M.D. Alexander Strauss looked around the train with mild worry. His stop wasn’t for another dozen miles or so, but this was his first time on the train, and he was finding it quite the unnerving experience. Every stop they passed more people got on, but almost no one got off. Everyone was queer, staring or laughing at nothing and everything, talking to themselves, being very obnoxious to others… He’d watched several of them and without even talking to them he knew that he could diagnose every one of them as certifiably insane.

Twenty minutes later his stop came. He stood up as the train slowed, bracing himself on one of the rails, then waited as the doors opened and a surprising number of people boarded the train. The last man stepped on, his face painted in bright, eccentric colors like a clown, then walked strait up to Alexander. He pushed his face in the doctor’s, and with a wild grin, he said, “Welcome, we’ve been waiting for you!”

Alexander shied away, not wanting to have anything to do with this total stranger. “I think you have the wrong man,” he said, side stepping to leave as quickly as possible.

“Nonsense!” The clown cried, clapping a hand on Alexander’s shoulder. The door closed. “We’ve been waiting a very long time.” It was then that Alexander realized he was on the crazy train…