Something switched on in my brain, my senses sang with the speed, and adrenaline shocked my system into overdrive; nothing mattered or existed except for the few hundred yards of tarmac out front which my narcotically motored brain claimed all for its own.

No matter that we had to thunder between two overloaded, weaving, wobbling artics, no matter that I nearly dislocated my shoulder when I had to twitch around a fool in a large Honda sedan who was weaving drunkenly from lane to lane, and no matter that we buzzed a cop car that actually shook on its springs, caressed by a sonic boom conjured up from the way we battered through the air. All that mattered was my conviction that, come what may, we would surely survive.

Only the industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Rayong caused me to desist. A ruined landscape that took my breath away. Something corrupted my vision, the cars metamorphosing into huge monsters whose grills snarled with reptilian life. The roadside trees had branches which fluttered like snakes and the paddy fields were infested with massive maggots.

The bars shook, wavered in my hands and when I looked down I thought I was holding on to the head of some monstrous lizard. I screamed, let go of the bars and tried to leap off the bike whilst it was motoring along at 60km/h; only Sleighy’s bear-hug stopped me.

The Vee-Max flopped dangerously from side to side, the exhaust backfired violently like a machine-gun on the rampage and sweat poured off my body despite the violent self-produced wind created by our progress.

I shut my eyes, twitched my head a few times and was relieved to find the bars were back to normal, although all the bones in my body seemed to have turned to rubber. I managed to head the bike for the side of the road, but the only reason we didn’t collapse into a heap was that Sleighy managed to get his feet down before the bike went sideways. I staggered off the machine, suddenly racked with sobs, bent over crying like an abused baby. Between the hysterical cries I spat out Mai’s name, a mantra that might let me hang on to my sanity.

Sleighy pulled me to my feet, gave me a backhanded slap that nearly tore my head off, his face purple with rage and eyes full of blood with pinprick pupils that showed no mercy.