Hailey's Quest | The Music Freaks Dystopian AU

Part 1

"For heaven's sake, Milly, quit kicking that stone, that's the third time you've hit my leg in the past hour," Zander complained.

"Not all of us cope with boredom as well as you do! But it should be expected of you, since you're the most boring person here," Milly retorted.

Hailey sighed. "Enough, you two."

It's been over a year and Milly still can't accept change. She always thinks things are going to be like the way they were before. I hate to break it to her, but that's not possible.

Hailey had been lucky enough to find the rest of the club after it was decreed that children over the age of thirteen would no longer be allowed to live with their families and had to move out on their own. She was taking a big enough risk just by living in the same building as Zander. As the club president, she was supposed to keep the group out of trouble, which was often difficult.

"Not my fault Zander gets annoyed so easily," Milly snapped.

"Hey, I ran into Zoey earlier when I was getting water," Sean said loudly, clearly trying to change the topic.

"Good to know the human doll is alive," Zander sighed, rolling his eyes.

"She's gotten nicer, actually. I guess she finally grew up. She said it was nice to talk to someone besides Lia. I guess that means she's alive, too." Sean smiled. "I can't blame her, it was a nice change of pace. She said she's doing okay, but she hasn't heard from anyone other than Lia since this whole situation began."

Hailey's expression was stern. "You need to be more careful. Conversations between civilians are illegal, remember?"

"So what? We talk loudly all the time," Milly whined.

Before Hailey could respond, the door opened and Jake and Luke ran through the door.

"That was close! We almost went over the time limit," Jake gasped between breaths.

"What the hell was that? Don't you remember that the government will be notified if you're in public after 9 PM?" Hailey scolded. "Are you trying to get arrested?"

"Sorry, Hailey, we got lost," Luke muttered with a guilty expression.

Hailey sighed. "I guess I can't blame you. None of us go out very much anyway."

"Yeah, and if we keep this up, I'm going to completely lose it," Zander complained.

"Will you stop that?!" Milly yelled.

"What did they do this time?" Jake asked.

"Just another dumb fight," Hailey sighed. "They never stop."

"I'm going for a walk!" Zander yelled.

"At 8:45 PM?!" Hailey yelled back.

Zander tore the tracker off his wrist and tossed it aside. "Those idiots won't find out I'm not wearing that anyway!"

"Zander, wait! It's not even thirty degrees out!" Luke took off his tracker, grabbed Zander's jacket and ran after him.

"If those two aren't back within an hour, we're screwed," Jake said nervously. "That's how Liam died."

On the first night under the new rule, Liam had tried to escape the country by taking the tracker off his wrist at night and running for his life. He didn't know that the tracker could detect whether or not it was on someone's wrist, and after an hour it let out a signal. The local authorities went to investigate, found Liam, and shot him to death. The footage was broadcasted on live TV as a warning. Jake had recovered from the shock of his friend's death surprisingly quickly, but never completely forgot.

"Liam was an idiot. Zander and Luke will be fine," Hailey snapped. 

"I'm going to sleep. I've had quite enough nonsense for one day," Milly sighed.

"We all should. That means you, too, Hailey" Sean insisted.

"No. I'm waiting for them," Hailey replied stubbornly.

"Go to sleep, Hailey, I'll keep watch," Jake offered.

"Fine. Whatever," Hailey sighed.

Jake watched her leave the room.

"Doing favors for her isn't going to make her love you."

Jake spun around and saw Milly standing behind him.

"Enough with the friendly facade, Jake, we all know you like her. If you want to date, tell her. You'll never earn her heart if you just sit around and wait for her to make the first move," she scolded.

"What's your excuse, then? Back in school, you were scared to even talk about Elliot!" Jake retorted.

"He's probably dead by now!" Milly yelled. "He's not strong enough to survive on his own, especially under these circumstances!"

Before Jake could say anything, she shoved past him and ran out of the room.

Jake sighed and sat back down. Nice going, Jake, now you hurt your friend.

He stared absently out the window, lost in thought. Will things ever be like they were before? Or are we destined to live like this forever?