Boston slums
The Boston slums, marked Area 5 on military maps, are the poor district of the Boston quarantine zone where the smugglers run an open black market. You walk through them in The Slums section of The Quarantine Zone while hunting the smuggler Robert.
- Type
- Settlement
- Region
- Boston
Good to know
- It is in the Boston region, inside the QZ but away from most military patrols.
- Five collectibles turn up in The Slums section, including the Drafting notice, Wanted poster, Shipping manifest and Docks note.
- Residents bet ration cards on fistfights and poker, and drugs change hands openly.
- Terrance tries to sell Tess a deal, and Malick tries to stop Joel until Tess calls him off.
- The district leads to the wharf at Mission Hill Pier.
What you do here
Joel and Tess bribe their way in, push past the market stalls and a crowd around a fistfight, and learn from a guard that Robert has run to the wharf. Both the Drafting notice and the Wanted poster lie just past the bus where Malick confronts you.
Who lives here
People in the slums are rougher than in the upper areas and wary of strangers. Robert used to hide in Area 2 before falling back to the warehouse and wharf. Soldiers rarely come in unless they hear gunfire.
- Drafting NoticeThe Drafting Notice is a FEDRA work order lying in a heap of papers in the Boston slums. After the bus where Malick confronts Joel, walk straight on between a vendor's stall on the left and a canopy on the right; the notice is on the ground at the corner.
- Wanted PosterThe Wanted Poster is a FEDRA notice pinned to a bulletin board in the Boston slums. Past the bus where Malick stops Joel, head straight to the fence where a man and woman stand talking; the poster hangs on the board to their left.
- MalickMalick is a tough in the Boston slums who tries to block Joel's path in The Quarantine Zone. Tess knows him and sends him back to his seat with a single word.
- TerranceTerrance is a black market trader in the Boston slums who tries to sell Tess something as she and Joel head to Robert's warehouse in The Quarantine Zone.
- Tess ServopoulosTess Servopoulos is Joel's smuggling partner in the Boston quarantine zone and your companion through the first two chapters after the prologue. She is the one who talks Joel into taking Marlene's job, and she escorts Ellie with him across downtown Boston toward the Capitol Building.
Related places
- Other
Quarantine zone
Quarantine zones are the walled, military-run safe areas FEDRA set up across the United States after martial law was declared. Most have since fallen to infection, revolt or abandonment. Boston's North End zone is the one you live in and play through at the start of Part I, and you pass the dead zones of Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City later.
- Landmark
Mission Hill Pier
Mission Hill Pier is the wharf in the Boston slums where the smuggler Robert runs his trade. Joel and Tess fight through Robert's men here at the end of The Slums section of The Quarantine Zone, then chase him through the area.
- Landmark
Freedom Museum of Boston
The Freedom Museum of Boston is a history museum about the American Revolutionary War that Joel, Tess and Ellie cut through in the Museum section of The Outskirts. A wave of infected chases them inside, and you fight clickers and runners through its exhibits.
- Landmark
Massachusetts State House
The Massachusetts State House, usually called the Capitol Building in the game, is where Marlene sends Joel and Tess to hand Ellie to a waiting Firefly group. It is the goal of The Outskirts and gives the chapter's last section its name.