Sunken Eyes (Cruel and Beautiful World Book 2)

by L. Stoddard Hancock

  A light finally triggered in Wyatt's head.

  "Then why do you look so upset?" asked Xander.

  Lona blushed and cast her eyes to the floor. But, before she could answer, President Saevus entered the room with Elvira at his heels. He glanced around with his green eyes - the one part of the man that reminded Xander he was distantly related to Deryn - until he located Xander. Then he beckoned him with his finger.

  Xander stepped forward and stood beside Elvira.

  "Are we all ready?"

  "Yes, Mr. President," everyone answered.

  President Saevus turned in a swift motion, his steps smooth and elegant as he headed for the elevator. All of his Guardians followed.

  As they entered the elevator, Xander could feel Elvira's eyes on him. "Something on your mind?" he asked as he pressed the button for the twentieth floor.

  "You look different," she said after a momentary pause.

  Xander turned and cocked and eyebrow. "Do I?"

  "Yes. I've noticed for a while now. The change has been gradual but it's there. What is it?" she asked, her voice filled with accusation.

  "New skin regimen. Leaves me positively glowing."

  Elvira scoffed. "Rumor is you've found yourself a girlfriend."

  President Saevus glanced over his shoulder at Xander, who was quick to scoff right back at her. "Yes, I'm sure Veli's been spreading all sorts of rumors about me. I assure you, nothing's changed, Elvie dearest. I'm still utterly heartbroken that I never got my chance with you."

  The elevator reached the twentieth floor and President Saevus stepped out first. Elvira moved ahead of him but Xander was faster, scanning his wristband so the door to the balcony slid open for his president. She sneered at him while he continued to smile.

  Several of the lesser Guardians hurried ahead of them, running to the other side of the large balcony where they checked on the walkway that had been built so their president could step out and over the citizens of Utopia. It extended all the way to Middle City, high above the gate, and seemed to be ready.

  Luka was the one to scan his wristband and activate the walkway so it moved beneath their feet. The other Guardians all stood aside while President Saevus stepped forward, Elvira and Xander always just behind him. Even from where they were in the center of Inner City, they could hear the roaring crowd anticipating their arrival. Elvira fidgeted beside him. She wasn't a fan of heights and the walkway put in place for this every year was always crystal clear beneath their feet. Xander smirked and took heavier steps, making her tremble beside him.

  "Stop it," she snapped, punching his arm with too much oomph for it to be considered playful.

  As they reached the end of the walkway, taking their places on a platform floating above the city, Xander scanned the crowd.

  Once everyone was in place, President Saevus lifted his arms. Silence was instantaneous, giving Xander an uneasy feeling. No bustling city should ever be this quiet.

  Two giant holograms appeared on either side of them, showing the president's face about one-hundred times larger than Xander really cared to see.

  President Saevus's wristband was designed to make his voice project and he started to speak.

  "Today is a sacred day for all of us, for it is the day that marks another year. Another year where we are in power. Over five years since we first took back this great city from the toxic monsters who dared to believe that we would let them poison our city. Our families. Our children. Elvira."

  President Saevus nodded to his daughter. She smiled and walked across another walkway that led to a smaller platform where a dozen people were standing on gallows with ropes draped around their necks. Elvira stopped beside them and waited.

  "You have all been judged," continued President Saevus, speaking to the people on the gallows, "and every last one of you will no longer be allowed to taint the world with your toxic breath."

  He nodded and Elvira used her dagger to cut the rope, causing the floor to collapse beneath the prisoners, leaving every last one of them kicking and fighting for their lives. It wasn't long before all kicking ceased.

  President Saevus smiled, but then his ears went on full alert and his eyes landed on someone in the crowd. "You there." Everyone in the crowd looked at the person he pointed to. A teenage girl. "Bring her to me."

  The crowd lifted her up and she screamed as they tossed her over to the patrolling guards. There was a cable dangling from the platform and they tied the loop at its end around her wrists, pressing a button that sent her flying upwards. When she landed hard on the platform, Veli and Soren lifted her, bringing her to the president.

  "Was that a whimper I just heard escape from your lips?" asked President Saevus, his voice steady.

  "N-no, my p-president," she said, looking absolutely terrified. And rightfully so.

  "Oh, but I believe it was." He looked over his shoulder. "Xander."

  Xander stood at attention.

  "You know what to do."

  He nodded. "Yes, Mr. President."

  Xander took out his Element and aimed it at the girl, doing his best to hold back the pain he was feeling. He knew she was watching, and he hated that she had to see him do this, but there was no other choice.

  With the press of a button, a string of light shot out and decapitated the girl, the quickest and least painful death he could offer her. Her body was quickly tossed aside, her head kicked with it.

  Xander turned back to the crowd.

  And then he spotted her. Barely a dot, but he knew it was her, standing where she'd promised. Towards the back of the Shopping District plaza everyone was crowded in, disguised with her blonde wig and blue eyes, Deryn stood between Bronson and Kemp. Chace, Miki, and Quigley were all there, too.

  He still didn't know how she ever got him to agree to her coming here. It was right around the time the champagne hit her, so he assumed her frisky behavior had something to do with it. Still, he hated this. What if she was the one who had whimpered?

  "You alright?" asked Bronson, putting his hand on Deryn's back.

  "Yes, I'm fine. It ... It had to be done. She was as good as dead, right?" She looked at him hopefully.

  He smiled halfheartedly. "Yes. He didn't have a choice."

  She nodded and looked back at the platform, keeping her eyes on Xander while listening to President Saevus speak.

  "Quigley, stop looking," snapped Bronson. "She's not one of them."

  "Just making sure," said Quigley, his jaw tightening. The Outsider sacrifices were the only reason he had come that day. Just in case one of them might have been his sister.

  "... and we will not stop, will not have won until every last Outsider has perished! No longer able to spread their toxins!"

  "Can you believe him?" Miki whispered to Deryn. "He truly believes everything he does is for the greater good."

  Deryn nodded. "You do have to wonder why it is he believes that."

  "He's just crazy," Miki said simply. "I doubt it delves much deeper than that."

  Deryn glanced around the crowd to make sure no one was listening to them, but everyone was too engulfed in the president to be even slightly aware of their surroundings. And then she caught sight of someone. It was a man a short distance away in a gasmask, an air of familiarity around him that she couldn't quite place. Something in the way he stood.

  Deryn adjusted her position for a closer look, hoping to see the man behind the gasmask. She then froze, her heart slowing as she recognized the way he leaned on his right hip. She moved towards him.

  Someone called for Allison Darby behind her but she didn't care. She had to get closer. To see if she was right. And then she was mere feet away from him, separated by only two people.

  Her eyes drifted over him. The frame was slightly bulkier than she remembered but it was the same, arms crossed as he stared up at President Saevus with disdain. Long, dark hair was tied back and hidden beneath a hood, a few strands falling loose over his covered face.

  Deryn couldn
't breathe as she stared at this familiar man, her heart feeling heavy but also like an incredible weight had been lifted off of it.

  Dakota.

  And then he was moving, walking out and away from the crowd, headed towards an alley. Deryn followed him.

  Dakota stopped near the edge of the crowd and looked to the left of where President Saevus was still speaking. There was a loud screeching noise and Deryn followed his eyes, noticing several figures on hover-bikes coming towards them, hovering higher than the standard two feet, with S.U.R.G.E.'s on their tails.

  And then there was a loud BANG.

  Everyone screamed and ducked, Deryn looking up for a brief moment to see that the walkway connecting President Saevus and his Guardians' platform to his tower in Inner City had been destroyed. Xander's eyes were still steadily fixed on her.

  Deryn turned back around and spotted Dakota leaving the crowd while everything became chaos. She ran after him.

  Up on the platform, Xander could see that Deryn was nowhere near the others. How had she gotten so far? She'd seemed to be following something but he couldn't for the life of him see what it was.

  "Luka!" he shouted. Luka ran to his side. "Get down there!"

  Luka nodded. Just as the Resistance members on hover-bikes reached them, he jumped off of the platform and grabbed onto one of them. Out of panic, the woman driving it began to lower her bike, eventually getting close enough to the ground that Luka was able to jump off and run into the crowd.

  "Mathis, Eamon, Wenton, Soren, get down there with him!" ordered Xander. "Veli, Wyatt, Gordon, Finley, find hover-bikes and hack them so you can begin an aerial attack! Everyone else disperse to where you're needed!"

  Everyone nodded and took off, some taking turns using the cable to get down to the ground, and others trying the same tactic as Luka - though less smoothly.

  "Are you alright, Mr. President?" asked Xander.

  Saevus's face was stiff as he stared into the panicked crowd, his green eyes flaming. "How dare they," he said in a voice that sent chills down Xander's spine. "How dare they interrupt my speech. What are they after?"

  "I don't know, sir -"

  Just then, a hover-bike swooped by, one hand dangling as the rider tried to grab Xander by his hood. He ducked out of reach just in time, looking up to meet the angry eyes of Laramie Triggs hidden behind a gasmask.

  "Get him, Neetles!"

  Another hover-bike swooped overhead and grabbed for him. President Saevus seized a piece of broken walkway and swung it at her, knocking her bike off course.

  Xander stood up straight and looked into the president's angry eyes. "Sir, I don't know -"

  Another bike came for him, and he ducked again. Shit.

  Back in the crowd, Deryn was still chasing Dakota, but he was having much more success getting through the chaos than she was.

  "Dax!"

  She kept screaming his name but he couldn't hear her, continuing to march on without realizing how close he was to the person he sought. He was heading for an alley between two tall buildings. Deryn knew he was trying to leave, but why?

  "No," Deryn said quietly as he got through the thickest part of the crowd. "No!"

  She broke into a run, pushing and shoving and knocking people over, doing everything she could to break through.

  "Dax!"

  He was getting farther from her, his legs moving quickly.

  "Dax!"

  He had almost reached the alley.

  "DAX!"

  Dakota froze. Deryn kept pushing, not stopping until she was through the worst of it. She sighed in relief. He knew it. He still knew her voice.

  Dakota turned and looked around frantically, his eyes darting everywhere as he searched for the owner of the voice he knew so well.

  Then he saw her.

  Deryn's heart skipped a beat as their eyes met. Hers were still blue and she tried her best to will them green. But there was no need. Even through her disguise he saw her, because he knew her.

  His mouth moved in the shape of her name but she couldn't hear him through the pandemonium.

  Deryn gave him one soft nod. Dakota took several skeptical steps forward. He kept glancing back at the alley. It was obvious there was somewhere he needed to be but, still, he moved towards her.

  "Deryn!"

  Deryn heard him this time. She stepped forward but Dakota stopped suddenly and held out his hands.

  "No! Deryn, look out!"

  A string of blasts went off around her, sending Deryn flying into the air. They weren't damaging in any way and not designed to kill, only distract. Still, she fell hard onto the ground, her eyes hazy as her head shot up. Everything was spinning, but she refused to let this consume her. She couldn't lose sight of him. Not now.

  "Deryn!" screamed a faint voice in the distance.

  Whether it was Dakota's or someone else's, she didn't know. Her mind was too muddled to tell. Her ears were ringing as she slowly got to her knees.

  "Deryn!" the voice called again. She put her hand on her head to try and focus.

  "Deryn?" repeated another voice from just beside her. A terribly hoarse voice that shouldn't have been able to work at all without the assistance of a collar.

  Deryn's heart stopped. She slowly turned her head, her eyes widening with fear as they fell upon the familiar face of Soren Tash. He was gazing back at her, also on the ground and squinting as he tried to get a good look at her.

  The moment he recognized her was all too evident. It was the eyes. Even when blue, he knew the shape of them, having gazed into them countless times before while he imagined he was falling in love with her.

  Deryn gulped. She scrambled to her feet. As she moved away from him, Soren's face grew angry. He jumped up and lunged for her, his fingertips grazing her wrist. But, before he could clutch on, someone knocked him from behind and he fell over.

  "Shit, Sorey! Th'fuck you getting in my way for?" shouted Luka, jerking his head at Deryn, reminding her to move.

  "Dammit, Voclain! That was her! Get out of my way!"

  As Deryn tried to run, someone grabbed her from behind. She turned quickly to see Bronson's face hidden beneath his hood.

  "Let's go!" he shouted.

  "But -"

  "No buts, Deryn! We have to go now!"

  Deryn turned back and scanned the crowd one last time. As Bronson pulled her away, she finally caught sight of Dakota. He was still searching for her. His eyes found hers and he tried to push to get there, but the crowd was just too thick.

  "I'll find you!" he called over the roar of people. "I'll find you, Deryn! I'll find you!"

  Deryn nodded, crying hysterically as his brown eyes faded into the distance. Bronson was pulling her and he was not stopping.

  "Where's Xander?" she asked.

  "Still on the platform! He's their fucking target!"

  Deryn gasped and looked up at the platform. Xander and Elvira were fighting off the people on hover-bikes, President Saevus fighting right there beside them, shooting powerful blasts at anyone who had the misfortune of crossing his path. Several Guardians had made it onto their own hover-bikes, hacked to rise as high as their enemies and chasing them down.

  "He'll be fine!" shouted Bronson, tugging on her arm. "Quigley and the others are waiting for us! Let's go!"

  Deryn nodded. She had to force herself to tear her eyes away from Xander, knowing exactly why they had come for him. It was because of her, and what he had said to Dakota. That he knew where she was.

  Deryn and Bronson finally reached the others, who were waiting for them. Kemp and Miki had tried to reach some of the Resistance members to tell them to pull back, but with no luck. Everything was too much of a mess.

  With one last look at Xander, Deryn gulped before following the others out of there. This was her fault. Any death that took place throughout all of this was on her hands.

  Xander ducked as another hover-bike flew at him. There had to be a good five people coming after him and another five attacking a
nyone who got in their way.

  "What do they want with you?" demanded Elvira.

  "Fuck if I know!"

  Right at that moment, Laramie and Nita pulled out of the crowd of people fighting on hover-bikes, each reaching down and grabbing one of Xander's shoulders, pulling him high into the air.

  "Get off me!" he shouted, successfully pushing Nita off but having to grab onto Laramie's bike so he wouldn't fall.

  "Where's Deryn?" Laramie demanded as he flew him over the crowd.

  "Seriously?" shouted Xander. "Where's your brother because I'm going to kick his ass for this?"

  "Where is she?" shouted Nita, who had suddenly reappeared.

  The other Resistance members on hover-bikes started dropping to the ground as Laramie and Nita kept their grip on him. Then they were abandoning their bikes and disappearing into the crowd.

  "Safe!" was all Xander said. "Or she was! Who knows after everything you just did!"

  When they moved so they were only about ten feet from the ground, Xander let go of the bike but, before he landed, Nita had him again, keeping a firm grip on his arm as she carried him towards an alley with Laramie shooting at any Guardians flying after them.

  Nita dropped him into the alley where several of their comrades were leaping into a manhole. She and Laramie landed smoothly. "Where is he?" she asked as Laramie bound Xander's wrists and ankles. "He should be here."

  "I don't know," he said, looking around frantically.

  "But we need to move before someone follows us!"

  "Neetles, I know! But we didn't exactly plan for him not being here!"

  Xander rolled his eyes and used a laser in his Guardian wristband to cut through the binds. "Great system you've got here," he said, getting to his feet. "Tell Trigger that he needs to cool it. I already told him she'd be back with him soon enough."

  Laramie and Nita aimed their guns sharply at him.

  Xander smiled and held his hands up innocently. "I'm not going to attack. I've noticed your weapons have gotten fancier." He motioned to the guns they held, not the primitive firearms of their ancestors but something similar to an Element, only sleeker.

  Just then, Dakota came running into the alley.

  "Where have you been?" demanded Laramie.