The forgotten man.
Eleven years ago Doctor Zarnow successfully abducted Chuck .This is a homecoming tale.
Chapter 1 The forgotten man
Air Force 1: on route from Singapore to Honolulu.
One of the President's aides rushes his way from the comms room to the executive suite where the President was chairing a meeting with the Secretary of State and other White House officials. He pauses by the door, flattens down the wrinkles in his suit, adjusts his tie, and runs a hand across his hair to make sure the part was still in place.
"Sir, Mr President, We just had a confirmed report that "Rocketman" has released another hostage. Fifteen minutes ago a Caucasian man was allowed to cross the "The Bridge of No Return" into South Korea. The border guards believe he's an American but we so far haven't been able to confirm a positive ID."
The President listen curtly and after a small pause put a smile on his face.
"Well that is good news. This deal with North Korea just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter."
Phoenix Arizona – Buy More Showroom.
It was getting late in the day and store manager Morgan Grimes was idly chatting to his Nerd Herd supervisor Tim Hopkins about their upcoming weekends. Morgan was not that interested in what Tim had to say, it was just Buy More policy that the managers had an interest in their employees welfare. Speak to your staff individually few a few minutes a week will increase their productivity the Buy More manual stated.
Morgan Grimes was the manager of a Buy More store in Phoenix Arizona, he was also married with four children. Two of the children were stepkids as his wife had them in a previous relationship. He meet his wife Karen, online, she was from Phoenix and after a long distance courtship which included many, many six hour drives, Morgan move to be with her.
After Chuck had disappeared Morgan had an epiphany moment. Life was too short to spend your day playing video games and avoiding work. Chuck had always been there for Morgan even though he spent nearly four years away at Stanford. Chuck was then only a phone call away. When Chuck got kicked out of college the two men were closer than ever. Morgan thought it was great that Chuck at times needed to lean on him. Until Chuck disappeared the two seemed to cruise through life without purpose working together at the Buy More. There were times that Big Mike would have loved to sack Morgan but then he knew that if he did that then Chuck would resign on the spot so he would be two employees down not one. Now that Chuck had disappeared without a trace Morgan really for the first time felt isolated and would sit for many hours by the fountain outside Chuck's apartment often until late at night.
What got Morgan going was a pep talk from a surprising source, Ellie Bartowski's love interest and rival Devon Woodcomb, one night after an extra-long shift at the hospital, Devon took the opportunity to sit at the fountain with Morgan and discuss the finer points of "being a man," including getting Morgan to tuck in his shirt and neaten up his hair. A newly motivated Morgan went to work the next day in a pressed shirt, tie and sweater-vest with slicked hair, and everyone assumed he was in a costume because it was Halloween. Big Mike Tucker noticed the change and when Morgan gate-crashed by taking the missing Chuck's interview time and offer himself for the assistant manager's position. Big Mike was impressed by the guts shown by Morgan and decided that someone showing that much fortitude deserved the job. Morgan's main rival was Harry Tang but Big Mike knew Harry Tang was a back stabber and hoped that Tang would quit in disgust.
With encouragement from Big Mike, Morgan grew into the role as Assistant Manager. Fortune would have it that a vacancy opened up in Phoenix at the same time Morgan and Karen were looking to take the next step. Morgan applied and won promotion to store manager in Phoenix Arizona. Morgan had been the Phoenix store manager for nine years. It kept him busy, but he took advantage of the power of his position to be able to have quality time with his expanding growing family.
While talking to Tim, Morgan kept an eye on the wall of screens, when suddenly something or should I say someone caught his eye. CNN was having a newsbreak, an image of a released North Korean hostage was displayed on all the screens. The image taken by a border guard on his cell phone showed a tall bearded man with hair long enough to make funny animal shapes. What stood out to Morgan was his eyes, deep chocolate brown, in an instant he knew who it was. Morgan grabbed the remote control off the desk, he hit the rewind and then freeze-framed the screen of all the televisions on the wall. He played it forward and back until he got a clear image then he froze the display again.
That is definitely him Morgan thought, as he stared at the image on the wall.
He was now very excited, he had to call someone important. He scrolled through his contacts and hit the pre-dial.
((AN) The Wikipedia pic of Zach at comic-com 2009 and add ten years))
Northwest Memorial Hospital Chicago:
Ellie Woodcomb was doing the rounds of the patients under her care, she was making notes and adding to the patients history when her phone rang. Without taking care to see who was calling she accepted the call only to hear a very excited voice from her past.
"They've found our boy. They have found Chuck. He's in Korea!"
Ellie stopped walking and looked at her phone. She recognized the voice of Morgan Grimes. She had very little to do with him since he moved to Phoenix. Just an annual exchange of Christmas cards. After Morgan moved Ellie and her husband were both recruited to head up medical wings of one of Chicago's prestigious hospitals.
"Morgan Grimes, what do you mean? You better not be lying to me."
"Ellie!" Morgan pleaded, "I wouldn't lie about this. CNN has just had breaking news that Kim Jong-un has released another hostage, Chuck crossed the border an hour ago." Morgan spurted out. "Are you near a television?"
"No I'm not."
"Ok, I'll send you a screenshot of him."
Morgan raised his phone and took a photo. He then shared it with Ellie in Chicago. Ellie looked at the picture and it brought tears to her eyes. It certainly looked like him. Of course he was older and was down on weight. The candle of hope that had been extinguished years ago was suddenly relit.
The first response can from the Nurse Unit Manager when she heard the clipboard drop and clash on the floor. She approached the doctor and asked,
"Are you okay, doctor?"
Ellie picked up the clipboard and said she needed water. Both professionals returned to the nurse's station and Ellie grabbed a chair to sit in. The NUM returned from the drinking fountain and handed Ellie the cup.
"Their found him!" Ellie told the NUM, "My brother has been missing for ten years and he just been found alive!"
The NUM looked at her blankly as Ellie let out a squeal of joy.
Bridge of No return, DMZ. Korean Peninsula.
The mood and moral at the DMZ was optimistic, The leader of the free world was meeting in Singapore with the unchallenged leader of the "Hermit Kingdom". The DMZ was one of the most dangerous places to be in the world. From the observation towers the South Korean troops were not seeing anything out of the ordinary. To add to the mood it was amazing how the North was often covered in fog so the border guards could not see anything literally.
Suddenly a figure appeared in the fog, a tall man with his arms outstretched wide beside him. Walking and arms out so he looked like a walking cross, the man appeared to walk with a deal of uncertainty. He paused as he got to the middle of the bridge, he then discarded the grey coat he was wearing, then he did a slow 360 degree turn and continued on towards the Republic of Korea side of the border.
The officer in charge of the checkpoint dispatched four armed border guards to approach the man. Each armed with their M-16 assault rifles the four guards ran quickly to surround the man. . The corporal of the guards first spoke to him in English but the hostage only stared blankly at them. One of the privates wondered if he was deaf and told the corporal so in Korean. The corporal said it could be a possibility. As the guards spoke amongst themselves they noticed that the prisoner was following their conversation.
The corporal asked the hostage in Korean;
"Who are you?"
"I am …" then there was a pause "I don't know my name. They call me Pisspants."
He responded in Korean, after eleven years of only hearing the Asian language, He only responded to Korean.
The man was searched on the bridge before being hurried off into the command post. Inside the command post was relatively warmer than the elements outside, for this the hostage was grateful, for having discarding the jacket he had on at the bridge the man was only wearing a well-worn t-shirt and grey military trousers that was too short for him. The man had sandals that where way too small for his big feet. His feet were not clean as he wore no socks .The officer in charge stood in front of him in order to question him.
"Why did you take your jacket of?"
"The soldiers told me you would shoot me if I didn't."
"We wouldn't do that. We believe in liberty and freedom." They nodded at each other. "Can I get you anything? A coat? A drink, or maybe a shower?" The last bit came as Pisspants smelt ordinary, a mixture of body odour and stale urine. His breath was bad as well.
"Why do they call you Pisspants?"
"First time they beat me I pissed my pants. After that it's what they called me."
"Well we won't call you that here. We have more respect for the individual."
Pisspants was escorted to an amenities block where he was allowed to have a shower. A replacement set of clothes were found for him., from the American personnel side as he was so tall. Even with the new clothes they still didn't fit him properly but it wouldn't matter because he was going to be transferred to a veteran's hospital in Seoul.
The released hostage was being driven under escort to a hospital in Seoul. It was during this trip that the driver had the radio on an English speaking radio station. At the end of the song the DJ came on and said
"That was the late great Michael Jackson."
"What, has he died? The hostage asked.
The words in English surprised the three other soldiers in the vehicle who all for the moment stared at him. The sergeant sitting opposite him was a tall solid Afro-American spoke to him.
"He's been dead for almost ten years."
There was a short pause before the hostage spoke again. "What year is it?"
"2018"
The soldiers watched the hostage did some mental arithmetic before he dropped his head
"What is it?" the sergeant asked to the hostage who by now was staring down into his own lap.
"I'm 37!" the hostage raised his hands to his face and began to cry into them.
Pisspants was initially hospitalized where he received a thorough examination, it was no surprise when the initial diagnosis was that he was severely malnourished. For someone to be six feet four he only weighed 105 pounds, approximately 70 pounds underweight. No surprise either that his vitamin D was deficient.
The Hostage had taken his shirt off and there wasn't an ounce of fat on him. You could see that every rib was exposed. He had white pasty skin and black body hair. A few scars were visible but no recent bruising, there was evidence of being beaten possibly torture, and that he could be suffering from any number of parasites from living in that part of the world with no immunizations.
He was hesitant when a nurse came along and wanted a blood sample. Pisspants had seen that she had a needle, and he needed to be calmed and rationalized with before a he consented to give a sample of his blood. If getting consent was hard, then actually getting a sample was even harder. He had to be restrained. He freaked out when he saw the needle and he panicked. It took four hospital orderlies to tie him down for everybody's safety.
The afternoon came and CNN was still reporting about the latest released hostage. They still hadn't released a name and it was frustrating Morgan no end. Finally Morgan rang CNN and asked to speak to someone from the newsroom.
"My name is Morgan Grimes and I am the manager of the Phoenix Buy More. I know who the released hostage is."
The woman on the switchboard received the call.
"Is that so? One moment sir I'm putting you through now."
"CNN newsroom Jacob speaking."
"Hello Jacob, my name is Morgan Grimes and I am the manager of the Phoenix Buy More. I know who the released hostage is. His name is Charles Bartowski and he's been missing for ten years."
"How do you spell it?"
"Charles B,A,R,T,O,W,S,K,I, Bartowski."
"Thank you. So he's been missing for ten years?"
"That's right."
"And where was he before he went missing?"
"He was living in Burbank California. I used to live there but I moved. Obviously."
"Okay. Now you say he has been missing for ten years. Did you report him missing? Is there anything as in proof, such as a police report?"
"Oh yes. We, well his sister and myself reported him missing to the Burbank Police. We filled out all this paperwork and the Police said they looked into it. Unfortunately they found nothing."
"So he went missing in 2008?"
"2007 actually. It's over ten years but not quite eleven."
"Fair enough. Look can I have your name again and your mobile number. We will get one of our reporters from LA to look into it and we will ring you back with anything we find out. Would you be comfortable to appear on the news if what you claim checks out?"
"I would be delighted." Morgan replied.
"Thank you for calling."
A couple of hours later the Phoenix Buy More had the cameras of all the major media outlets filming from the store. Tim Hopkins was hoping for Morgan's sake that he was right or he be the biggest idiot on television. Morgan for his part took on the role of Bartowski media manager, as Ellie was the last Bartowski in the US until she opted to take Devon's surname. It gave her some anonymity when the press went searching and could not find her. Morgan revealed the Chuck had a sister but he would rather call her first if she wanted to come forward for a statement.