Author's Notes: Just an idea floating around in my head: What if the Enclave decided for whatever reason to use another virus? How would that impact the canon events of Fallout 2?

Needless to say, there will be some minor spoilers for Fallout 2. I also don't own anything: Fallout was developed by Interplay by now owned by Bethesda Softworks. The Zombie Survival Guide belongs to Max Brooks.

Monday, January 9th, 2237
Mariposa Military Base Excavation Site

Colonel Sanders was not a happy man.

Actually, to be more accurate, Colonel Sanders was a really unhappy man.

For a good chunk of the past year, he had risked the lives of the good men and women under his command securing then defending the ruins of the Mariposa Military Base. Sure, it wasn't that much of a risk: the muties around were hardly a challenge, and most of them were smart enough to stay the heck away anyway. About the only excitement really came when a small squad of super mutants approached the ruins a couple months back. But it was the principle that mattered.

Standing next to the Colonel was the man he held responsible for the fiasco: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Curling, the head of the United States Chemical Corps. Though perhaps it wasn't totally fair of Sanders to hold the egghead responsible, but nonetheless, this entire venture was ultimately started on his word. And in the same spirit of fairness, Curling looked just as frustrated and unhappy as he felt, blinking and peering at his PipBoy as he read the report from the excavation team.

The two of them were standing alone in one of the tents that had been set up on the perimeter. It was spartan in its furnishings: a bed, a footlocker, a table, a chair, a small lamp, and nothing more. Sitting on the table was a grey nondescript briefcase that Curling had brought with him. The tent gave Sanders and Curling a modicum of privacy, though the mechanical sounds of the Vertibird which carried the scientist and his team over to the excavation site could still be very clearly heard.

Curling sighed, "I guess I should have anticipated this outcome. After all, the levels of FEV in the air were much lower than expected. On hindsight, one obvious explanation for this phenomenon would be the total annihilation of the vats containing the FEV nutrient suspension." The scientist frowned, "But given what we knew of Mariposa's self-destruct process, this was not supposed to be."

Sanders grunted, "I don't care about what was or wasn't suppose to be. We have to deal with the now, and the fact of the matter is that we have no FEV - the very reason we came to this godforsaken place. On your suggestion, might I add."

Curling sighed again, his shoulders slumping with the action. "I suppose you are correct."

Sanders mildly contemplated berating the egghead some more, but realized that it would serve no useful purpose. Instead, he tried to make nice and decided to toss the scientist a bone. "Well, should we keep on excavating the rest of the base? Maybe there's something else worthwhile."

Curling shook his head. "Perhaps. But not as far as the FEV is concerned. What records we have are minimal, but at least they are very clear in this: the FEV was only stored at West Tek, where it was created, and at Mariposa, where the development of the virus was eventually moved, along with the vast majority of active samples. West Tek was hit hard by the bombs almost at the very beginning of the nuclear exchange with China, so that is not an option. And even if it was an option, it is now deep in Brotherhood territory. Mariposa on the other hand was supposed to be operational, but someone obviously triggered the self-destruct. Mariposa was our last hope."

"But someone created the virus in the first place, right? Can't you and your team do the same thing?"

Curling gave a mirthless laugh. "Thank you for thinking so highly of us. I suppose that given enough time, we can do just that. But our records on its creation once again is minimal at best - we would basically be starting from sketch. On top of that, we do not nearly have the manpower that West Tek had when they first developed the thing. Do you want to be one to tell the President that the Project may be delayed by a few years, or maybe even a decade or worse?"

Sanders grimaced at the thought. "I see what you mean. But what about the samples you already have?"

Curling shook his head again. "Not nearly enough for our purposes. I still have to modify and refine the virus to make it suitable for the Project. I am afraid the FEV initiative is effectively dead."

Sanders slammed an armored gauntlet against the table. "So this was a colossal waste of time and effort!"

Curling smiled for the first time. "Not entirely. Like you said, further excavation may yield something useful, though not related to the project. Also, there is a reason why my team and I came in person to this site."

"Oh? Please, do tell."

"First, we want to ascertain that the vats are indeed lost."

Sanders bristled. Was the egghead really implying that he and his men do not know what they were doing? "I assure you that they are. My team knows what they're doing."

Curling raised his hands to placate the Colonel. "And I do not doubt you, Colonel Sanders, and apologize if I had inadvertently offended you. I fully expect to get the same results you have, but a second look never hurts."

A little bit mollified, Sanders responded, "I'll buy that... for now. And what's your second reason?"

Curling pointed to the briefcase. "This is the second reason. I am afraid I will need to borrow some of your miners."

Sanders raised an eyebrow. "Plan B?"

Curling nodded. "Plan B.

"As you know, when the bombs fell, our predecessors had very little time to gather important documents and materials before we had to retreat to the Oil Rig. Needless to say, much was lost. However, one of the things that was saved were twenty large drums of this... stuff." Curling opened the briefcase, showing its contents to the colonel. There were ten sealed test tubes of some sort of red liquid. Curiously, there was enough space for ten more, but they remained unfilled. Curling continued. "This was what was in the drums, but we did not know that for the longest time. For one thing, any documentation associated with the drums were lost." The scientist suddenly gave a somewhat impish smile. "And the fact that the drums were clearly labelled 'Dangerous biological agent! Do not open under any circumstance!' may have contributed to our reluctance to explore them more fully."

Sanders could see to what the scientist building up, and felt a headache coming. "Let me guess: after receiving my initial report here from Mariposa, our dear President decided to authorize the opening of the drums."

Curling nodded. "Yes. After taking all the precautions we could, we opened one of them. Turns out that there is some sort of super virus in this red nutrient suspension. Given our complete lack of documentation on it, we have decided to run a few tests."

Sanders frowned. "Isn't that a bit dangerous? What if the virus is airborne?"

Curling waved one hand negligently. "No. When we took the virus out of the red nutrient suspension, it died pretty quickly. So it is definitely not airborne capable. You should be safe enough, especially if you keep your Power Armor on. Of course, I would recommend against touching the suspension directly if I were you."

Sanders snorted. "Didn't plan to. But I can see where you are going with this. You want to inject the miners with this stuff to see what it does to them."

"That is the plan, Colonel. For all we know, the super virus is a mutagenic agent instead of a terminating agent, and we need to know for sure."

"Well, I'm sure I can give you a few of the miners. We were planning on disposing of them anyway, so might as well make some more use of them. You scientist types love your experimental data after all, right?"

It was Curling's turn to grimace, and he turned uncharacteristically hesitant. "Yeah, about that...we may be getting the 'experimental data' sooner than we wanted or expected."

"Huh?"

"We had twenty test tubes total, grouped into two groups of ten. Someone - who I regret to admit is part of my team - dropped one of the test tube racks trying to transfer them to the briefcase. The glass shrapnel flew all over the place. It badly cut up three of my team members, including the idiot himself. Sadly, he is cut so badly that he is not expected to survive. What a shame. I would not be surprised if he is in the morgue by now."

"Heh, a shame indeed. This idiot of yours is getting what he deserves."

"Unfortunately, there is even more bad news. He also got five of the guards too, though thankfully not too seriously in their case."

"What? Weren't they wearing Power Armor?"

"If they were, do you think they would have sustained the injuries they currently have?"

Obviously the soldiers were getting lax in following regulations. Sanders made a mental note to...make his displeasure known when he returned to the Oil Rig. "Wonderful. So you have eight people potentially infected with the super virus. I hope you quarantined them."

"What do you think?"

The two men fell silent at that, pondering the future direction of the Project. Suddenly, Sanders realized something. "One more thing."

"Yes?"

"What are we calling the virus? You said that you guys have absolutely no documentation on it."

"Oh, that was easy. Besides the 'Dangerous biological agent!' warning label, the drums were also stamped with the name of its contents." Curling leaned in slightly, as if disclosing a great secret.

"Apparently, this virus is called...

...the Solanum Virus."

This will be a one shot for now, but if I build on this, it will probably be the prologue to an AU Fallout 2.

If you want to take this idea and run with it, by all means feel free to do so. But please let me know if you do, thanks!