"You could say the entire town of Sunset Valley vanished. There's no houses or schools or businesses and we don't know why." River McIrish-Chikamori informed the other three as the four sat around a camp-fire. "We managed to convince an apothecary and a store owner to build their stores right next to our settlement, but this is going to be a long building process and I don't know what's going to come of it. We have a rudimentary sort of governance, but no real City Hall to speak of."
"What do you mean, "Phil Burrows asked, "Set up a rug on the town square and tell everyone to air their grievances?"
River's husband, Haruo Chikamori, raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, Phil...you get the general idea. Right now, there's only six of us and the shop-keeper rarely comes out of his building. It's like Sunset Valley got wiped off the face of the map but by what, we have no idea."
Samantha Grey looked over at Phil, "I guess it's up to us to rebuild this place. At least we have the Elixir shop and the Grocery Store. So how do you figure we go about doing this?"
"I have an idea..." Phil said with a knowing grin.
"Shut up...Phil..." came a chorus of cat-calls from the other three. If it wasn't something utterly irresponsible that would come out of Phil's mouth, it was something borderline suggestive.
"Well, we do need a population boost..." he protested.
Samantha rolled her eyes at that. "Look, we have to shower outdoors, we have to do our business outdoors, Hell, you wanna go farther than that? You're out of your mind, Phil."
"Well, we don't know if there are any survivors of whatever wiped this whole town out." Phil informed her smugly, "And we need manpower to build the town back up to what it needs to be." Couldn't she see the logic of his suggestion?
"I noticed two dumpsters behind the grocery store." River said with a smirk. "I think someone needs to go see if there are things to salvage." She looked over at Haruo with a glance that read a devious suggestion. She gave her husband a wide-eyed look with a smile on her face and slowly and innocently blinked.
"I think so too...sweetheart" Haruo grinned back at her; he read her meaning loud and clear.
"Hey, Phil, you're our dumpster diver.
"Don't I get a vote in this?"
"Three to one; you're out-voted." a slow evil smile crept over Haruo's face as he hiked his thumb towards the new Sunset Valley General Store. "Six AM tomorrow morning; you get to rummage through the dumpster. Better get some sleep tonight."
Lecherous Problem Solved was the look on River McIrish-Chikamori's face.
A job well-done.
