This is fact not fiction for the first time in years
All the girls in every girlie magazine can't make me feel any less alone,
I'm reaching for the phone to call at 7:03 and on your machine,
I slur a plea for you to come home.
But I know it's too late, and I should have given you a reason to stay
Given you a reason to stay
-"A Lack Of Color" Death Cab For Cutie
XxxX
The date was June twenty seventh. Sanji had come over a few times in the last month. Zoro wished that he could be over more but Zeff seemed to be going through a rough patch in the treatment, so Sanji had things to do. The two of them being apart for long periods of time made Zoro want to lay on the floor and whine like a toddler.
Presently, Zoro was laying on his back on the couch. Sanji was supposed to coming up today. He said he would text when he got there.
Zoro was exhausted, he had spent the night up late, they were having a problem with the foundations of a house and he had to stay up with Usopp trying to fix things. It was more of him being bossed around by Usopp because he didn't know what the fuck to do. He didn't like being bossed around by Usopp, it didn't feel right but the guy knew what he was doing. That was his excuse for when he fell asleep with his phone pressed to his face.
When he woke up it was three hours past the time Sanji was supposed to have arrived. He checked his phone. No texts or missed calls, weird. He sent out a text.
Zoro 12:13 PM
Where are you? I fell asleep.
He waited a few minutes. No reply. Maybe he was driving or working or something. He tried to call him; he didn't answer so he left a message.
"Hey, sorry, I fell asleep. I was up late last night. Where are you? Call me or whatever. I just want to make sure you aren't dead or something." Ugh, leaving messages sucked. He then texted Nami and Luffy to ask if they'd seen him, neither had.
He waited another increasingly stressful forty-five minutes before calling the Baratie. He just wanted to make sure what he hadn't gone off the road or something. The weather was pretty shitty outside, the sky was dark and heavy with humidity. Earlier it wasn't raining but last night there had been a thunderstorm. It wasn't a massive rainstorm, more of a heat storm than anything. It was pretty windy though. For a while Zoro had been worried that the power would go out and that always sucked. He always walked into rooms flipping on the switches even when he knew the power wasn't working.
Zoro looked up the Baratie number on the internet and resigned himself to calling.
"Hello," said a male voice on the other end, "You've reached the Baratie. Would you like to make a reservation?"
Zoro thought he recognized the voice on the other end, "Is this Carne? I don't really care but this is Zoro, Sanji's friend," blah, saying that sounded weird. Friend didn't really seem like the appropriate word to describe their nebulous relationship but now wasn't the time for that way. "He was supposed to be here, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't there."
"Couldn't you just call him?" the voice said irritably, "He's not here. I'm hanging up now."
"Hang on, when did he leave?" Zoro heard a sigh on the other end and some muffled shouting.
"Zeff says he left at seven this morning. He wants to talk to you." The phone was handed over to the old blond chef.
"You say Sanji hasn't turned up?" Zeff said briskly.
"Yeah," Zoro breathed, trepidation growing in his chest. "He's about four hours late now and I can't get a hold of him."
"And you're sure he's not there?"
"I'm positive."
"If you don't see him by five call me, I'll call the police." He gave Zoro his personal phone number. "Call me if he turns up, boy."
"I will," Zoro confirmed and then he hung up. He sent out a few more texts, telling the gang that Sanji was missing and that they should keep an eye out for him. Then went out to drive around for a bit.
He was over reacting, right? Sure, Sanji's was missing in action but there wasn't any reason to think anything bad had happened yet, right? Zeff's promise to call the police had alarmed him but then Zeff had been in a situation where Sanji had disappeared before, it made sense to be cautious.
What if the same person had taken him? Or worse yet, what if he really was abducted by aliens? The thought had occurred to him as soon as he had happened upon the idea that Sanji was missing. That would be absurd. There were not real aliens that came down to earth and abducted people, that was crazy talk. Whatever had happened must have a rational explanation and Sanji could take care of himself, he was more than capable, he reassured himself. As the day wore on with no sign of the blond and no call from Zeff the idea that he was safe seemed to become a distant one. Maybe he had disappeared after all.
While he was panicking, he drove back part of the route Sanji would have taken. Everything looked normal, no cars in ditches or crashed on the side of the road. At one point he had to take a way around because there had been a chemical spill up one of the roads and the clean up team had to block up the road to secure the area. Zoro talked briefly to the guy directing traffic and he said that they had been out there since earlier this morning. Sanji would have had to taken a different road to get to his destination.
When five-o-clock came around Zoro had given up hope in finding him and made the call to Zeff. The old man picked up on the first ring.
"Anything?" The old man asked gruffly.
"Nothing," Zoro responded in a flat tone, what a stressful day.
"Damn..." Zeff sighed, "I'll call the police then." The call ended and Zeff talked to the proper authorities.
The police called Zoro in to get his statement about Sanji's disappearance that night, it was very late but he was glad they were on top of this.
It took them a day to find his car. It turned up closer to Sandusky than to Columbus, but far enough away that Zoro hadn't gone out to retrace his steps. The car had gone straight off the side of the road and into a corn field. They found out about it because a farmer complained about a car stopped in one of his fields, crushing his sweet corn. The car was damaged but not greatly so and all of Sanji's things like his phone were inside the vehicle. The weird part was that the car had still had the keys in and it had not been placed I park. It had been left on in this field until the battery had drained.
Zoro was driving out to the site the day they found it, a move that would defiantly annoy the police and serve to not be helpful whatsoever, not that he gave a fuck. While he was on his way he saw what appeared to be an all black, tinted windows, armored truck driving down the road that had been closed off. It struck him as a little bit odd. He wondered if maybe they were trying to clean up without any attention from the media; a cover up or something. He was thrown off enough to turn back and look up what was going on via the internet. And according to the World Wide Web nothing was going on other than a small chemical spill. Then he looked up what was along that road. No factories or chemical waste disposal sites, if something had spilled out there it had to be either through a burst pipe or someone physically dumping it there like some sort of degenerate asshole. That didn't seem totally unlikely, there were actually a lot of places like that out there and a lot of degenerates responsible for them.
Did it have anything to do with Sanji? Probably not, but that did not stop Zoro's mind from wandering. Maybe Sanji had been taken from his car, murdered, and hidden in the waste site so that no one could find his body. That could happen, right? Except Sanji had disappeared pretty far from the site and there was no sign of a struggle. It just seemed too much of a big deal not to be associated to each other. That wasn't unreasonable, right?
XxxX
With the tension of Sanji's disappearance time seemed to pass very slowly and with much anxiety. The police didn't have much to go on but after four days they were getting nowhere with finding Sanji. They were starting to think maybe he had staged all of this to run away, given his unstable background. But that was bullshit, no way it could be true. Sanji may have been unstable but he didn't really have any reasons for running away now... Well, he had been under a lot of self imposed stress and had left his normal routine before to try to escape his demons with not much success. So maybe the police did have a rational basis for their theory but that didn't stop Zoro from feeling indignant about the implications. He wasn't feeling rational so he didn't want to side the the police.
Zoro came back to the road block, it looked rather strange. A blocked off road in the middle of the flat farm land leading back into the woods. The traffic director this time was in official looking military uniform and told him to turn back immediately. The logical explanation would be that a chemical spill had gotten out of hand for some small clean up crew so they had to call in the big guns but given everything that was going on Zoro was suspicious of everything. He wanted to know what the fuck was going on back there but he just turned back, deciding to bide his time. He would play the waiting game on this one.
He had spent his time playing at detective recently instead of going to the bar after work but he was greatly unsuccessful. The real police couldn't figure anything out so it didn't seem likely that he would either because he didn't know anything about detective work. He did however write everything down everything that was happening on a small piece of paper in small his clean handwriting. Justst in case something weird happened he folded it up and stored beneath the soul of his boot. Was that the act of a paranoid person. Yes, it probably was, but weird things had been happening and Zoro wasn't about to take any chances.
XxxX
July third was Nami's birthday. They were having a small party at her house, no one was really up for a big party. The fact that Sanji was still missing was a huge damper on the event but they tried to make the best of it anyway. They went out on the boat for a while. The weather was humid and hot but the lake felt very refreshing. They didn't stay out for long as rain began to fall onto them.
Back at the house they continued in their party going. However, the fact that they had to order pizza drove home the fact that Sanji truly was not there. They had all done, and were doing, what they could to aid the investigation but that was only so much and there was nearly nothing to go on. Not being able to do something was the worst part. It was unfortunate when Sanji couldn't be there because he was in Columbus but now that there was absolutely no way he could be there it seem to be an ache. They tried to carry on none the less.
At some point during the night Zoro found himself talking with Nami about something stupid when a sudden idea struck him. This sudden idea soon became a burning question and just had to be asked.
"Oi, Nami," he started, shifting a bottle between his hands, "There's something I want to ask you about."
"What?" Nami asked slightly suspiciously.
"There's this place a while out of town where there's this chemical spill. Have you seen it?" he asked cautiously.
Nami nodded with a confused expression on her face. "Yeah, what about it?"
"I don't know, I just get this weird feeling about it. I've seen military cars going in and out, and it just seems kind of weird."
"So, what?"
"So, I was wondering if you would be willing to break in with me?"
Her eyes widened comically. "You're joking, right? How could you expect to get into a secure area that probably harbors dangerous chemicals? If you go in I promise that you will be arrested on the spot. I don't particularly want to be arrested by a bunch of angry military people."
"Come on, Nami, it wouldn't be that hard! It's totally surrounded by corn fields so we could just sneak up and get a quick look. No one would know we were there," he argued.
"It's definitely not going to be that simple. Why are you asking me anyway?"
"Because if anyone can break into a military no go zone it's you," he said with a suspicious expression, like he was silently accusing her if many illegal practices.
She rolled her eyes indicating that his suspicions were totally unwarranted. "What are you hoping to find once you're in there?"
"I'll tell you once I see what they're doing."
"You want me to help you when I don't even know the nature of the mission."
"Yes, so will you do it?"
She smirked. "Hm, well, I might be inclined to help you for a certain sum of money. I will warn you that it will be a lot since I'm putting my ass on the line here."
Zoro groaned, he had seen this coming so he wasn't surprised. "How much?" he asked miserably.
Nami laughed, "I think that can be settled at a later date. Don't worry about that right now, I will collect at a later date."
Zoro was beginning to feel like he was selling his soul or dealing with a member of the mafia, but he was determined to know what was going on out there. "Fine, if you can get me in there I will give you your unreasonable amount of money." He held out his hand to settle the deal.
Nami looked slightly surprised that he was going to follow through, but shook his hand anyway. "Alright then, let's settle this out now."
She then started to plot out their plan to get in. It was a decent plan for being made up on the spot. They decided that they should just go out tomorrow night and get it over with. No need to hold out the suspense. It was also decided that they should go in with just the two of them. Not they didn't want to take everyone but the more people involved the more they had to worry about. Also, some of their friends tended to be on the obnoxious, not sneaky side.
The rest of the evening carried on well enough. Everyone had a good time and by the end of the night all the gloom had been pushed away under the rug.
When Zoro got home he flopped into bed, staring up at the ceiling. He wondered what Sanji was staring at. Hopefully not a bright light, or strange alien medical tools, or worse, aliens themselves. Hopefully he was safe and sound somewhere but that was probably unlikely.
XxxX
The next day was filled with a lot of sitting around waiting for night to fall so that they could go out to the field. It was very unpleasant and he was full of energy from the time he got up to the time Nami texted him they she was ready.
One fairly short drive later they were at the target area, parked close but not close enough to be suspicious. The area was surrounded by corn fields so they would sneak though the corn to the woods behind where they assumed that things were going on. They chose not take any cell phones or identification just in case they were captured or something. All Zoro could think of was the movie Thor and that chick trying to sneak in to a government monitored area. Or something like that, he couldn't really remember, it wasn't a very good movie. Good, but not good enough to be memorable. That summed up Thor's character pretty well. Whatever, he wasn't much of a super hero fan.
They set out as soon as it was dark, the crickets were chirping and the katydids were calling. Beneath their feet crushed corn stalks crunched in the erie night. Sneaking through the corn, Nami made sure Zoro didn't get lost by dragging him around by the arm. They could take no risks with this. The walk was more than twenty minutes but they eventually did made it to the edge of the woods where things were being rather heavily patrolled but military personnel and people in hazmat suits. Very strange... Or maybe not. This was supposed to be a chemical clean up site and he didn't really know how those things usually rolled.
Sneaking through a corn field was not as easy as one might think. They had to move very slowly through the rows and tried very hard not to disturb any animals that might be rummaging around. All the while their adrenal gland was working over time to keep them alert. It was like the suspense in a horror film except it was real and it wasn't so disappointing.
The corn field ended abruptly at the edge of the woods. From where they crouched they could see people patrolling around menacingly but security didn't seem mega-high. All the action seemed to be going on behind all those pesky trees. God damn, nature, always in the way. If they wanted to see anything at all they would have to get over there.
They silently decided to risk being exposed to harmful chemicals and look farther in. They managed to dodge the patrol by waiting for the perfect opportunity and being lucky, and snuck into the woods. Inside there was a large patch where trees had been burned and had fallen, surrounding a crater in the middle with nothing but upheaved and burnt dirt.
They watched the people in suits move about for a while, through the trees they could see a person barking orders to people. It was impossible to know gender as this person was wearing a hazmat suit and the voice was muffled by distance and a crackling speaker. They assumed this person was telling the other people what to do and where to go. Some of the people in suits were in the crater were carrying things out and hauling them onto a truck while others were spraying some sort of vapor over everything.
They only stayed for about ten minutes, Zoro wished they could had stayed longer but they had nearly been caught multiple times in only that short time frame. They left when they had seen all they were able to from that distance.
It was more difficult to get out than it was to get in. They had to run out if the trees while no one was looking and dive into the corn like rabbits. They gently eased away from the area and out if the corn field to the car.
On the way home they tried to figure out what the hell was going on. They waited until they were in the car going home before they said anything, just in case.
"What the fuck do you think they were doing?" Zoro asked Nami from the passenger's seat.
"I don't know, it looked like something exploded and they were picking up the pieces," Nami mused, it was not a bad theory but Zoro couldn't shake the idea he was starting to form.
It looked like a UFO crash site, or at least what he expected a UFO crash site to look like, he thought, minus the UFO. Maybe he was letting the fantastic delusions of Sanji take over him imagination. He decided not to say this out loud and risk sounding like a total nutter but the idea was swimming through his mind. Maybe this was a government cover up, maybe a UFO crashed on it's way to pick up Sanji. If that were the case they would have had to send out a second UFO to retrieve him, but this was fairly far past where Sanji had gone missing. Maybe they could have been thrown off course in the heat storm. It made sense in a convoluted conspiracy kind of way, but he wasn't yet willing to share his fucking crazy thoughts with anyone just yet. He could hardly believe he was even considering this in the first place.
They drove home after finding no solid answers, only more questions and a half baked conspiracy theory. They soon parted ways and Zoro took a well earned warm shower and went to bed with a slight headache. He lay awake wondering where Sanji was and what they were doing to him. The more he thought about all of this the more he thought about how badly it would suck if Sanji really had been abducted by aliens not just one but multiple times with no one to believe him. To have something so traumatic happen and to have no one to talk with about it would be really shitty.
Zoro also hated to admit it but he was worried no matter what had happened. It had only been a few days but it felt like longer, it wasn't this bad when he was home at he Baratie but he supposed that was because he knew where he was and that he was safe. He had good reason to be worried but it still felt weird being so concerned over his welfare. He at least hoped that they wouldn't be hurting him. Would that be so much to ask?
Zoro's eyes snapped open. The darkness was oppressive and he suddenly felt claustrophobic. His skin was slick and sweaty, his stomach gave a horrible lurch prompting him to run to the bathroom. He heaved into the toilet and whatever was in his stomach came up with vicious force. He hated throwing up, he didn't know how bulimics could do it.
He spent the rest of the night laying on the bathroom floor, waking up every now and then to throw up. In the morning he checked and he didn't have a fever. Maybe he was exposed to something at the site. He decided to text Nami and find out if she was sick as well.
Zoro 8:25 AM
Hey, are you sick too? Because I spent all night puking my guts up.
Nami 8:34 AM
Yes, I should have never gone with you now we probably have radiation poisoning or something.
Zoro 8:36 AM
Not a bad guess, I looked it up and my symptoms do actually line up with mild radiation sickness.
Nami 8:37 AM
Should we see a doctor?
Zoro 8:38 AM
Maybe but I'm not going to. They're probably watching for people to come in with radiation sickness.
Nami 8:39 AM
Zoro I think you're starting to get paranoid.
She did have a fair point.
They were both better within twenty four hours and Zoro was all the more curious about what was going on. He visited a nearby town where the military just so happened to have soldiers staying and tried to talk to some of the people there. No one wanted to talk to him, they remained wary and refused to disclose anything, especially when they were together. He obviously didn't outright asks them what was going on, he only made idle conversation when it seemed natural to do so but they were still distant. He came back for three consecutive days and on the fourth day he found one guy, on his own, his car on the side of the road with it's hood up.
He was in the middle of a soybean field and it didn't look like he would be getting any help soon. Zoro stopped to ask if he needed any assistance. He pulled over his car and got out, approaching the army vehicle.
"Need any help?" Zoro asked as he raised a hand in greeting, his boots crunching the road side gravel as he walked.
A head poked out from the front of the car. "Yeah, that would be super," the soldier said, "I stopped it to check some stuff and now it won't start. I think I need a jump." The man was large, his hair was bright blue, his army issue uniform was rolled up and he had two star tattoos on his exposed forearms. An odd looking man to be sure.
"Sure thing," Zoro said, he turned back to his car, pulled it around and popped up the hood.
The soldier smiled with relief as he pulled two cables from his truck. "Thanks, dude. You're a life saver."
Zoro decided it would be best to fane ignorance if he wanted to get somewhere with this guy. This was probably his best chance of getting any kind of information. "What is a guy like you doing way out here in the middle of nowhere anyway?" he asked as causally as he could.
The man laughed as he attached the cables to the proper places on his vehicle. "Confidential, I can't talk about it." A redundant statement if ever there was one.
"It's not anything no have to worry about, is it?" Zoro asked, making sure to raise his tone in worry. He hoped he wasn't being to suspicious, he wasn't very good at being manipulative most of the time.
The blue haired man shrugged. "Nah, we won't be around for that long. Where are you headed anyway?" He glanced over his shoulder at Zoro, who had just finished connecting his wires.
"Columbus, I'm going to see a friend," he lied flawlessly. He dearly wished that were actually the case.
"Lucky you, I haven't been out and about in forever." The man complained as Zoro walked over to start his engine.
"They don't let you go out at the end of the day or anything?" Zoro asked from his driver seat. He stepped out to resume the conversation.
The soldier shook his head sadly, "Nope, well, sometimes I can get away but not really. I'm not even supposed to talk to you really but this is a special circumstance."
Zoro smirked at that, "Well, if you get a chance my friend up in Sandusky has a bar, it's the Thousand Sunny. If you can get away for the night."
"That sounds super," the solder said as he attempted to start his car. The engine shuddered to life much to his joy. He got out again. "Thanks a million, bro. I'll be sure to come in if I can. The name's Franky," Franky said, extending a hand.
"Zoro," Zoro said taking said hand and offering a firm, manly handshake. He hoped that they would he seeing each other again very soon.
XxxX
Three days later Nami texted Zoro that there was a man who said he knew him in the bar. It was after Zoro had already gone home but he rushed right back when he heard this news.
When Zoro walked though the door of Nami's bar he saw Franky's large figure sitting in a stool at the bar. He pulled back the seat next to him.
"Fancy meeting you here," Zoro said, mentally slapping himself for sounding like such a fucking dumbass. Why the hell was he so awkward around people?
Franky smiled back at him but his smile seemed somewhat lacking in strength. "I snuck away for a drink," he said lifting his glass as evidence. Zoro wondered how exactly he had managed to get away but he had other more important things to do. By that he meant manipulating the conversation to get answers out of this nice man.
"Something wrong?" Zoro asked with a raised eyebrow, the man seemed more subdued than when they last met. He felt bad for hoping that there was something wrong but not enough to stop himself.
Franky let out a low sigh, "Nothing I can talk about," he mumbled miserably.
"You seem like you need to get something off your chest. Could you water it down so that I don't know what you're talking about," he suggested, it had to be better than nothing.
Franky snorted, "I'll give it a shot," he took a drink and started to speak, "I'm in the Air Force and I've been in the military for a while now, I just joined this new unit. It's been very... different. I'm not sure it's the right fit." He concluded.
"What's wrong with it?" Zoro asked in interest. There was most likely no way that he would get an actual answer but it was worth a shot anyway. He had already gotten more than he ever expected he would. It all seemed like it was a little too easy and that made him nervous.
"Can't tell you, confidential." Again with that redundant statement.
They chatted back and forth for a few hours about mundane things before Franky realized how late it was. Franky promised to come back when he got the chance.
Zoro hoped that he would come back, he was a pretty okay guy but he also had secrets that Zoro desperately wanted to have for himself.
XxxX
A/N: Oh, look! We finally got all the exposition out it the way, soooo much lead up. This is the point where i started to get bored with it though :-/ And we found Franky :D
Nami is like the best, guys. Very mild radiation poisoning is the worst though. Don't ever go near a chemical spill, only bad things can happen.
Thanks.
