Thugtown Incident

The **1928** **Thugtown Incident**, also called the **Thugtown Massacre**, was a viral outbreak of an unknown pathogen, lasting from March 17th-20th to sometime in late March, 1928, only ended with the permanent quarantine of the eponymous city, along with the destruction of the entire city, the casualties ranging into the tens of thousands.

Starting a couple of days after St. Patrick's Day, the incident involved widespread killings, civil unrest and later large-scale rioting in the entire city, with law enforcement and city officials completely losing control of the situation. Officially filed away as a sudden and drunken anti-Prohibition protest gone wrong, leaked information implies that accidental contamination from a mysterious toxin with local bootleg distilling operations caused the victims to turn into the undead cannibals, now known as zombies.

In reality, a local Mafia affiliate had purposely infected Thugtown's breweries with the toxin, making it one of the earliest cases of modern biological terrorist attacks, not only in the United States, but in the entire world.

## The Drunken Riots

The initial stages of the Incident happened in March 1928. The Prohibition was still hitting hard, but the people needed their fix, especially with St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, though Thugtowners were not exactly interested in the religious aspects of the holiday as much as they were in the more hedonistic facets. It had become normal for most towns to secretly keep breweries running to appease the people and their livers, so the quality was clearly lacking in some cases, what with the local gangs now pursuing their interests internationally or at least outsourcing their supply chains to other counties and states. So what if the boys at the brewery messed up and didn't pay attention to the stills for a while? Liquor is liquor, no matter how pungent or tinged it may be. As long as it gets you drunk and has you lose your senses a bit, hell, even getting a bit spotty and blotchy, it's not like that's gonna last...

Skip forward several days later: the locals had apparently still not gotten over their hangover, still slouching around the alleys, dazed and moaning. Their skin had also turned grey and their eyes awfully vacant and milky in color. Trying to get them home or into the drunk tank would only get them all riled up and agitate them into clawing and biting at you. You could almost swear they enjoy the taste when they bite off the digits of some poor cop during a struggle. Some would even band together into groups and march aimlessly until they caught the sight of passerby and jump them violently, taking out whole chunks out of their victims at times. While there were some casualties, it was nothing that didn't happen during the celebrations themselves. In fact, it seemed like these attacks were just residue of St. Patty's, which was, in comparison, fairly relaxed, with fewer incidents than usual. Most of the recuperated, mostly just bite wounds, however, also got down with whatever was plaguing the troublemakers. It was when the attacks got worse that the police tried to deal with the wastrels and were met with brutal mauling of responding officers. The local newspaper, The Thugtown Observer, was often able to caption the action as it happened and started to document the whole thing, also giving it an ominous title, The Drunken Riots.

Headlines like "*MOB-ALCOHOL CAUSES BIZARRE OUTBREAK", "DRUNK RIOTERS EAT POLICE! (Thugtown Officials call in help from army as all hell breaks loose)"* or *"ST. PATTY'S AFTERMATH SPAWNS STRANGE DISEASE"* made the rounds all over the nation, but most were confident the Army contacted by city officials would strong arm the situation. No reports came in after the National Guard was dispatched and the voice of Thugtown soon became silent. Dead silent.

## Aftermath

Days later, large green clouds were seen hovering around Thugtown, seemingly emitting right out of Thugtown. The Army came back out, though some odd dozens were written off as M.I.A.. As quick as they came out, construction work began, with multiple walls being build around the whole town. Thugtown was turned into an Army outpost and designated a quarantine zone, since the affliction that caused the Thugtowners to go mad was still emanating in the area. It had been a massacre, a slaughter, but few people like words like that, so it was describes as simply an incident. The Thugtown Incident.

Notable casualties include Bonnino crime family Boss Sonny Bonnino and Belluccio crime family Don Mr. Belluccio, who were both executed with a shot in the head sometime during the chaos. There were no survivors to speak of at first and though a single survivor was found later, in possession of a huge arsenal of illegal weaponry, a military-grade blimp and millions of dollars, he was released after claiming to have no recollection of the Incident. It was assumed the riots had consumed the entirety of Thugtown. How ironic such a statement is if you know the real story, or at least half of it.

Unverified gossip and hearsay tell a story of deceit and trickery, in which bootleggers adulterated their booze a little too much and turned the thirsty masses into a hungry one, but that would be a half-truth. Only a handful of people know this, most of whom are no longer with us, but a disgruntled gangster had released the poison after coercing its creator, a former government employee, upon the whole city of Thugtown before St. Patrick's Day by mixing it into the local brew. Calling it a "Perfect Diversion", he went on to murder his boss, but was thwarted in his escape by a certain wanted mafioso. What was the gangster's motive? Bottomless greed and a wish for total respect.