Allegheny National Forest

"Need to get away? Allegheny National Forest."

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"I hate the woods!"

- Francis

Allegheny National Forest is the main setting for the Blood Harvest campaign in Left 4 Dead.

History
This thick forest is located in the north-western part of Pennsylvania and is a national forest. In more settled times, the visitors would be able to camp or hike in this wilderness area. A notable feature is an iconic swing bridge spanning a large river gorge. The park area is bordered on one side by the Richardson Atlantic railroad and it's warehouses, railroad tracks and associated infrastructure mar what would otherwise be a pristine forest park. Private land backing onto the park includes a farm owned by the Daughtery family.

Current Status
The forest is completely devoid of human life except for the many Infected infesting it's trees and undergrowth. CEDA had no realistic hope of evacuating the people that are caught in the park at the time of the Infection or throwing an effective quarantine around it. Consequently, all of what they are able to do was to put the evacuation notices up on the park notice boards telling the people to head to Daughtery Farm. When the military took over all of CEDA's operations, they continued to use the farm as an evacuee collection and staging area serving a secure facility at Millhaven. However, in common with all such outposts, the soldiers that are posted to the farm were either killed by the Infected or succumbed to the Green Flu themselves. Instead of sending forces out to re-occupy the farm, the military opted to cut their losses and only kept the farm radio live and broadcast a tape-loop in the vague hopes that someone in need of help responded.

The Survivors started off in the middle of the forest at a makeshift camp site. No details are provided in-game how they arrived at that spot or how long that they have been there and it is implied that their evacuation flight from Metro International Airport went away. The subsequently released The Sacrifice comic mentions that this aircraft crashed. In a somewhat forced dialog lampshade, one character will pipe up about the military having an evacuation center nearby while another will chime that they heard the same thing too.

They tooled themselves up and moved along a forest trail, crossed a river gorge and entered the Richardson Atlantic building. The safe room wall graffiti spoke about the need to follow the railroad tracks to the military's Echo base outpost at the farmhouse. The Survivors accordingly followed the tracks through the rest of the forest and used the railway company property to eventually get to the farmhouse where rescue awaited them.