The Whittier Trilogy

by Michael W. Layne

  “Can’t leave the building,” she slurred. “I’m the Keeper.”

  “We’re not leaving the building. I wish we could leave the building, but unless you know another way out of here…Hey, you said maybe a window on the second floor. Remember that?”

  “Not leaving the building,” she said as she pushed away from him and started back to her chair on uncertain legs.

  He stepped over to her and gently took her arm again.

  “Come on,” he said as he moved his grip down to take her hand and started walking her over to the other side of the room from where he had entered.

  Christina hesitated again.

  “Look, we’ll do it your way then,” he said. “Just a short nap won’t hurt. They’ll be fine down here, and it’s not like they’re going anywhere.”

  Christina looked at him, squinting her eyes as if trying to remember something. She had, of course, not suggested a nap, but he knew that planting the suggestion in her current state would be enough to make her consider the possibility that taking a nap had been her idea in the first place.

  As they continued walking away, Alice jumped onto the wall of her cage and held on with all four limbs, growling—spittle flying out of her mouth. The rest of the room went crazy again, so much so, that Trent was afraid some of the people would actually succeed at breaking open their cage doors.

  Trent kept them both moving forward, slowly but certainly. He walked Christina through the hallway over to the elevator and hit the up button. The sounds of the human animals were just slightly muted in the background as the elevator door opened almost immediately.

  They stepped in, and he hit the button for the twelfth floor. Once there, he practically carried Christina to her apartment door as the meds continued to take effect. She struggled to find her key in her jeans pocket, and when she finally found it, he used the key to open her door. They both entered the small, quiet apartment. He closed the door behind them, and she made it to the couch before falling face down into the cushions and passing out.

  Trent looked at his watch. Almost 1:00 in the morning. He was more than tired, but he forced himself to pick her up from the couch and carry her to her bedroom. He set her on the side of the bed and pulled off her shoes, then her jeans. They were tight, but they came off to reveal the same set of athletic but soft legs that had been recently wrapped around him in the woods high above Whittier.

  Next, he eased her out of her sweater, but was careful to leave her T-shirt on. He debated for a second, then reached under her shirt and undid her bra strap in the back and pulled it through, dropping it on the floor next to her bed. The roundness of her nipples showed through the thin cotton of her shirt, and he sighed. It was too bad she was passed out, he thought. After the stress from the last couple of hours, he wouldn’t mind rolling around naked with her some more. He was tired, but never too tired for that. As it was, he tucked her in, turned out her bedroom light, and walked out to the couch in the living room.

  He took off his shoes and his suit jacket, and reclined on the chenille couch, trying to relax. He finally had a few minutes to mentally process what he had witnessed downstairs. He thought about the cages and how Christina had referred to herself as their Keeper. Actually, she had said that she was the Keeper, like it was an official duty she was fulfilling.

  But if it was a role she had been used to playing, why had she taken so much Xanax?

  The dark and curious side of him wanted to go back downstairs and learn more about what was going on, but the animal side of him decided it would be best to stay where he was for the night. According to Christina, once morning arrived everyone would return to normal, whatever that meant in Whittier, and he could be on his way at 6:00 a.m., taking the first tunnel out of town.

  He almost fell asleep before deciding to get up to make sure the apartment door and the dead bolt were locked. He even secured the chain. Then he turned out the living room light, took off the rest of his suit and fell asleep instantly on the couch.

  It seemed as if he had just fallen asleep when a soft touch on his chest awakened him. He tried to sit up, but was firmly held down by a woman’s hand. When he looked over, he saw Christina on her knees next to him. By the light of the full moon through her open blinds, he could see that she was completely naked. A quick glance at the digital clock on her satellite TV box showed that it was close to 3:00 a.m., but even the little amount of sleep he had just received made him feel invigorated and rested, with any remaining effects of the alcohol completely gone.

  The fact that there was a beautiful, naked woman rubbing his chest didn’t hurt the way he felt either.

  Christina moved her other hand down to his crotch and rubbed him through his boxer briefs. His body responded instantly.

  “That was amazing earlier tonight,” she said. “I think I might need some more.”

  Before he could ask her how she felt or say anything about how much more lucid she now sounded, she stood up and then lowered herself on top of him, pulling his underwear down enough to fit him inside her. She moaned softly and began to ride him. Maybe it was the leftover effect of the Xanax, but the sex was softer this time, flowing between the two of them like shared electricity. The animalistic connection they had experienced up in the mountains was gone, but it was replaced by something even better.

  Like the time before, they climaxed simultaneously, but this time Christina collapsed on top of his body, hugging his chest tightly in the aftermath. After a few minutes, she kissed him and excused herself to go to the bathroom. She came back with a prescription pill bottle in her hand.

  “Taking more pills?” he said.

  “The Keeper always takes something like Xanax to keep from changing. I have to stay human so I can protect them.”

  “You’re supposed to protect them?” he said. “From what? First, there’s no one else in this town except for some tourists over at the Inn as best I can tell. And secondly, who in the hell would mess with close to two hundred people who think they’ve turned into vicious animals? And, no offense, but I think you took just a bit too much of that stuff last time.”

  Christina looked down at the floor.

  “You’re right about that last part. When we were on the mountain earlier, you got me… excited. Started to bring out the animal in me earlier than normal. I shouldn’t have done it, but I did, and I needed the extra pills to keep my change from happening. I just took too many at one time, but they’ve worked through my system already, and I need more or I’ll change.”

  “There’s no way that stuff is out of your body yet,” he said.

  “When I’m fighting off the shift, my metabolism is revved hard,” she said. “I burn through this stuff pretty quickly.”

  “I still don’t think you need any more right now,” he said.

  Trent snatched the pill bottle from her hand before she could tighten her grip—thankful there were some real-life advantages to endlessly practicing sleight of hand. He stood up, looking for where his pants were located on the floor. As soon as he did, Christina jumped to her feet and punched him hard in his stomach.

  He had not been prepared for that.

  He doubled over, barely managing to hang onto the pill bottle. She shoved her hands into his hunched-over torso, searching for the bottle, trying to pry it loose from his grip. He bent his knees slightly then exploded upward, shoving her as far away from him as he could with all his might. He was surprised to see that his best shot had only moved her a few feet away. She was stronger than she looked.

  “Okay! Okay!” he said. “Let’s compromise. How many pills do you think you should take?”

  “Six was too much. I need four,” she said, breathing hard, nostrils flaring. “Now.”

  Trent shook three pills into his upturned palm, then closed the lid.

  “How about we settle on three. Come here, and let’s both sit down for a second. Remember, I’m the man you just woke up to have sex with. I’m on your side,” he said with a slightly s
taged grin.

  He made a show of placing the bottle on her coffee table then settled back down next to her. He took her open hand in his and placed the three pills in her palm with his other hand, looking directly into her eyes the entire time.

  She immediately popped them into her mouth and ran out to the kitchen. He heard the water running as he pocketed the bottle filled with the remaining Xanax. When she came back, she was wiping excess water from her lips.

  “Now can we talk for a second?” he said. “What the hell is going on around here?”

  Christina sat back down next to him and let out a deep breath.

  “This whole town used to be a military base. You know why they closed it down? Not because the war was over. It was because of the weather and the effects the solitary conditions had on their troops, but mostly it was because of the animals.”

  “The real animals?” he asked.

  Christina did not laugh.

  “The grizzlies and the wolves mostly. The soldiers had plenty of guns, but there were always more bears and wolves no matter how many of them they shot. They came from across the mountains from Bear Valley. There’s a reason it has that name, you know?”

  “Doesn’t sound like the military I know, to just give up like that,” he said.

  “It was after they had already killed hundreds of bears and wolves. Something strange started happening. First just a few, but then more and more of the soldiers started…changing whenever there was a full moon.”

  “Into bears and wolves…” he asked, trying hard to suppress his natural cynicism.

  “Not in the way you would normally think of it, but yes. The soldiers were possessed by the spirits of the animals that were slaughtered here. They became incredibly strong and healed much faster than normal. For a while, the Army tried to figure out how to use the changes to its own advantage. But they figured out soon enough that the soldiers couldn’t be controlled when they were in their animal states. And the Army couldn’t control when the possessions occurred either. Always happened at midnight on the night of the full moon and no other time.

  “Soon the possessions started to spread. Soldiers attacked other soldiers, and each time one of them was bitten or blood was drawn, it was like the soldier had been marked. And then they were possessed on the night of the next full moon. It didn’t take very long for almost the entire base to be afflicted.

  “Eventually the military attributed all the bizarre behavior to a new form of rabies, classified the whole incident, gave up, and pulled out. No one ever found out what happened to all those soldiers… And that’s when the military sold the town to Alaska, and the residents of Whittier started moving in.”

  Christina stood up and walked around the couch, stretching her arms above her head, causing her full breasts to rise and fall perfectly in the moonlight seeping in through her blinds. She seemed to be breathing easier since he had given her the pills.

  “That’s why we lock ourselves up at the full moon every month. When I said I had to protect them, I was talking about the tourists, not the residents. And, keeping everyone locked up makes sure this doesn’t spread any further than Whittier. Kind of like our civic duty to the world,” she said, turning her head slightly away and smiling.

  “I’ve seen enough to be convinced that something is definitely going on around here, but you don’t really believe your people turn into animals, do you?” he said.

  “You’re just going to have to trust me,” she said. “Get through tonight, and then tell me if you think this is real.”

  “What about getting out of here? You said I might be able to get out through a second floor window. Remember?”

  “Second floor window might work, but I can’t leave the building until sunrise. That’s when everyone returns back to normal and he removes the chains.”

  “Who the hell is he?” Trent said, looking up at Christina.

  Christina looked at the floor, suddenly appearing nervous.

  “The Elder. He’s the one that secures us in the building. He unlocks the chains when the sun rises, and the Keeper lets everyone out of their cages. Life goes back to normal until the next full moon. Although once you’ve been an animal, it’s hard not to think about it all the time, even during the rest of the month. Some things are actually better as an animal, you know.”

  “What animal do you think you turn into?” he asked.

  “It’s not like that. It’s more like the shift brings out the animal in each of us, and that’s different for every person. Besides, we don’t have to worry about that. I’m good ‘til sunrise now. Speaking of which, I need to get back to the basement to make sure everyone’s all right,” she said, walking over to her bedroom and coming back out with her shoes in her hands. After she sat down on the couch, Trent rested his hand on her thigh.

  “Since you don’t want to get out of here, do you want some company at least?” he said.

  Christina looked at him and then laughed.

  “I’m not sure that makes the most sense. They probably think you kidnapped me and that you’ve already murdered me or something. Remember, wild animals aren’t very trusting of humans. It’s probably best if you just stay here and wait it out. This way they won’t get so riled up again.”

  “Why not just give everyone Xanax and let them all have a great night’s sleep in their nice comfy beds once a month?” he said.

  Christina laughed.

  “We actually tried that last year. Normally, the animals only possess people living here in The Towers. Maybe because this building was one of the original two that the military built. When we gave everyone Xanax, a few of the angrier spirits possessed some of the tourists instead. It didn’t end well, and since tourism keeps this town alive, we decided it was easier to just pay our dues once a month.”

  As Christina bent over to slip on her first shoe, she tensed from what looked like a terrible cramp in her mid-section.

  She turned her head to Trent, her face contorted in pain.

  “Something’s wrong,” she moaned. “I shouldn’t be feeling this way. The pills are supposed to stop my change, but I can feel it happening!”

  “Christina…” he said.

  “You asshole! You gave me the wrong pills!”

  “I was afraid you were going to overdose. You don’t need them, Christina. This is all just all in your head.”

  She bent forward again, this time with a loud growl as she searched the coffee table for the bottle of Xanax.

  “What did you give me? And where are my pills?” she hissed before her words turned to a deep garbled slur. As her voice turned deeper and more menacing, her lips curled to reveal her teeth, and drool began to drip from the sides of her mouth. In an instant, the woman he was just getting to know was completely gone. The soft blue light of the full moon now seemed to accentuate her shift to an animal as she hunched over, ready to attack.

  Before he could explain that he had just slipped her a few of the aspirins from his pocket, Christina sprang into the air and raked him across the face so hard that he saw black static at the edges of his vision. He scrambled backwards as quickly as he could, jumping off the couch and crouching down with his arms in front of him in the best defensive stance he could muster.

  She swiped again at his face, but this time he pulled back an instant before she would have connected.

  Trent spotted his clothes on the floor next to the couch. He knew it wouldn’t make much of a practical difference, but he would feel much better with his pants on. The two of them were facing off across the couch. He was doing the best he could to come to grips with what was happening, while Christina, suddenly turned into a vicious animal, faced him with drool dripping from her mouth.

  He was about to make his move to the kitchen behind him when he heard a din of voices echoing down the hall outside of Christina’s apartment. The intonations were more like growls, and that’s when he realized that the population of Whittier was no longer locked up in their cages downstairs.
Somehow they had broken loose and were running wild in the halls of The Towers, and Trent was stuck on the twelfth floor of a locked-down building, fighting a woman he had already had sex with twice today.

  One thing at a time, said a voice inside his head. First, he had to deal with Christina.

  He grabbed his pants off the floor in a single motion as he backed into the kitchen, searching through the drawers while keeping Christina in his line of sight. Suddenly, his hand landed on a knife. A big chef’s knife. With blade in hand, he faced Christina, who was keeping at bay, but moving closer a little bit at a time.

  He felt better with a weapon in his hand, but he didn’t know if he could actually use it on her. Aside from the obvious reasons for not wanting to hurt or kill Christina, no matter how crazy the people were in Whittier, he would have a hard time explaining the murder of a naked, unarmed woman with whom he had just had sex for the second time that night.

  Keeping his eyes on Christina, he opened the drawer again, slid the knife back in, and closed the drawer, unsure whether he had just made a huge mistake or not.

  “Can we talk about this, Christina?” he said, as she rushed him, her hands flashing like animal claws.

  Trent used his suit pants to tangle up her arms as she came in, but she was stronger than he expected. Much stronger. He barely closed his legs quickly enough to avoid her knee destroying his manhood. With their faces so close, he looked into her rage-filled eyes and saw that there was nothing he could find that was still Christina. The woman had been replaced completely by the animal. As they struggled, he all but tied her arms together with his pants legs, and tried to bring her to the ground using that for leverage. She resisted, pulling away from him with all her force. He spontaneously let go, and she went flying backwards with her own momentum, tripping and hitting her head on the floor as she fell.