to the events leading up to it; all on top of post-combat stress. Her tone is also notably more commanding and assertive than at any other time previously and this, together with the deference displayed by Louis and Francis, suggests that she has at least partially occupied a team leadership role in the immediate aftermath of Bill's death.
 * Francis: Originally, Valve intended Zoey and Francis to have a romantic attraction, but this was deemed to be "distracting" by play-testers and was taken out of the final version. In her cut quotes, Zoey often pokes gentle fun at Francis and plays off his tough but gauche (I hate...) life-values. . Although their former relationship is no longer very evident, she still seems to be friendly towards him ("Groovy," replaying a line he'd used previously). In The Passing, she is baffled by Rochelle's attraction to Francis, and claims she is going to throw up. On the other hand she finds it cute that Francis, despite his tough guy persona, still has "that side of him" when he flirts back with Rochelle.
 * Louis: Zoey tends to tease him from time to time They usually have more conversations with one another relative to the other survivors. She becomes a little more emotional when he dies . In The Passing, she shows concern for his injury, mentioning to the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors they have a wounded man up there and, if she sacrifices herself in The Sacrifice, she would tell him that he was always a friend.
 * Coach: Zoey and Coach do not have much interaction. Although Coach will sometimes jokingly pick on Ellis for his crush on her.
 * Ellis: Zoey seems to be attracted to Ellis, who is after all an open and friendly young man closest to her in age, outlook and life experience. She mentions his name the most out of all the Survivors and calls out his name twice as he is leaving, wondering wistfully whether she should have asked him to join her group or gone with him. In a downcast tone she says "I'm going to miss Ellis," and "I hope I'll see him again.". Zoey will also playfully mimic Ellis' Keith stories as he is leaving.
 * Nick: Zoey and Nick do not get along. This is due to Nick's innately patronizing, rude attitude that she experiences right from the moment of first acquaintance when he insults her at the beginning of The Riverbank, calling her "Cupcake" and asking if there's a "man" up there he can talk to. She responds in kind with sarcastic helplessness and snaps "I could shoot you where you stand." or "Go to hell, Colonel Sanders!". (The founder of KFC, who wore a white suit similar to Nick's.)
 * Rochelle: Zoey and Rochelle will often exclaim to one another how they are relieved they are to find another woman still alive. They compliment or thank the other's Special Infected kills during the finale, and Zoey seems happy to throw Rochelle an item. However, she is baffled by the idea that Rochelle has feelings for Francis.

Quotes and Captions
"See: Zoey/Quotes and Captions"

Behind the Scenes
Zoey sounded older in early footage of the game. See this video for an example.

Zoey speaks with what in Linguistics is called a Mid-Western accent. This type of American accent is most closely associated with U.S.newsreaders, the educated middle-classes (in a very general sense) as well as classically trained stage performers (e.g. Mel Gibson) playing stock American characters. Each word is precisely articulated ("Unless someone has a better...", "....I know how this movie ends.", "...they have the latest copy of....") and vowels are over-aspirated and slightly raspy ("Aa-l m-oa-st th-ea-r!"). From time to time though, Zoey will randomly slur or use colloquial enunciations within otherwise perfectly expressed sentences ("currvered","gonna").