AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Pierce cautiously walks up and grabs his envelope. He reads what's written inside and lets out a gasp.

"He....he couldn't possibly......"

"Hmph! I don't believe it!"

Whitney opened the envelope Nook had handed her and examined the contents. Her eyes went wide for a moment, but after a moment she frowned. "He acts like this kind of bribe would /work/," she remarked haughtily. "You can't miss something you never had." She tore up the envelope with a grimace and crumpled the pieces before stuffing them into her pocket. "The coins, on the other hand, could be useful..." She did like cheddar. Even if it was technically useless.

Cranston popped open his envelope, examining the letter inside. He chuckled, and slid it back in.

He thought about it for a breath, and took it back out again, reading each word just a little more carefully.

His head shook, and he put the whole letter back the way it was when it was handed to him, shoving it out of sight in his back pocket with the coins. "The world is filled with tests in the disguise of gifts. Blue Jaymes 8:22", he murmured to himself, before addressing the crowd, "If anyone wants to come, I'm going to Re-Tail."

"I'll take you up on that offer, hawkeye."

"Oh, I suppose I'll go too." Now that Whitney knew that Pierce wanted to talk to her, she wanted to keep an eye on him so she could spot an opportunity for them to ditch everyone else and talk in private. "Do you think they'll have gotten anything new in stock since yesterday? They didn't seem to have much..."

Let's see if the forum dies again this time!~

"Hello again, welcome to Re-"

"You hittin' on my wife again? I'M TAKIN' YOU PUNKS DOWN."

After calming her husband, Reese addresses you.

"Sorry about that huns, how can I help you?"

"We don't have much merchandise, just what former villagers leave behind that Nook doesn't want."

"But we can customize furniture you get from T&T Mart if you bring it to us."

"Feel free to look around."

As you wander around. Cranston finds something folded up in the corner. Whitney and Pierce come over to see aswell.

It looks like a folded up map, like the one Nook gave each of you...

So what merchandise in particular is there?

"Hmm...looks like a folded up map, like the one Nook gave each of us..." Cranston said aloud, as he reached for the paper and started to unfold it.

"A map? What's on it, rookie?"

"Crossed out houses....and names I don't recognize....."

"Is this a real map of Hope Town? The houses aren't even in the same places as our own."

"I...I don't think so. The layout's completely different too, our river flows in a different direction. Knowing our own Hope Town I think we can guess what these X's mean...I don't think we're the first ones with a debt to pay to Nook."

"And after these people, er, LEFT, then Nook decided to change to entire layout of the town, sport? I don't get it."

"Neither do I, but it's a very similar shoreline to say the least. We're either in a different town with the same name, or Nook must've torn the whole place down, even moving the river. He wanted to change the setting, I suppose? Why would he go that far?..."

"How odd," Whitney remarked, peering over Cranston's shoulder to look at the map. "That is quite an extreme measure to take--but something is bothering me..." She frowned at the map. "Didn't Nook say that whoever murdered and got away with it got to leave? All of these houses are crossed out, like there were no survivors...through process of eliminaton, don't you think at least one person should have lived?" Even if the town had gotten wiped out down to two or three people, there was a possibility for survivors. For two people someone might murdered the only other person on the island and became the last one standing. For three people, either the murderer killed both innocents, or the remaining innocent caught the killer and they were executed.

"You're right, hawkeye. It doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that we're not going to learn much about this map by staring at it."