The Door

Chapter 3- This Is So Freaking Cool!

I awoke on a beach with crusty sand clinging to my face and hands. My body ached, but they were not the same aches and pains I had long ago come to feel, know, and expect. No, rather, the aches I felt now were the aches of having worked out really hard the previous day, and now my muscles were sore from the abuse. Without looking at the blinking HUD notifications hovering at the periphery of my vision, I immediately felt that I was stronger. As a matter of fact, I felt as if I were a teenager again. My guts didn’t ache, and my abdomen wasn’t tender to the touch from IBS or celiac disease. My teeth didn’t hurt anymore. My ears didn’t ring constantly or ache. My eyesight was clear. One hundred percent again. My glasses were gone, and my vision was as sharp as it was when I was eighteen!

I awoke lying on my belly, so I rolled over and sat up and looked around. The door was gone. The night and the rain and the wind were gone. Kennewick was gone. I wasn’t sure if this was earth or not, but this was definitely not Washington State. I doubted the door would simply transfer me across the world to some abandoned beach in the Mediterranean. So, I assumed the earth was gone.

The scenery surrounding me was beautiful though. The ocean water was a shade of aqua-blue I have never seen except in photos. The beach sand was white for as far in both directions as I could see, and so soft. Then, as I turned in a circle, I saw that further inland the sand gave way to grass, and it was a vibrant green I haven’t seen since my childhood. Looking up, I saw the sky was a vibrant, crystal-clear blue filled with white, fluffy clouds. There was no ever-present smog, no haze, no pollution like what was on Earth where the government poisoned the atmosphere, the plants, the animals, and its citizens with heavy metal-laced, high-altitude chem-trails. No, this new world seemed completely untouched by industry and global pollution.

I can only hope that in this world there are no governments like what I left on Earth, bloated and corrupt to the core. From the political advocacy groups to the corrupt pay environmental organizations who rubber-stamp corporate pollution while creating paper tigers like carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that will raise temperatures and melt polar caps. While in the meantime, a nuclear reactor melted down and poisoned the Pacific Ocean. Corporations generate so much plastic that there is literally more garbage than there are places to bury it. Then there are the pharmaceutical companies that are poisoning people with synthetic chemical prescriptions and genetically modified immunizations and viral vaccines while also making trillions off of government funding and charities while never intending to cure anything. After all, treating the symptoms of the sick is far more lucrative than curing them, and then there is the matter of population controls. You can’t let those uneducated masses, those undesirables, overpopulate!

There really was something to the saying, “Let’s kill all the lawyers!” Only, if it applied to lawyers, then it should apply doubly for politicians.

Laughing, as I realized I had escaped the trap of slavery to corrupt government controls and crony capitalism. I sat there for a while and just looked out at the ocean and brushed the sand from my face and hair. For a brief moment, I wondered how Beth and the kids were faring; then I laughed again. Pain stabbed at my heart, but I tried not to think about it too much. I missed them. I missed her. Beth. However, my pain and sadness didn’t matter. I wouldn’t have seen them even if I was there, and they certainly wouldn’t see or speak to me. So, with a heavy sigh, I put them out of my mind and took in my surroundings. After all, this was my second chance at life.

The sand was caked in my hair, so I decided to go for a swim. I was still wearing the same clothes I was wearing when the door appeared before me. I wasn’t sure whether only minutes had passed or hours; however, my clothes were dry. It had been after midnight when I was walking home, but here the sun was up and had been for hours, it seemed. Feeling safe enough and secluded, I decided to strip off my clothes and wade out into the water.

The water was the perfect temperature for a hot sunny day. Cool and refreshing, so I swam for several minutes and luxuriated in the feel of the salty water caressing my naked body. I felt thirty years younger, and it was amazing! However, at length, I swam until I washed the sand out of my hair and beard, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also used the opportunity to wash my body and examine myself with my hands.

The first thing I noticed immediately was that I was no longer sporting a dad bod. Pudgy. Slightly overweight. Soft. Strong, but covered in twenty-six years of fat from gaining weight with Beth when she was pregnant, then gaining weight from eating too well, and then gaining weight from eating badly. Now, it was as if I was reborn! I am still a fifty-year-old man; however, now I am well-muscled as if I had been doing military calisthenics for years. Not overly muscled and bulky but, rather, trim and cut. With a brush of my hand and a caress of the water, I got an erection and was stunned. I hadn’t gotten one so easily in years. It truly was as if I were a teenager again!

Laughing joyfully, I climbed out of the sea and walked toward my clothes and for the first time noticed a backpack. Curious, I opened it up and found fresh clothes, boots, and socks. They were my clothes, as if someone had gone into my home and packed this bag for me. The pants were sturdy denim. There was a T-shirt and a long-sleeve flannel. There were a pair of natural colored pull-on boots with a zipper on the side. And there were three sets of underwear and three pairs of socks, but that wasn’t all. Then, there was a canteen of water, a roll of bread, a wedge of cheese, and, oddly enough, a box of granola bars. After that, things got weird.

I removed my clothes and the food from the pack and laid them out on the beach. Afterward, I reached into the pack and found my Smith & Wesson 1911 pistol in a leather holster sewn to a heavy leather belt. I pulled the gun, holster, and belt out of the pack and found several ammo clips in specially made cases that ringed the back of the belt. Also, attached to the left side of the belt was a scabbard with a sheathed Gladius shortsword!

My next immediate thought as I looked up and around suspiciously was, ‘Where the hell am I that I need weapons?’

However, I was, or had been, an avid anime watcher, and I knew how isekai anime tended to go. This world would be different, ancient and yet still archaic, lacking in technology but high in magic. So, without a second thought, I strapped on the belt around my waist. Having just gone swimming and still on the beach, I was covered in sand and didn’t want it in my clothes or boots getting sandy, so I decided to wait to get dressed until I was off the beach.

After cinching the belt tight, I reached into the pack and found a large, hard disc. I pulled on it, and the mouth of the pack stretched unnaturally as a round shield came out. What came out was a bulletproof riot shield I had ordered a long time ago and was painted to look like Captain America’s shield in his first movie.

“This is so freaking cool!” I laughed as I strapped it to my arm and pulled my short sword out.

I brandished both the shield and the sword and tried to strike a hero pose. I laughed since I felt both foolish and exhilarated all at the same time. I felt like I was living a dream. Then, I got serious and went through several swings and thrusts and shield bash maneuvers. The moves felt right, and yet I had never trained with a sword or shield. Still, feeling pleased with myself, I walked back to my clothes and backpack and set the shield down and sheathed my sword.

I returned to the backpack and stuck my hand in and pulled out leather and steel-backed gauntlets, a leather and steel chestplate, and leather and steel pauldrons. Looking at the backpack, I wondered how everything I pulled out had fit inside, and the only reason I could think of was that the bag was dimensional storage. A Bag of Holding!

“Oh my god!” I mumbled to myself, “I really am in a fantasy world!”

Excitedly, I threw my dirty clothes and the spare clothes back into the pack. I was feeling hungry, so I peeled the wrapper off of a granola bar and ate it, then left the canteen, my boots, and socks, which I stuffed into a boot, out until I was out of the sand. Lastly, it took a little while, but I was able to figure out how to put the armor on before slinging the backpack onto my shoulders.

I felt ridiculous! I knew I had done this hundreds of times in games, usually when playing female characters; stripping them naked and only putting armor on them once I got something better than the base starting gear. However, now it was me, and I was no woman, and yet here I am completely nude except for my armor, weapons, and backpack!

Shaking my head, I looked down the beach in both directions. I felt foolish and exposed, but I also had my reasons. I had no idea where I should go. However, I noticed the notification icon in the corner of my vision.

Thinking it might be something helpful, I said, “Open notifications.”