"Really, now...you're not regretting it in the slightlest." Charon snapped back as he exited towards the female, fumbling around his backpack and producing a series of carefully wrapped test-tubes. "Here. I hope you have better luck with them than I did." He said, with his teeth clenched in barely contained disgust.

He sat down quietly, clasping his hands in front of his mouth as the nineteen year old questioned him. No test of loyalty, huh. He paused quietly. What to say... Well, for starters, he wanted to strangle the little girl until she ceased to be annoying. His eyebrow twitched slightly, his annoyance being patent. However, he couldn't display this to one who truly believed she had been granted the Oracle with the Highest grace.

"If you knew someone has untapped potential, and could be helpful towards helping this world, but misuses it, how would you feel?" Charon replied, taking off his glasses. They were not needed. Truth to be told, he was just wearing them because it made him look more intellectual... and less agressive. "Even if it's a ten year old girl." He added.

"She talks high and mighty about being an Oracle. A chosen of the Highest." He paused. "You know who else did that? Alexander the Great. However, unlike Alexander, she doesn't even believe in herself, despite being a rambunctious child who turns off an offer of becoming the last medical apprentice of this city."

He paused. "Your equipment in here is great. You do have even security cameras and informatic appliances up and running. Not to mention electrical power." Charon muttered.

And then, all of a sudden, his hand shot to a side, grabbing one of the precious test tubes. "So close, yet so far. I showed my intentions. I even tended an honest olive branch at her. I want to help a 10 year old girl with so much untapped potential learn how to live and love life in this wasteland, and perhaps, maybe perhaps, find a cure."

"But she won't listen to me. She's shut herself in, coddled by sycophants. But the dream won't hold for long. Soon, she'll crumble. Like everything keeps crumbling." The medic said, in a quiet raspy tone. "And that burns. It burns me from the inside out. To see what's left of this wonderful world that once was keep spiraling into madness, like I do. We'll be back to the bronze age at this rate."

"You who have been the longest with her. She'll listen to you. Engrave this in your mind." He popped the cap of the sample. "This is how Hope is brought." He then drank the contents of the sample. "Yeeuch, stale infected crow blood. I wanted to do this on a more controlled environment, and with additional safeguards..."

He then deposited the now empty tube, rolling it towards Katie. "If my theory is correct, I won't die. I've been building resistance to the illness for 3 years straight, by tossing myself headfirst in the pandemic. I should be able to retain it, even if I'm past the assumed safe age. I'm my most precious sample, in a sense, heh." He then raised himself from the table.

"Well then, I'm off to see my books. See ya."