Victor and MacCready were jerry-rigging a terminal to a fusion core the Survivor had brought along. After a few sparks from straying wires, the terminal clicked to life, the only light in the dark med-bay. The Minuteman General sat down and started reading the data logs left from the previous doctors.
"Okay," he leaned back in the chair, "I can't make heads or tails of this." A suggestion came from Cait,
"Why don't we let the walking encyclopedia take a crack at it?" she motioned to Curie. Victor got up from his chair and waved for the synth to take a seat. After sitting down, she clicked away at the terminal scanning all the logs for information. She threw a petite hand over her mouth to cover her gasp,
"Oh my!" everyone waited with baited breath for an explanation for the exclamation, "Zey were experimenting with strains of Beauveria Mordicana." For the rest of the group this went over their science-deprived minds, but Victor did remark,
"Bavarian Mordecai? Think I remember seeing that on the security terminal as an import from a Big Mountain Research Labs."
"Oui, Beauveria mordicana. Ze scientist 'ere developed far beyond ze samples sent from Big Mountain." This cast a cloud of concern over the six companions.
"It would infect a host to feed and take control of zem from ze inside. When ze 'ost would die, ze fungus would keep zem animated as if nothing 'ad happened."
"So, that wasn't Hancock that attacked us?" Victor asked, trying to wrap his head around the concept.
"Ze fungus 'ad been feeding on zat Deathclaw for decades. It tried to infect Hancock, but could not sustain itself on his ghoul body, so it took over and attacked." They all looked around at each other.
"Well, at least we nipped it in the bud." Came Piper's dark humor. Rubbing his temples, Victor made an address,
"Come on. Let's get the lights back on." He insisted and they all left the med-bay for the reactor down stairs.
Once they reached the dark, decrepit 3rd floor, MacCready and Cait saw the aforementioned Deathclaw. Some cautious steps around it put them on the short staircase to the reactor room. Approaching the silent nuclear engine, the group examined the machine.
"Looks like it blew a fusion rod." Victor looked around, "Sure we passed some storage rooms back there." Avoiding the Deathclaw carcass, the group split up to search the various rooms. Victor, Piper, and MacCready ended up searching the largest room together. It was quickly determined the room they were in was no warehouse.
"Why would they have a second clinic down here?" MacCready asked, straining his eyes in the dark. Victor was occupied typing on some keys on an unresponsive terminal. Standing over a bed, Piper answered MacCready's question,
"I don't think this was a clinic." The two men joined her, "And I think I found our Vault Dwellers." Victor's Pip-Boy flashlight illuminated a set of beds filled with dry skeletons, their bones breaking down into dust. MacCready's face was the definition of a grimace. Taking a step back from the macabre scene, Piper spotted a glow emanating from a cramped corner of the lab,
"How's there a light with no power, Blue?" the question was rhetorical as Victor had noticed the light too, and started towards it. The humming glow revealed the only working terminal in the lab.
"Now, why would this one computer have its own power supply?" the Survivor asked as he took a seat in front of it. The answer revealed itself when he clicked on the first log saved into the computer and a scratchy voice came through the speaker,
"This is Dr. Raymond Carpenter, project lead on the Vault 131 Research. Under the cover of secrecy, my team has begun to work on the X-22 specimen. I expect human trials ready within the first month." While the college-educated voice droned on some more science goals, the three friends made eye contact with each other.
"Go ahead and skip to the last entry." MacCready grew impatient. Victor selected the last log inputted by the good doctor. This time his stately voice seemed winded as static inhabited the background,
"This is Dr. Raymond… Carpenter, project lead on the Vault…" there was an audible exhale, "Vault 131 disaster. Our experimentation into Beauveria mordicana manipulation has created a monster. We've lost control of the test subjects. The fungus seems to spread without our explicit interaction or our knowledge. Jill Brimley was infected, but we didn't catch it till two weeks after the fact. It's as if the damn thing has become a sentient creature..." there was the sound of a crash in the audio's background, and the doctor's voice fainted away from the mic, "No, no. Get back." After a muffled roar, the audio log cut out. Taking off his hat to run his fingers through the combed brown hair, Victor huffed in shock. You could hear the creak of old beams in the silence. A high-pitched scream drug everyone out of their trance. Jumping up from the terminal they all rushed to the hallway. Preston Garvey entered the corridor around the same time.