Seven stood in a large field. Wind flowed past him, making the long grasses sway like waves. It was quiet except for the wind. He briefly thought it strange. His whole life there had always been something buzzing in the background. He tried to pull up his blue screen, but nothing happened. 

“&%$*#]@,” a sweet voice called out. It was a name, he realized. His own name. Not a number, a real name. If only he could have heard it clearly. He turned towards the voice and saw Alicia standing a ways behind him. Suddenly, he was very little. He cried in delight and ran towards her. 

“Mama!” he laughed as he wrapped his short arms around her leg. She chuckled and ruffled his hair before planting a kiss on his head. 

“How are you, my little imp? Did you have a good day?”

“It was scary, but Mama’s here, so it’s okay now,” he showed her a toothy grin. 

“That’s good to here. Look, &%$*#]@, Daddy’s here.” Seven tried to look where she was pointing, only, the world turned on its head. Darkness began to eat up everything. 

“Mama!” he cried. Then, he found himself back in the morgue. Andan was splayed out on the ground in front of him. His head turned and looked up at Seven. Huge, bloody, gaping holes where his eyes once were bored into him. Seven screamed and tried to scramble back. Andan’s arms grew in length. His fingers stretched and wrapped around Seven’s neck. He brought his mangled face next to Seven’s.

“You!” Andan’s voice gurgled, “You killed me! You’re a murderer!”

“No! I didn’t mean… You were… She was… You hurt Mom!”

“You killed me for that thing? It was a corpse! Dead! You killed me for that? What are you?”

“But you killed Julia, and you were going to kill me, too. D-don’t talk about Mom like that.”

“You justify yourself? You think yourself better than me? No, you are far worse. You aren’t even human. You were made by humans, toyed with by humans. You think you are her son? You are fake. You aren’t real. You are nothing.”

“You’re wrong! I’m… I’m…”

“You don’t even have a name, clone! And now you’ve become a murderer. What are you now? A monster! You’re a monster!”

“Shut up!” Seven yelled. A gun appeared in his hand. Seven pulled the trigger again and again. Andan flailed back as bullets pierced through his skull. “Shut up shut up shutupshutupshutUP!!!”

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The gun clicked. No more bullets come out. Seven breathed heavily. He stared at the broken Andan on the floor. Only, now it was Alicia. Seven stared at her body in horror. She turned and looked at him with her empty eye sockets. 

“Why &%$*#]@? Why did you kill me?” she asked.

“No! I didn’t… Mom!”

“You! What are you? You’re a monster!”

“Mom!” He cried as he reached down and touched her arm.

“Don’t touch me, you disgusting thing!” Seven jerked back.

“You horrible creature. You destroy everything you touch. See, now I fade. It would have been better if you never had existed.” Her body crumbled into pieces and blew away.

A hand roughly jerked Seven awake. He made a startled sound.

“You okay, boy? You seemed like you were having a pretty rancid dream there.” A man leaned over and lightly slapped Seven’s face.

“Sven, lay off. Give the kid some room. He can’t breath with you all up in his face.”

“I was not, you roat scum! Stop lying through those piscine teeth of yours, Josem!” Sven said.

“They’re prettier than the stumps you have rotting in your mouth.”

Seven looked around groggily. The two men, Sven and Josem, stood in front of him. Several more people were scattered about a small, snow filled clearing. Seven shivered, just realizing how cold he was.

“Hime! Kid’s up!” Josem said. A tall man turned and looked over at him. Seven recognized him from the pictures on the interweb. It was Lex Palming, leader of the CakeMan Mercenary group. Seven vaguely recalled seeing Lex in the morgue, but he immediately shut down that thought process. His dream was still fresh in his mind. It made him shudder.

“You alright boy?” Lex said as he walked over to Seven.

“Where are we?”

“About fifty or so miles from the Pandora base.”

“How long was I out?”

“Two and a half days.”

“You sure are amazing though, kid,” Sven butted in. “Blick tried to patch you up a couple of days ago. You had some bullets in you, but you must have some crazy roat magic or something. Blick nearly peed his pants when he saw them bullets dropping out of the holes in your gut like crap. Next day, you ain’t got nothing but scars, and even those are fading.”

“Stop being so jecking disgusting, Sven! Kid don’t want to hear about no crap. Was pretty creepy, though,” Josem scratched his jaw and turned away.

“Ignore them,” Lex said. “What are your plans now, kid?”

“I… I don’t-”

“Lex! It’s official! Gen says CNA dropped a nuke on Moscow,” Another man called.

Lex swore. “Mevin, we need to get moving now. Everyone pack up. We need to move fast. We have to get out of USCU territory as soon as possible. This place’ll be roasted soon.”

“What’s happening?” Seven asked.

“War, kid,” Josem said. “USCU and CNA are at war, and it’ll be a bloody one.”

“It’ll still take us more than a week to get to the border,” Mevin said. “At this rate, we won’t make it before the real putrid jeck comes crashing down on us. And it’ll just get worse the closer we get to the border.”

“Change of plans. We’re not going to the New Poland border,” Lex said.

“Then where we going? Moscow?” Sven said sarcastically.

“No, you idiot,” Lex slapped him. “We’re going to India.”

“India?!” Josem said.

“What’s the matter with India? Isn’t it part of New Poland?” Seven asked.

“India is a mad house, kid. It’s technically part of New Poland, but it’s where all the world’s undesirables are sent. Why else do you think that there’s a massive wall separating it from the rest of Asia?” Sven said. “India is a murderer’s paradise.”