Isabela Keyes

"You're the ones who caused this nightmare! You ruined Santa Cabeza and started all this!"

- Isabela Keyes, Dead Rising

Isabela Keyes a key character in Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2: Case West and Dead Rising 3. She is also mentioned but does not make an appearance in Dead Rising 2.

Isabela is the younger sister of Carlito Keyes, the mastermind behind the Willamette Incident during the events of Dead Rising. She helps her brother infect the population of Willamette as an act of vengeance for the destruction of Santa Cabeza. After seeing what her actions have caused, she has a change of heart and helps Frank West stop her brother from infecting the entire country.

She also creates the first zombie inhibitor using Queens in order to slow the zombification process. This idea was used by Phenotrans in order to market Zombrex. She is working for Phenotrans, trying to develop a cure for the zombie pandemic during the events of Dead Rising 2: Case West when she acts as Frank's source.

Her whereabouts remain unknown after the explosion at the Phenotrans Facility at the end of Case West until she resurfaces ten years later in Dead Rising 3. She is searching for Nick to use his blood to create a permanent cure for zombification in hopes that it will clear her family's name.

72 Hour Mode
In Dead Rising 72 Hour Mode Frank West first encounters her in the Entrance Plaza, before the zombies break in. She leaves before the breach, but not without giving Frank a strange look.
 * Introduction

Frank doesn't encounter Isabela again until he goes to Seon's Food and Stuff to get medicine for Brad Garrison; when Frank finds her in the supermarket, he discovers that Isabela has been captured by Steven Chapman, and is hinted she was there looking for medical supplies too. Frank is successful in rescuing her, but she then leaves him, accusing him of being the "enemy" and one of the people who ruined Santa Cabeza.
 * Case 2-3: Medicine Run

While Jessica McCarney is questioning Dr. Barnaby, Frank sees Isabela on a monitor in the security room, and then sets out to find her, seeing her as a source for information on the Willamette incident.
 * Case 4-1: Another Source

When Frank finds Isabela, she attacks him on her motorcycle. After a long fight in the North Plaza, Frank overpowers her, and she asks him if he is a reporter. After Frank confirms this, she tells him that the zombies were created at the Santa Cabeza Research Lab, and all the people there were killed by the military to cover up an outbreak, and her brother, Carlito, wants revenge. Isabela says she will attempt to bring Carlito to Frank at an empty store near a camera store at midnight; although she tells him he is in a bad mood, she says she will try to persuade him.
 * Case 4-2: Girl Hunting

As Frank is waiting at the rendezvous point for Carlito, Isabela bursts through the door, with a zombie attacking her. After Frank kills the zombie, it appears that she has been bitten, but she states that it is actually a gunshot wound from Carlito.
 * Case 5-1: A Promise to Isabela

Frank then transports her to the security room, injured and hurt, while Carlito is heard on the intercom, apologizing for his actions.
 * Case 5-2: Transporting Isabela

Although she originally is sympathetic to her brother's cause, after she realizes the mayhem he is causing, she allies with Frank and the survivors. She is interrogated by Brad and Jessie, and her explanation eventually leads Dr. Barnaby to confess what really happened at Santa Cabeza, and what led to its destruction as he is turning into a zombie.
 * Case 6-1: Santa Cabeza

A while after Dr. Barnaby completely turns into a zombie and is killed, Carlito is heard again on the intercom, pleading for her to return to him, and tells her he is going to his "last resort." Frank confronts Isabela about this, and she reveals that if Carlito was ever backed up into a corner, he would blow up the whole mall using bombs filled with parasitic larvae, which would eventually spread the zombie parasite nationwide.
 * Case 7-1: The Last Resort

Frank then leaves to get the bombs and stop them from detonating, with Isabela telling him where the bombs are located before he heads into the maintenance tunnels. After Frank comes back successfully, he asks Isabela if Carlito has any backup plans. Isabela, unsure, suggests they go check Carlito's laptop, located in his hideout. She then asks Frank to protect her as she leads him to the location of the hideout.
 * Case 7-2: Bomb Collector

After walking across Leisure Park, Isabela leads Frank to the North Plaza, into the hallway leading to the Huntin' Shack, and stops at a few empty stores. She stops, climbs a few boxes, and opens a latch in the ceiling. She discovers the laptop, but finds that it is protected by a password. While there, she also discovers a jamming device which prevents Jessie from contacting her DHS headquarters. Isabela says that she is able to disable it, but only if she succeeds in logging in.
 * Case 8-1: Jamming Device and Case 8-2: Hideout

Frank then leaves her as she is trying to crack the password and he finds out that Carlito has been taken by a butcher. After he defeats the deranged butcher and is given Carlito's locket by a dying Carlito to give to his sister, Frank goes to Isabela, delivers the tragic news, and gives her Carlito's locket. At first she seems uncaring to the news, but eventually she weeps over her brother's death, she holds the locket close to her chest, and after seeing the contents of the locket, she discovers the password, "Pachamama", meaning "Mother Earth." She then explains to Frank that Santa Cabeza was a town blessed with nature, and that while her brother's actions were unjust, all he wanted was to live in peace at his hometown.
 * Case 8-3: Jessie's Discovery, Case 8-4: The Butcher and The Facts: Memories

Eventually at midnight, Special Forces come to clean up the events that occurred in Willamette, and after both Frank and Isabela hear it while in the hideout, both realize that the events of Santa Cabeza will repeat itself. Twelve hours later, at the time Frank is supposed to leave the mall, he offers Isabela to come with her, but she declines, confused and without a hint of hope.

Overtime Mode
After Ed's helicopter crashes, Isabela comes to the helipad and saves Frank from the zombies, but later informs him that he is now infected. Frank then collects supplies required for the zombification cure. Once Frank has acquired the necessary items, Isabela creates a temporary serum to delay the effects of zombification. She then sends Frank to capture 10 queens, which are used by Isabela to fashion a zombie repellent pheromone. While Frank is looking for the items and queens, however, he discovers that there is a gaping hole in the clock tower, as a result of Ed DeLuca's crash, to which he tells Isabela. She and Frank then decide to descend into the dark depths of the unknown, as a way for them both to escape the mall.

After long walking through the tunnels, the duo reach a rusted gate, where the military has established a defensive perimeter. Frank activates a lever, raising the gate and distracting the military long enough for them to enter, where they promptly face the commander of the military clean-up operation, Brock Mason. Frank commandeers a humvee while Isabela manipulates the machine gun mounted on the back. After the fight Isabela and Frank's Humvee is tipped over, Frank engages Brock in combat, while Isabela climbs onto the top of the car to avoid the zombies. After Brock is killed, the game ends, with Isabela being stranded on top of the car, surrounded by zombies. As the camera pans out for one last time, she and the jeep are mysteriously absent; in the credits it states that Frank was able to survive and spread the story of what really happened at Willamette and Santa Cabeza. She is one of the very few, besides Frank, Otis, and any survivors Frank rescued, that officially survive Dead Rising.

Infinity Mode
In Infinity Mode, she will appear at Al Fresca Plaza, on her motorcycle, carrying cookies, milk and energizer from 1:00:00 to 1:19:00. She appears again at North Plaza from 6:19:00 to 7:00:00.

Dead Rising: Road to Fortune
In the opening scene of issue #1, Isabela is still standing on top of the toppled jeep as the zombies surround her. She is rescued by Frank when he pulls a automatic rifle from Mason's tank and uses it to clear a path through the zombies, allowing him and Isabela to reach a helicopter idling nearby. However, Isabela suddenly turns into a zombie and bites Frank, just as he wakes up in his home and reveals the scene as a dream. Apart from the final scene where the zombified Isabela bites Frank, the rest of the dream is implied to be Frank's memory of how they escaped Willamette.

In issue #2, Frank reveals in flashback form to Rebecca Chang that shortly after escaping Willamette, Isabela was captured and arrested by Homeland Security for being a wanted terrorist. Frank is forced to let the DHS agents take her away under threat of being named a co-conspirator, and he mentions that he hasn't seen Isabela since.

Dead Rising 2
It is revealed by Stacey Forsythe that Isabela was working on a cure for zombification for those who have been bitten, but not yet turned.

When Chuck Greene confronts Sullivan for the final battle, Sullivan says that Queens are necessary in order to make Zombrex, thanks to Isabela.

Dead Rising 2: Case West
In Dead Rising 2: Case West, Isabela is Frank's contact and provides to be his source as he investigates the Phenotrans Facility to expose the corporation to the public. It is not until later that Isabela reveals herself to be Frank's source, when Frank and Chuck arrive in the Secure Lab. Frank is initially disgusted at Isabela, demanding to know how could she be working for Phenotrans. She reveals that she was forced to work, or be sent to jail.

During her work, she was trying to come up with a synthetic drug that would not rely on queens, like Zombrex does. Isabela was also working on a cure, but her work was stolen. She was about to flee the lab, which had kept her locked in, so she could finish her research, but Marian Mallon, Director of the Phenotrans Facility, stopped her by sending two guards into the lab. She was able to escape unharmed, leaving Frank and Chuck thinking that she abandoned them. However, she returned and took out one of the guards, though Harjit Singh arrived and knocked her out. Before being knocked unconscious, Isabela slid a flash drive (presumably filled with information on her research) to Frank, but it was promptly stepped on by Harjit and thus destroyed. Isabela was then taken out of the facility before Mallon activated the self-destruct.

Dead Rising 3
Isabela has been trapped inside a lab for years and she is finally freed when a zombie outbreak spreads to Los Perdidos. She manages to escape and is searching for a missing element to the cure, a blood sample from "patient zero".

Isabela is first encountered during Chapter 6 when Nick is trying to escape from the train repair yard after being captured by Marian. As soon as Isabela tells Nick her name, he immediately gets angry, blaming her for the Willamette outbreak and for killing Diego. Isabela promises that Nick will not end up like Diego, and urges that they find somewhere safer. Isabela manages to get inside of an elevator before Marian closes it, leaving Nick behind. Nick tells her to meet him at the warehouse where the plane is, and she promises that she will tell him everything she knows once they reunite.

Nick and Annie return to the warehouse during Chapter 7. At this time, Isabela tells them the story of Santa Cabeza and reveals that Nick has the cure for the zombie virus in his blood, which is why it is important that they escape as soon as possible, as Marian will stop at nothing to manufacture a cure. She and Annie are trapped in a shipping container when Red tricks them out into coming to the shipping yard but are freed after Red's defeat. She boards the airplane along with Annie, Nick, Chuck and Dick and eventually escapes the city.

It is revealed during Ending S that Isabela worked with Marian Mallon to purposely start the outbreak in Los Perdidos. She intended to hunt down Nick to create a cure, and use this as an opportunity to clear her family's name. After the deaths of both Marian and Hemlock, Isabela destroys the video footage containing the conversation between Isabela and Marian revealing Isabela's plan and leaves the laboratory.

It is assumed that Isabela got her wish and was credited for creating the zombie vaccination after the escape from Los Perdidos.

Trivia

 * She is the first playable female character in the series, this is when handling the weapon at the back of the vehicle in the last part of the first Dead Rising game.
 * Despite being pictured with a Barrett M82 in her concept art, she does not use the Barrett M82 anywhere in the game. She does use the Barrett M82 in an old trailer for the game while clearing out zombies in the Entrance Plaza.
 * In Dead Rising 2, her name is spelled "Isabella", this can be seen with the subtitles on. Her name is also spelled this way in Dead Rising 3 as seen in subtitles as well as some of the mission names.
 * Isabela's nationality is never told, however it is hinted to either be Argentinian or Bolivian, since the Pachamama is worshiped and celebrated in both countries.
 * The earrings in her notebook photo in Case West are different than the ones she wears in game.
 * So far, Isabela is the only character to appear in every era of the Dead Rising series and thus also the only character to have three different character designs, illustrating her aging.
 * Isabela was voiced by Kim Mai Guest in Dead Rising, who also voices Xian Mei, a character in another popular zombie video game, Dead Island.
 * She has a new voice actor for every game she has appeared in.