~Boom~Boom~
In a secluded spot, deep in a vast evergreen forest, deafening explosions reverberated igniting massive flames that overshadowed the moonlight.
...
Laying beside a crater formed from what one would've deemed as a landmine explosion, a man, who despite having his lower body blown up and guts spilling on the ground that had turned into a pool of blood, somehow held on to the strings of life.
Seems like this is it huh? I truly wish I could've had at least a day's worth of freedom. Drowning in his own blood, the man, with grunts resounding through the aflamed forest, raised his middle fingers towards the gloomy grey sky and cursed atop his lungs. An act that caused him to spit a mouthful of blood.
"Fuck you."
After the display his eyes become vacant as the raised hands prumited to the ground, 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.
His vision clearing, Kariuki, ignoring the needles of pain piercing his chest, struggled to sit up and figure out 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 too also need at least half an hour to fully recover"
Kariuki was pushed back down on the bed he'd 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'd 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 began observing his situation.
He was in a small dimly lit room that had some equipments common in a hospital with only a few minor adjustment. To his left stood a pole that held on a quadruple bag filled with some kind of black liquid. Connected to it was a thin tube that extended towards his left wrist.
To his right laid a small desk where a young woman in a white lab coat, with short curly black hair and round glasses, sat behind.
"Where am I? And who are you?"
The lady 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 a step at a time.
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 laced with fear and confusion.
"Isn't that like a dragon?"
"What happened?" she mumbled scratching her head.
"Is there another meaning?" Kariuki asked. He wondered what hydra had to do with his questions, though seeing the anxiety in her eyes he decided to just go along with it.
After a minute of silence, the woman, ignoring his question, took out a stethoscope from the left pocket on her white coat, after which she adjusted it onto her ears before extending it towards Kariuki's chest.
He hadn't had the time to grasp what was happening when she suddenly placed it on his chest.
After fixing it directly above his heart, she turned to him 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 and added.
"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 expression, 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 spreading across 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 it was causing so much destruction, though 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 to 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'd happened Kariuki somehow believed it but was still a bit skeptical.
He got off the bed, a little surprised by 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?"