I had saved several months worth of credits. A tidy sum. In case I needed to leave Enkhor in a hurry.

There aren't just bad memories from Earth. There are bad people too. Monsters who like their secrets kept. I'm one of the few loose ends they'd just love to tie up. Not that I planned to give them the chance.

Wait a second. Then what the hell am I doing now?

So, like an idiot, yesterday I quit my job. It took Taos 24 hours to convince me to start taking action towards his mission objectives. Anyone else and I would have thrown them out of the apartment.

It worked in Taos' favour that I'd be throwing out his medium, too. Owen deserved better.

So now, I'm on the bloody maglev again. Well, I guess you could say all three of us are going for a ride together. Yay.

There's a barely distinctive whir to the electrics of the vehicle, as a patchwork of intensive farmland, forests and townships stretch out before us.

'Wow, I've never been this far to the edge of the settled area,' Owen says, staring out the window.

You could say that Enkhor is a Garden of Eden. Just imagine what Earth was like, before humans got their grubby little hands on it. And murdered all the megafauna and cut down the gigantic trees and, well you get the picture.

As for the train - for the past twenty or so years, Enkhor had been gradually transitioning from importing tech and machinery from Earth and other settled worlds, to developing industry here.

The Maglev was Enkhor manufactured. It may be thirty years behind the standards of Earth. But to achieve so much in a couple of decades, said something for Enkhorian determination.

Other planets had failed to prosper. Enkhor was early stage success story.

I should have recognised, wherever success can be found, corruption surely follows.

I check my watch for the fifth time. I like tech on my wrist rather than in my head. Twenty minutes to go.

This is a bad idea.

The carriage was mainly empty. A suit and a few grunts in workwear. All heading to the edge, like us.

'Can I talk to Taos?' I ask him. Again. I feel like it's almost telling Owen he's not important.

But Owen just nods and lets my friend jump in.

'Hey! Stay cool. We got this.'

His upbeat attitude frustrated me.

'Thanks a bunch. Feels so much better.'

'Don't worry. You forget, I can see round corners, through walls. I can read people's thoughts. I'll be your navigator.'

'What if something happens to Owen? What then?'

'It won't. Spirits have access to every location and conversation in the physical universe, pretty much.'

The whole thing still confused me. The more Taos explained about the spirit world, nothing made much sense yet. It's like playing a new instrument. The early part is mainly stress and overwhelm.

'How many?' I ask him.

'Just one.'

The lights on the maglev flicker momentarily.

From the other end of our carriage, all the workers abruptly stand at the same time.

'Uh, Dale?' Taos asks.

'What now?'

'You both need to run.'

'Why?'

The workers start down the aisle towards us. They look a little unhinged.

'Those people are overcloaked by dark spirits.'

I get up. 'You said you could see everything that's happening!'

'This comes from my side. Now-'

Owen's eyes flicker and I can tell he's back. He jumps up net to me. '-RUN!'

We do. And the men start to run behind us. Silently, like robots. But robots with scary black jungle eyes.

We move into the next carriage. 'Owen, what the hell is going on?' I ask as we hurtle down the aisle. The people on the train look up, but nobody says anything. People never like to get involved in conflict. I'd found that out the hard way back on Earth.

'Those guys are druggies. Makes them susceptible to being taken over.'

'Well what the heck happens when we get the back of the train?'

Owen pauses for half a second.

This is the kind of shit I left behind.

'Taos has something. We just gotta make it through the next door.'

I can sense malice behind me. The kind that makes your neck hair stand up and your heart hammer in your chest.

They are less than thirty feet behind us. It's pretty much a sprint but Owen's body is weak and malnourished. We scramble through the doorway and-

PHOOSH!

The auto-door shuts behind us. The men hit the door. But they don't yell. They simply stare with the eyes.

Wonderful.

'Dale?' It's Taos again.

'What the fuck is going on? Those guys want to hurt us.'

'They don't care, actually. But the spirits with them want to kill you both.'

The tone of the Maglev starts to drop. We're slowing down. The door in the corridor leading outside the train slides open.

One of the men punch the glass between us and the carriage.

'You're gonna have to trust me, Daley.'

'Please, don't be something dangerous and idiotic. I never missed that part of you.'

'You're going to have to jump out of the train, on my mark.'

'Wait, what!' I say.

Owen, or it is Taos, moves to the doorway.

'Otherwise I can't bloody protect you!' It's Taos.

Outside, trees whip past us at speed. Way too fast.

I shake my head. 'That's suicide.'

'Look, I've tried that once,' he answers. A bad joke at the worst possible moment. 'Please? I've almost exhausted all my spiritual energy.'

I don't understand, but I know my friend.

I go to the doorway. The thumping from the thugs continue. I can hear them yelling now. It sounds animistic. Demonic even.

In the same moment as the door to the carriage opens, Taos yells 'Now!'

You know what? I really genuinely actually hate my life. I jump out of a moving train into an alien forest.