The Clean Ones

Chapter 21

He's not bringing her back. He's not going to do it. Perri has that bell in her pocket; he could easily disable her Retrograde and leave her stranded in some random time period.

He could leave her stranded with the thought that all I did was manipulate her.

"How are we even going to have any idea where they are?" Lu asked. Well, more like he whined. Putting effort into thinking things out was not Lu's strong point.

"There's no way to track the activity of Retrogrades, is there?" Said Delta.

"No, not necessarily." Mr. Denn replied. "We never got that far in advancements on them. But Cale, didn't you say you had an idea on where they were going?"

"Yeah, kind of " I admitted. "He said he'd be taking her on a journey of sorts. I'm not exactly sure though what specific events he was going to show her, but I do know that they had to do with our plan, which confirms your suspicion. He knew, and wanted Perri to know about it too."

"So that means she must be somewhere relatively close to her time period." Lilliana said.

"Are you suggesting we go back there?" I asked.

"I wouldn't be so sure that's a good idea..." Delta murmured, still stroking the feline that lay asleep in her lap.

"What do you mean!" Benton exclaimed.

"Pipe down, Ben. I mean, that I may have spent some time in the Community recently..."

"You what?!" I nearly roared. "Delta, how could you be do dumb! You should've told us before you ran off and did something as stupid as going back there!"

"No need to get your panties in a twist, Cale. Calm down. First of all, I did tell someone. I told your little time traveler-"

"Well that did so much considering we have no idea where she is at the moment!"

"And that's my fault? You're the one that got us into this whole mess in the first place!"
"Alright, both of you, relax!" Lilliana screamed. The room fell completely silent. The feline let out a startled meow and scurried out of Delta's lap and under the couch. Delta did nothing to acknowledge it. Her eyes were narrowed, and were glaring at mine. "We're not going too get anywhere with you two bickering over this! Yeah, Delta, it was shady for you to leave without any warning. But there's no need to be an ass about it, Cale. It's not going to bring Perri back, if that's what you're trying to accomplish!"

"So I guess this leads us back to the topic of where do we go?" Benton said with a slight edge to his voice.

"I honestly don't think it would be a horrible idea to go to the Community," Mr. Denn admitted. "But, we should probably have a plan going into there. Delta, what was it like when you went?"

"Bad," she murmured. "It's a complete war-zone out there."

"Is it worth going out there?" Benton asked hesitantly. "I mean, we've already lost Perri. We can't afford to lose anyone else."

"It's not even losing someone that's the problem, Ben, if it's a situation like Perri's. We can always find them again." Lu said, shrugging his shoulders and rolling his eyes, as if he truly believed that he had outsmarted his brother for once.

"Not what I meant, Lu." Benton snapped. "If there's a war on the outbreak then the chances of one of us getting killed are h-"

"Slim." Delta finished. "We're not going to think like that. Nothing is going to happen to any of us, k? I'm not going to let that happen. We're going to go in there, get Perri, and get out. Sound like a plan?"

Mr. Denn just shook his head. "Easier said than done, Delta. Knowing Johnson, the Community is going to be guarded even more heavily than normal. Mr. Collins and Miss Willows can attest to the fact that it's already bad enough without the war. Getting in there will be hard enough. We will have to find an area of the Community that is isolated enough for us to sneak inside."

"Then we have the issue of wardrobe," Lilliana brought up. "Unlike yourself, Mr. Denn, the rest of us are not dressed like appropriate members of the community."

"Which is why you're lucky I thought ahead." He reached into a bag that was resting behind the sofa and pulled out a duffle bag full of potato-sack community uniforms. Benton and Lu dug into the bag with curiosity, admiring the hideously unflattering uniforms. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Delta pretend to vomit, and I could've sworn I even heard her make a sort of gagging noise. I couldn't stop laughing.

"Can it, Collins. You know just as well as I do that those are disgusting."

"Oh come on, they're not that bad!"

"I'd rather be shot than wear those."

"You'll eat your words later, Del."

"So, are we going or not?" Lu stood up. He had managed to put the uniform on- though not well. It was at least three sizes too small for him, with the shirt rising up just under his sternum. His pants didn't fit either. The jagged cuffs reached just above his scabbed knees.

"Not with you looking like that. Here," Delta said, ripping the uniform Benton was holding from his hands and shoving it at Lu. "Maybe this one will fit you better. You look like you just walked out of the Community strip club."

"Funny." He said, rolling his eyes. He and his brother quickly switched clothes, while the rest of us changed into the community uniforms. My stomach churned as the rough exterior of the clothing came in contact with my skin. It only brought a sickening reminder of what I had done to Perri, what I had done to everyone to get us all in this mess. It was me who decided to mess with the Retrograde, despite my parents and sister's warnings. It was me who became attached to some girl from the future, some girl who I wasn't supposed to know even existed.

I tried to become close to her.

I thought I could get away with living this double life.

I thought I had outsmarted everyone.

But at the end of the day, all I did was create more of what I had been running away from this whole time- war.