DRW Mistertrouble189/The Willamette Incident

The Willamette Incident
Willamette's population at the time of infection was 53,594, but then Carlito Keyes released the Ampulex Compressa Giganteus specimens he had gathered in revenge for the original clean-up in Santa Cabeza, which resulted in the town's destruction and death to the entire population. The bees he released into the town set off a zombie outbreak, killing and zombifying much of the town's population. The government received reports of the outbreak and sent the military to quarantine the town. Frank West, photojournalist, was tipped of a "scoop of a lifetime" in Willamette so he set for the Colorado town via helicopter and as he flew over Sycamore Street, he observed an unusual silence. He saw many "people" straggling through streets, banging on a school bus, attacking a motorist and running a woman off of a rooftop. Despite the strange occurrences, he thought it was simply an out-of-control riot, having seen a military blockade at the bridge leading to town and violent citizens. He had his doubts after there were no loud voices, as, to which Carlito, a man whom he met on the roof of the mall, replied, "almost as if everyone was already dead".

Inside the mall, the horror and reality was unleashed upon Frank as survivors holed up pointed out that the "rioters" are flesh-eating zombies. While being confronted by an old man, zombies broke into the once-barricaded Entrance Plaza, horrifically killing a dozen survivors. Frank makes it into the Security Room just in time and meets a pair of Department of Homeland Security agents and a mall employee.

Over the course of three days, Frank West sets to work in finding the origin of the outbreak by working with Brad Garrison and Jessica McCarney as he deals with thousands of zombies that inhabit the mall in addition to several people who have snapped due to the outbreak. While deadly psychopaths pose a threat to all, there are several dozen helpless survivors throughout the mall who are in need of rescuing and escorting to safety.

Frank eventually cracked the case behind Willamette and escaped along with Isabela Keyes; younger sister of Carlito. He spread the truth about Santa Cabeza and Willamette to the public, forcing the US government to accept some responsibility. They denied any involvement in Willamette, but admitted their had a role in Santa Cabeza. More than 50 confirmed survivors made it out of the town alive, some escaped on their own while others were detained by Special Forces soldiers, though eventually released. Presumably, Willamette is still abandoned and deserted, and off limits to all.

Background Info

 * Location: Willamette
 * State: Colorado
 * Country: United States
 * Background Info: Willamette is located in a valley of Colorado. Several roadways lead into town, including a bridge that crosses a river. Surrounding the town are residential neighborhoods and farms. Businesses, stores, factories & other buildings are more inward towards the center of town. Main street is largest roadway in town, with many prominent structures on both sides; it also leads to the mall, which lies in the heart of Willamette.


 * Population: 53,594


 * Size: Large Town/Small City


 * Setting: Rural, located in a valley
 * Industry: Commerical


 * Main Attraction: Willamette Parkview Mall
 * Background Info: Large mall with 79 stores & attractions including supermarket, restaurants, roller coaster, and movie theater. Divided up into five plazas as well as a park, food court & underground parking. Mall employs hundreds of citizens; varying from maitenance, security, clerks, etc.


 * Transportation: Several roads leading in & out of town. Best way of travel: automobile, helicopter


 * Law Enforcement: Standared police force
 * Crime Rate: Low

A Survivor's Account
Frank West is a journalist who survived the ordeal at Willamette, Colorado. He arrived by helicopter and was dropped off on the roof of the town's landmark mall. This is his story...

September 19, 2006
''I arrived in Willamette thanks to a pilot and we saw some sort of riot in the streets with people attacking each other, including a guy with a baseball bat and a lady with a gun...Then I came upon some weird guy on the roof of the Willamette Parkview Mall. After talking to him, I made my way down to the Entrance Plaza and saw a bunch of people, who told me that zombies had taken over the town. Pretty crazy. When I was talking to some old man, the zombies broke in and pretty much killed everyone...I was lucky enough to get out of there. I made it back into the security room where there were two government agents and a janitor holed up. With the door I just came from welded shut, the only way back into the mall is the air vent, which is how one of the agents gets back in after he takes off. I follow him and find some middle-aged couple on the roof. After bringing them back, Otis, the janitor, tells me a bunch of people are trapped in the mall and that I should save them...Ha. But I went after them anyway. While making my way through the store room, the blonde agent almost shoots me and gets hurt in the process. Oops. Making up for her injury, I go out into the zombie-infestested mall and rendezvous with Brad. From there on, I learn that the weird guy I met on the roof is responsible for the whole zombie mess and that we need to stop him from unleashing his grand finale. After covering the DHS agent's back from the Carlito guy and sending him into hiding, Otis informs me of a bunch of survivors holed up in stores and I go out to save a bunch, including a trapped store worker, a girl being terrorized by escaped convicts and three people from the Al Fresca Plaza. Along with the stranded folks, there are psychopaths too... I had to deal with a crazed gun store owner and a homicidal clown which was not cool. Later during the first night, an injured man, a couple of Japanese tourists and a mall employee all owe me their asses as I bring them to safety in the security room. ''

September 20, 2006
''The next day the old guy comes back into play: we had to rescue him, who turns out to be a professor who's involved with the zombie deal..it gets complicated. With Dr. Barnaby injured and the Carlito dude once again chickened out, I have to go to the food market to get some medicine from the pharmacy, but not without dealing with a bunch of zombies and the crazed manager of the market...and to top it all off, the female hostage that the food manager held just runs away from me, aggressively. Hmph. On my way back from the medicine run, I fight yet another psycho - a Vietnam veteran who turns the hardware store into a bloodbath. After putting him down, I find and free three "prisoners of war" and bring them to the security office. Once again, more survivors need my help so I save a pair of hot twins, a couple, a fat guy and a coward throughout the mall. And to make things worse, there's some crazy cult that's holding a woman hostage. I flat out kill the thirty cult members to save this one lady, but at least she was sane. Later that afternoon, I find two people stuck in the Wonderland Plaza so I drag them along, that's when I come across yet another crazy person. There was an obese cop sexually torturing four women. So I had to put down the fat lady to save her captives. With six people trudging behind me, we kill dozens of zombies before reaching "home". After that, we see the female hostage I freed earlier at the supermarket. I get there just in time and she starts attacking me on her motorcycle! We exchange some gunfire before I own her hostile ass and she agrees to talk, but not until midnight. After that, some more fun, killing a family of crazed snipers and getting to save two young women, a fatty, and an old dude. Later that night, Isabela meets with me, keeping her promise to talk. But as always, shit happens and she is hurt so I have carry her back to the office, but not without this black guy in a tuxedo armed with a shotgun...Upon arriving at the office, Jessie is bitten by a zombified Barnaby right after Isabela explains all about the zombies and her brother Carlito. Turns out Barnaby was responsible for a zombie outbreak in Isabela and Carlitos' hometown, killing everyone they've known and loved. Which apparently is justifiable for Carlito to kill some 50,000 innocents in return..''

September 21, 2006
''The third day is full of drama so here's the breakdown: a drunkard, a pyromaniac, and two women are saved. Plus, I kill the mysterious cult leader along with the rest of his posse to save five people from sacrafice. Later that day, after hordes of zombies are slaughtered, an old woman, a sick man, an injured teenage girl, three gun-totin' rednecks, and a fellow photographer's hostage are all saved by me. Hoorah. Finally, the serious stuff goes down. Me and Brad do this plan to stop the bombs that are set to blow up, detonating the flammable gas under the mall (that would ideally release the infected bees into the atmosphere) and we're successful...but Brad dies in the process. He was in a shootout with Carlito and succeeded in wounding him, but not meeting a grisly fate himself...Isabela and I head out to stop Carlito once and for all, and we do...kinda. This demented butcher kills him before we can do anything, but we're able to free up the phonelines. Jessica calls headquarters and rescue is coming! Except they will not take us...which sucked! However, Jessica turned into a zombie (guess Barnaby bit her when he attacked her right before he fully turned) and, from the looks of it, feasted on two Special Forces soldiers who came for her, prompting Otis to hijack a military chopper that landed on the heliport and hightail out of Willamette while some 50 survivors I've rescued were detained by troops, but eventually released. Me and Isabela are left behind to deal with the army of undead and now the Special Forces, who've come to exterminate everything that moves, living or not. I, without Isabela who decided to stay behind, make it to the helipad in time to watch my pilot get killed and crash...at that point I gave up all hope and passed out.''

September 22, 2006
''I wake up back in Carlito's Hideout on the 22nd...looks like I'm infected with the zombie sickness. Isabela comes up with a way to delay the zombification process and of course I have to scour the mall for the necessary supplies, dealing with the soldiers, including a gunship in the park. Isabela is successful and makes a temporary cure for me with the supplies and a bunch of queens. In addition to the vaccine, she creates some repellant/perfume that we can use to avoid the zombies...which is perfect when navigating through the tunnel of zombies that I discovered beneath the clock tower (where Ed crashed). We get by perfectly and reach some sewage-looking plant, with a Jeep waiting for us! We hijack the Jeep and find ourselves in a battle with the Special Forces tank...After we disable it, Isabela is trapped in the overturned Jeep and I am engaged in battle with that bastard, Brock Mason, the man behind the clean-up operation...plus the one in Santa Cabeza. I push him off the tank and he recieves his rightful death and we can finally escape the living hell that swallowed Willamette...''

Frank West survived the zombie outbreak in Willamette and was picked up by the National Guard along with Isabela Keyes. Both were taken to a secure area for questioning and medical treatment and were later released.

List of Survivors
''Several people survived the initial outbreak, though many were psychopaths or were killed later on. The following is a list of survivors complied from survivor accounts, radio transmissions, telephone recordings, photographs, and video feeds from the mall and traffic cams. Green indicates the individual escaped with his or her life. Red indicates the survivor was killed. ''

''There have been other survivors who survived the Willamette ordeal, such as Roland Nichol and Anim White, but he was not at the mall. Although many did indeed seek safety at the mall, a majority were killed later on. This is supported with evidence such as the bloody crate used by the True Eye to "sacrifice" living survivors. Janet Star's testimony also supports this fact as she comments about the other women (and men) Jo Slade killed while she was in captivity. Others were just plain killed by zombies, as stated in Leah Stein and Simone Ravendark's interviews.''

Of the survivors listed above:
 * ESCAPED: 53
 * DEAD: 43 (not including True Eye Cult and Special Forces casualties)

Aftermath
Almost the entire population of Willamette has been decimated. That's 50,000 men, women and children who were either killed or turned into zombies through bites and infection. There has been some damage involving car accidents and explosions throughout town. A high concentration of zombies flocked to the mega mall due to the large number of people seeking refuge there as it is the largest, well-equiped building in town.

The National Guard was called in to create blockades at all routes leading in and out of town and the Special Forces were sent in to carry out the clean up-operation, exterminating the undead throughout town. At least a hundred were dispatched at the mall to extract Department of Homeland Security agents Brad Garrison and Jessica McCarney as well as Dr. Russell Barnaby. However, the three were killed and the Special Forces had to continue their clean-up, which meant any other possibly survivors in the mall would have to be killed, according to Commander Brock Mason, who had a history of being brutal and ruthless, especially after the incident in Santa Cabeza, which was released to the public by one of its survivors. However, when the escorts arrived to extract Jessie, they found 48 survivors in the Security Room and began taking them away, detaining, quarantining, and flying them out of Willamette (eventually all were released). A 49th survivor, Otis Washington, hid from the troops and managed to escape the mall on his own by stealing one of the military helicopters while survivors Frank West and Isablea Keyes were left behind. The two eventually escaped the town, but not after killing at least dozen Special Forces soldiers, who were ordered to fire upon them by their commander, who himself was later killed after confrontation. The government later decided not to prosecute for the murder of the soldiers, after the survivors were living proof of the government's mess-up and photographic evidence was on hand.

At first, the American public was shocked and outraged at the incident in Willamette, with the release of Frank's photopgraphs, in addition to the stories told by survivors. After several months, the zombie outbreak was forgotten and Willamette remains off limits to all, decaying and forgotten.