Rescue Vehicles

"RUN TO JIMMY GIBBS JUNIOR!"

- Ellis

"Helicopter's here, let's get the hell outta Dodge!"

- Bill

Throughout Left 4 Dead, there are five Rescue Vehicles, with four more appearing in Left 4 Dead 2 each appearing during the finale of any campaign. The goal of the Survivors is to reach these vehicles, which will take them to a point that is safe from the Infection. Each vehicle is summoned via some event, but the method of arrival (Activated by the Survivors such as in Crash Course and Dead Center, or piloted by another Survivor) and the time it takes varies.

Rooftop Finale
Through the city of Fairfield, a helicopter called News Chopper 5 flies through the skies, calling out to any Survivors left in the city. The pilot tells anybody who can hear him to get to Mercy Hospital, where he can pick them up. At the end of the No Mercy campaign, the Survivors reach the roof of Mercy Hospital and find a radio to summon their rescue with. During their wait for the helicopter, the pilot mentions that this will probably be his last run--a remnant of another ending to the campaign. The helicopter is a mix of the Bell 204/205, and borrows its features from both models. Due to being bitten earlier, the pilot of the helicopter turns into an Infected mid-flight, forcing Zoey to shoot him, which ends up crashing the helicopter.



The Truck Depot Finale
After News Chopper Five crashes in a parking lot by some back alleyways, loading docks, and warehouses, the Survivors attempt to walk to Riverside. They stumble upon an armored delivery truck on a lift in a truck garage. The lift is powered to lower the truck, which the Survivors ride out of the town to Riverside. This may be a reference to Dawn of the Dead, where the Survivors fashion a similar vehicle to escape the Mall they are trapped in. This vehicle is almost completely the same as the vehicle from Dawn of the Dead, except this vehicle is a delivery truck and has straight barbed wire. The vehicles from Dawn of the Dead are metro buses fashioned with roll barbed wire and slots to stick weapons through. The truck takes them along the road until they are forced to stop due to either no gas or 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 the S.S. Saint Lidia II, a small fishing vessel. It has been circling around the river while John attempts to hail anybody who had survived the Infection, offering to take any armed Survivors to a military holdout up the river. Fortunately, there are plenty of weapons to supply people with. At the end of the Death Toll campaign, the Survivors find the boathouse and answer the radio, making use of the various firearms around the building to help them wait through the hordes. According to The Sacrifice comic the Slaters kicked the Survivors off the boat near Newburg. In the second chapter of The Sacrifice campaign during The Barge, the Saint Lidia II is found wrecked.



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. It finds the airport has been obliterated under the Infection, and any personnel that would otherwise be able to help the pilot have been killed or Infected. It may be that there were still a few left alive because when the Survivors get there, the fuel line is already connected. However, the Survivors reach the airport at the end of the campaign to find the plane. They answer a radio which is in the hands of a corpse next to a gas pump and agree to help the pilot, as they are otherwise stranded. They start the pump, and wait through waves of the Infected for the tank to fill. According to The Sacrifice comic the plane crashed some time after rescuing the Survivors.



Farmhouse Finale
In a rural area, the army had locked down a farm to help Survivors escape the Infection. At least, until they themselves were forced to leave. However, they did not give up all hope on anybody surviving; they left a radio behind. At the end of the Blood Harvest campaign, the Survivors reach the farmhouse where the radio is, and call for their rescue, then hold off the horde while waiting for the army to arrive. In the end they are taken to safety by an XA-180 custom/modified (PASI) Armored Personnel Carrier. 



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 soldiers and the doctor are left behind but all of the playable Survivors get on the train and start it. The Sacrifice campaign starts when the Survivors get off the train to find a boat to escape the mainland.

Port Finale
The Sacrifice's finale is radically different from those of earlier campaigns, in that the Survivors are not aiming to board a Rescue Vehicle, but to raise a bridge that will allow a fully stocked sail boat that they have found to pass under to the seaward side. However, the bridge is out of power and three generators must be activated in order for the bridge to be raised. Unfortunately once all Survivors are on the bridge and the button is pushed to raise it, a generator fails and one of the Survivors is forced to sacrifice themself to reactivate it and so ensure the safety of the other Survivors.

The Survivors' plan is to escape from the mainland to a suitable island in the Florida Keys and a sail boat is specifically selected for this purpose so as to obviate the need for fuel supplies.

The Atrium & 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 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 the Dark Carnival.



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 Plantation campaign.



The Plantation & Town Escape
In The Plantation, the Survivors hold out Left 4 Dead style (ie. 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, and 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 military CH-53 Sea Stallion, which flies them out in a closing cut scene featuring the bridge being bombed to destruction by the air force.