Huntersville

Huntersville is a town in the Savage Divide region of Appalachia in 2102.

Background
Huntersville is the source of Appalachian super mutants, created when West Tek conducted a secret experiment dumping FEV into the local water supply. The secret, sinister experiment went horribly, horribly wrong, creating a scourge on the region that would persist as late as 2102. Huntersville was originally a small, isolated town in the Appalachians, struggling to deal with dirty well water and other problems of living away from developed areas. The little town was on the verge of disappearing in early 2075, when West Tek and the government offered it a rural development grant. The town gladly accepted and within three months received a brand-new water recycling system and sewer lines, even hooked into Thomas McDevitt's nearby farm. Things were looking up for Huntersville, especially when the West Tek Research Center was erected outside of town in late August. Nobody batted an eye at a major corporation suddenly establishing itself in backwoods Appalachia, not with the money flowing into Huntersville and economy booming thanks to the researchers.

The town bloomed, with a new bakery set to open in the spring of 2076. Although the West Tek employees made for poor conversation partners, clamming up or ignoring the townsfolk when they tried to befriend the city folk, Huntersville wasn't too bothered by it, as soon as the money kept flowing in. Even after West Tek started paying for "testing rights". The flow of commerce suddenly halted in February 2076, after several people fell ill with a strange disease. The town suddenly became quiet as West Tek traffic stopped and more and more people started to become sick. Huntersville farmers petitioned West Tek to lend their hand and treat the sick. However, the situation steadily deteriorated, with West Tek physicians convincing the people of Huntersville that it was just a rare strain of flu... That made people's skin change color and their hair to fall out. Thomas McDevitt, who asked West Tek for help was nowhere to be seen.

By August, the situation became dire. People started mutating, turning green and becoming deformed. West Tek doctors responded by confining the people of Huntersville to their homes, citing the contagious nature of the "flu" virus and posting guards with hazmat gear throughout the town to keep them safe - or rather, contained. Huntersville became a ghost town by November, when the 12th Mountain Division was deployed to the town and ordered to enforce the quarantine. They were issued strict orders to follow full containment procedures due to the viral outbreak, citing concerns about a possible pandemic. The hazmat-equipped soldiers augmented the security while West Tek researchers continued their experiments on the population, even as the mutating humans started to turn violent. Although the soldiers found West Tek authority to be detestable, at best, they followed orders and isolated the town with roadblocks and a secure perimeter.

The soldiers weren't equipped to deal with the Huntersville horror, especially Sergeant Jake Bianchi. A day into the deployment, he was tasked with leading the extraction of a Huntersvillian for West Tek. They weren't prepared to face feral mutants, one of which lunged at the sergeant with a knife, forcing Private Sanderson to shoot her on the spot. The situation deteriorated rapidly from that point as the population of the town started attacking the barricades and the soldiers. By November 7, the fighting convinced Sgt. Bianchi that something was wrong, that the town was actually a test site and the people used as guinea pigs. He vowed to get to the bottom of the mystery... Which only earned him a rapid court martial, charged with gross misconduct, dereliction of duty and insubordination. He was arrested two days later and replaced with the much more pliable Sgt. Orlando Garrett, who showed the proper respect and deference for his West Tek masters.

Notably, West Tek's operations in the town were so secret that even the covert surveillance operatives at Sugar Grove were ordered by the Army to cease their operations and leave the town alone on October 7, 2077, leaving the analysts surprised - and curious as to what was so secret that even they weren't supposed to look at it.

Points of interest

 * Huntersville is a small, isolated town stretching alongside State Route 107. The town was isolated with road blocks to the north and the south, cutting it off from the world, with traces of the military presence at both ends.
 * The northern half of the town contains residential houses. The southwestern one, with the red star, belonged to Gail Meyers and contains a terminal giving insight into what happened at the town. On the opposite side is a ruined trailer house, adjacent to an old mechanic's garage and military tent. Around the back is a power armor station with a power armor spawn point.
 * The southern half of the town was the "downtown" area, and contains the ruined hardware store and other buildings, with the generator and water tower in the east. The area is blasted quite thoroughly, first by the mutants and then the Brotherhood/Responders during the battle of Huntersville.
 * The hardware store contains a bobblehead and a magazine spawn point, with another magazine spawn in the building just east of it. There's also a military terminal by the generator area.
 * Southeast of Huntersville, down the state route and past the checkpoint with the tank, is a Brotherhood graveyard with a dead soldier carrying another power armor. It is also the final resting place of Squire De Silva and Paladin Swafford.


 * The playground at the east end of town contains the Tac Ops terminal.
 * The first trailer northeast of the town's north gate has a chemistry station.
 * Behind the shed northeast of the above trailer is a power armor station.
 * The first house northwest of the town's north gate contains Gail Meyer's terminal.

Notable loot

 * Holotapes and notes
 * Nina Benchley's note: The note is on a side table on the second floor of the large house closest to the IFV near the hardware store.
 * The Huntersville Incident: The holotape is on the kitchen counter of the brick house southeast of the Hardware Store and IFV.
 * Trappers key fragment: The holotape will spawn on the body of Walter Griswold in the center of town during the mission Key to the Past.
 * Graveyard note: Two of the notes can be found pinned to the grave markers at the Brotherhood of Steel cemetery.
 * Potential bobbleheads
 * A bobblehead may spawn inside the hardware store.
 * Potential magazines
 * A magazine may spawn inside the hardware store.
 * A magazine may spawn inside the ruined building across the street from the hardware store.
 * Potential power armor
 * A partial suit of power armor may spawn behind the northeastern garage at the power armor station.
 * A partial suit of power armor may spawn at the Brotherhood of Steel graveyard at the southeast corner of town.
 * Other Loot
 * Fusion core: In a generator near the water tower in the east part of town.
 * W9-FZ: Key, in the frame of a bed in the two-story house with a fallen tree in the backyard. Opens a cell door in the Sugar Grove Blacksite.

Appearances
Huntersville appears only in Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes
Huntersville is a real-life census-designated place in West Virginia with a population of 73. Interestingly, the real Huntersville is located east of Watoga; its in-game location more accurately corresponds with the real-life position of Summersville.