One night, some time in the early 1970s, the city of Peoria, Illinois was the site of a mysterious, fast-acting pandemic that spread like wildfire throughout the entire area, a situation made worse by a freak power failure. The people infected with this strange plague became violent and psychotic, attacking anyone still uninfected around them, a situation that quickly spiraled out of control as the city descended into anarchy. With the help of a dwindling news team, a sole, unnamed disc jockey reported on these events as they occurred from the newsroom of station WHUN.
...Well, not exactly.
The Peoria Plague
is a radio play, produced for Peoria's WHUN (today known as WSWT or "Mix 106.9") in either 1971 or 1972, although neither the author nor the exact original air date is currently known. Written in the same "breaking news" style as the 1938 version of The War of the Worlds, the play takes place during a seemingly normal fall evening in Peoria, with the WHUN DJ reading some local news items and playing easy-listening instrumental music... that is, until reports start coming in about a mysterious power failure in the northern areas of the city, along with the sudden outbreak of an unknown disease. Things quickly get worse from there...
Tropes in The Peoria Plague:
- The '70s: The play takes place in either 1971 or 1972, and the opening newscast makes several references to elections and other political and social events coming up in '72.
- Alien Invasion: Something heavily implied to be a UFO is reported several times, and eventually is all but stated to be behind both the blackouts and the plague.
- Alliterative Title: The Peoria Plague.
- Apocalyptic Log: The newsmen reporting on the outbreak keep reporting until the moment they're killed.
- Big Blackout: One of the first signs that something is wrong are several mysterious blackouts occuring across Peoria.
- Danger Deadpan: The Mayor of the city employs this when announcing that he's initiating martial law with "shoot to kill" orders for the police.
- Deadline News: The reporters out in the city meet rather grisly fates, culminating with the DJ himself.
- Robert Johns, the man reporting from the hospital, is brutally beaten to death by the infected and cut in half by an elevator.
- Warren Lasalle is killed by a mob of infected when they attack his newsvan.
- Barb Fox is attacked by an infected child.
- The DJ is finally infected himself on the air after he realizes where the virus is coming from.
- Hate Plague: How the Peoria Plague manifests itself.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The events apparently take place on or sometime close to Halloween, as one of the reporters mentions finding the bodies of children clad in Halloween costumes.
- Phony Newscast: The play was aired alongside regular news and music programming by WHUN.
- The Plague: An extremely infectuous plague that's been released into the water sources used by the Peoria area, with anyone infected being able to spread the plague to other people as well, as long as they don't just kill them first.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The infected have blood-red eyes from all their blood rushing to their head.
- Shout-Out: One of the news reporters is named Carl LaFong.
- Technically-Living Zombie: The infected aren't technically speaking undead, just driven into a murderous rage by the plague, and will die again like any normal person. Their victims also won't turn if the infected kill them first.
- Water Source Tampering: Seems the reason the plague spread so fast wasn't because the infected spread it, but because someone or something had injected it into the water supply. The DJ realizes this just as he's taken a drink of water.
- Zombie Apocalypse: One of the earliest examples, with Night of the Living Dead (1968) having been released just a few years before.
