Mary's apartment, Dormitory, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 22:00.

After going to the bathroom to freshen up and change into clean clothes from one of the previous residents, Sara brought a hair comb with her.

Mary saw the comb and commented, "You cut your hair so short. It looks good on you, though..."

"It makes me look like a boy," without delay, Sara fired her dispassionate answer.

"A very effeminate androgynous young middle-school boy," Mary teased.

Mary was probably mimicking her with these innocuous but aggravatingly truthful statements. Sara thought she would need to learn how to deal with Mary if they were to remain as friends. Then she cursed inside as she noticed her feelings. She wanted to be friends with Mary. Mary the social remora of all people. Damn those Social Skills. How dare them make Sara care for people?

It wasn't the Skills alone, though. Throughout this month, Sara was forced to learn how to connect to people, even though most of them were dead. She (mostly) selflessly toiled to accommodate their requests and usher them into whatever passed for afterlife after Armageddon. She was forced to face her fears, her anxieties, and conquer them. Composure, Presence, and Flattery only helped to accelerate the process.

Not to mention Mary had an innate ability to appear non-threatening to her target "shark". Her adaptability was commendable.

"Well, pretending to be a boy kept me alive in Seattle. Do you want me to comb your hair or not?" Sara changed the subject. Mary smiled, then sat upright with her back to Sara. Carefully, she ran her comb over the other girl's hair. "What happened to your hair?"

"I pulled it off," Mary's head hung low with a lot of shame.

"Fingernails?"

"Bit them off," Mary's voice wavered. "Sara I... when the world ended and everyone died, I woke up alone in my room. I called everyone and got no answer. My ears buzzed because it was so quiet outside even though it was sunny outside. Then I went out of my room and... and..." She started to cry.

Sara kept combing Mary's hair, waiting for her to finish putting everything out. "They were all dead," she said after Mary paused.

"Yeah. I ran back to my room and... lost my mind. Then I couldn't get out. I couldn't look at them. I lost track of time; days went by. I was thirsty and had to go drink some water. The smell. Oh, God, the smell. I told myself it was not real. I laid on my bed and decided to stay there until I woke up from the nightmare."

"Then the ice cream car guys found you."

"I heard them several times but I felt too weak to get out of bed. One day, I felt I would die for real, and I climbed on my window and screamed for help. They took me to the university and put me in a IV drip."

"I'm so sorry, Mary. It must've been terrible," Sara said heartfeltly.

"Still is," Mary hiccupped, "But it is getting better."

"Well, the survivors here all seem to be nice people," Sara lied. "They're helping each other."

Mary turned her torso around to make eye contact. "They? Not us?" She smiled to soften her next words, "Always the lone wolf, right?"

Sara put a hand on Mary's scalp and forced her to face the window again, "Stand still, woman. I'm trying to cover the bald spots. Now, don't do that to yourself anymore."

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because you are alive. Because we were classmates even if we hated each other before. Because the world has turned into a horrible place for a seventeen-year-old girl. I'm willing to put all our baggage behind but you need to meet me in the middle."

Mary inhaled intermittently as her emotions caused her to make small sobs. "I like the new Sara better," she muttered. "Why did you sit alone during the barbecue?"

"I don't really fit in here," Sara admitted. "Aside from a handful of active explorers, most survivors are still stuck in the day the world ended. Still grieving. I see people wander around the campus with vacant stares. People crying, people who lost their will to live. Then there's you."

"Me?"

Sara's first impulse was to be blunt, speak her mind, to drag Mary into accepting reality by force. In her head, she would confront Mary about what she said about her family abandoning her, then force Mary to have an epiphany and be reborn tomorrow morning as a new person. But Sara knew stuff like that didn't happen. She recalled the many times social workers tried to do interventions with the hobos and crack addicts she had for neighbors in Seattle. They always came back none the wiser.

Mary needed to crawl out of the hole she dug for herself on her own. All Sara could do was stand at the edge and encourage her. "You're grieving too," Sara said with a faint note of defeat. Everyone was grieving. Even Kelly, living parents notwithstanding, grieved the loss of the rest of her family and friends. Amanda and Kelly were a similar case. They weren't friends before the world ended but became besties by a process of elimination.

Sara finished brushing Mary's hair, then Mary insisted it was her turn. After they finished grooming each other, it was time to go to bed.

At the guest bedroom's door Sara stopped to share a bit more of her mind. "You deserve a chance. Don't squander it. You need to get strong, Mary. The world ended, and what is left of it is not as nice as we were used to."

'And I won't carry you on my back,' she added to herself.

*

*

Mary's apartment, Laker Village, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 23:40.

Sara didn't sleep straight away. She had an ax to bury. The alien parasite living inside her was silent since they argued at the hotel. Lying in bed, tucked under the blankets, she said,

"Abby, give me a Status Screen."

Name:

Sara

Species:

Human (+2 Skill Slots)

Skill Slots:

10 / 12

Magic Type:

Mage - Enhancer (Exclusive)

Special trait:

See through the Veil (Able to see into the ethereal)

Special trait:

Personal Core (Treat Core Strength as levels in a main Class).

Main Class:

N/A

Secondary Class:

N/A

Development

System Core Strength (SCS)

25

The System Core becomes stronger and better at generating its own energy. Core Strength is maxed out. It requires a connection to the main System Core to evolve.

1 - You can have a maximum of 10 skill points per level of Core Strength.

2 - A maxed-out Core allows for better aid in fine mana manipulation. Active Skills' upkeep can be fractioned.

3 - Increases max MP pool and MP recovery by 50%.

Mana Conductivity (MC)

52%

(77%)

A measure of how clear the body's meridian system is. Mana conductivity impacts environmental energy absorption and channeling directly. Cleansed body systems are MC% stronger, more efficient, and tougher.

Purity of Body

Digestive,

Skin,

Bones, Muscle,

Circulatory.

1 - Increase the efficiency of all cleansed body systems efficiency by MC.

2 - Synergy between Skin, Muscle, and Bone: Increase damage resistance by an additional half of MC3 - Synergy between Muscle and Bone: Increase physical strength by an additional half of MC.

4 - Synergy between Digestive and Circulatory systems increase immunity and resistance to external pathogens and toxins by half of MC.

5 - Cleansed body improves MP pool and all recovery rates by half of MC.

Mage - Enhancer (Exclusive)

25%

Your mana channels greatly enhance internal circulation but aren't that good at projecting and controlling ambient mana.

1 - Add a linear 25% to your mana conductivity for internal manipulation purposes.

2 - Multiply the effect of all Physical Skills and internal mana manipulation Skills by [25+Mana Conductivity]%

3 - Divide the effect of all External Mana Manipulation by 10.

4 - Exclusive-type mages cannot cultivate or actively use Qi.

Cold Affinity (major)

50%

You have a great affinity with the Cold element. Increase all Cold-related effects and resistances by 50%.

MP Pool

919

Available Energy for Active Skills. Equals to (10*SCS) + MC%. Recovers 10% per day under normal mana densities.

Skills: Physical (78)

Adroitness

15 40%

The Skill of moving one's body with grace and precision. Increases speed and coordination and reduces reflex delay by Rank%.

Composure

14 75%

Staying calm under pressure or pain. When under duress, reduces penalties to mental stability, logical reasoning, and self-control by 2*Rank%.

Prowess

8 21%

Making the most of one physique during stressful situations. Lower reflex delay, increases combat damage and physical power by Rank%.

Brawn

22 59%

Muscular toughness and endurance. Reduces stamina consumption and damage taken, increases lifting and carrying capacity by Rank%.

Rapid Healing

11 59%

Accelerates and optimizes body recovery. Increases healing rate, reduces the odds of permanent damage, including scars, by 2*Rank%.

Thermostasis

8 21(%/F)

Widened temperature comfort range and resistance to forced heat exchange. Increase comfort temperature range by 1F per rank. Reduce damage from heat exchange by Rank%.

Skills: Social(23)

Flattery

11

33%

Making graceful compliments and answering them appropriately. Increases reactions during and after intimate interactions by 2*Rank%.

Presence

12

36%

Motivating people with the power of your personality. Increases reactions during and after social interactions by

2*Rank%.

Skills: Mystical(18)

Mana Infusion

10

54%

Infuse Mana into tools and melee weapons. Adds 2*Rank% to tool effectiveness, tenacity, hardness, and damage.

Infused objects can interact with incorporeal entities. This is considered an internal manipulation Skill.

Active Skill: Activation time: instantaneous. Cost: 1 MP/6 seconds or 10/attack.

Skill Boost

8

24%

43%

Specialized supplemental Mana flow to a Skill. Boosts effects of a Skill by 2*Rank%. This is considered in the same category as the affected Skill.

Active Skill: Activation time, 1 minute. Cost, 1 MP/6 seconds

Total Skill Points: 119 / 250

It seemed that Abby slipped a few points into Core Strength without letting her know. Great. Not.

"Why is System Core Strength orange?"

"How long until we can go there?"

"And you won't explain which process. Fine. Give me the System rules notepad. I have a few additions to make." An illusionary sheet of paper appeared in front of her. "It is forbidden to pool System cash on one person to power them up. Every user has a monthly free transfer limit of a thousand System Dollars, and even those cannot be used to pool resources or any illegal use, like paying taxes. Any transfer beyond that limit must have a quid pro quo relationship. Scan both parties to see if any mutually agreed attempts to deceive the System are being made. Such funds will be confiscated irrevocably. Add a notice to the EULA stating that System cash is for the user's own benefit."

"Also, in case of death, System cash on the user's account is lost. There's no succession. Loaning or lending is also forbidden. System cash cannot be used as a security or collateral of any sorts. The System is not liable for and won't support future transactions where one party promises a late delivery of goods or services."

"Also, the Panthersville region and the rural and forest areas around lake Stonecrest are claimed by the System. Unauthorized users who trespass will be warned, then fined every minute for staying on the area, and for any damage they cause. Those firing weapons or spells from outside the area will also be liable for the damage caused. Those areas shall be for my own enjoyment but the System will make no mention of me."

"Who?" Sara raised an eyebrow. "Explain that to me, I'm quite interested in who are our enemies."

"That is really annoying. If I refuse to go to the middle of that lake, what will you do?"

"Heralds, huh. Why limited powers?"

"How soon?" She gave it a bit of thought, then came to the obvious conclusion. "Next Thursday? During Halloween?"

"What the hell, Abby!" She sat up. "Why are you telling me this only now?"

"But people will die!"

Abby's voice was cold and rather uncaring. Sara thought it sounded like some farming tycoon talking about their livestock afflicted by some malady. 'Yeah, some of the herd will die, but we are aiming at keeping the malady contained. Sacrifice the affected livestock.'

She decided to attack from a tangent. A direct confrontation would only result in the fairy being silent. "What will happen?"

Shocked, Sara left the bed and picked her coat up. "We need to activate the System before that!"

"Fuck you and fuck Verachiel's contingencies! You've been so skittish around that I'm beginning to suspect I could go there right now and turn the fucking thing on. Unless there's no System and you've been bamboozling me all this time."

Abby didn't answer.

"I opened that time bubble before the due date, haven't I? Goddammit, Abby. I won't be a pawn in your schemes. And you won't guilt me into doing your bidding by hanging humanity's continued existence in front of me. Stop fucking gaslighting me!"

"To hell with the rules. I can hear the guilt in your voice. I want the truth."

"Which will be November first, isn't it? Right as the sun rises in the East and most people are dead, turned into ghoul food! Or sliced into sushi by the wraiths!"

Abby didn't answer.

"Why do we have to wait this long? Is it because of the seals? Do all four Horsemen need to be present so you can do some sort of ceremony? Goddammit, answer me!"

Abby didn't answer.

"Talk to me, dammit!"

Sara felt used. Puppeteered. But what could she do? Well, one thing was certain, she needed to warn Hainsworth that this Halloween, trick or treating would have a whole different meaning.

*

*

Mary's apartment, Laker Village, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Tuesday, October 29th, 2019. 04:30.

Late into the following night, Sara woke up with Mary clinging to her. The poor girl was feverish, drenched in sweat, whimpering, and shaking as she muttered something impossible to understand. Still asleep, Mary was having the mother of all nightmares. She tried to wriggle free but Mary clawed and pinned Sara in place with her fingernails and one leg.

"Mary, wake the fuck up!" Sara shouted in mild pain as she shook the other girl.

"Don't leave me!" Mary howled as her consciousness struggled to return. "Mom!"

"Mary, it's me, Sara! I'm not your mom, get a fucking grip."

Sara grabbed Mary by the wrists and forcibly pulled her off of her. Still sleeping, Mary cried and tried with all her might to cling to Sara but while the other girl was malnourished, Sara had body enhancement magic on her side. Sara quickly rolled out of Mary's reach and climbed to her feet in record time.

Mary curled on herself and hid her face against her knees as she kept on crying and bawling. She muttered the same thing over and over. "Come back to me! Mom!" She didn't want to be alone.

An acrid smell filled the room. Moments later, the lower half of the blanket became damp. Mary winced in shame and brought her fingers to her mouth. Sensing what she was about to do, Sara swallowed her disgust and dove down to keep Mary from biting what was left her own fingernails off. She pinned both wrists down with her right hand while the left gently pulled Mary's forehead away.

A moment of clarity had Mary's eyes locked with Sara. The girl saw burning shame and despair of a depth one could only find in the pits of Hell in those eyes. Mary tried to look away but Sara used her left hand to hold the girl's head steady. The girl's chest rose and fell quickly as she hyperventilated.

"I'm sorry," Mary whimpered. "Please don't hurt me!"

Sara's expression softened. "It's okay," she cooed and patted Mary's head. "It's okay. You are safe, Mary. I'm here for you."

Mary grabbed Sara's hand and cradled it on her chest. She cried her brains out. Sara kept saying nice words of encouragement and comfort until Mary calmed down. What horrors were she exposed to, to become this distressed?

"I take it back," Mary whined. "All the bad stuff I ever said to you, I take it back. You're an angel, Sara. You're totes main character now."

"No, I'm not," Sara meekly protested. "I used to be a bitch back in the day. I was somewhat forced to deal with a lot of weirdos. Crazy people. Helping ghosts wasn't an easy task," Sara confessed. "But it made me see things in a different light. I used to hate you, Mary. Not anymore. I helped wicked perverts that should be tossed in the depths of hell. You deserve better than they. I'm helping you not out of pity, but out of compassion and basic human decency. I want you to be happy, Mary. You deserve that just for being alive."

Mary sobbed a bit more.

"Maybe we can be real friends," Sara offered. "Maybe we are besties now. Because everyone else is dead and we only have each other. But we are not alone."

"What if we find Pamela tomorrow?"

"We can go to her house. Do you know where it is? We find Pamela, then we decide what to do. But what happened here won't change. We still had this moment. We'll always have Paris."

"Isn't that from a boomer flick?"

"Yeah. With the hottest guy to ever appear on the big screen."

Mary scoffed, "Puh-lease! Leo is the CEO of hotness."

"Leo, huh? Not bad. Would you let him draw you like one of his French girls?"

"I'd never stand still that long. I would skip to the car scene and then have his babies."

"Good. You do you. Now, how about we get you off this bed, under the shower, then some comfy clean workout clothes, and go out for a jog and maybe grab a bite? I doubt any of us can sleep now. Let's start the day earlier."

"Yeah, I'd like that."

"And just to be clear, this bed is now your problem."

"Meh, we should burn this together with the other mattress. There's tons of the stuff out there for grabs."

Sara didn't say, but she believed the stuff people took for granted would soon vanish if they didn't care for them.

*

*

North Lee Street, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Tuesday, October 29th, 2019. 07:00.

It was still dark without a hint of light in the East. As November approached, the sun rose later and later in the morning.

Unable to go back to sleep, Sara decided to take Mary out to exercise. They quickly found that going for a jog outdoors in a moonless night was stupid. Sara quickly changed plans as they set course for the Student Activities building gym. Anything to get away from that pee-soaked mattress.

They had to use flashlights at least until they reached the end of Simpson Drive. The street lights in the campus marked the threshold between the dead world and the remnants of civilization.

"I still think we should've waited for the sunrise," Mary whined. "It's, like, the fifth time I almost tripped."

Mary's physical conditioning was close to inexistent. Another reason she needed to get on the treadmill and start building some muscle ASAP. With Mana and Qi added to the equation, people could push themselves beyond what was possible before, reaping the benefits of an extreme training regime.

Sara too needed to improve her baseline abilities. With the threat of a bloody Halloween approaching, She wanted to spend every available moment exercising.

She had two days to prepare. Two days to get all the survivors somewhere safe and to do something to help. While her legs moved on their own, Sara concocted plan after plan. She had to scout the other neighborhoods inside the time bubble for survivors. They would be as good as dead if left on their own. She had to secure perishables from the other restaurants and grocery stores in Panthersville and surrounding regions, else they would spoil. She had to scout for threats. Sara imagined packs of ghouls gathering, biding their time to invade the land of the living when the energies binding them to the freeways relinquished their hold on the undead.

A pressing weight settled on her chest. She couldn't do all that alone. She had to cooperate with Hainsworth and Keynes, and she hated the thought. The Sara of a month ago would lock herself up in the hotel and weather Halloween from her penthouse, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. Without magic, they would be massacred.

Distracted, it was Mary who heard the growls first. "Sara! I think I heard some dogs! They sound angry."

"Huh, where?" Sara snapped back to reality and scanned around. What she found shocked her. In the dark, she could see not the dogs but the Mana they exuded. it was gooey and dark and made she think of Rudy. "Damn."

The pack of corrupted dogs slowly approached, the growls sometimes replaced by warning barks. The fact the two girls refused to run away apparently angered the canines even further. She could swear their eyes were glowing red. She shifted her flashlight their way and saw the reflection in their eyes but no red glow. The dogs flinched away from the light and actively moved to stay out of the flashlight's beacon.

"Are those wolves?" Mary tittered from behind Sara.

Drawing her knife, Sara replied, "No. Evil cannibal dogs. They are corrupted by the 'bad-thing'."

Mary flinched, "Eek! Cannibals?"

"Abby, any thoughts?" Sara prompted.

"They don't seem to like being in the light," Mary remarked.

Great, a philosopher fairy. "You're right, Mary. If any dogs approach you, flash them. With the lantern, mind you. Your boobs are tactical weapons."

Mary grunted, "Asshole."

it seemed that taunting the other girl shook her out of her panic.

Sara assessed the dog pack. Mixed breeds with many of them belonging to expensive ones, all of them former pets who fed on their masters or some random human corpse. Just like Rudy, they were corrupted but unlike the Shiba Inu, they were thoroughly corrupted. She felt a squeeze in her heart. Just like Rudy, they had to be put down.

"Mary, I need you to stand still," Sara requested. She wasn't confident in fighting and keeping Mary safe but if she didn't move, the dogs would go after Sara first. Or at least she believed that. "Remember to use your light."

"You said that already!" Mary protested.

She took Mary's whimper as a yes. Sara examined the pack of dogs, trying to count them. About twelve. The biggest ones were a golden retriever and a German shepherd. The smallest ones were too fast dodging the light for her to see them. Sara turned on the powerful LED array on the side of the flashlight and set it on the ground next to Mary. She would need both hands for this fight and the light would shield the two girls backs.

'Goodness, I'm about to murder puppies,' Sara cringed inside. She felt conflicted but pondering on moral dilemmas when the critters were trying to bite her face off was not a nice way to die. 'Those are corrupted dogs, taken by the bad-stuff', she added. 'Killing them was an act of mercy, just like with Rudy. He looked happy in the crazy personal trainer's arms after she... ripped his soul off'.

"Boost Brawn," she called. While she had to ration her MP pool, it was of no use if she was incapacitated or dead by Halloween.

"Can we save the puppies?" Sara asked.

That settled it for Sara. With a heavy heart, she readied herself for battle.

The pack slowly circled the two girls, growling and barking to make them afraid. It was as if the infernal dogs had a rudimentary intelligence. Sara passed the knife to her left hand and drew her pistol. The weapon was nothing but a fashion statement so far but now she intended to make use of it for the first time.

She aimed at the German shepherd and pulled the trigger. The shot went wildly off-target as she wasn't ready for the recoil.

The other dogs took the gunshot as a sign to attack. A few of the small breeds parted from the group to flank them. Sara shouted and brandished her knife to keep their attention on her. She kept her focus on the dog she considered to be the leader of the pack. Maybe, if she killed the alpha, the pack would disperse. The slavering dogs closed in but the alpha remained in the back, barking orders. The girl feared they had developed some intelligence.

Right before they reached her, Sara thought she should've wrapped her jacket around her left forearm. Too late. The alpha dog barked menacingly from a distance and she offered the right arm to a bearded collie, who gladly took it. She slashed from below in a left hook, drawing a glowing red crescent across the dog's throat. She felt the spine resisting her knife and heard metal scraping against bone. Sara's slapped the dog's head to the side and kicked the body away, failing to dodge the spray of blood from the almost severed neck. Some of it fell on Mary, who shrieked in despair.

"Come at me, motherfuckers!" She taunted and fired the gun twice, hitting a well-groomed poodle and missing the next shot.

She hoped they would go away. Instead, seeing some of their number dead only spurred the cannibal dogs into a frenzy. All of them, including the flanking ones converged on the girls at the same time.

Kneeling on the asphalt and with her back covered in collie blood, Mary cried. Sara too would've broken down if not for Composure. She might have gotten some blood on her eye because it stung and her sight was blurred. She fired three times as the dogs closed in, hitting two animals.

She stabbed the muzzle of the first one to arrive but three others bit at her ankle, thigh, and left arm.

Mary brandished the flashlight wildly, keeping the photophobic dogs at bay.

Sara felt the pain of their fangs and heard her clothes rip. She wasn't sure but felt they hadn't drawn blood, her skin reinforced by Boosted Brawn.

Latched onto her, the dogs were defenseless against her knife. Another three stabs and she was free, though not for long. The alpha came and bit for her face, grabbing the left forearm she rose to defend herself. She felt the fangs sink into her flesh and something repulsive entering under her skin. In pain, she dropped the knife.

With a primal scream, Sara dragged the German shepherd latched onto her left arm forward and up, shooting it between the front legs at point-blank twice. When that didn't make the dog release her, she waved her arm like a baseball pitch, yanking it back as the dog's body flew away, ripping two gashes in her left forearm.

A golden retriever snapped her right arm, causing her to drop the gun and become unarmed. Sara infused her sneaker and punted the fluffy dog with a soccer kick, hearing the crunch of bones and causing the retriever to land a few meters away and limp as it fled. She retrieved her knife.

"Ahhh! Get away!" Mary hollered as a tiny pinscher tried to nip her. She brandished the flashlight but the tiny dog pranced around, dodging the beam of light.

Sara slashed two shi tzu and a Yorkshire who tried to sneak on her and earn their pound of flesh. With their leaders and most of the pack either wounded or dying, the other dogs gave the screaming girls some distance.

"Mary, are you okay?"

"No!" Mary whined.

"Are you wounded?"

"I don't know!" She whimpered.

"Were you bitten?" Sara asked with a heavy voice.

"Oh no!" Mary gasped. "Am I going to become a werewolf?"

"Are you hurt?"

"No! Yes! I... I..."

Sara crouched and exchanged the knife for her gun. She held the pistol with both hands and aimed. With a mental prayer for the dogs, she aimed and fired four times, hitting all of the ones still moving. Then she went and stabbed the rest of the pack with her knife, making sure they were dead. None of them had fled. She counted fourteen dogs.

"Abby, how much mana and ammo did I spend?"

Sara holstered the gun, picked her knife and lantern, then went around putting the poor puppies out of their misery. As the dogs breathed their last, she felt their Mana coming her way.

> You gained 1 point in Mana Infusion

> You gained 1 point in Skill Boost

> You recovered 45 MP.

"Only two Skill points?"

"Fuck you and your advice, seriously," Sara cursed and took her jacket off to examine her right arm. "How did a dog bite so deep?" She had boosted Brawn on.

She saw some vile black stuff ooze from the wound.

Sara moved some Mana inside her forearm. While she couldn't manipulate Qi, the vital energy would move along with the Mana, energizing her cells and accelerating the healing process by a little.

She noticed she hadn't a spare magazine and was down to two bullets. "Damn, I more ammo."

Abby said and displayed an icon at the corner of her field of view, of a magazine and the number "02" next to it. The magazine also had only two bullet icons at the bottom.

Sara knelt next to Mary and clapped the other girl's shoulder. "Mary, are you okay? Are you hurt?" She didn't respond. "The dogs are dead. You are safe."

Mary threw herself around Sara's neck, heedless of all the blood on both of them. She opened the dam and bawled loudly, mumbling unintelligible words.