Putting aside his thoughts about the disturbing Andan Bach, Seven stretched his sore muscles. He healed a lot in the time he researched the sergeant. He felt much better. Though stiff and frail, he no longer had the debilitating pain.

It worried Seven that just one experiment reduced him to such a state. If he stayed in Pandora to experience any more of them, he might wind up dead. He had to escape. He had to get as far away from that man as possible. But, to where? Where should he go to be safe?

New Poland. Not the main country, just one of those in the coalition. Somewhere where he wouldn’t stand out, but a country with little ambition, he decided. Nordsland was a viable option. People had fairer skin there. He could probably blend in better. But, could he really travel the some 3,000 miles from the USCU to Nordsland? And, alone at that? No, not likely. Seven bit his lip, worried about what he should do. It was just so risky.

A post popped up suddenly a New Poland social media website he had pulled up on one of his blue screens. The thread was entitled, “Anyone know these guys?” It showed a short clip of several people around one man eating a massive cake. While normally this wouldn’t interest Seven very much –though a man downing the cake was pretty funny–the replies to the video made him pause. Slowly, he read.

==========================================

Anyone know these guys???? – by @axenicecream

==========================================

} @nick-da-cmndr – [8:25pm] nope no clu. kno a guy that faceplanted ina cake once tho. EPIC FAIL!! lollolol.

—->> [email protected] [___] (b3d)/

}} @stixman – [8:32pm] dude lol. not da sam, not same @ all. sucks roat haha. & what da jeck is dat moji????

Ssuuckkkssssss trite.

}}} @nick-da-cmndr – [8:35pm] u sucks trite roat

} @hoolerv – [8:27pm] don’t know them. hey what is he wearing though? what the jeck, are you guys seeing this?

}} @hoolerv – [8:27pm] that’s a top hat right/ like jecking dated. stoneage status. here we got a caveman!!! wahaha.

}} @rxx88 – [8:28pm] woah you’re right! and look look look got on a jeking tux vest to. betcha he stole it from some dead guy. woot woot!

} @Manchesthair – [8:29pm] Know him!

}} @_vixen9014 – [8:32pm] know him, too. crazt roat of a guy. one kanted gamin.

}} @axenicecream– [8:36pm] So, Who is he???

}}} @Manchesthair – [8:40pm] Mercenary. Big jejune of the association.

}}} @hoolerv – [8:42pm] wah mercs eatin cake?? haha

}}} @rxx88 – [8:43pm] jejune?? jeck?

}}}} @stixman – [8:43pm] means jeckin child, ignorant roat

}}} @axenicecream – [8:46pm] Mercs? All of them? Or just the dude eating cake?

}}} @Manchesthair – [8:47pm] All of them, cept a few round the edges, I think. All part of the same merc group. Guy eating cake the group’s leader, Lex Palming. He’s a quirk alright.

}}}} @axenicecream – [8:49pm] Why? He dag crazy? What’s the group name?

}}}}} @Manchesthair – [8:51pm] He’s best known for doing suicide missions. Ships people out of uscu for practically nothin. Course does normal jobs to make up for it. Then he eats a cake if he finishes a job. Cause he does that, people call him the cakeman. So his group gets called the Cakemen too. Somebody musta took a vid.

}}}}}} @axenicecream – [8:54pm] Weird roat.

===========================================

This guy, Lex Palming, he might actually be crazy enough. Considering that he routinely slips people past the USCU’s border, and doesn’t ever get paid for it, he might actually attempt sneaking into Pandora if Seven could persuade him. Why would he risk crossing the border, though? No one else ever did. They’d get killed in an instant. Yet here were several people who did it and did it often. It was weird. This called for more digging.

A couple of minutes later, Seven found the Cakemen’s niche in the interweb. It was a little known hole-in-the-wall website with not much on it, nothing at all incriminating. With a bit a of maneuvering, Seven managed to find a hidden link. The password took a bit of thinking — it was a code word usually only passed on by word of mouth — but once he unlocked it, he found at a page titled The Cakeman’s Walk – Underground Road. He smiled.

There was only one button on the page. It pinged the user’s location and afterwards brought up a map of safe houses and meeting places. Seven saved the map. Then he tried something he wasn’t sure if he could do. He followed the ping.

It was difficult, but the ping brought him to a personal, military grade meta-link that luckily enough belonged to Lex Palming. He was proud that he managed to pull it off. He couldn’t stay long in the meta-link. The distance was too far, and the security measures were scrambling to shut him out once more. In the end, he could only leave a discreet message. It included the name of the secret site, the code word, the name Pandora, and a simple cry for help as well as an out of the way place online to contact him. He hoped it would be effective. Seven could only wait and see.

He sighed and closed all his browser windows. Might as well sleep now. He was sure that tomorrow would scary. A single tear slipped down his cheek. He had avoided thinking about it, but now it was overwhelming him. He was scared. The electricity hurt. It hurt so bad. Tomorrow, would they do something worse?

He curled up in the corner of his bed and the wall and sat there shivering. Now, he wasn’t sure he could sleep. Tears began to flow, and he sobbed in great gasps, soaking the knees of his pants. He was so scared.

He sat there crying for several minutes before he heard a clack. He paid it no mind and continued shivering, swallowed by his own thoughts. A second later he heard another clack, then another and another and another. Finally, his curiosity got the better of his fear, and he raised his head.

Something was flying around the room, hitting the walls and bouncing off the walls like a bouncy ball. Seven watched it for a second in confusion before standing up in an effort to catch whatever it was. He jumped several times and either missed, slipped, or dove face first into the wall. The last time, though, he managed to grab it.

He opened it hand and found a small, rough, and dark colored stone about the size of a marble. It would be perfectly ordinary if it weren’t for the fact that it was floating four inches above his palm.

AN- sorry about the weird forum thing, I just wanted to try it out for fun, though there's no way I'm going to attempt to make a table. Way to complicated for me. Also, sorry about all my funky curse words, also for fun. Hey, I figured, this is like 200 years into the future. I should be able to come up with newer curse words. hehe. Sorry to all of you that it doesn’t jive with. Well, if either really bothers you, just tell me. I’m really trying not to use curse words in my story though. Just personal preference. Thanks