The start of a long day after yet another long, sleepless night. Helena pushed herself up from the ground and walked to a large desk covered in paperwork and various contraptions. Alone, as usual; quite possibly the only being left in the Hadesworth Institute--a well-known graduate school located in the heart of the city. More specifically, she was holed up in a laboratory space in the basement. It didn't get any closer to "ground zero" than this.<br/><br/>Glancing around nervously for a moment, she reached for a small personal recording device and flicked it on.<br/><br/>"Dr. Helena Sael," she dictated, "day...thirty-one, I think. The fifth day of my own infection. I have just finished my morning meditation. So far my attempts to stop the...the hunger.......have produced only slightly encouraging results."<br/><br/>At this she paused. Helena reached for a small remote control on the desk and clicked a button, causing a small portable stereo to blip to life and began playing a classical music CD. She also took a moment to examine the green paint she'd splattered over the walls of the lab three days ago.<br/><br/>"The meditation, calming music, and calming colors have not stopped the hunger, but I...I think it's slowed my degradation, slightly. Blood culture analysis from yesterday hasn't helped, either. I wish I had more to work with, but...I've wound up eating any live samples before I could complete proper research. Every day that I fail to resolve this......is a day closer to becoming something else. Even so, I will still fight as long as I can..."<br/><br/>Suddenly Helena stopped short again, dropping the recorder to the floor and clutching her stomach as it gave a painful and audible growl. What she wouldn't give at that moment for a moist slice of cake, or a nice chubby squirrel-morph--she did her best to cut off her own train of thought, and bent over to pick up the recorder again.<br/><br/>"It's been...about four hours since I last ate someone. I think I'm at my limit. I need to eat, but........."<br/><br/>She grabbed a white coat from the rack and made for the entrance. Once the recording device was tucked away, Helena charged up the stairs and walked out of the institute's main entrance. Now that she was out of the basement, she reached into another pocket and produced a handheld CB radio. She'd contacted other survivors in the city with it before, and made a point during the first few days of her infection to warn others about her condition. As a result, word of a potential cure had started to spread among the remaining survivors, but so had a very important caveat: Never agree to meet with Helena Sael.<br/><br/>She was too late to see the flare, but turned on her radio only to notice the tail end of another conversation. As usual, the internal battle once again started up: help these people, or hunt them?<br/><br/>The end result was somewhat of a mixture of the two. Helena raised the radio to her mouth and simply said "This is Dr. Sael. I'm...glad to hear that some have survived the night. My research is not complete yet, but I........I'm coming out."<br/><br/>Breakfast time.