A/N: Hello Everyone! It's snowflower90. Here is a story I have been thinking about since I came across this writing prompt on Pinterest about five months ago.
I hope you like it. It is going to be three parts.
*** I do NOT own Animal Crossing: New Leaf. ***
Midnight Rails: Part One
"Well, Zoey, I don't know what to tell you. Cecil told me that she was going on a short vacation about a month ago."
"I just think it is odd that he hasn't come back yet and that nobody seems to know where he is. Have you asked Louise?"
Clyde sighed and put down his to-go coffee. "Yes, and she said she hasn't spoke to him in a couple of months. She's been busy with her library project.
"Well, I guess I just need to keep an eye out. He could have just extended his vacation. It would be nice to know though. The HHA has been on my car as to why there has been no progress on the host club…"
"Excuse me, Miss Mayor." Isabelle was standing at the desk counter. "This just arrived for you." She laid a white envelope in front of Zoey.
"Thank you, Isabelle." Zoey looked at the envelope. It looked like it had seen better days. The sites are all wrinkled and it was a slight yellow color. "That's odd. Personal mail never gets delivered here."
"Well, open it. It must be important if it was delivered here." Clyde said, moving to the edge of his seat.
The front of the envelope read:
Zoey, Mayor of Oakland
Forest Region
Zoey carefully opened the fragile paper envelope. The paper inside looked just as old, if not older.
Zoey opened the paper and turned white as a sheet.
"Zoey, what's wrong?" Clyde took the paper and read it.
He's alive. . . . but time is short!
Come find him.
Attached to the paper was a photo of Cecil. It looked as if he were asleep in a jail cell. The place looked run down.
"Where is this?" Clyde gasped at seeing his best friend in that kind of condition.
Zoey let out a breath. "There is a dream code at the bottom." Her voice was barely audible.
Clyde looked at the bottom of the paper. "Okay. Zoey, I am going to go to the Dream Suite. I will find out where this town is and we are going to save Cecil. You stay here, okay?" Zoey nodded. "I will be back soon. I promise."
About half-an-hour later, Clyde returned with a notebook and a big book of local maps.
"Okay, the town's name is Kijik. According to the dream, it is an abandoned town. Rather, it is supposed to be abandoned. I took a look around and I found the place that matches the picture."
Zoey looked at the big book that Clyde brought. "It's not in there.' Zoey said with a blank stare.
"What do you mean?"
"Kijik won't be in that book. The date is too recent for it to be in there."
"Really? Then how are we going to find it?"
Zoey got up from her chair and grabbed three giant books from the bookcase behind her desk. "The capital releases a map book every five years. Each time they remove abandoned towns from the newer ones. Your book was released at the beginning of this year. Now if the town you visited in the Dream Suite is supposed to be abandoned, no one has updated the dream simulation in a while, correct?"
Clyde grinned at Zoey, seeing what she was getting at. "So, the town must be marked on the older maps. Good thinking. All we have to do is take a peek through these books and we should find it."
"I hope. You see these are only the last three editions before the one you have. If the town was abandoned further back, well, that means we would have to go to the archives and search through those." Zoey shuttered. "There is more than one hundred volumes there. We don't have the time for that."
"Right," Clyde grabbed the most recent of the older books and flipped to the index. "We better start looking then."
Zoey grabbed the one before Clyde's and did the same. Luckily, the town hadn't been abandoned for too long because Clyde found it in the first book he looked through.
"Here it is. Kijik found in the Orchard Region. About a two hour train ride from here. The tracks run right through it." Clyde wrote something down in his notebook and jumped up. "I will be back with Cecil as soon as I can."
"I'm going with you." Zoey grabbed her messenger bag and came around the desk.
"Zoe, this could be really dangerous. And what about the town? They can't go without a mayor."
"Clyde, I'll be fine. This wouldn't be the first time I got into something dangerous. As for the town, I have gone on vacation before to see my parents and Isabelle has done fine. Plus, she has Louise if things get too out of hand." Zoey was determined to go and Clyde could see in her eyes that he wasn't going to dissuade her.
"Okay, but we need to change into something more dark in color just in case we have to sneak around. And, we need some form of protection."
The two agreed to meet at the train station in an hour. The sun was already below the horizon so they both knew that they would get to the abandoned town late into the night.
"Kijik?"Porter looked at his clipboard. "Eek! The scheduled train passes through that town, but it doesn't make a stop. I can talk to the conductor and have him stop there, but the returning train won't be there until tomorrow night. Eek eek."
"That's fine." Clyde replied quickly.
"Porter, we will be fine," Zoey smiled seeing the look of worry in the monkey's eyes. "We think Cecil is in that town and we just want to bring him home."
"Alright, Miss Mayor." Porter smiled and got on his radio to the scheduled train and gave the request. "Eek eek! The train will be here shortly."
The two young humans took a seat in the station to wait for the train. Zoey sighed and pulled her pink hair back into a short ponytail. She took a peek at Clyde, out of the corner of her eye. He was staring at the silver slingshot in his hand. He was wearing the same ninja suit that she was wearing. Apparently they had the same idea when Clyde told her to wear something dark. He had his ninja hood on but pulled back. Zoey decided to put hers on after they stopped at Kijik's station.
Zoey had brought her silver slingshot as well and also a couple bags of medicine just in case Cecil needed medical assistance. She knew that the cure-all would at least hold him over until they could get him to a hospital.
"Zoe." Clyde's voice broke her thought process. "You nervous?"
"A little."
"Me too."
Zoey let out a little gasp as the midnight chime came from the Town Hall clock and the train pulled in.
"Eek! Eek! All aboard." Porter called. "Safe trip, mayor."
Zoey mustered a smile and said, "We will see you tomorrow night, Porter."
"As Clyde and Zoey took a seat on the train Clyde looked out the window. The clock in the station had moved to 12:01 am. He heard Zoey whisper, "We're on our way Cecil."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Be on the lookout for the next part. Please review before you leave. Thanks for reading!