CEDA

"Good Question. Where is C.E.D.A.? All I see are the zombies..."

- Rochelle

CEDA (Civil Emergency and Defense Agency) is a fictional governmental organization in the Left 4 Dead universe. Materials with the CEDA logo advising Survivors can be found in numerous safe rooms.

Overview
According to descriptive text on Valve's store page for the CEDA Coffee Mug, CEDA has "protected millions of Americans from the terrifying consequences of natural and man made disasters since 1988."

Involvement with containing The Infection
"Safety Checklists" with a "CEDA" logo have been spotted around the now-deserted Fairfield, instructing residents to barricade themselves in their basements and wait for help to arrive.

They also instruct citizens to seal their windows and all other openings with plastic sheeting and duct tape, implying an airborne infection. However, one sign in the safe room at the end of The Subway has been written on by another Survivor, saying "NOT AIRBORNE".

CEDA however did not want to take any chances and instructed everyone to wear face masks in case the virus was in fact airborne or it mutated to become airborne. Adults, children, as well as seniors were given a facial mask by CEDA to be worn, and if anyone required assistance they should seek a CEDA representative to help them. CEDA's idea of using the face mask was continued also by the military when they took over; as well as the TSA at Metro International Airport.



Apparently, the population is extremely dissatisfied with CEDA's safety measures and course of action, as implied by graffiti in the safe rooms of Crash Course and The Parish campaigns, which read as "CEDA BLOWS", as well as various other graffiti found all over the campaigns of Left 4 Dead 2, among the lines of "CEDA sucks".

Evacuation Centers
When the Infection first began, CEDA first tried to contain the virus by quarantining the infected individuals from the public by keeping them in isolated buildings. However, this method was unsuccessful. CEDA then had to take the next step of full town and city evacuations. CEDA then began setting up evacuation centers around major urban centers such as hospitals, arenas or malls where people were “forced” to go and await further instruction. A CEDA representative would assess the evacuation centers and provide hourly updates over all radio frequencies of the current conditions; however it is presumed that the infected individuals also made their way to those locations and quickly almost every evacuation center was overrun by the infected. With the evacuation centers being overrun, it is rumored that CEDA either became infected themselves or that they have abandoned the public completely.The Survivors usually head for the nearest evacuation center in hope for help and to be transported out of the infected area, however by the time they arrive at the evacuation center, it has either been evacuated or completely overrun by the infected.

Here is a list of some of the evacuation centers:

Left 4 Dead:


 * Fairfield Municipal Park (Unconfirmed but assumed to be overrun)


 * Hewlitt Recreation Center (Overrun)


 * Brigham Junior High School (Overrun)


 * Fairfield Civic Arena (Overrun)


 * Borden High School (Overrun)


 * Mercy Hospital (Overrun)


 * Riverside First Church (Overrun)


 * Metro International Airport (Quarantined, Bombed by the military and then overrun)


 * Daughtery Farm (Assumed that CEDA was in control of it then taken over by the military and finally was overrun)

Left 4 Dead 2:


 * The Vannah Hotel (Evacuated and overrun) CEDA probably screened the civilians coming into the hotel then sent them inside to be evacuated, making them wait long periods of time before they were. It can be assumed that a carrier or infected got in and infected people causing CEDA to don hazmat suits to weed out the infected. The situation quickly began to descend into chaos as people turned causing civilians and CEDA to retreat to the nearest evac station in Liberty Mall.


 * Liberty Mall (Overrun) CEDA provided shelter in the mall while they screened people and evacuated people from the area. But since malls are so big and there were so many people, infected quickly got inside and killed or infected everyone.


 * Whispering Oaks Amusement Park (Maybe Evacuated and Overrun). Park staff probably worked to shelter and entertain the civilians. CEDA either had already set up shop or quickly decided to do so in an effort to evacuate civilians (as well as the Midnight Riders). Judging by the lack of CEDA gear, tents, and trailers, it was quickly overrun from infected coming from the highway.


 * The Bus Station (CEDA once was in control of it then it was taken over by the military and was overrun) It can be assumed that the every thing was fine until the infection caught up to the evac station. With the infected at their heels, the panicked civilians rioted in an attempt to get to freedom. Knowing that it would be impossible to take everyone and make sure the virus didn't spread, the military was forced to take action and shoot all civilians outside the gate (much like the movie 28 Weeks Later).


 * The Bridge (CEDA once was in control of it then it was taken over by the military, maybe evacuated survivors and was overrun) Knowing that the situation was out of control. The military decided to save anyone they could by quarantining an area between the uninfected and the infected, only letting people through if it was confirmed they were not infected or didn't help anyone escape. But soon an infected person escaped or the number of infected grew too great and the quarantine broke. They pulled back to the bridge to hold off the infection a bit longer to let as many civilians be evacuated a possible and raised the bridge so they themselves could be evacuated, but infected were already on the bridge so many were infected before they were evacuated. (It should be noted that there is barely any CEDA equipment beyond the bus station to the bridge).

Superseded by the military
In Left 4 Dead 2, it appears that CEDA has been superseded by the military. A CEDA-run quarantine zone in The Parish has been closed and military-run quarantine zones can be seen throughout New Orleans. Also, CEDA-issued instructions on building a safe house demand that in accordance with CEDA Management Policies no guns were allowed in the safe house, but military-issued instructions on making safe houses encourage citizens to be armed.

Boomer Bile
"Give the infected a taste of their own medicine with this CEDA-developed gastrointestinal projectile. Any zombie you soak with this puke grenade will be swarmed by common infected."

- Left 4 Dead 2 item description

In Left 4 Dead 2 there is a new grenade item called a Bile bomb. It appears to be manufactured by CEDA (since it is dropped by the CEDA Worker Infected). When thrown the glass breaks, releasing the goo and causing common infected to swarm over whatever has been hit with the bomb. If a Survivor is hit with this they do not run the risk of being blinded nor attracting a horde of common infected to attack them.

In early development the player had the ability to throw the boomer bile at fellow survivors, but the ability was removed and replaced.