CEDA



"Your #1 Source for Natural and Manmade Disaster Management"

- Agency Motto

"Good Question. Where is CEDA? All I see are the zombies..."

- Rochelle

CEDA (Civil Emergency and Defense Agency) is a fictional U.S. government organization in the Left 4 Dead universe. Since 1988, the Civil Emergency and Defense Agency has protected millions of Americans from terrifying consequences of natural and manmade disasters and is responsible for responding to disasters and assisting in the recovery. The most recent disaster they are assisting in, the Green Flu epidemic, has appeared to overwhelm them, as no non-infected officials from the organization can be found. Only abandoned evacuation centers, advertisement and some supplies, and some Infected CEDA operatives can be seen throughout the series.

Involvement with containing The Infection
CEDA have been involved in responding to the Green Flu epidemic. They have created advertisements alerting the public about the disease, tried to evacuate citizens from highly infected areas, and even researched the disease. Once they realized how powerful and virulent the Infection was, CEDA agents isolated themselves from the public in hazmat suits and decided to provide the public with face masks while trying to evacuate the public. Large-scale evacuations were called and required CEDA to bring in several Disease Emergency Assessment Dispatch trailers to help process people faster.

Advertisements:
Throughout the campaigns, advertisements from CEDA can be seen advising citizens to wear face masks, wash their hands, and seal their windows and other openings with plastic sheeting and duct tape to prevent the spread of the Infection. At one point, CEDA began to inform the public on how to build saferooms and where to seek shelter as well as "Safety Checklists," which instruct residents to barricade themselves in their basements and wait for help to arrive. The posters displayed in game can be seen in the CEDA gallery below. In Left 4 Dead 2, CEDA also uses Solar Portable Message Signs to help with the evacuation. Instead of placing evacuation notices on buildings (as seen in Left 4 Dead), these trailers can be seen near highways and roadways informing any survivors to head to the location displayed on the digital sign.

Media:
CEDA was informing the public about the situation of the Infection, the spread of the virus, areas under quarantine, and ways of prevention of disease. The agency mainly used radio and television as the main media outlet source to inform the public. They mainly used emergency frequencies to update information to the public and the status of the evacuation centers in the areas. When approached by news crews and agencies, one of the CEDA teams in the South Atlantic Region (Region 3) in The Vannah were assigned to do a report (with Rochelle) and provide a statement and update on information. However, CEDA never told people how bad the Infection was spreading and how bad the situation was due to the mass panic and chaos it might provoke; therefore, this report never aired or occurred.

Security Firm:
When the Infection was spreading out of control and the public started to find out the truth behind the Infection and how bad the situation was getting, everyone started to panic and began rioting, causing chaos. CEDA hired a private security firm to help with local law enforcement and the agency to help maintain control. The security officers wore protective gear such as helmets, bulletproof padding, and used nightsticks instead of firearms (due to CEDA Management Policies) to help maintain control of the public. They helped keep crowds organized and under control at evacuation centers while stopping rioters from causing chaos until the Infection hit. With the officers dealing with the public, it was difficult for them to tell who was infected and who wasn't; therefore, it was easy for the security officers to succumb to the Infection.

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. With the Infection raging out of control and multiple victims becoming infected, 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:

 * Francis's armpit

Left 4 Dead 2:

 * Nicks's left nostril

Evacuation Transports:
Throughout the Left 4 Dead series, several different types of evacuation vehicles were used to evac refugees from high-risk areas of Infection (or hot zones) to areas that are much more secure and Infection-free. CEDA was able to commandeer vehicles and resources in order to help benefit the evacuation. Larger vehicles such as buses and trucks were used by CEDA to evacuate people due to the large capacity they can hold and wanting to keep people together; however, these methods of transport were also the slowest and can spread easier, which gave the advantage to the Infected and allowed the Infection to spread quicker. Also, CEDA stated on the medical timetable chart (seen in The Vannah) that two CEDA EVWS must accompany all transport vehicles (see poster below); this was most likely a safety precaution implemented by CEDA to keep track of all refugees and watch for signs of sickness and the infected (which turned out to be very little of help as every locale is overrun). Below are some of the transports seen throughout both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

Research
It's not apparent how much CEDA knows about the Infection, though it doesn't seem to be much. However, they definitely have done some research on it. They believed the Infection may be airborne (this assumption supported by a Doctor who states sometimes it is airborne, but not other times) and think the disease might come from livestock. Out of all the Special Infected, they appear to have the most knowledge about the Boomer. They have been able to manufacture jars of Boomer bile and there is a research poster about the Boomer in Dead Center which includes photographs of it (as seen in the picture). There is little or no mention of other Special infected by CEDA; however, in The Sacrifice DLC, it was revealed that CEDA had in fact captured a live Tank specimen from Rayford, Georgia. In The Hotel, there is a pie chart that may state the names of the Special Infected, but it might be too blurry.

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 is a glass jar filled with Boomer bile which is manufactured by CEDA (since it is dropped by the CEDA Worker Infected). When thrown, the jar breaks, releasing the bile. Unlike regular boomer bile, it can attract infected even if it does not cover a person and can even cause Infected to attack other Infected soaked in it. Survivors are also not affected by it. These abilities may mean CEDA is able to modify the bile (however, this may strictly be for gameplay and may not reflect the abilities of CEDA).

Common Infected:
CEDA most likely spent most of their time and efforts on researching the sickness in the general public since the majority of the population displays the most common symptoms of the Green Flu virus. Civilians that died due to the sickness or Infected that were shot by the military (to stop the spread of the disease) were zipped up in CEDA biohazard body bags and were transported and given to CEDA research areas/labs in an effort to gain more knowledge of the virus and possibly find a cure however, due to the severity of the sickness and the lack of time as well as constant mobility and moving, they weren't able to pursue much research into it. They created very loose base conclusions on this research stating that "Clean Hands Save Lives" can help prevent Infection when, in fact, the doctor at Millhaven contradicted this prevention method as he stated that sometimes the virus randomly mutates into an airborne strain. Then CEDA decided that the virus was more like a flu, due to the similarity to influenza and how it was an airborne sickness (which is why they started the use of facial masks); however, further research revealed that the Infection was much more similar to rabies, especially in the aggressive, rabid demeanor of the Infected; therefore, people would comment on or rule out that it was no ordinary flu (as seen in graffiti on walls). CEDA was wrong and could not find any definite answers based on the research of the Common Infected based on the time they had thus far.

Tank:
It appears that CEDA captured a live Tank and did a number of surgeries on it; whether or not they discovered anything of importance or did any other sort of research on this Tank is unknown. This Tank was kept alive and put into a biohazard train car and was escorted by the military while passing through the town of Rayford, Georgia; however, the train derailed perhaps due to a quick-striking wave of Infected or an obstruction on the train tracks.

Also, during The Port, the players must fight several Tanks, one of whom is different from the others because it has shackles around its wrists and a small eagle, globe and anchor tattoo on its chest. The shackles suggest that this is another captured Tank specimen that managed to escape, and the eagle, globe and anchor tattoo strongly indicates that it might have been a member of the U.S. Marine Corps before turning. Whether this was just a coincidence or if it implies that the military were experimenting on their own is unknown.

Suppression by the Military
Due to failure in containing the Infection and the virus becoming more of a public and national health hazard, CEDA was suspended and the U.S. military took over all CEDA operations. This presumably happened somewhere between the events of Dark Carnival (assumed day 22) and the events of The Parish (assumed day 24). Checkpoints and evacuation centers were taken over by the military who had authorization to use deadly force. Civilians were relieved when the military took over; however, the military used much more "aggressive" means of containing the Infection by fencing everyone up, separating groups, and finally shooting Infected civillians or potential carriers of the Infection. Also, CEDA-issued instructions on building a safe house stated that in accordance with CEDA Management Policies, no firearms or guns were permitted in safe rooms. However, when the military took over, they encouraged civillians to arm themselves. If you look closely at most of the military posters, they are from the USMC (United States Marine Corps), though some are only labeled "U.S. Military."

Safety Posters and Advertisments
Throughout the Left 4 Dead series, CEDA has manufactured various posters with safety tips and [unsuccessful] methods of preventing infection as well as other forms of advertisments which indicated evacuation locations.