The Screaming Oak

Located next to the Tunnel of Love and The Barns, The Screaming Oak is another major setting locale of the third chapter, The Coaster, in the Dark Carnival campaign in Left 4 Dead 2.

History
This ride is the pride and signature attraction of Whispering Oaks Amusement Park. It is a wooden roller coaster that follows the theme of a scary haunted house. It is located next to the Tunnel of Love and provides entertainment and thrills to visitors seeking an adrenaline rush. For public liability and safety reasons, riders are required to be at least 48 inches tall and to remain seated at all times. The cost of admission is set at standard six tickets - which is common to the rides in Kiddie Land and the Li'l Peanut Rocket Carousel.

Current Status
When the infection hit the region in which the Whispering Oaks Amusement Park is located, the carnival was closed and a CEDA evacuation center set up at the Peach Pit stadium. However the infection took hold so quickly that organisation broke down faster than it could be organised and it seems that a few stragglers may have fled to the Screaming Oak and used it as a vantage or defense point even before the ride could be completely shut down used the ride as a vantage point as the ride was halted in the middle of its run cycle and not at the beginning of the ride (where it should have been had it been closed down properly).

The Survivors leave the Tunnel of Love ride, hop over the fence and realize that the only way to reach the safe room is (to Ellis' delight) to "run the Screaming Oak. They gain access to the ride's track way by switching on its power, but this has the unfortunate effect of triggering an audio-alarm that turns the Infected in the area into a horde. In common with other chapters in L4D2, the subsequent run becomes a gauntlet crescendo event wherein Survivors must sprint into on-coming Infected and turn off an alarm

Once (or if) they get through the twists and turns and the ups and downs of the roller coaster track, Survivors finally deactivate the alarm and are able to proceed on to the safe room where they can rest and catch their breath.