マッジ、あなたは何をしましたか？3：核スノー

Not too long after coming back from the past, I awake in what I believe to be my house. It feels cold, very cold. I get up and go about to explore but I wanted to figure out what happened. I walk across the hall and find Madgie, lying on the floor with a quite dirty blanket partially draped over her, as if she had rolled out. It seemed to be we were sleeping for a very long time but why do things feel so odd. Madgie is in her nightgown but I am in my usual clothes. Have I gone for the night and returned in the morning? I must have because Madgie is in her pajamas and, possibly, still asleep. It was then, upon finding her, I figured out I was in my house.

I wander down the stairs and, along the way, on the wall, I find various messages, reading: Don't go outside! or Whatever you don't touch the snow! and, a near panicked one, The snow…it burns!, a lot of Run little red flowers, they will hound you! and, without any doubt, Wear protective gear when outside…AT ALL TIMES, THE SNOW IS DANGEROUS!, along with THERE IS NO ESCAPE! 

It should be noted, for the most part, that majority of these messages are written in blood and there is some blood splattered at the foot of the stairs. I continue walking and enter the livingroom. I wiped mist off the window and find it is snowing. Knowing the messages, I figure I shouldn't go outside. I hear something…a noise! Someone was raiding my fridge and I hastily rushed into the kitchen. A white-haired woman was poking through my refrigerator. She stopped, taking notice to my presence. "So you have awakened, Usagi,…I thought you might be in a permanent sleep." she said, without turning to look. I recognized her voice, Doki. She turned to look at me, apparently smirking. "What are you doing here and what happened?" I asked. She let out an apparent half-crazed giggle and said "Oh, the Lamentation happened, Usagi."

"What's that?"

"The Lamentation was the many nuclear wars that lead to this winter and the deaths of many. As far as I know, we are the only survivors of the results of the Last Lamentation in this town."

"Explain the messages on the wall."

"Some of those are warnings, some of which were written by us, should you or your sister wake up. The messages in blood, I can't explain, but I do think some of which could have written by Toki, who we have not seen since the Last Lamentation." 

"Is she alive?"

"I don't know, we couldn't and never found her so she could have been killed, however, she might have survived because we never found her remains or any remnant that would give evidence of her death. Nonetheless, we don't know what became of her."

"When was the Last Lamentation?"

"About two or three years ago, she disappeared around that time, wearing a long white dress with black lace. The radiation turned her and me albino and affected everyone else's DNA in similar ways." 

"What happened during the Last Lamentation?"

"When the Last Lamentation happened, air raids came and dropped some kind of time bombs, my guess to be nuclear, in this town and this vicinity. When the bombs started going off, Toki flew into some sort of panic or frenzy and ran off, just as majority of them had went off. Last time we saw her, she had run off into the distance, no one knows where but possibly in this direction."

"What happened afterwards?"

"Afterwards, even though we had sustained severe burns and injuries, we went to investigate the town and found two handfuls of survivors. When the winter came, it stayed, the winter is the result of radioactive chemicals messing up the atmosphere's function, interfering with the climate, causing it to snow. However, just about every other survivor died as a result of being exposed because the snow is radioactive that resulted them into dying from radiation poisoning from overexposure and many other survivors, including your cousin, adopted brother, and pet cat, died as a result of starvation or hypothermia because they couldn't leave their houses to get food or supplies. Only those who were outside during the Last Lamentation have immunity to the snow. For those who are not immune, will succumb to radiation poisoning in a matter of weeks, possibly months."

"What does the snow feels like?"

"From what I've encountered, the snow when it first touches the skin feels hot and may burn, often causing pain but for those immune it feels hot but doesn't burn, rather, it feels nice, as no pain is caused. The children often play outside in the snow, whenever I permit it. Despite having immunity to the effects, they wear protective gear but that is only to keep them warm. The little darlings seemed to be enjoying playing in the snow."

"How long have been coming into my house?"

"Mmm, I don't know, awhile, I've been doing this and I've been getting in here through one of the tunnels that was built from our basement to yours. If you want to go anywhere, you must travel by tunnel unless you want to wear protective gear because going outside is dangerous if without it."

"Explain why Madgie is sleeping but the blanket is quite dirty."

"That, I don't know if she's sleeping or not but I've never checked, so she could be sleeping. Let us go and check."

We continue upstairs, to Madgie's room. As we walk the stairs, I paused for a minute and screamed "MADGIE, WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Doki looked at me and said "Silence, I get headaches easily." We enter Madgie's room and lightly shake her, she reaches up a faltering hand, covered by burns. "Well, she's alive but critically injured, likely from going outside, earlier." It had dawned on me that she wrote the previous message , The snow…it burns!, and, noting what Doki said earlier about the snow having a burning sensation, she had to have written it. Doki took careful time examining her wounds and said "She must have wandered out only minutes before you have awakened. Come now, we shall proceed to the house, we have supplies there." 

Carrying Madge, she led me downstairs, into the basement, to the well-lit tunnel entrance. We go through and find ourselves in Toki's basement. "I've quite constructed a medical center that deals with these sorts of injuries." She said, laying Madgie on a cot. 

Lightly stroking Madgie's hair, she assessed the severity and lightly shook her head. She walked over to me and said "There is little I can do, the burns she sustained are really severe, and thus I can't help her but to ease her pain." She put on her gloves, prepared an intravenous drip, attached a syringe, and stuck it into Madgie's arm. Madgie seemed to be at ease, in a blissful state. "She only looks that way because she's high on morphine, the only thing that can ease her pain and, if so, dying." A familiar voice had said.

Startled, I turn around and find Brownie looking right at me. Her now whitish-blond hair was tied into long curled identical ponytails on both sides of her head. Her face had a scars that been sutured running from the corners of her mouth that ran into part of her cheeks. One of her blue eyes was glossier than the other, leading to me wonder if it was artificial. Her fingers and fingernails had quite overgrown. She was wearing a black dress, decorated with purple lace, which came just above her knees, exposing her scarred legs. Her arms were scarred, too, but were covered up with detached sleeves that went with her dress. She wore no shoes only torn translucent stockings. 

Despite the Lamentation that Doki spoke of, Brownie still retained her cheerful juvenile personality and is smiling as such. Then again, she's very lucky to be alive, so she should smile. Oddly, I'm lucky I did not end up like Madgie or killed in the Last Lamentation but, all the while, I'm not smiling, in fact, I'm a little irritated.

"Madgie is high on morphine?" I asked, unamused. Brownie tilted her head in a confused manner, trying to process my overall emotion. "Yes, she is, but why are so down?" I looked at her, surprised by the question, so I answered, "Because, Madgie got me into this with her time traveling experiment, like before, and only Toki knows how to fix it but no one knows where she is or whether or not she is dead or alive."

"Oh, well, she might be alive because, every time we go into town to scout for supplies, we always here an eerie singing voice that is very beautiful. More often than not, sometimes I think I see a female figure in a white dress, with black lace, walking in the snow."

"Do you know how to fix this?"

"No, but Toki might, however, she disappeared during the Last Lamentation and we have not seen her afterwards, so we don't know if she was killed, survived, or taken by the red flower hunters and perhaps killed afterwards. The eerie thing is that we hear her voice but no one knows if that is her or her spirit. Due to the voice, Doki usually doesn't go further into town or even travel on ground rather than in tunnel."

"What troubles her about the voice?"

"Oh, Bunny, it saddens her because she misses her sister terribly and the uncertainty of her sister's fate is torturing her. Whenever, she is town, she breaks and won't move unless we go home."

"I do not want to live inside for the rest of my life."

"Well, we can go look for Toki and I have to go outside anyway."

She was led upstairs but, as I was walking, Doki looked at me and back at Madgie before shaking her head gravely. I had a feeling that Madgie might not make it. I knew this to be true, as the burns she's sustained were already severe. Brownie grabbed a backpack and a protective coat, shorts, dress, boots, and a veil. "Since, you were not outside or here during the Last Lamentation, you must wear protective gear or else you'll get burned by the snow touching your skin." Brownie explained, helping me get dressed. I got dressed and, after doing so, I hear "Vielle go!" I turn and see Vielle, insistent. "No, Vielle, you can't come." Vielle's eyes widened for a brief moment before she walked off as if nothing had happened.

Eerily, just like Brownie, the children were playing and acting normal as if their lives were unaffected. Then again , they too are lucky to be alive, so they have a reason to be. I guess they decided to proceed with their lives. We left the dome through a tunnel that entered out into the town. As we walk, I hear the very voice Brownie mentioned and I come across a ruby pendant. "This is the very same necklace she wore, when she disappeared but we didn't find it after the Last Lamentation." Brownie said, lightly examining it. The ruby itself appeared to be polished, recently polished. 

As we venture further, I notice a dainty hand sticking out of the snow and the singing had gotten ever louder. "Brownie, do you guys usually get hands sticking out of the snow?" She looked at me with wide questioning eyes that seemed to sparkle and said "No, not unless they're people that died. Why ask?" I pointed to the very familiar hand. The fingers started to move, frightening us. Brownie reached out her hand cautiously took hold of it. After a few minutes of holding it, she became less afraid and smiled, tears of joy falling from her face. She gently pulled it up and, to my surprise, the owner of the hand was who I was looking for,…Toki. She tilted her head left and right, smiling. 

With her other hand, she spelled out why she had been roaming and that she lost her ability to speak, as a result of the Last Lamentation damaging her vocal cords while she was screaming and that the singing we heard was an imprint in the wind. She was roaming because she had lost her way home and held out hope that someone would lead her home. "Do you know how to help reverse this?" I asked, pleadingly. She nodded and pointed to the pendant, making  gestures that said told me her necklace is the key and she said the time chamber is not that far. "Well, you've waited so long, how's about we take you home." I said.

We lead her home through the tunnel. When everyone caught sight of her, they were overwhelmed with joy, especially Doki, Tokette (another nickname for Toki-Doki Rose), and Vielle, who missed her dreadfully. Toki lead me outside in her backyard, to a sundial. She put the circular ruby in the center, causing it to glow. The sundial went up revealing a chamber. 

As I was leaving, I asked Doki about Madgie, she sighed and said "While you guys were in town, she succumbed to her injuries because the most severe damage was internal and she went outside during a blizzard, explaining the severity of the burns. However, she told me her last wish was for you to find Toki and reverse this. Good luck!" 

The door closed but not before I saw Toki flashing me a smile. Next thing I know, I awake, in my lingerie. Madgie is in her nightgown, downstairs, watching the television. Stinky was in his spot. Everything was back to normal and the season was the same as it was before we traveled back in time. I walk out outside and find Toki taking a stroll, talking with Brownie. When she walks by, she flashes me a smile. As for me, I smile then walk back into the house for a bottle of wine.