Canon Fodder-CHAPTER 1 DOORS

When one door closes another opens. I find that to be complete BS. When one door closes you shut it, or someone shuts it for you and that’s all. This isn’t physics class where every action causes a reaction. Someone has to open or shut the next door, simple as that. I know, it’s more of a parable, or metaphor, or whatever. But when faced with a bunch of doors, I found myself upset that one didn’t simply open for me. All around me stood twelve doors on four walls. A whole dozen, facing and judging me as I tried to make a decision. But I hesitated, unsure where to go, instead I thought back on what brought me to this nondescript room.
General consensus about my life would be that it was fairly normal. I grew up, did okay in school, met an amazing woman, spit out a couple of kids. Worked my nine to five job. Saved money to grow our nest egg. Got old. Went to bed. Next thing I knew I had woken up in this stupid room. At least that’s what I thought happened. Unsure what brought me to this exact location my recent memories felt a little fuzzy.
I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I felt like I had died in my sleep. Everything around me felt…perfect. Too perfect. There were no aches in my bones. The room was set at a comfortable temperature, despite there being no HVAC vents anywhere. And there was a smell in the atmosphere, one that I couldn’t describe except power. As if I could feel that behind each one of these doors was something I had no comprehension of understanding.
The more I stood there, the more convinced I became that I had died and gone to purgatory or something. Because I wasn’t being tortured and wasn’t surrounded by angels. Purgatory was really the only option left that made sense. Around me was a large room about 20 feet by 20 feet. Black walls with a dozen doors on the perimeter that led somewhere. The doors appeared to be red, there was red emergency lighting over each one, so they could have been white and the lights made them look red. It was impossible to tell.
Three doors on each wall, they sat menacingly silent. The only sound in the room was the electric hum from the red lights over the doors. I had awoken a little over an hour ago on the hardwood flooring and had been debating what to do as I tried to discern some secret from the face of each door, but each one had refused to reveal their secrets.
Looking down at my body I appeared younger than last I remembered. Shorter too. I should have been in my fifties, little bit of a beer gut, graying arm hair. Now I was shorter, slimmer, and from what I could see the hair on my head was back to it’s long unruly style. Pulling a tuft down to see my hair looked the same as when I was a kid when it still had kind of a curl to it.
Grinding my teeth I wasn’t liking this. Didn’t like this room. Didn’t like the lack of information or the ambiance of the creepy doors staring at me. Didn’t like that my body wasn’t the flabby husk I had groomed over decades as I became complacent with my life.
Letting out a long sigh I decided to just go for it. No more second guessing myself. Since all the doors and walls looked the same, I needed something to anchor myself. Some sort of reference to know in case I had to come back to this room, or got turned around somehow. After a life of anime, video games, and fantasy books it was very possible. I was in an extremely lucid fantasy already, might as well try to establish some normalcy.
Looking down at my body I was wearing simple jeans and a black T-shirt. Digging through my pockets I found my normal everyday pocket fillers. Keys, wallet, no cell phone, but better than nothing. Finding a key that I couldn’t remember where it went to, I twisted it off the ring and chose a door at random. I began to think of this wall as North and the door was the North-north-west door or NNW.
“Wait no,” I said, looking around. “12 doors. Like a clock. This door is 11 o’clock.”
Laying the key down in front of the base of the door I gripped the brass door knob and was about to step through when a sheet of paper appeared in my view. I slowly realized it wasn’t a sheet of paper though, it was more of notification on a phone. About ten inches square it floated in my field of vision, moving up and down slightly as I breathed in and out slowly. A border around it there was a blue tint to the screen with a semi-transparent background. I read the words slowly trying to understand what they meant, but no real answers came to me.
Notice:
One Door Key will be consumed.
My eyes looked down to the doorknob in hand. There was no keyhole, telling me this was some metaphorical key. Annoyed that I still didn’t have any answers I ignored the notice and walked through the doorway. Instead of a hallway I was met with black nothingness. The door and room behind me disappeared. I panicked a little, but as I blinked the room brightened. Lights and shapes quickly appeared as I was revealed to be standing in a classroom full of kids.
All eyes upon me I blinked rapidly. I had never been in this room before, yet if felt familiar for some reason. Easy to distinguish as a classroom with the desks and students. Right away I could tell it was not a classroom from America. It was way nicer. Clean windows lining the walls there were desks and students sitting in rows on either side of me. They all appeared younger, perhaps 16 years old. Some had an Asian look, but there were interesting hairstyles and haircolors that made them familiar but not real.
“Mr. Watanabe,” a voice said. Looking up I saw an older teacher. With some weight on him he gave me a very angry stare. Unsure what else to do I dropped down into the chair underneath me. Blushing from all the stares I was finally met with some information. Another screen populated my vision like a pop-up ad from a porn site…not that I ever perused them.
You have chosen the High School of the Dead World
Not what I would have picked, but good for you.
Rewards:
Status Screen
Access by saying or thinking Status
World Escape
Access by saying or thinking World Exit or World Escape
Warning: 24 Hour Cooldown
“Fuck,” I whispered. I was stuck in some sort of game. I probably had a System watching and controlling everything. I was about to bring up my status screen when another pop-up appeared.
High School of the Dead Quest 1
Escape the school grounds with as many survivors as possible.
Rewards:
Improved Physique
The name finally registered with me. Highschool of the Dead was a manga/anime where there was a zombie outbreak. The entire series was only about thirty chapters, it had a huge following but dropped off the map without an ending or real solution to the zombie problem. It followed different groups of high school kids dealing with drama and trying to survive the apocalypse.
My mind ran through scenarios in quick succession. The only thing I knew was I was in a strange place and somehow walking through a door brought me to a manga I once loved, oh and keys were involved in some way. Trying to understand what exactly was going on I had to push most of the questions away because there was one glaringly obvious problem. I was in danger.
High School of the Dead was not a safe place. People died all the time in the manga, even if readers liked them. Well most everyone died anyway, all except for the disproportionately stacked beauties. But the guys died. And I was a guy. I began to sweat as I looked around. My leg tapping the tiled floor quickly, I needed information. I needed a weapon. I needed everything.
Without a word I got up from my desk. People staring at me again, I walked out without a word. The teacher or whoever yelled at me but I ignored him. My eyes scanning I found a restroom closeby. Stepping in I found a mirror to look at myself. I was about 17 years old again. A pimple on my chin I instinctively moved to pop it.
The unruly mop of hair was still on my head, just like in my last life. Pale skin, no real muscle to speak of, I was my younger self. As I studied myself in the mirror a sharp pain bloomed in my head. Wincing, I held my hand to my head as memories began rushing in. Memories of a life I didn’t recognize.
I was Weston Watanabe, or Watanabe Weston, however the hell they did things in Japan. My dad was Japanese and my mom was American, which wasn’t true in my original life. I had a normal school life, did average in my studies, I was being bullied, but spent my time jerking off or studying.
Images of the life of Weston Watanabe continued to flash through my mind. My eyes shut trying to process it all. I had cursory understanding of this body. The pain in my head increased and it hit me harder and harder, until suddenly it was gone. In an instant I was fine. Staring at myself in the mirror again. Breathing in and out I said what I needed to. “Status.”
Name
Weston Watanabe
Current Quest:
Escape the School
World 1:
High School of the Dead
World 1 Quest:
Passive Skills:
Memory Meld
Usable Abilities:
Status Screen
World Escape
Items:
Keychain
Bonuses:
N/A
“Damn,” I said. I was hoping for levels and stats. Not this lackluster page of information that I already knew. I guessed the Memory Meld was what I just went through. Either time spent in the world, or staring at myself in the mirror must have been a trigger for the memories to hit me. Feeling better, as I became more confident with my current body I turned to the door as it opened.
Expecting the teacher I was unpleasantly surprised to see my first zombie. Blood pouring down the man’s face, he was missing a chunk of his cheek. Pale gray skin, scuffed and tattered clothing, I couldn’t help but think that I was very unlucky. How the hell had no one yelled or done anything while this guy walked the halls?
The zombie noticed me. Growling at me as it drooled on the floor, it began to shamble toward me. No weapon in sight, panicking, and ready to be done I ran into the bathroom stall. Locking it, the door rocked as the zombie hit it.
“Fuck this. World Escape,” I said aloud. Then everything turned black once more.