Francine Mathews, Fran to her friends, whistled as she worked.

She knew she should have been annoyed when Gary’s uncle had assigned her cleaning duty, maybe even offended. The fact was, however, she needed to keep her mind off all the horrible things that had happened. Giving the farmhouse a good once over whilst the rest of them got on with filling back in the holes they’d dug was a good way to keep her mind occupied.

Besides, the place was filthy. A closer inspection of the property had revealed layers of dust everywhere.

“Not been used in months?” She wondered aloud, “More like years if you ask me.”

No-one was asking her, though. She found some cleaning products in the side room next to the kitchen, as well as a vacuum cleaner. Just her luck, though. The electricity went down as she started vacuuming, forcing her to resort to using a brush. The water was still running, though there was no hot water, of course. Still, it was better than nothing.

She got to work on the kitchen and living room areas first, diligently brushing and wiping, using as little of the cleaning products available as she could. The accumulated grime and filth quickly darkened the cloths and the buckets of water she was using, forcing her to refill several times before she completed the whole of the downstairs area to her satisfaction.

Nobody paid her any attention or offered to help (of course, she thought sourly). Even when they’d finished filling the holes back in, they were more interested in talking to the soldiers, or amongst themselves.

It was starting to get dark when in the distance she heard something that sounded to her like gunshots. She paused, and wondered what that was all about, but by then she’d become preoccupied by something else.

She had revisited the side room in search of more cleaning products. The room contained a few cupboards and a washing machine, as well as some bags of plaster that had been left behind. On the off-chance that there were some cleaning products fallen behind them, she had moved the bags of plaster and peered behind them at the wall.

A system notification popped up in front of her.

Spot Hidden. Perception check, level 3. You see nothing unusual.

The notification puzzled Fran.

Since she had gained her character sheet, she’d noticed that her perception was higher than her other statistics, a whopping 15 points compared to her other 10’s and 11’s. Once she’d realised that the character sheet was reflecting her natural abilities, it didnt surprise her that the system had scored her with a high perception. After all, she was a hairdresser, so paying attention to detail was part of what she did. Plus, if she was honest, she was a bit of a nosey-parker and had a knack for spotting things that others couldn’t.

So that was no puzzle.

What was a puzzle was the notification telling her that her perception check was at ‘Level 3’.

This, Fran understood from having read through the guide to the new rules of reality, meant that she was attempting something that was difficult.

Which led her to conclude that there was something in the room that was hard to find. Otherwise, why would it be at level 3?

She carried on looking around the room as she had been doing before, and the same notification showed up again.

Spot Hidden. Perception check, level 3. You see nothing unusual.

There’s something here, she thought, something well hidden that I can’t see at the moment. Otherwise there’d be no reason for it to be at level 3, would there?

She tried a third time, searching the small room and again the “You see nothing unusual” notification appeared.

“This is weird,” Fran muttered.

She thought about calling someone else in to see if they could find whatever was hidden, but Fran liked doing things by herself when she could.

She had a read through the instructions again, and spotted the paragraph she’d noticed earlier, the ones to do with Mana.

You can use mana to help you accomplish tasks that would otherwise be too difficult to achieve. Try the task whilst focussing your Mana and see the results!

“Like magic,” Fran nodded, “Okay let’s try this.”

She continued her search, but this time focussed on adding some mana to her efforts. She only had 20 points, so she made an attempt not to use them all at once.

5 points of Mana drained away, but the same bloody notification appeared, telling her she had failed again.

“Bloody hell,” she said.

She gave it one last go and focussed as hard as she could. 10 points of mana drained out of her, and the interface rewarded her with a different message:

Spot Hidden. Perception Check Level 3 Success! You spot a hidden door.

Fran grinned, pleased with herself that she had worked out part of the system. She’d never had much interest in games, so everything was a learning curve right now. She was also pleased to note that she’d gained two experience points for her success.

See, Jonathan, she thought smugly, I was right. It doesn’t all have to be about killing.

Then she turned her attention to the second part of the notification.

A hidden door? Why would there be a hidden door in here?

Fran glanced at the wall that where the bags of plaster had been leaning and noticed that the skirting board was now bathed in a pale blue light. She kneeled down and pressed against it.

There was a soft ‘clicking’ noise.

The wall moved forwards slightly. Just enough for Fran to get her fingernails around the edge that had become detached from its neighbour at the corner.

What is this, she wondered, some kind of Indiana Jones thing? Did the system change also add secret doors and stuff when it happened?

There was no answer to her question. The wall swung open.

Fran gawped. On the other side was a set of wooden steps leading down.

“This is too freaky,” she muttered.

Curiosity, however, was part of her nature. She took out her phone, noting that the battery was already half used up, and switched the torch on.

She stepped onto the first of the wooden steps. It creaked but felt stable. By the torchlight, she could see that they led down into a room. A basement.

Gary said something about a basement to Jonathan, Fran thought. This must be it, then.

*

Outside, Jonathan, Peter and Silvia were discussing whether what they had heard in the distance was gunshots, when a piercing scream came from inside the house. Jonatha raced inside as Fran came running into the kitchen.

“Jonathan, look, look, for god’s sake, you have to see this! It’s horrible!”

“Fran, calm down, what’s wrong?”

“In the side room,” Fran gasped, “It’s… I found a door, a secret door. There’s a basement. Just look, okay? Just go and look!”

“What is it, zombies?”

“No, it’s worse than that!”

Jonathan raced down the basement steps and clicked on his mobile phone’s torch.

He gazed around the space, not comprehending what he was seeing in the barely lit darkness.

And then it hit him all at once.

“Oh. Oh, fuck…”