The US Army is the land forces of the United States of America and featured in Dead Island 2. They are the land arm of the United States Armed Forces and were tasked with quarantining and evacuating Los Angeles when the outbreak occurred. The Army was ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts to do all this, with all checkpoints, evacuation points and infection prevention methods being overrun and the army pulling out of the city.
Dead Island 2[]
Involvement with the Autophage outbreak[]
When the outbreak of the Autophage began in Los Angeles, the United States Army was quick to mobilize into the city alongside other branches of the military such as the Marines and the Navy. They worked together with the Center for Disease Control to quarantine the city, combat the zombies, screen survivors for signs of infection and evacuate as many people as possible. To this end, they set up numerous checkpoints, quarantine zones, defensive outposts and evacuation centers at various locations through Los Angeles in order to carry out their objectives.
Zone Designations[]
The Army created a simple color-coded system for identifiying its areas of operation. Signs indicating the type of zone would typically be placed at the entrance checkpoints for these places. These codes follow a scale of increasing levels of security and are as follows:
- AMBER - Martial law in effect, mandatory civilian compliance with orders given by military personnel, mandatory display of ID on all personnel at all times.
- BLUE - Martial law in effect, mandatory civilian compliance with orders given by military personnel, mandatory display of ID on all personnel at all times, no entry until authorization is obtained.
- GREEN - Military and CDC personnel only, mandatory display of ID at all times, mandatory buddying up and logging of all movements with a commanding officer, detention of all non-chaperoned civilians.
- DEAD - Turn away from zone immediately, no permanent military presence, AID (Assume Infected Destroy) rules of engagement enacted.
Activities by location[]
Several districts of LA were blocked off by the army to prevent easy access around the city. It was designed as a quarantine measure, where zombies would be killed to prevent them reaching uninfected parts of the city, whilst survivors could be screened and passed through of cleared to be evacuated. Measures tended to be large metal fences and walls to block off roads, with guard towers and sandbag emplacements to deter hostile survivors and give soldiers a better defensive area to station. Checkpoints typically consisted of a set of fences blocking off most of a passageway, one-way turnstile gates and numerous signs indicating the name, type and instructions of the zone being entered. Some checkpoints would instead use keycard-activated rolling electronic gates instead of the turnstiles. Signage was posted in both English and Spanish for ease of understanding amongst the Los Angeles population. However, the checkpoints were all overrun by some means or another, usually due to too many zombies assaulting at once, overrunning the soldiers stationed there.
Long Beach Airport[]
The Army commandeered this airport as one of the primary points of evacuation from the Los Angeles area. Here, evacuees would be processed, examined for signs of the infection and then sent onto planes for evacuation if they were found to be fine. Amy was originally supposed to evacuate via this airport, but she gave up her plane seat to someone else. She chose to instead run 12 miles through zombie-infested Los Angeles to Los Angeles International Airport to be evacuated. The current status of Long Beach Airport remains unknown.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)[]
Another important evacuation center used by the Army was LAX, where similar procedures to Long Beach Airport were put in place. This is where all of the Slayers went to be evacuated, and they all boarded Soaring Pacific 71 Heavy through various means. Also onboard were celebrity actress Emma Jaunt, her husband actor Robert Steele and her PA Michael Anders. The plane took off prematurely before the completion of boarding due to a severe earthquake striking the area. This also allowed a horde of zombies to break through the perimeter, presumably leading to the airport being overrun.
71 Heavy didn't last long in the air either, as Robert, who had bribed his and and his entourage's way through screening, turned out to be infected and started an outbreak on the plane. A Code Zulu was declared and the plane was shot down by an Army anti-air missile, crashing into the Hollywood Hills.
Bel-Air[]
The Army had a fairly limited presence here compared to other parts of LA. Their efforts in this area primarily consisted of setting up checkpoints to the Halperin Hotel and Beverly Hills respectivly and deploying solar portable message signs directing persons to the hotel.
Lacuna Avenue[]
As part of the efforts to prepare the Halperin Hotel as an evacuation center, Army troops began systematically searching the mansions lining nearby Lacuna Avenue and clearing them of any zombies they found. They then restricted access to the mansions by boarding up their gates with plywood, sandbags, razor wire and metal fencing. The western end of the street was blocked off by a now-impassable checkpoint with a one-way turnstile gate. The intersection at the eastern end was blocked by additional fencing and checkpoints which redirected traffic towards the hotel, prior to caving in during an earthquake.
Halperin Hotel[]
At the Halperin Hotel, the Army took over and turned it into an evacuation point, with evacuation busses ready to take survivors out of the area to elsewhere, likely either the airport or some other holding location. Specifically, it was designated as Evacuation Point A - the Halperin Hotel Evac Muster Point. The area west of the hotel was quarantined and guarded by a one-way checkpoint which only permitted Homeland Security officials with the use of deadly force authorized.
Despite protests from the couple who were holding their wedding at the Hotel, Becki Russo and Aidyn O'Connor, the army went ahead and took over regardless, with Major J. S. Booker heading up operations at the Hotel. A section of the front parking lot was converted into a drop-off point for evacutation buses while pedestrians were first subject to a baggage inspection before being directed as authorized in an orderly fashion through the hotel's front entrance in a one-way system with deadly force authorized again in the event of aggression which would be interpreted as infection. Evacuees were reminded to remain calm, maintain a 6-foot distance from one another, remove all headwear and to refrain from shouting, pushing or running.
In order to properly screen people, the front of the hotel was turned into a bag search operation whilst the Foyer and Ballroom were turned into a screening area. Survivors were checked for infection using the CDC's TURBOS criteria and the VEC (Visual Extremities Check) principle, with those uninfected being passed to board the evacuation busses. Those found infected were chloroformed to be knocked out before being taken to the rear of the hotel, where the pool had been drained and refilled with Caustic-X, an extremely corrosive alkaline substance which could dispose of the bodies. The resulting gunk was then pumped into the Brentwood Sewer. Some of the bodies in body bags came alive and attacked personnel handling them due to them not being properly checked before transportation to the pool. At least 9 soldiers died to incidents of this type.
The section of the hotel west of the pool was turned into a check-in area for military personnel and room 307 was turned into a makeshift command center from which Major Booker operated. Adjacent rooms were used to store Army supplies. At some point, Major Booker wrote a letter to her superior, General Redding, requesting a dropping of the rules of engagement with respect to zombies, as she believed that the zombies were purely animals and therefore not subject to these rules. She also referenced the aforementioned body bag incidents and believed that this change would prevent further losses of soldiers.
It's unknown exactly how the Halperin was overrun, however it was likely a combination of factors. The hotel suffered significant earthquake damage, likely injuring personnel and causing others to abandon the now damaged structure. By the time the Slayers reach the Hotel, it is crawling with zombies and the only living person left is Major Booker. However, she has already been infected by Becki and is killed by her before the Slayers can reach her position.
When Dr. Reuben Reed began sending out his looped radio broadcasts, one of the places they broadcast to was an Army radio in the Halperin Hotel's Ballroom. This is where the Slayers first make contact with him.
Beverly Hills[]
The Army also had a smaller presence in this neighborhood, with a single checkpoint along the road connecting it to Bel-Air. More notably, they also set up the Beverly Hills Dead Zone between it and Monarch Studios to limit the flow of traffic through the area. Concrete barriers and a double layer "airlock" style entrance comprised of pairs of keycard-activated rolling electronic gates at both ends was set up to afford extra protection from zombies. However, like with other checkpoints, this one also fell, likely due to the zombies who took over the entrances and flooded into the road between them.
Santa Monica Pier[]
TBC
Serling Hotel[]
The army worked with the Center for Disease Control at the Serling Hotel in Ocean Avenue to simultaneously create a safe area for survivors to hold up at to wait for evacuation as well as for CDC scientists to experiment for a cure. The Hotel was in contact with the CDC HQ in Santa Monica which was also looking for a cure. Due to the location of the Serling Hotel, it was well and easily defended by the army until the main portion of the undead reached it, at which point the adjoining Lotusville Mall was overrun. The mall led to the Hotel, and from the gratuitous amounts of bullet casings in the area, it's likely that the army held off for as long as they could before evacuating the hotel, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves along with what CDC personnel remained behind.
Members[]
- General Redding
- Captain Winterburn
- Patton (former)
- Major J. S. Booker (deceased)
- Checkpoint Guard (deceased)
- Drill Sergeant (deceased)
- Sergeant Meadows (deceased)
- Private Kramer (deceased)
- Colonel Evans (deceased)
- Major Ryan (deceased)
- SSG. Hernandez (deceased)
- Military Courier (deceased)
- Various unnamed Walkers, Runners, Shamblers, Crushers, Hazmat Walkers, Grenadier Walkers and Incendiary Walkers (deceased)