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When work was done, Trig threw his jacket on over his uniform and quickly found his way back to the same spot he’d killed time at the previous night.

As it was only a little past ten, there were more people milling around; some walking dogs, some running like pros, some attempting to run like pros as the real runners passed by, and one guy basically having a slow-fade heart attack.

Walking through and around all of it, Trig checked his messages and cursed under his breath when he saw Salvo’s name pop up.

‘Watching end of Ryukahr vid. Thirty more minutes. Sorry.’

He stared at the message, hoping it would provoke some kind of justified rage, but deep down he knew it wouldn’t. Rage wasn’t really his style, he was too mentally distant for that. Besides, it wasn’t a surprise that Salvo would be late, it was her style. The trick was to say a time an hour earlier than the one you intended, then you’d intersect at the same time. At least that had been the trick. Now it seemed they’d have to stretch it out to ninety minutes.

And for what? A guy playing made-up Mario levels?

Trig’s phone vibrated, pulling up another message from Salvo.

‘Feel bad so gonna try and walk and watch vid at same time. If I get hit by car, you pay damages ga ma?’

This one got a laugh, not a loud one, but enough to make him forego his rant on Mario Maker vids. Ah, his heart wouldn’t have been in it anyway. He watched YouTubers play video games too sometimes, when he couldn’t sleep, or when he wasn’t knee deep in alien conspiracies.

That was a lie. He was always knee deep in alien conspiracies. He couldn’t help it, they were addictive, soothing somehow.

The Greys running the CIA.

The Nordic Aliens with their base on Titan, producing human clones.

Reptilians from Zeta Reticuli introducing vapourwave.

And the one he’d read the night before, what was it? Gay enzymes injected into milk?

No, wait, that was the US government.

But if they were being secretly run by Greys then…

There was noise farther ahead, a car braking suddenly.

Realising he was still in flight, Trig stopped and looked around. Trees without leaves on the right, dried-out riverbed on the left, and the second highway underpass – the one with the green stain under it – about ten metres behind him.

Fuck, he’d overshot it, such was the lure of Salvo’s messages. A few minutes more and he would’ve been at the entrance of that new college campus, the one set up by the bank to empower a new generation of cashiers and number perverts.

Could also be aliens, he thought. Maintain capitalism and puppet the ones at the top.

Or disguise themselves as human professors and hit on the students.

Would they be interested in us sexually though?

He gave it another hundredth of a second of thought then kicked himself mentally.

The stain, you clown.

Putting the phone back in his jacket pocket and a hand over the top of it as guard dog, he turned round and hurried to the underpass.

It wasn’t much different from the night before, poorly lit, vague graffiti on the wall and the maintenance door that led to god knows what. In his head, a dark corridor with pipes running along the side of the wall, perhaps smoke rising up from the cracks in the ground, but in reality…a storage room? A sewer? He really had no idea.

Nearby, a dog barked and then another, followed by a whimper as one of them mentally shat themselves.

A barely tangible gust of wind came up from the river, making a dismal attempt at atmosphere.

Trig waited for a smell to make it a rule of three, but there was nothing distinct so instead he bent down and scanned the ground for the potential alien blood stain.

Ah, there it was…almost as stark as the night before, though a little less green. Had no one else noticed this?

He looked around again with a questioning look, but there was no one to interrogate. A sudden flicker of the lamp nearby [that someone had clearly come to fix during the day, and left after doing a sub-standard job], made him pull out his phone again and light it up. Objectively, it didn’t add much, but it was comforting.

He held it out in front like a rifle and checked the maintenance door for bin bag aliens.

‘Too early for sinister shit,’ he muttered, staring at the door handle.

The phone in his hand vibrated again, another message from Salvo.

‘Nearly there. Just passing some fat uncles.’

As he was reading the message, another one appeared, this one from a different channel.

‘What you up to? Wanna meet up?’

It was from Cav.

Trig looked at the door again, confused. Wasn’t he supposed to be working tonight? Was that not what he’d said yesterday?

He re-read the message, checking the time stamp, hoping it was somehow delayed from the previous day or the morning.

It wasn’t.

Fuck. This was not good. If Cav turned up, the vibe would be completely different. No, different was too neutral, it would be exhausting. And the green stain mystery would be dead within seconds, replaced by whatever random thought popped up in Cav’s brain. Followed by something even more random.

Hey guys, let’s hike up that mountain. Let’s fuck around with those abandoned cars. Strip the wheels. Honk at people walking past. Let’s go back to Trig’s place and crash his sister’s room. Let’s fake mug the next guy who walks past. And all of that would be before him and Salvo started arguing about something, which they inevitably would.

Jesus, he could feel it already, just by mental collage.

‘Fucking Cav,’ he said a little too loud, letting out a lot of breath with it.

‘Fucking Cav,’ came a shock echo from behind.

Trig spun, swinging his hand impulsively and hitting a grinning figure square in the cheek with the edge of the phone. At first, he panicked, imagining the bin bag guy, but then he saw the mop of electricity-like dark hair, the neck tattoo and, finally, the t-shirt with the silhouette of the Great Russian Anarchist Bakunin stamped on it, next to the words I was right.

‘Fuck…Cav…’ he offered, after a three second delay.

Cav rubbed his cheek, but it clearly didn’t hurt that much as he was still grinning, and when he heard the words coming out of Trig’s mouth, it turned into laughter. The annoying, machine gun laughter that was Cav’s trademark.

‘Wah, nice hook…’

‘Man, what are you doing here? You scared the fuck out of me.’

‘Fucking Cav…that’s from the heart, right?’

‘Where did you come from?’

‘Take that as a yes. Where? I saw you heading this way and tagged on…’

‘When?’

‘…saw you in your classic bubble, sneaked up a bit and…here I am. Fucking Cav.’ He looked around, sizing up the environment. ‘Not much going on though, comrade. Unless you wanna go for a swim?’

‘Can’t believe you just turned up. That’s impossible. It’s-…’

‘No to a swim then?’

‘Huh? Swim?’

‘In the river over there.’

‘What are you-…there’s no water in it. Like, nothing.’

Cav walked over to the railings and peered over the side, whistling at his findings. ‘Wah, you’re right. Looks like the Kalahari down there.’

Trig shook his head, still in recovery mode. ‘Wait…are you seriously saying that you just came here and randomly saw me?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘But…’

‘I told you, I saw you heading here when I dropped off the bus. Thought I’d follow and surprise you. By the way, you look at the ground a lot when you walk, you know that?’

‘You followed me all this way?’

‘Sure, why not?’

‘Without telling me?’

‘As a surprise. Jesus, that’s the same question five times. It’s like you don’t even know if you want me here. Wah, maybe that fucking Cav had more weight than I thought.’

‘I’m in shock. I didn’t-…’

‘Come on, it wasn’t that shocking.’

‘The message, then your voice, it was like-…’ Trig’s phone vibrated again. He didn’t bother checking, he knew it was Salvo. ‘Ah, doesn’t matter. You’re here now. I guess.’

‘Yup, fatalism.’

‘Let’s head back to the other area. I think that light up there is about to sputter out.’

Cav looked up at the flickering lamp and whistled. ‘Horror movie aesthetic. Shame we’re not in Fan Ling or one of those abandoned villages. Would be spooky as fuck. What were you doing here anyway?’

‘Huh?’

‘When I crept up on you, you were bending down, looking at something. What was it, money?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Wah, wasn’t that alien blood thing, was it?’

Trig swallowed down his response, saving it as spit to launch at Salvo, if she ever deigned to show up.

‘Come on, we’re friends, you tell Salvo, she tells me. Where was it? Near this door here?’ Cav moved onto the darker patch of ground, scanning for alien blood. ‘Actually, I never told you this, but my uncle was abducted by aliens. Out past Sai Kung.’

‘Bullshit.’

‘Said they took him up in their ship and forced him to read books to them. Chinese books. Then strapped him naked to a floating table and played with his body. Tried to fold his dick into three at one point…when it was hard. Yeah, I know, he was pretty open about it…more than I would be…and that’s saying something. Crazy fuck even went on the radio to talk about it. Nah, don’t give me that face, I’m serious. You can search it online, one of those pirate radio stations in Kwun Tong. They probably have it archived somewhere.’

Trig looked at the time on his phone and then around at the path back to civilisation.

‘Okay, you don’t believe me, doesn’t matter. The point is…I’m all in on this alien stain. Hey, is this it? This dark patch down here.’

‘Yes,’ replied Trig, giving in.

‘Huh? Thought you said it was green.’

‘It was. Or it looked green, last night.’

‘Okay.’

Trig couldn’t help it, he folded his arms and pulled his ‘line in the sand’ face. Either due to disappointment at the stain or general boredom, it worked. Cav straightened up and put his arm round Trig’s shoulder, guiding him back towards the main running path.

‘You know…as you’re a huge fan of aliens, I could find out where my uncle got nabbed, the exact spot in Sai Kung.’

‘I never said it was aliens.’

‘Or we could search online, see where the UFO hotspots are. Wouldn’t take too long. Could even be some near here. I mean, if I were an alien, the New Territories is where I’d go.’ Cav stopped, checking out a man in an orange headband stretching his legs next to the wall. ‘Maybe closer even…’

‘I thought you were working tonight.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Aren’t you supposed to be working, at the petrol station?’

‘It blew up.’

‘What?’

He whistled, or attempted to. ‘The petrol station, it blew up.’

‘Shut up.’

‘No…seriously. It. Blew. Up.’

‘Serious?’

‘That’s why I said seriously.’

‘The whole station…blew up?’

‘Nah, not really.’

Trig closed his eyes and counted to ten in Russian. If there’d been a volcano nearby, he would’ve thrown Cav right into the guts of it.

‘It did kind of blow up. Genni…my colleague…the one who keeps taking a break every ten minutes…he dropped a cigarette next to Pump 7. There was a fire and Old Git had to use his favourite towel to put it out.’

‘So it didn’t blow up…’

‘Kinda. The beginning stages of it.’

‘So why are you off work then? As it didn’t blow up at all.’

‘Old Git told us we could leave early. Actually, he threatened to drown us in an oil bucket so we left.’

‘He has an oil bucket?’

‘Several…’

‘Who has an oil bucket?’ asked a new voice.

Trig spun round, even more startled than five minutes earlier, and saw Salvo standing virtually right next to them, her hair pushed back by the trademark rainbow-coloured scrunchy and her torso branded with one of her many classic anime t-shirts. As was usual for this time of night, her hand was stuck in a pack of Mamee.

‘Wah, why is everyone suddenly a fucking ninja?’ said Trig, trying to slow down his breathing.

‘Everyone?’

‘Cav just appeared out of nowhere too, five minutes ago.’

‘I thought you were working?’ Salvo asked, facing Cav and stuffing some mamee in her mouth.

‘Day off.’

‘Thanks for letting me know.’

‘He didn’t tell me either,’ said Trig, eyeing up the snacks and putting both hands in his jacket pocket.

‘It was a surprise.’

‘Well, we’re all here now so it doesn’t matter. What’s this about oil buckets?’

Trig glanced at Cav, giving him the floor, but for some reason he didn’t say anything.

‘Too personal?’ asked Salvo, spitting out a rogue crisp.

‘It’s a Cav work story.’

‘Work? You mean the side gig at City U?’

‘Older one,’ replied Cav, looking back down the promenade.

Trig opened his mouth to say ‘not that old’ but stopped himself at the last second.

‘Ah, it’s a petrol station story,’ said Salvo, smiling.  ‘That place was so messed up.’

‘Still is,’ answered Trig, giving a side glance to Cav.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Salvo.

‘Nothing.’

‘What?’

Cav took out his phone and checked something on it. ‘He’s saying he went there earlier and it’s still a mess. They have an oil bucket, same one they had when I was there too, hence the story I was telling.’

‘What story? Tell me.’

‘Forget it, it’s not even that interesting.’

‘You should tell her,’ said Trig, nudging Cav in the side and getting a stronger elbow in return.

‘I need a drink.’

‘Or not.’

‘Let’s go back to Circle K, buy some cans…’

‘You didn’t bring any here?’ asked Salvo, surprised.

‘…and sit in that open square near the mall.’

‘What about this green stain Trig was talking about? I thought we were gonna camp out and see if that weird bin bag guy came back…’

‘Already seen it.’

‘The bin bag guy?’

‘The stain,’ replied Trig, using elbows to point vaguely in the direction of the underpass. ‘We saw it just before you got here.’

‘And?’

‘Nothing really. It’s still there, but…’

Cav forced himself back onto the stage between them, putting his arms out as if he were breaking up a fight. ‘Fuck the stain, it’s pointless. Let’s head back over, get some drinks, find more interesting people to gawp at.’

‘More interesting than a guy in a bin bag?’ asked Salvo.

‘Yeah, real ones. Come on.’

Cav didn’t wait for a further reply, he just turned and started walking down the bike path by the river. Salvo hung back a bit, waiting until he was out of earshot.

‘What’s up with him?’ she asked Trig, shoving the final bits of mamee down her throat.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Were you guys talking about me before I came?’

‘No.’

‘Then why did he suddenly get so flustered?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘Was it the work story thing?’

‘No, that was-…actually, that was a bit weird. I’m not sure why he reacted like that.’

‘Bad petrol station memories…’

‘Maybe. Or I guess he just couldn’t be bothered telling it again. You know Cav, he gets sulky if he can’t control the topics.’

‘That’s an understatement.’

‘He’ll probably tell it again later, when he’s drunk.’

‘No need. You can just tell me now.’

‘Me?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I don’t know, there really wasn’t much to it. Just Old Git was mad at him for something…before…when he worked at the petrol station.’

‘Old who?’

‘His boss…Old Git.’

‘The guy who ran the petrol station?’

‘His old boss, yeah.’

‘And he’s the one with an oil bucket?’

Trig nodded. ‘Apparently he threatened to drown Cav and the other staff guy in it. Before. One time.’

‘I don’t get it.’

‘Me neither.’

‘Why would he not want to tell me that?’

‘Err…’

‘Unless he’s annoyed that I turned up without messaging him. But…you told me he wasn’t coming, so that doesn’t make sense either. And he didn’t seem annoyed when I messaged him this morning. Didn’t seem that talkative either, but…he did reply to me.’

‘It’s probably just a bad mood.’

‘Yeah, maybe.’

From twenty metres further down the bike path, Cav shouted at them to stop scheming and pick up the pace. Luckily, only an elderly man doing very limited stretches next to the railing heard it so they didn’t feel too embarrassed.

‘We better catch up,’ said Trig.

‘And get screamed at more intimately,’ replied Salvo, pushing Trig in the back and laughing.

The two of them walked relatively slowly away from the green stain underpass and the maintenance door, with Trig neglecting the chance to glance back for one final scan.

If he had, he would’ve seen the door open and a curious head poke out, covered with the same bin bag lining as the night before.

And on this dark figure’s left hand, a bandage.

Tinged with tiny specks of green.