Sunken Eyes (Cruel and Beautiful World Book 2) Read online

  Sunken Eyes

  Cruel & Beautiful World

  Book two

  L. Stoddard Hancock

  Copyright © 2016 L. Stoddard Hancock

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter One

  Nita maneuvered her way through the maze that was the underground, a gasmask pulled over her face by the chance that President Saevus had cameras around down there. It was doubtful that he did, since the Resistance had been exploring the tunnels for years and hadn't yet been caught.

  Not recently, at least. Back when the Resistance first formed the president cared a great deal about their every move, capturing and executing several of them as they tried to escape Utopia through the underground, but every since he found out Godfrey Leon was no longer the one barking orders ... not exactly, anyway, his whole manner had changed. For some infuriating reason, he only saw this one man as a threat.

  Nita stopped and sighed as she thought of the current state of Talon's father, the man who was still pulling the strings of the Resistance, especially his son, even though he rarely spoke.

  If Talon was actually going to follow through with Dakota's ridiculous plan then he should've been there now, with her and her team, searching for a new route leading to the inside of Utopia. Because there was always a way in.

  Nita scribbled her path into the notebook she carried as she turned another corner, frowning when she hit a dead end.

  Well, that was it. She had searched every pathway in that day's chosen direction and all led to squat. There were a few doors that looked promising, but all she found behind them was more housing for their ancestors. There certainly were a lot of people down here at one point.

  After aggressively drawing a wall into her notebook, she put it away and turned around, heading for the meeting point for her and her team.

  On her way there, she only came across one S.U.R.G.E. - Saevus's Utopian Robotic Guardians for the Elite. They were black robots, the size of two fists with fluttering wings, and always ready to kill or capture, the result often depending on the president's mood that day. The Resistance had developed the technology to take them down, but it was not meant to be used when they were trying to be discrete. The president had each robot tracked, so if one went down he would know about it.

  As the familiar click of the S.U.R.G.E. approached, Nita pressed herself against the closest wall, pressing a button on her coat that cooled the air around her, hiding her body heat from the passing robot. It continued on without a second glance in her direction.

  Once the S.U.R.G.E. was gone Nita continued on, twisting and turning around dozens of corners and silently wondering why their ancestors ever thought somewhere so complicated was ever a practical place to live. Whoever designed it must have really liked messing with people's heads. There had to have been a map at some point, but they had yet to find one. It was likely that all maps had been destroyed when everyone moved upward and the first President Saevus somehow weaseled his way into power.

  As always, it was a lot quicker getting back to the meeting point than it was wandering around, since she didn't have to draw her stupid maps in her notebook. She arrived in the room they always used as their starting point, an old communication room of their ancestors filled with rusted machines and monitors, formerly used to keep in contact with the other underground civilizations throughout the country, probably the world. But, alas, it was all dead, cords rotted through and screens fried. But it could be replicated. It had -

  "Neetles, do you read me?"

  Nita lifted her two-way radio and pressed the button on its side. "Yes, Talon. I'm here," she said, leaning against the nearest table.

  "I saw on your tracker you're back in the communication room."

  Nita smirked. "Must you always keep such a watchful eye over me?"

  "Must you always insist on taking the most dangerous missions when you know I can't accompany you?"

  Her smirk quickly flipped into a frown. "As long as you insist on going through with Dax's stupid plan, then I insist on heading it so I can at least make sure it's done right."

  Silence.

  "It's not too late to back out of this, Talon. It would be nice if you could at least consider speaking to Xander Ruby rationally."

  "He's a Guardian, and Guardians aren't rational."

  She sighed and took her tracker out of the bag strapped to her hip, bringing up a hologram of the map they had created so far and checking the location of her three teammates. Not one of them was headed back yet, all of their colored dots still drifting off map. She supposed that was promising.

  "The others are all still searching so I'm going to try another direction."

  Silence.

  She sighed again. "We'll find her, Talon. I promise."

  "I'm finding it harder and harder to convince myself that that's true."

  Nita tapped her fingers on the table she was leaning on, trying to find the right words to say. But there were no right words. They had been searching for Deryn Leon for over five years. This shouldn't have been an impossible task since Utopia really wasn't that massive, especially these days. Yet, here they were. All this time had passed and they were still searching.

  Deciding it was best to say nothing, Nita put her two-way away and headed out the door she had just come through. She skipped the immediate path to the right and the one straight ahead, eventually turning left and then another left before she was at a crossroads they hadn't yet explored. Taking out her notebook, she began drawing lines and walked straight.

  The first turn she made ended up being a dead end. The second led to a medical facility that she marked for later exploration. When they didn't have a deadline for a suicide mission. But the turn she made next actually seemed promising. There were some tracks there, indicating travel between important locations.

  While there were several tunnels branching off of the main track, she kept on her steady path, checking the progress of her teammates every now and then to make sure she didn't stray too far from them in case they all finished around the same time. Not once did she pass a S.U.R.G.E. in this big, open area.

  But then, before long, the tracks ended, disappearing right into a wall that must have raised at some point. She searched for a lever but couldn't find one. While staring all around, she spotted a crawlspace high and to the right of the wall. She didn't see a ladder but, checking the wall below it, she
found small grooves her feet could fit into, so she used them to climb.

  The crawlspace was tight. No bulky men could shimmy through here and she suddenly found herself wishing Dakota was broader so he wouldn't fit, by the off chance this actually led somewhere significant.

  But it did lead somewhere significant.

  When the crawlspace ended, a ladder awaited her, the midpoint of three meeting pathways. She stepped onto it without a second thought, climbing for a long ways before she spotted a small spot of light.

  A manhole cover.

  She was in an escape route disguised as a sewer.

  Reaching the top, Nita pushed the cover but it wouldn't budge. Noticing something small poking out of it, she gave it a tug. Nothing. Then a twist. An iron key popped out and Nita pocketed it before trying again, lifting the cover just a bit so she could peek out. It was an alley. A quiet, abandoned alley with gray sky straight above it.

  Utopia.

  With a gasp, Nita put the cover back on properly and locked it with the key. She held onto the ladder with one hand while the other grabbed her two-way out of her bag.

  "Talon."

  Silence.

  "Talon, are you there?"

  "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry, I just ... sorry about earlier. You know I -"

  "Talon, shut up for a minute, will you?"

  He did just that.

  "I've found it," she said, feeling more overjoyed than she ever thought she would, knowing that Dakota's stupid plan was coming to fruition. "I found our way in."

  Chapter Two

  Xander stood in his bathroom leaning against the wall while Deryn was in front of the mirror, fiddling with her blonde wig as she attempted to get it on perfectly.

  "What do you think?" she asked, glancing at his reflection in the mirror.

  "Hate it," he said. "I'd rather you just kept your usual appearance and stayed -"

  "Spread the bangs out more. Stop pushing them off to the side," Luka called from Xander's bedroom. He was lying on his back, sprawled across the bed while flipping through one of Deryn's books, angled so he could see into the bathroom.

  "He's being much more cooperative than you are," said Deryn with a smile. She fluffed the bangs around then looked at Xander for approval.

  He grunted. "Better. You look less like you with them covering your forehead."

  She smiled wider. "Now, was that so hard?"

  His face tensed as he looked away from her, breathing heavily. A soft hand entered his. He turned back to see Deryn and her strange hair standing incredibly close.

  "It's going to be fine, Xander. Please stop worrying." She leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek.

  Xander pushed the bangs out of her face before kissing her properly.

  "Focus, you two!" called Luka, now lying on his stomach with his feet in the air while he flipped another page.

  Deryn smiled and rolled her eyes. She gave Xander one last kiss and returned to the mirror. Then she grabbed the eye drops, which would make her green eyes appear blue, and dropped two in each eye. "Do you think we'll be longer than two hours?" she asked.

  "No," said Xander. "Bring them just in case, but don't waste them if you don't have to."

  Deryn gazed in the mirror. She didn't look half bad. Definitely not like her, with the hair and the eyes. She also had some foundation caked on to hide her freckles. And lipstick. Nothing too showy, just a shade or two pinker than her natural lip color.

  "Oi! Ruby! Your email went off again!" said Bronson, walking into the bedroom holding Xander's portable computer, Quigley just behind him. "Someone really wants to get a hold of you."

  Xander groaned. He grabbed his computer and deleted the email without reading it.

  "Your other girlfriend again?" asked Quigley, cocking an eyebrow.

  Xander punched his arm. Lona Von had grown more persistent over the last few days, and Xander couldn't help but think that his father had something to do with this. Needless to say, he had no interest in seeing her. Especially with their pending engagement.

  Finley had found out that this 'arrangement' had actually been made by their parents years earlier. Only it was Odette, Lona's sister, he'd originally been promised to.

  Of course, that was only after the Elvira arrangement fell through - thank god - which he'd actually known about at the time. She'd told her father, President Saevus, that she would never in her life marry weak-minded, three years younger than her Xander, and opted for one of the Tash brothers instead.

  But since Odette's family had disowned her after she refused to be a guard and ran off with Neo Boyce - a friend of Xander's who was in the same predicament as her - it became about Lona instead.

  Following the start of the war with the Outsiders it had been forgotten. Until recently, when Arron Von approached Atticus with the idea, wanting to unite their families once more. Atticus had agreed, so Arron's next step had been to go to the president, who was originally against the idea of his favorite Guardian getting married but had somehow been convinced.

  Of course, Xander had tried to keep this information from Deryn, but then the emails started arriving and, with the lack of privacy in their apartment, he was forced to come clean.

  Deryn walked out of the bathroom and to the closet. She grabbed an olive-green sweater and put it on over her white shirt. She then grabbed her bag off of the dresser. "Are you ready?" she asked, looking at Xander.

  He frowned. "I don't like this."

  "I know," she said, walking over to him and taking his hand. "But you already agreed." She smiled and gave him a kiss. "I just want to test this and see what's there while we're out. Then never again."

  Xander groaned.

  She smiled wider. "Besides, I'm going to have two horribly frightening Guardians with me. What could possibly go wrong?"

  "Aannnddd ... you just jinxed us all," said Quigley.

  Deryn narrowed her eyes. "It'll be fine. Now, let's get a move on."

  They all left the bedroom, Luka marking his page, and went to the front closet to grab their coats. Xander helped Deryn into hers before putting on his own. She then took the wristband she'd been working on for weeks out of her bag and clasped it to her right wrist.

  "What is your name?" asked Xander, testing her.

  "Allison Darby," she answered. "But you can call me Allie."

  "How did you make that thing again?" asked Luka.

  "Skill," Deryn and Xander said together.

  Luka rolled his eyes, catching Deryn's addictive habit along with the rest of them. He opened the front door and stepped out first.

  The others all followed, Deryn holding on tightly to Xander's hand as they descended the stairs. He stopped on the second floor and let the others go ahead of them. Then he pulled her close and kissed her softly.

  "You're really sure about this?" he asked while staring into her foreign blue eyes.

  Deryn gulped and nodded. "I need to get out of the apartment and this needs to be done. You've never lived outside before, Xander. You don't know what will be useful."

  He sighed and kissed her again. "If anything happens and we're separated then find a tram and get back here. Understand?"

  Deryn nodded again. Xander had successfully managed to take a great deal of physical coin out of his account, and then used half of it to pay a woman to open a new account for Ms. Allison Darby. Just yesterday Deryn had successfully linked it to her wristband. An indication that everything was working properly. "Yes. And thank you again for letting me do this," she said while rubbing her hands along his back. They kissed one last time before linking hands and heading down the stairs.

  When they got to the first floor, Bronson grinned as he held out his hand to her and said, "Ready, girlfriend?"

  Deryn grinned back, hesitantly letting go of Xander's hand and taking Bronson's instead.

  "So why is the gay guy playing her boyfriend again?" asked Luka, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

  "Because Ruby doesn't wan
t either of you straight bastards holding her hand," said Bronson, swinging his and Deryn's arms joyfully.

  "Deryn's the one who picked you, you fucking idiot," said Xander, knocking Bronson's shoulder as he headed out the front door.

  Luka and Quigley followed. Bronson attempted to walk out, but Deryn pulled him back.

  "I don't know about this," she said, her voice trembling.

  "Relax, Deryn," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "Everything will be fine. Even though you're stuck holding my hand instead of Ruby's, he's going to be right there the entire time, and you know he's not going to let anything happen to you. Neither will I."

  Deryn breathed deeply and nodded. She took one step forward and then another, slowly moving towards the door until she was standing on the last square of tile. She glanced down nervously before stepping through the doorway, landing outside on the cement stoop. With a breath of relief, she headed down the stairs with Bronson just beside her, keeping her eyes on Xander the entire way down.

  "Everything alright?" he asked.

  "Yes," said Deryn before looking around and taking it all in. She was outside, the fresh air brushing against her face as a cool breeze shot by them. She inhaled deeply. "It's so nice to breathe air that isn't littered with cigarette smoke."

  There was a click and they all turned to find Quigley lighting a cigarette. He looked at all of them, his eyes darting around. "Oh, sorry. Are we not doing this?" He quickly put his cigarette out on the nearest wall and slipped it back in his pack.

  "It's fine," said Deryn. "I know you're all addicted to that disgusting habit, and at least now I have space to avoid it."

  Quigley started to take his cigarette out again, but one stern look from Xander and he was quick to put it back.

  Deryn still felt nervous but since there was a light drizzle she was able to wear her hood without looking suspicious, making her feel slightly more secure.

  The five of them walked down the street, Xander making sure to stay on Deryn's other side even though the narrow sidewalk didn't really allow it. At least there were few hover-bikes and even fewer hover-cars in the area, so Bronson wasn't at risk when he was the one kicked off the curb and onto the street.