*Boom! Boom*
Deep in the forest, explosions reverberated as massive flames ignited on the evergreen trees overshadowing the moonlight.
.....
Laying beside a crater formed from what one would deem as a massive explosion, a man, who despite having his lower body exploded off and guts spreading on the ground that had turned to a pool of blood, somehow held on to the strings of life.
Seems like this is it. I truly wish I could've had atleast a day's worth of freedom. Drowning in his blood, the man, with grunts that resounded through the burning forest, raised his middle fingers towards the empty sky, before cursing atop his lungs, causing him spit a mouthful of blood.
"Fuck you."
After the display, his eyes become vacant as the raised hands prumited to the group, having lost their support.
His breathing slowed as his conscious drifted towards eternal darkness.
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"Eleven! Eleven, stay with me man, stay with me."
Huh! So annoying, so loud, Who's that? Eleven? What's that? Come on, isn't the afterlife supposed to be quiet and peaceful?
*Argh*
What's this pain? Aren't I already dead?
"Just hold on a little longer, we're almost there"
What's happening?
....
*Beep, Beep, Beep*
*Argh"
My head hurts like crazy... What's this I can actually feel my legs.
Clearing his vision and ignoring anything else that was happening around him, needles of pain pierced his chest as he struggled to sit up, trying to figure where the feeling of him having legs came from.
"Don't push it, even for a Reaper, the wound you received almost caused you your life, that means you also need atleast half an hour to fully recover"
Kariuki was pushed back down on the bed he supposedly laid on, as an angelic voice warned.
"Reaper? Recover in half an hour hour? He wasn't a doctor, but even he knew that the injury he received was fatal, with the technology they had, it was simply impossible to recover even in a hundred years let alone half an hour. And what was this reaper she mentioned? Leaving that aside, How the fuck am I still alive? I'm a hundred percent sure I died back in that forest.
Taking a deep breath, Kariuki begun observing his situation.
He was in a small dimly lit room, which had some equipments common in a hospital, with only a few minor adjustment. On his left, was a pole that held on a quadruple bag. The bag was filled with some kind of black liquid. Connected to the bag was a thin tube that extended towards his left wrist.
On his right was a small desk and chair, behind it sat a young woman, with short curly black hair and round glasses. The woman was now busy scribbling something.
"Where am I? And who are you?"
The woman looked to have been started, not by Kariuki's croaky voice, but his questions.
"You already know where you are, as for me I'm new here, but I would've guessed you already knew about me" the lady said, going back to her writing.
"No I actually have no idea where I am, and how I'm still alive and able to feel my legs after they exploded?"
After a couple of tries, Kariuki could now confirm that his legs were still there and functional. He was surprised and had lots of questions, but being a soldier, he was capable of keeping a cool head and taking everything step by step.
When the lady heard this, she dropped the pen, pushed back the chair, stood up and took a step towards Kariuki, her face grim and full of worry.
"Do you know Hydra?" She asked her voice filled with fear and confusion.
"Isn't that like a dragon?"
"What did I do wrong" she mumbled scratching her head.
"Is there another meaning?" Kariuki asked, he wondered what hydra had to do with his questions, but seeing the anxiety in her eyes he decided to just go with it.
After a minute of silence, the woman, ignoring his question, took out a stethoscope from the pocket on her white coat, after fully adjusting it onto her ears, she extended it towards Kariuki's chest.
Before he even had the time to ask what was happening, it was already on his chest.
After placing it directly above his heart, she turned to Kariuki and asked.
"Do you remember what happened to you?"
"I just told you, half my body exploded." Feeling a bit annoyed, he answered.
The lady took in a deep breath, before finally asking.
"Do you know what year it is?"
'What a dumb question to ask, even a kid would know'
"2060"
With that, the lady, with a more amused rather than surprised look on her face, staggered back almost tripping.
Kariuki was confused, Did he somehow skip a year?
"Is this even possible, there's nothing on records about anything like this ever happening, this is a rare find, a great test subject, But how do I keep it a secret?"
Kariuki watched as the lady mumbled to herself like a mad woman, he could hear everything she was saying but couldn't understand a thing.
"Are you ok?"
Glancing at him, she stopped mumbling a sadistic smile appearing on her face as she stepped towards him.
"Do you know what this means?"
Maybe she really is crazy.
"You reincarnated in the future"
Yep, definitely has a few screws loose as if that was even possible...
"What are you on about?" He didn't wanna believe the statement he couldn't, but there was really no way he could've survived that explosion
"I could tell that you weren't lying when you said you were from 2060"
"I wasn't"
"See, that's the thing, we aren't in 2060, we're in 3435"
"Hahaha" Kariuki could only laugh, there was no way earth could've survived that long, he would have believed it if it was something like 2200.
But if she wasn't telling the truth then how the hell was he still alive.
"Here see for yourself"
She took out a watch sized device she had in her pocket, leaned closer to him and double tapped it.
A blue screen the size of 18inch television appeared.
What the screen revealed left Kariuki's mouth wide open.
On the screen was a news anchor who was explaining something about a terrorist organisation on mars called Hydra and how they were doing so much destruction, but that wasn't the reason he was shocked, after all, terrorist were common in every era. The shock came from what the so called terrorist were destroying or rather what owned it.
letting go of the small object which still levitated, the lady walked towards the furthest corner on the left. Pushing open a small window that was impossible to notice, lighting up the room, before looking at Kariuki who still had his mouth wide open.
"See for yourself"
After everything that had happened Kariuki somehow believed it but was still a bit skeptical.
He got off the bed, a little surprised about how his body was in good shape even after the pain he was in minutes ago.
Walking towards the window, he could tell this body was entirely different than before the explosion, but paid little mind to it, as he peeked through the window.
"How is it possible?"