"How's this possible?"
He couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing, he'd never really been on mars, but the images that regulated the internet were enough .
The planet was an endless red desert. The sun hadn't risen yet, making the current temperature cool.
"We're gonna find out soon enough." With a grinning face the young woman answered.
I don't know why, but I don't trust her one bit, especially with that smile Kariuki lampooned, as he focused back on the red planet.
His head was filled with so many questions, one being how they were able to breath on this planet.
Stepping back from the window, he faced the woman who stood before him.
"Do you happen to have a mirror?"
Having already figured out that this wasn't his body, the best way he could come to terms with it was to find out how exactly this new body looked like.
"I bet you'd be surprised by how handsome this body is." Walking towards her desk, the lady commented, being eager to see Kariuki's reaction to his new body, she opened one of the drawers under the desk and took out a head sized mirror.
"Here" before Kariuki could grab the mirror, the lady pulled it back, scratching her head as if remembering something, before asking.
"If you're not Eleven, who are you? And what happened to him?" Being immersed in Kariuki's situation, she had forgotten about her comrade, not that she cared.
"How should I know, it's my first time hearing about this Eleven, and I'm pretty sure I've never reincarnated again." He too was curious about what happened to this Eleven, but there was no way of knowing it, so he just decided to leave it at that for the time being.
"You gotta point there, but you never told me your name"
"Doesn't courtesy exist on this day and age, you're supposed to tell me your's first."
"I'm not asking so I could use it, I'm asking because I'm a little curious that's all, after all I'll keep on calling you Eleven so that no one else finds out about you." She paused for a moment, snapping her fingers as if trying to remember something. "Oh! And mines Eighty."
"Eighty, Eleven, now you're gonna tell me about one, two and a hundred are names..."
"Actually theres One to around three thousand and ninety something" Interrupting him, the young woman added.
What the "anyway Mines Kariuki"
"Just as funny as the books said."
Ignoring her remark, Kariuki proceeded to ask his question.
"What's the deal with everything on this timeline?"
Eighty, went quiet for a while before her entire deminor changed onto a serious mode.
"We have about an hour before someone comes looking for you." She paused for a moment, clearing her throat before continuing."If anyone else finds out you're not Eleven or you're somehow acting strange, that'll be the last day you'll be on mars."
"How am I supposed to learn everything about him and this world in an hour?"
"Huh! That's pretty simple to do, the problem is the risk that comes with it."
"Simple?" How is learning almost twenty years worth of memory simple. Taking the mirror from her, he proceeded to see what this so called handsome face really looked like.
Kariuki was a little flabbergasted by the reflection he saw on the mirror. The man before him had a chised jaw line and an unusual yellow eyes.
"Why don't you let it down?"
Kariuki was first confused about what she could've meant "0h you mean the hair?" He had not noticed it before, but the original owner of this body had his hair tied up.
A nervous smile appeared on his face, as he gave up on trying to untie it.
"How do you do it?"
Stepping closer to him, she pulled one of the knots on his head and immediately waist length black dreads came undone.
"Back to the topic at hand?"
"Yeah, what did you mean by simple, but risky?" Kariuki asked waving around his new hair, in his previous life he had dreads, but compared to the one he had now, you could've called them sprouts.
"Did you forget, we're a thousand years in the future, almost everything that was impossible in the past is possible, that means there's nothing like memory loss in this century.
But now comes the problem, regaining a lifetime worth of memory is supposed to take a month or so, speeding up the process can cause ringering effects and a shit ton of pain."
"Can't I just pretend I lost my memory, not technically pretending, but you can make me recall them with the required process?"
"You'd be dead by that time, the leaders would suspect that you're corrupted, and they don't take risks.
You know we're in the so called terrorist organisation and we're practically one of them?"
"Yeah I figured as much."
He had wanted to ask multiple questions about this organisation sooner, but after hearing that he could gain the memories of the original host, he decided to just wait.
"So I'm risking my life if I go through with the procedure and if I don't then it's game over, is that right?"
"Yeah, pretty much, but for us the risk is reduced drastically because of our Reaper genes."
Reaper genes? Forget it if I survive the procedure I'll know everything It wasn't that he didn't like his second chance, but even if he managed to escape here, what else? what was he supposed to do? he didn't really know anyone in this timeline plus how the hell was he supposed to get back on earth.
"Let's do it then." Kariuki said with eyes full of resolve.
"Okay then, but I assure you, you're gonna wish you stayed dead."
Eighty walked towards her desk, in the same drawer she had taken out a mirror and took out a red object that resembled a VR headset.
"You should probably lay back on the bed."