The Denizens: Soviets and Magic Holes?

[anonymous]

While sitting home these days I gotta admit, there is plenty of stuff to dwell about... Plenty of stuff to discuss as well. One point we really gotta talk about are the Denizens. In Tranzit, Treyarch seemed to have created their own cyptids: pseudosciencific anecdotal creatures mostly based on urban legends, folklore and rumours. Interesting enough, the Pacific West coast of the United States is a geographical area that is widely associated with crytoid folklore. Tranzit takes place in a rural area in Washington, a state with a diverse environment; there are lowlands, fjords, rivers, glaciers, and mountains (which include several volcanoes). All of these varying landscapes have one thing in common: Forests. Lots and lots of forests. An estimated 40.7 per cent of the state is covered in them, rest of it mostly being cornfields. It is no surprise that this state is believed to be home to a lot of mysterious undiscovered creature species, tiny or large, dangerous and harmless. They have one thing in common: They remain undetected by most humans, hiding in underground caverns, abandoned cornfields or vast woods...

 

 

Broken Arrow is said to have created the Denizens on April 10, 2025. That is the only bare fact we know about these little fuckers. Analyzing the map, however, might shed more light on their background.

 

Something I really like about Tranzit is that if you look closely, you can see the story what happened there. One of the cages seems to have a hole in them, possibly started the Denizen outbreak. As Marlton says: "One of them has escaped to breed". The creatures quickly spread in the area, but as the Hanford Site is known to be polluted with radioactive isotopes, they hid underground. Or perhaps, the creatures did so because they simply wanted to avoid the sunlight (more on that later). Anyway, there was a moment a Denizen attacked a driving trucker, perhaps out of fear for the truck's headlights, causing the truck to be driven inside Broken Arrow's local power station. This caused the collapse of a power pylon, resulting into the crash of a train transporting who-knows-what. Perhaps the train transported the undead, perhaps the collapsed Power Pylon originally broadcasted a signal that kept the undead at Hanford Sanatorium passive, I don't know. But I think this might be the very start of the outbreak at the Hanford Site.

 

One thing that directly strikes players finally being able to open up the Pack-a-Punch room, are the cages. These cages definately have stored animals being used for experimentation, or more likely, the Denizens. Did you notice, however, that they look very similar to cages held in both Rebirth Island (BO1 Campaign) and the Pentagon Labs (Five), in both cases holding monkeys while applying Nova-6 research?

The cages are also encountered in Daniel Clarke's lab in Kowloon, where the cages can be seen directly connected with bio-storage cans containing some kind of chemical, possibly Nova-6.

 

The Denizens have to originate from something. I mean they can have been exposed to chemicals, radiation, genetically modified or I dunno what but they must have had a source. An original animal where they are derived off. I bet these animals were monkeys. This because the cages have the exact same size as those holding monkeys seen in other labs, one of those labs (the Pentagon) later being used under Broken Arrow operations. The research applied on monkeys at the Pentagon could easily have been transferred to Hanford, where they continued the project. Keep in mind the Denizens have a long tail and hand-like feet, just like monkeys. Their skulls, as can be found at the Hunter's Cabin in Tranzit, resemble those of apes. And lastly, remember the reoccuring pressence of monkeys and apes in Call of Duty's Zombies mode...

Among the various boxes and crates encountered in the Pack-a-Punch room, some hold a suspicious symbol on them:

 

This is the State Quality Mark of the USSR, used from 1967 till 1991. So Broken Arrow was shipping in goods from the Soviet Union during the Cold War? Goods that might have assisted with the creation of the Denizens? These same boxes also include the arrow symbol for 'this side up', as well as the code 'BEPX'. Next to these boxes, the laboratory also holds cannisters including some type of radiactive and biohazardous compound, perhaps the same as seen in Clarke's lab.

 

Anyway, the Soviet involvement in all this fits very well with another odity we can encounter in Tranzit: the Russian words and sentences. Personally, I can find merely two of these but it is rumoured that there is a third one somewhere as well:

• 'Zarashjeno', meaning infected or contaminated.
• 'Kontrolno-dozimetritsjnij "DITJATKI" ' meaning Control-dosimetry "CHILD". Ditjatki, or Child, is also a village located in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Dosimetry refers to the calculation of ionizing radiation, fitting very well with the 'Green Run' theme in this map.
• The third one is supposed to say 'through 500m', which could be tied with the underground digging Denizens. But feel free to take this sentence with a grain of salt.

 

Another interesting thing about these sentences is that they all reappear in Ascension (or rather they reappeared in Tranzit). Is the ressearch performed at the Cosmodrome continued or replicated at Hanford? Another connecting item between the two maps (and I am surprised no one ever talked about this) is the appearance of the number '22708' in both maps, largely written on the wall. In Tranzit, it can be seen in the Power Station, in the tight hallway when walking from the lava pit to the power switch. What it means, however, je ne sais pas.

 

Now we know the American government performed steps to cooperation concerning 115-experimentation with foreign governments. They tried to reason with president Castro from Cuba during the Five intro cutscene, but looking at the 'International Zombies Centre' in Shanghai they might have accomplished cooperation pacts with China and possibly the Soviet Union as well. There can be find crates with both Russian and Chinese symbols in Shangri-La, a location that is also on the Broken Arrow map in Alpha Omega. So perhaps Broken Arrow went global. That would explain the seemingly involvement of Russian scientists in Hanford as well. The early prototypes of the Denzins could be created at the Pentagon, Kowloon or Rebirth Island. I am even thinking of a possibility that Daniel Clarke's lab could have been evolved into the Broken Arrow station we know as 'Die Rise'. Would explain the pressence of the Bios there (which could be early Denizens). Question remains: Why did they want to create Denizens? And why there, in the middle of rural Washington? As for the abilities of the Denizens the very location might be the key....

Has anyone ever heard about Mel's Hole? I recommend reading this extensive thread if you're interested but I can summarize it here. Basically, it is about a farmer named Mel Waters who bought a piece of land in Washington. Old local rumours condemned this area as 'cursed', sensing a force of evil, but Mel bought it nontheless. He discovered a bottomless pitt on the land, a supposed 'gateway to another dimension', resulting a many extraordinary things that would happen to him. The most notably and infamous one was the reviving of his dead, buried dog, who happily roamed over Mel's land after he was sure he had thrown his dead body into the hole (rezurrecting ability of 115, anyone?). One day, federal agents from the state appeared at Mel's house and buyed off his land. Ever since, 'alien activities' are said to be seen in the area, which is now a sciencific station of the government. So we've got a secret station in rural Washington, built upon 'magic lands'? Sounds like it is located at or near our beloved Hanford site, doesn't it?

 

Back to the Denizens: the reason why Broken Arrow kept experimenting with these twisted abominations was most likely their ability to form portals. Mell's hole is by some, including himself, believed to a gateway to either Hell or another dimension. Over the entire world there are lots of folklores about a variety of holes and wells leading straight to Hell. One thing that came in my mind was the magic well in Buried. Jumping in this hole doesn't only produce the same sound as jumping into a Denizen hole, it even has the same effect: teleporting to an area nearby in the blick of a second, without animation. I've always considered the basic system behind this the same as the Denizen portals, but I just stumbled upon something interesting. You see, this wasn't the end of Mel Water's bizarre adverture.

After having lost his land in Washington, he travelled to the badlands of Nevada where he would claim to have found a second mysterious hole. One day one of his sheep came to close to the pit which caused the poor animal to be stunned. The beast made sounds that could only be compared to the shrieks of terror, eventually killing the sheep. Upon autopsy, Waters discovered a tumor-like blob in the intestines. Some men that witnessed this event also stated that the tumor seemed to be moving through the organs, as if something was pushing out from within. Waters decided that the tumor needed to be cut open, but upon doing so they releasing a creature that is described as looking like a “fetal seal with haunting human-like eyes” connected to the tumor inside the sheep with an umbilical cord. For a couple of time, the humans and abomination stared each other in the eyes untill the creature dove back into the bottomless hole. The men left behind stunned. It is said that it later was often encountered by the local people who made it near the hole during nighttime...

 

That terrifying creature....a Denizen? Or perhaps that what is crossed with a monkey to form a Denizen? Similar to Denizens, it seems to live subterrean and have large eyes. Now either these demons already lived the these holes, these entrances to a dimension beneath ours, or Broken Arrow really did create them, and the hole in Nevada was connected with the holes in Hanford. Broken Arrow created the Denizens, the Denizens escaped, dig holes and portals that are connected to the hole in Nevada. But how can this be connected with the Magic Well in Buried?

Might I remind you that the frontier mining town in Buried didn't originate from Angola. Temporal Rifts caused it to end up there, but it originated somewhere from the US, most likely the midwest. Why not Nevada? From Jeb Brown's radios, we know that the town was built near a mine where 'strange, blue metal' could be found. As far as we know is Nevada the only location in the US where a deposit of 115 is found, and it would really tie with the Old West style the town has. So if the Town, including the Magic Well, originated from Nevada, is this Mell Water's second 'Well to Hell'? The 'nameless, unexplained creature' that haunts and possibly even generated the portal, the one encountered by Mell, is a Denizen! Victis use their portals to not only teleport within Tranzit, but also in Buried. And perhaps these holes in Washington and Nevada (now Angola) are also connected with each other, explaining Victis' sudden appearance in the US again after Buried. And if the holes do not only transport you through space, but potentially also through time (cuz, y'know, the dimension we talk about is the Aether), it might even explain the NAVcard Paradox!

 

Only that that buggers me is the mechanism behind the formation of the portals. Denizens are seen digging without creating a portal when not under the green light, so I suspect the green light is essential. Perhaps the wavelenght of this specific green light causes a chemical reaction with something the Denizens emit? Or perhaps the soil they dig unto leaves behind such a quantity of radioactive isotopes (Green Run purposedly polluted the area with radioactive compounds and potentially 115 as well) that react with the energy captured within the photons in the green light? Leave your thoughts!