Athena Corporation

The Boston lab during the outbreak

## People of Importance

### Key People:

Dr. Niko SeedDr. Samantha Seed, Dr. Ted Jacobs, Dr. Dave Hill, Dr. Doug Walker & Dr. Ashley Taylor

### Owners:

Franklin AthenaMary Annabelle & Jennifer Athena

## Headquarters

### Locations:

Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Memphis (All destroyed/shut down)

(Athena Corporation is only canon to the reboot timeline and shares no connection with the original series Left 4 The Dead.)

## Summary

The Athena Corporation is a large pharmaceutical company founded in 1991 by Franklin Athena, who was once a virologist at another pharmaceutical company throughout the 1980s. Franklin founded Athena with the desire to drive humanity forward under the guise of medicinal help. As Franklin attempted to get his company started, he turned to Mary Annabelle for funding and in return labeled her his co-founder. It wasn’t until April 18th, 1991 when the first laboratory was built, planted in Athena’s hometown Boston. The Boston lab was where the majority of Athena’s shadier business was conducted.

Franklin appointed himself as the head virologist in January of 1992, leading a small department of scientists through less than ideal work. Human experimentation, altering of DNA and more horrific work was conducted for the rest of the decade until an employee threatened to report Franklin. Mary had the employee killed and covered everything up, leading to the invention of Department A, a secret area in the lower levels of the Boston lab where scientists who were either paid hush money or blackmailed worked for Athena to further their dark studies. Franklin’s family eventually became involved when his daughter Jennifer was handed ownership of the Los Angeles lab, in which she discovered Franklin was expanding Department A. Mary tried to butt in and have her killed, leading to a tense scenario in which Franklin’s daughter promised to keep quiet. Eventually, in September of 2005, Dr. Niko Seed became employed as a virologist. Seed worked with Samantha Chambers, Ted Jacobs, Dave Hill, Doug Walker and Ashley Taylor on multiple projects that propelled Athena forward; making them millions of dollars.

Despite the fact Department A had been going smoothly for decades, Jennifer was learned to have been preparing to report her father and Mary to the authorities for the death of Andrew Garland, the employee Mary had murdered. When this happened, Mary jumped into action and hired a contract killer to take out Franklin’s daughter. When Franklin found his daughter had been killed he became enraged and murdered Mary himself. This lead to the Los Angeles lab being shutdown and not long after, every other lab except the one located in Boston. Franklin’s work with Department A began to slow down when he developed cancer.

In 2025, Franklin had been monitoring Seed’s work on a cure for cancer with Samantha, now his wife, and their colleagues who appeared to be taking their research into an unintentionally dark direction. Franklin eventually reverse engineered their work and unknowingly created what would be considered a biological weapon; a virus that infected people and turned them into zombies or, on far worse occasions, bizarre monsters. Franklin figured he’d test the virus but this lead to him becoming infected, officially becoming the first zombie. Slowly this spread until the entirety of Boston was being taken over by the zombies and monsters the virus created.

Eventually, Niko discovered Department A whilst in the lower prison levels of the Boston lab; finding more dirt on Athena than he could’ve imagined. Niko and Foxy inadvertently begin the lab’s self destruct sequence and escape with the others. With the founders dead and the final lab destroyed, Athena Corporation was clear to be no more as the outbreak continued to spread outside of Boston.

## History

### 1991-1998

After leaving the pharmaceutical company Arch in 1990, Franklin Athena looked to acquire a secure lot for a lab in Boston, his hometown. During this time, Mary began purchasing lots for labs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Memphis as construction for the lab in Boston comes close to finalizing in early April. Franklin begins hiring scientists for work on certain projects in the medicinal fields, assembling four teams of six scientists totaling to 24 employees. On April 18th, 1991 construction was officially finished and Franklin left the rest of the affairs to Mary, his official co-founder. As they begin their work, Franklin begins bringing human subjects in for tests involving genetic enhancements as well as altering the person's DNA or administering created formulas. Mary helps to cover all this up and in January of 1992, Franklin appoints himself as the head virologist, determined to create something that will propel the world forward - though his methods take them back step by step. The experiments were conducted in the main labs and eventually, the scientists started to become hesitant. Things went smoothly until 1997 when employee Andrew Garland stepped forward, threatening to blow the whistle on Athena. Franklin met with Garland, offering hush money and a large percentage in the company due to the increase in their profits, but Garland denied which caused his untimely death when Mary hired a contract killer to take him out. Garland's death was covered up and it appeared he committed suicide. It was on July 11th, 1998 when Mary gave Franklin the idea for 'Department A', a secret lab in the Athena Corp. building in Boston, located in its depths. By 2002, a large horrifying prison-like area was built in the depths, hidden from the other scientists.

### 2002-2005

Franklin led a research team in Department A, consisting mainly of scientists hired through hush money or blackmail by Mary. They conducted heinous experiments on humans and animals, and with their progress being close to zero, Franklin decided to expand Department A into the other Athena Corp. locations. He handed over ownership of the Los Angeles building to his eldest daughter Jennifer, much to Mary's dismay. The internal tension deepened, Mary believed Jennifer couldn't be trusted with such a job. In 2003, Jennifer discovered Department A when the depths became visible on the new blueprints of the lab. Jennifer found signs of human experimentation as well as dead bodies. Jennifer confronted her father about this, leading to a falling out with Mary when she attempted to poison Jennifer. Franklin tried to frame the scenario as him being the victim; convincing his daughter to stay quiet for her own sake. In 2005, Niko Seed began working at the Boston location as a virologist, joining a new elite team of scientists to help push the medicinal world forward. It was through this he met his future wife, Samantha Chambers, and his best friend Dr. Ted Jacobs. Seed's work with this team made the company millions, rocketing them forwards and making work for Franklin much easier. Seed's colleague Dave Hill was almost employed into Department A but Franklin decided against it, wanting to keep Department A far more secretive than it already was.

### 2019-2025

In 2019, it was discovered that Franklin's daughter had indeed been spending her time documenting Department A and was planning on reporting Franklin and Mary to the authorities as well as hand over evidence implicating them in Garland's murder. Franklin was planning to stop her and talk her down again, only to head to her apartment and find her body. Mary had hired somebody to kill Jennifer. Completely enraged, Franklin went to Mary's house and they argued as Mary demanded a larger stake in the company for keeping Athena running for so long. They ended up getting physical and Franklin strangled her to death. Not long after, Franklin was diagnosed with cancer, and eventually Department A was shut down and the scientists were taken care of. After Jennifer and Mary's deaths and the closing of Department A, every other Athena Corp. building was shutdown, except the Boston location. Here, From 2022-2025, Dr. Niko Seed and his wife Samantha had been working with the same team still to develop a cure for cancer, and by 2025, their dreams seemed to be closer to reality. However, Franklin made a grave mistake when he reverse engineered the cure into a virus, wanting faster results. This ended up becoming the Solar Virus, originally nicknamed Solar when it was once a cure in progress, which ended up infecting Franklin and turning him into Boston's first zombie. Franklin ended up attacking and infecting numerous people, including Foxy's wife Roxanne, eventually causing a full spread throughout Boston. Samantha, Ted, Dave, Doug and Ashley barricaded themselves in the lab for safety. Getting to the Boston lab was The Gang's main goal as Niko stated he could likely remake the virus into a cure and undo its effects. However, when they arrived, Niko's colleagues were all dead and the lab was an overrun disaster. The group inadvertently activate a destruction sequence Franklin had implemented whilst trying to escape and eventually the main lab self destructs not long after Niko discovers Samantha is dead, Fox rescues Niko and they escape into the depths where the lab's prison lies. Niko and the others discover the prison as well as all the dirt on Franklin, revealing the truth about Athena. With Franklin, Mary and Jennifer dead as well as the destruction of the last Athena Corp. lab, the company is likely gone forever.