Rescue Vehicles

"RUN TO JIMMY GIBBS JUNIOR!"

- Ellis "Our chopper's here, let's get the hell outta Dodge!"

- Bill

Rescue vehicles are a common to both Left 4 Dead games. As the name indicates, these units provide the means by which Survivors escape at the end of individual campaign scenarios; reaching a rescue vehicle in order to escape the Infected and attain some place of safety is thus a generic campaign goal.

There are five Rescue Vehicles in Left 4 Dead and four in Left 4 Dead 2. The Survivors access the vehicle either by using a radio or fulfilling a prescribed task, e.g. lowering a vehicle hoist in the Crash Course campaign. In all instances, the Survivors face a time delay and concomitant Crescendo Event before they can board the rescue vehicle and, even then, there is a chance that one or more of them will fall at the climax immediately preceding its departure.

Rooftop Finale
A helicopter called News Chopper 5 flies through the skies over the city of Fairfield and its pilot uses a loudspeaker to alert any Survivors left in the city that, if they can make their way to Mercy Hospital, he will pick them up and fly them to safety.

At the end of the No Mercy campaign, on reaching Mercy Hospital's roof, the Survivors summon News Chopper 5 using a radio. The pilot acknowledges their call, tells them "to prepare" and to call him back when they are ready. Thereupon, he announces that he is on his way and that his estimated time of arrival is a nominal seven or ten minutes. He will also state that this will probably be his "final run"―a legacy dialog from an alternative campaign ending. A little while later, he will give an updated arrival time and announce his final approach. Once in position hovering next to the helipad, he will shout out loud encouragements if the Survivors are tardy in boarding.

This helicopter and its pilot reappear at the start of the Crash Course campaign, except now the pilot is dead and the helicopter has crashed because Zoey had shot him in mid-flight as he had become infected either after having been bitten earlier or, more ironically, because the Survivors were themselves Green Flu carriers.

The helicopter's graphic is a mix of the Bell 204/205 and borrows its features from both models.



The Truck Depot Finale
After News Chopper 5 crashes in a parking lot by some back alleyways, loading docks, and warehouses, the Survivors attempt to walk to Riverside. They stumble upon an extemporised armored delivery truck on a lift at a truck garage. (Note that some commentators incorrectly refer to it as a bus; Zoey specifically calls it a truck and earlier seen safe room graffiti drops a heavy clue as to its existence.)

The lift is powered by electricity, and to lower the truck, the Survivors need to activate a temperamental portable power generator. Unfortunately, the generator is noisy and attracts waves of Infected whilst the lift operates very slowly. Suffice to say the Survivors must defend themselves and nurse the generator before getting a chance to board the vehicle and ride out of the town towards Riverside.

This vehicle may be a reference to the movie Dawn of the Dead, wherein the movie characters build an armored vehicle out of a shopping mall's shuttle bus. The Survivor's vehicle in-game is visually almost identical to that seen in the movie apart from minor differences, such as it being a delivery truck (not a bus) and having barbed fencing wire (not razor wire) strung around its roof.

Since Crash Course is a sequel DLC campaign, chronologically it fits between No Mercy and Death Toll. So evidently the truck took the Survivors along the road to Riverside until they were forced to abandon it due to either running out of gas or insurmountable obstacles on the road.



Boathouse Finale
Outside of the small town of Riverside is a boathouse. On a table inside is a radio being hailed by John and Amanda Slater who own a small fishing vessel called the Saint Lidia II. The Slaters have been circling around the river while attempting to attract the attention of any Infection survivor who are suitably armed. In return for protecting them, the Slaters offer to take any armed Survivors to a military stronghold up the river. Fortunately for Bill and the others, since the boathouse appears to have been used by the military as a base, it contains plenty of weapons (including a minigun), ammo, grenades and medkits. At the end of the Death Toll campaign, the Survivors answer the radio and make use of these weapons and supplies to defend the location until the Slaters arrive in their boat to take them off.

But all does not end well since, according to The Sacrifice comic, the Slaters kick the Survivors off the boat near Newburg. In the second chapter of The Sacrifice campaign entitled The Barge, a boat bearing the name Saint Lidia II and resembling that used in the Boathouse Finale is found wrecked. This is possibly either an Easter egg hinting at the Slater's fate or simply the convenient use of a preexisting model.



Runway Finale
At the beginning of the Dead Air campaign, a military C-130 Hercules plane flies over the city of Newburg heading to the Metro International Airport. The Survivors thereupon decide to get to the airport and seek escape by air evacuation. When the Survivors reach the airport, they find it has suffered tremendous damage due to its having been bombed by the military as part of a futile effort to either halt the Infection or kill large numbers of Infected. The only person on hand is the C-130 pilot who indicates that the aircraft's fuel tanks are empty, his crew chief (or ground crewman) has been killed whilst connecting up the fuel line from the tanker to the plane, and that he wants the Survivors to complete the re-fuelling operation in return for a flight out of Newburg. Since they have no other choice, the Survivors answer the pilot using a radio found in the hands of a corpse (presumably the dead crew chief or ground staffer) and agree to start up the fuel pump in order to tank up the plane. They accordingly start the pump and fight through waves of the Infected whilst waiting for the tank to fill. Yet again, however, ill-fortune dogs the Survivor's path since, according to The Sacrifice comic, the plane crashes some time after rescuing them.



Farmhouse Finale
In a rural area bordering a forest park, the Army had created an outpost at a farm to help Survivors escape the Infection. The military subsequently abandoned this facility but left behind a two-way radio broadcasting a rescue message on a tape loop. At the end of the Blood Harvest campaign, the Survivors reach the farmhouse and use the radio to call for rescue. Thereafter, they must hold off the horde while waiting for the Army to arrive. If successful, they board an XA-180 custom/modified (PASI) Armored Personnel Carrier and are ostensibly carried off to safety in the custody of the military authorities. 



The Sacrifice comic
At the end of the third chapter of The Sacrifice comic, the Survivors, a doctor and two soldiers have to run a quarter mile to get to a train and start it. The Sacrifice campaign starts when the Survivors get off the train to find a boat to escape the mainland. This train seems to be a "EMD GP10," which is used by the U.S. Military in real life as well as in the game.



Port Finale
The Sacrifice's finale is radically different from those of earlier campaigns in that the Survivors are not aiming secure the services of an independently operated Rescue Vehicle but to take command themselves of a fully stocked sailboat that will enable them to escape from a land largely overrun with Infected and tentatively held by a fear-ridden military intent on summarily executing suspected carriers.

Since the boat they have selected is blocked by a lift bridge, the Survivors must raise the bridge in order to allow the boat to pass under to the seaward side. However, the bridge is out of power and three portable generators must be activated in order supply power to the bridge's operating mechanism. Unfortunately, once all Survivors are on the bridge and the button is pushed to raise it, the noise causes an unstoppable horde of Common and Special Infected to be drawn to the vicinity. At this crucial juncture, a generator fails and one of the Survivors is obliged to sacrifice their life by running out to into the attacking midst to reactivate it―thereby ensuring the remaining Survivors' safety and escape.

The Survivors' plan is to escape from the mainland to a suitable island in the Florida Keys and a sailboat is specifically selected for this purpose (by team leader Bill) so as to obviate the need for fuel supplies.



The Atrium and The Port
Abandoned by CEDA, the Survivors make their way to Liberty Mall where, in a way reminiscent of the new Scavenge Mode, they must bring gas cans to Jimmy Gibbs Junior's race car, a 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, until completely fueled to escape from the Infected overrun mall. However, in the next campaign (The Passing), the Survivors are unable to advance as a bridge needs to be lowered. Aided by Francis, Louis, and Zoey, the Survivors manage to lower the bridge and continue their journey. Once again, though their progress is stalled when they encounter a freeway full of empty and wrecked vehicles which forces them to abandon Jimmy Gibb Junior's car and proceed on foot to Whispering Oaks Amusement Park where Dark Carnival takes place.



The Concert
The Survivors must attract a helicopter through a combination of fireworks, light show, and a sound system. The pilot, however, ultimately turns out to be Infected, and turns mid-flight. This is similar to the events in Crash Course, as the pilot later turns out to be Infected and one of the Survivors (Nick, in this case) shoots the pilot, crash-landing them into the Swamp Fever campaign.



The Plantation & Town Escape
In The Plantation, the Survivors hold out Left 4 Dead-style (i.e. answering a radio, and waiting for the rescue vehicle), until a boat appears. The boat Lagniappe is piloted by an old Cajun named Virgil. He takes the Survivors to safety and brings them down river to the town of Ducatel, where Hard Rain takes place, since his boat is running out of fuel. The Survivors must find diesel at the Ducatel gas station, and bring it back to the boat to continue their journey to New Orleans. The Survivors, having forgot the flare gun used to signal Virgil, must turn on a Burger Tank sign and wait for him to arrive.



The Bridge (Left 4 Dead 2)
The authorities' complete inability to contain and reverse the Infection on the mainland forces the military to put in place a system to evacuate surviving civilians to ships positioned off the coast. This plan is based on the knowledge that the Infected cannot, as yet, swim through deep waters. As a final act, the military plan to bomb the bridge connecting the city to the evacuation area once the last civilians have been airlifted out. The four Survivors arrive at the danger side of the bridge just in time to alert the Army to their existence. To their relief, they are told that a special evacuation flight has been laid on for them, but that it is leaving from the other side of the bridge in ten minutes. The Survivors thus need to get over the partially destroyed and Infected-infested bridge as soon as they possibly can if they want to survive. Ultimately, the Survivors are rescued by a Marine CH-53 Sea Stallion (though it is not written on the aircraft in game, the Marines in real life use the CH-53), which flies them out in a closing cut scene featuring the bridge being bombed to destruction by the Marines.