¨Within these walls, all matter, has lost the ability to maintain a constant physical shape. What that means is the size, build, and makeup of just about everything changes. Constantly.¨-Oppy 1998
Route Planner Zone Map c. 1998
The Olympic Exclusion Zone (or "The Zone") is a walled disaster area on the Olympic Peninsula, and the setting for the game Pacific Drive.
The Zone was established in 1955 by the United States Government as a restricted area dedicated to the research and development of LIM Technology[1] and placed under the administration of ARDA. As a result of ARDA's decommission, the Zone was evacuated and officially sealed in 1987.
Geography[]
Alternative Zone Maps
The Olympic Exclusion Zone encompasses 3,600 square miles of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State[1]. The zone is segregated into three wards, each surrounded by an Expansion Wall. Wards are further subdivided into Sectors, lettered A-G.
Outer Zone[]
The Outer Zone is the most stable, recent, and largest ward of the Olympic Exclusion Zone. It was established in 1967[1] and includes: Sector E (East), Sector F (North), and Sector G (South).
Outer Zone junctions use the
Blistering Woods and
Damp Forest biomes.
Mid Zone[]
The Mid Zone was established in 1961 as the first expansion of the Zone's original borders. It includes: Sector C and Sector D.
Mid Zone junctions use
The Mires and
The Scorch biomes. Junctions here often have large standing bodies of water and more dangerous anomalies than are found in the Outer Zone.
Deep Zone[]
The Deep Zone is the original and most unstable of the wards. It was established in 1955 and includes: Sector A, Sector B and Sector R.
Deep Zone junctions use the
Red Spires and
Smokestacks biomes.
History[]
Concomitantly with ARDA's commission in 1955, the Olympic Exclusion Zone was established in the immediate area surrounding where Dr. Ophelia Turner and the other members of the Society of Radio Reconstruction were experimenting with LIM Technology[1].
The original zone borders were built sometime shortly after 1955, and then expanded twice: once in 1961 and again in 1967[1].
In 1962 the airspace around the OEZ was declared a no-fly zone after multiple aircraft were affected. As the cruising altitude for commercial airliners is around 31,000 to 38,000 feet, this strongly indicates that the anomalous activity generated by the Zone reaches at least that high into the atmosphere. Interestingly enough, scientific observations of the Belching Barnacle and Sick Mickey Anomalies concluded that the Zone's influence also reaches an unknown but significant distance underground.
The Sierram incident in 1973 resulted in the destruction of an entire town.