An estimated 1,140 households across Gnu and the eastern districts had entered hiding by Tuesday evening, hours after Peter Thiel's private aircraft landed at Gnu Harbor Executive Airfield for what his office described as "a twelve-day family vacation, with some light outdoor activity." The visit comes just weeks after Mr. Thiel closed out the Commonwealth's 109th Annual Purge with a record 34 kills. Residents sealed themselves into crawlspaces, root cellars, and in at least one case a decommissioned municipal water tower. The Commonwealth Tourism Bureau issued a statement welcoming the return of "a valued repeat visitor and his loved ones," and noted that the Bureau's own staff would be working remotely from an undisclosed location for the duration.

Mr. Thiel's previous visit, a nine-day stay last October, coincided with 14 installments of this paper's standing "Hunted for Sport" obituary, among them notices for a groundskeeper, a carpenter, a college sophomore, an unhoused man, and a claims adjuster. The Office of the Commonwealth Attorney classified those deaths as "recreational incidents" exempt from review under the Leisure Activities Act of 1931, a statute enacted under Isaac Newton (not that one) that has not been amended because, according to the office, "no one has asked in writing." Gnu Hardware & Supply reported selling 3,400 linear feet of plywood since Monday, along with its entire stock of a tarp marketed as "rustle-free," a product the store began carrying after the October visit.

The Gnu Board of Education voted 5-2 on Monday to designate the twelve days a "Reduced Visibility Period." Instruction will continue remotely via worksheets left beneath a designated rock at each school. The two dissenting members had argued for fourteen days "as a buffer." The Gnu Chamber of Commerce projects that the Thiel family will contribute $2.3 million to the local economy, most of it split between Harbor Road Taxidermy, which has announced extended hours and a new line of smaller mounts, and the Gnu Starbucks location where, per previous coverage in this paper, Mr. Thiel once placed a loyalty-point order while still wearing a victim's skin. Booking records obtained by this paper indicate the Thiel children have requested "junior permits" this year.

Each member of the Thiel party received a Tourism Bureau welcome basket containing local honey, a commemorative lanyard, and a laminated map of the island with every residential address marked. Asked about the map, a Bureau spokesperson said the addresses had been compiled from the Commonwealth census, "which is what the census is for."