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Escaping District 1

A tale of dignity and courage

By Ruby Estelle Published 2 years ago Updated about a year ago 25 min read
1
Solaras' Depiction Of The Dragons in the Valley

Chapter 1

There weren't always dragons in the valley. In fact the first time she saw it there was no sign of animal life that she could remember. It was desolate and dark, but the second time ten years later there were plants, and small creatures she could not explain. They were large, and although some of them looked dangerous they were nothing like the dragons she would encounter if she escaped again. Some flew, some walked, but none of them blew out fire. Nothing she had ever seen there prepared her for her final escape.

Solara was three the first time she escaped district 1. She was with three others, and they were all older than her. Luckily they knew what they were doing and together they survived. Until they got caught, that is. The second time she escaped alone at the age of fifteen, and barely survived before they captured her. If successfully escaping the third time was not a possibility they would give her the last dosage of a serum which would shut off her humanity completely, and she couldn't let that happen.

After escaping the first time she had most of her privileges' stripped from her. She could no longer wear shoes, eat lunch outside, or make her art. After the second time she got whipped, they attempted to erase her memory and she spent a year in the detention hall. District 1 was the hardest to pass as it used the most highly skilled Items to train Units before they injected them. This injection was a Nano-robot serum that could control their minds and make them completely invincible for their purposes.

Solara had the rare gifts of manipulating space, sound, and time, and with the serum she would be one of the most powerful Units that her district had in the system. The system that helped the government of the planet Redstar protect itself and go to other planets to take over their resources. A system that controlled the minds of Units completely once they reached adulthood as they learned the third dosage of the serum kills them before they're eighteen.

Her assigned Item told her that her rebellion was cured, but little did it know she had stopped taking her medications that suppressed her abilities and empathy not long after her first dosage. Long before than, since she was seventeen, she was coming up with a plan that would set her free and hopefully help her free all of the other units. Risking her life was worth it, and the month before her second injection she was ready. Ready to escape from her district into the valley and back into the village.

When Solara was only 1 she was taken from her mother and father to be trained as a unit. This meant that unless she escaped she would never see them again, and that she would never know them. Most units would never even know they had a family, but due to Solara's' unique consciousness she started seeing them in her dreams shortly after she stopped taking her medications. They were vivid, and she knew since a young age she had a connection with others that were not in her surroundings.

Her final plan was to escape back into the valley to the village she kept having visions of in her dreams. Every time she would dream she would see a village miles past the valley, and every instinct told her it was home. Whatever danger lied within the valley or escaping the third time was well worth facing. Her strong emotions and empathy were making her wish that freeing every Unit at the same time was a possibility, but she was smart enough to know that it was not.

Escaping would be easy for Solara, but doing so in such a way that she could help everyone else after she found her family would be the challenge. All of the others would not necessarily want to escape and could use their abilities to turn on her, but Solara was fair. Somedays she wondered if mother and father were alive still, but her strong intuition told her that her vivid dreams were the present.

There was only a couple of things that could hinder her from being able to escape district 1 when she wanted to. The drones, the shapeshifters, and her tracker were keeping her awake at night. They could follow her everywhere no matter what she was capable of doing. Drones were connected to every Units' tracker, and there was only one way and time she would be able of removing it.

By the third week getting used to her abilities came with a lot of practice. A couple of times when she nearly risked everything to test the progression of her gifts her abilities were stronger than she imagined. There were times she was unable of controlling herself and it would almost get her into trouble, but nothing ever stopped her other than her own self. When she would stop nothing would happen and no one would say anything.

Solara was perfecting how to make herself invisible by delaying time for the Units and Items around her, and practicing how to change the direction any type of sound she made came from. By the time she had mastered it she was ready to leave, but it would take adequate planning and good weather. She had to be able to acquire as many supplies as she needed without attracting any attention. This process took a while as well as learning how to hide them with her powers when they had safety checks in their private rooms.

The last week of her planned escape finally came and everything was falling into place. Almost everything that she would need to help her survive the backyard and the valley was prepared. She was unsure of how long that it would take her to get out since they had made some major changes in the Districts. District 1 was evolving as quickly as Redstar, but so were Solaras' abilities. As long as she kept getting stronger than the quickly evolving environment couldn't stop her.

Being mentally ready for the day of her Escape, Solara started making preparations. First she had to keep pretending that she was doing all of her studies while she was really practicing to better her secret abilities. Even though she was readily able of fooling everyone it was going to be harder when she was no longer in the facility. Being used to seeing and knowing exactly where everyone, and everything was at all times including the drones was her greatest advantage.

The only two things left that she needed were two sharp objects for arrow heads, a knife to help her make fire, and the tools to make a bow otherwise she could not hunt. Unfortunately the technology of all the weapons on district 1 were so advanced that she was unable of stealing one. Every weapon was designated to a specific Item number, and they all had a unique pulse that the weapons would identify them by in order for them to work.

For every five Item robots there were ten Units. These units were the humanoid species on planet Redstar that were in the districts. The rest of the units, as Solara understood from her dreams, were within the villages around the outskirts of the valley. In her dreams she could see that they were under government control and unable of progressing. The village compared to the cities that she knew of from her district news were under evolved and pure human breed.

The only thing about this was that her father was related to partial breeds that his family were separated from. This meant she was superhuman and it was intensifying her natural born powers that being injected with the serum gave her. They were made purely for humans as it was aim towards the focus of the partial cortex. Being the part of the brain which controlled the spiritual part in their mind they used to manipulate and program it with unique supernatural abilities.

Already having the natural abilities to tap into this area of her brain nearly quadrupled after her first injection. Wanting to appear like she had made less progress than she actually had to quicken her second dosage she stumbled in her classes. Doing this made her her stronger faster as it gave her more study time and prevented her from giving herself away. Little did she know that being able to naturally manipulate everything with her first dosage made her the most powerful unit.

Solara thought it was normal and just a side effect from not taking her medications. She had no idea that unlike anyone else in her district she had blood relations to the extraterrestrials. If the items or overseers' had ever found out about this or discovered it in the short amount of time before her escape her life would be terminated immediately. Luckily for Solara she never had any idea as it gave her one last thing that she would have to hide.

Her life in district 1 was filled with discretion and secrecy. There was no one that she could fully trust, and it felt lonely. The last day before her escape finally came and she was wisely using her time. Instead of studying for her test that her district had the next day she was making final arrangements. Her adrenaline was racing and her heart was beating fast from excitement. All she had that she was taking with her was two backpacks and they were ready.

The time was ticking by slowly for Solara and she was ready and anxious to leave. Building up as much mental and physical and energy was essential for her plan to go smoothly. Trying to keep her strong emotion hidden was a challenge, but she would get caught if she didn't. She withdrew from dinner earlier than usual so she could get a longer nights rest, and no one questioned her.

She abruptly awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of the safety check alarms in her district. This meant someone was in trouble, and that she would have to deviate from her original plan. They had already had one during the week which could mean they were on to her. She left everything in her ceiling and remained calm as it was her only option. If she was lucky she could use the search as a potential distraction.

Going to her usual spot in the cafeteria everyone else crowded around the tables. The alarm finally turned off as the projector lit up the far wall of the dimly lit room. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and conversation around her as they sat down waiting for the announcement. A loud whistle blew and everyone quickly grew silent. Looking around everybody looked nervous but Solara play dumb and shrugged her shoulders back at a couple of the units who giggled looking back at her.

Her strong intuition told her they said something to one of the robots. It had to have been the day before that they tattled as they never wasted time with punishments, but what would they have said she wondered? Quieting the robot talking on the loudspeaker as it gave its typical speech about rules and behavior Solara focused. They went on for a while stating the reason for the alarm and with her mind she managed to silence the monitor completely and gazed at the two girls while she listened.

It was a challenge with the short amount of time she had making out the thoughts of the girls in front of her. Solara could hear many different people thinking at once and still being groggy from being awakened couldn't concentrate on the one she wanted. She didn't have enough time and needed to hear what they said in the lecture message or she risked missing something important.

There was too many different conversations going on in her mind at once that she lost focus. She listened to the loudspeaker again and stared at the wall. When she glanced around her everyone had a blank look on their face, and Solara wanted nothing more but to run at that very moment. Instead she contently watched the screen as it came to everyone's' attention that someone had been stealing food from the kitchen.

She was caught for stealing, and didn't have a lot of time. A wave of adrenaline ran through her as she mimicked the faces girls were making around her. The Units that were looking at her were whispered in other Units ears and giggled as they pointed at Solara. Without thinking twice Solara used all of her strength to stop time while she vanished. Pausing everything around her she grabbed a key card out of an Items pocket to get back in her room , and hopefully get out of the back door.

She rain into her room and used all of her strength to keep time stopped. It was never her plan, and she didn't know how long she could hold it. After opening up the ceiling she grabbed her backpacks and left. Everyone was out of her sight, and everything was silent. The only thing that she could hear was the sound of her heart racing as she got ready to go downstairs.

To her surprise the door opened with the key card that led to the end of the hallway. The same hallway that she hadn't tried escaping out of for years. The same hallway that she went down before twice and almost granted herself the freedom. That was freedom of knowing what was behind the valley, and what the valley was. Solara was excited and terrified all at the same time.

Her bags were heavier on her back than she anticipated stopping time as she walked down the corridor of the hallways to the main door. The lights were so bright from being alongside both the top and bottom of the walls and it was nothing like she remembered it. It was almost as if the pure white light was coming from the outside. She tried manipulating the energy of the lights so that they weren't as bright but trying gave her a headache.

It exhausted her quickly as she realized that although the glass shattered the light was the energy of the outside. It was coming from the outdoors, and it wasn't night like she originally anticipated it on being. She had planned meticulously that it would have been night outside, but that was only because of the District. As the district stopped letting her wing of the district have knowledge of the outdoors current state long before she tried escaping for the third time.

This comforted Solara as she always loved the sun and its heat. The bright yellow ball of energy that lit up the outdoors. Making it bright, green and warm. The same light that always goes away at night, and than becomes a sliver, a half of itself, and sometimes almost like a shadow of itself. Solara always liked the big warm hot ball of light the most.

When she ran the key card at the end of the door it asked her for a fingerprint. She tried using hers only to discover that she did not have one although all of the units had one. All of the robots did not have them, and none of the other Units would have access to the outdoors. Solara was confused by this because the planet as she understood it, was run by the humanoid like aliens who didn't have fingerprints.

Suddenly a picture of her face came onto the screen and it pulled up information about her. It had said the drone had no connection, and that it was disconnected. There was a long identification number that came up on the screen and than she was staring at a reflection of her face. Nothing happened as she continued focusing on time being stopped as she stared back at herself.

Although the system had identified her there was no one around to stop her. There was nothing that she could see, and no message coming up on the screen. The message that she knew by heart that would come on whenever they were around. When they had caught her or were checking up on what she was doing. Until suddenly a face came on the screen, and it was a woman.

A woman that she had seen in her dreams with her family. This confused and overwhelmed Solara as she blankly stared back at her. The door was starting to open, and she could feel the fresh air on her skin. She could feel the warm sun on her body for the first time in years. For years she was trapped in the temperature controlled environment that was always cold.

The only time that was good for was when she was training, and it made her stronger. She could smell fresh grass and it smelled like it had rain. There was a light blanket of mist that mingled in the air as the sounds of birds chirped. There was almost a pink hue in the sky as she got outside. It was brighter and more beautiful than she had ever imagined. The light illuminated the trees of the forest behind the building, and the air was clean.

A butterfly landed on her arm and she stood still. She smiled as she breathed in the fresh air all around her, and knew she was free. All she had to do was get her tracker out of her wrist and run. Far and fast, and to the valley. As soon as she got past the valley she would have all of her questions answered. The questions that had been running through her mind for such a long time.

As soon as the butterfly flew away Solara ran with all of her strength and than stopped when she suddenly remembered. The tracker was still in her arm, and if the butterfly was flying she couldn't see what was stopped in motion. Something told her that unless she removed it immediately they would catch her, and she would be terminated or trapped forever. This thought sent goosebumps down her back and she pulled her knife out from her backpack.

She made a small incision with the knife and pulled out her tracker. Blood was dripping off her wrist and being well prepared she quickly wrapped it up with a bandage she brought. To her surprise it started healing quickly and she wouldn't even need it wrapped in the days to come. The pain felt like a tickle and she didn't flinch as she finished tying it up. Solara jumped when she noticed there was a fume coming from the tracker.

The tracker itself was smaller than her fingernail but it was emitting a strange smell and it reminded her of something. She stepped on it until it stopped, and threw it opposite of the direction she was going but she started feeling dizzy. When she grabbed her bags off the ground they felt heavier than she remembered and her forehead was sweating. Whatever the tracker had released into the air it was poisonous to her and she had cluelessly breathed it in.

Panic overwhelmed Solara as she kept moving so she could get to the valley. Not knowing what time that it was challenged her as she wanted to make it there before nightfall. There was a buzzing in Solara's' ears and she feared whatever was in the tracker. Her head started pounding and her vision went a little blurry but she drank some water and didn't stop walking.

Eventually after walking what felt like half a mile through the plantation she sat down on the grass by some flowers. The sweat was dripping down her face and she could feel herself swell up. If there was anything that she could do to stop the reaction she had to do it quick. Subsequent to sitting and catching her breathe she ripped off one of the flowers and threw it in her mouth and chewed on the petals.

It was bittersweet and unenjoyable to say the least but it provided her with immediate relief. She had learned in her science class a couple of years before about different medicines and luckily for her they appeared to be around her. Not knowing the name but remembering that it counteracted against allergic reactions and toxins saved her.

By the time the sun was setting she finally made it to the edge of the valley. Solara was awestricken at what she saw before her and stood completely still. She had never seen anything like it before in her life and she didn't know what they were, but they were strangely beautiful. They reminded her of something that she saw in a movie once but she would have never imagined that they existed in real life.

The last time she saw the valley the creatures were small, but these ones were big and had wings. In the movie she saw they were called dragons, and there she was staring at a valley of them. One was orange one blue, and there was even a couple of red ones. She curiously watched them as the flew through the hills and rocks of the valley.

They looked dangerous and scary, but she wasn't afraid. She sat down at the edge of the valley silently and got out food from her bag to eat. The magnificent creatures before her took her breathe away, but she didn't want them to notice her. They were far off in the distance and it worried Solara because the only way to the village in her dreams was through.

She started questioning everything as she ate her sweet bread and apple. Why hadn't she seen them in her dreams she wondered, and what if there was no village? The thought troubled her as she savored her small meal, but she assured herself she’d be okay. She knew she could survive the big creatures long enough to see if there was even a village, and that she was sure of.

Training never prepared her for dragons from fairytales, but Solara remained hopeful and optimistic. Maybe some of them were nice and they just looked scary, and maybe they could help her. The thought seemed unlikely to her as she planned how she was going to sleep. Making fire like she originally was going to was out of the question until she knew more about the dragons. She didn't want to attract their attention unnecessarily, or scare them away.

Solara giggled at herself imagining them being scared of fire and she knew they wouldn't be. It would be impossible for them not to see her either way but the longer that she went unnoticed the better, and the fire would certainly get their attention. If they were as smart as Solara anticipated that is, but she didn't know. In the movies they would blow out there own fire, and warriors were always fighting them with swords unless they were flying on their backs.

She waited for the sun to go down more before while she got ready. She tied her long rope to a tree and started climbing down. Feeling successful as it was the furthest that she had ever gotten in any of her escapes she finally felt free. She had long since stopped stopping time and was conserving all of her energy. If the dragons did see her and were a threat she could stop them but she didn't know for how long.

They were such big creatures and the bigger they were meant the less time she could control them. Climbing down into the valley used more rope than she planned for and she had to improvise. Solara stretched the rope with her mind and jumped just before it snapped off the tree. Her timing was perfect and she landed with ease. Finally she was walking in the green and spacious valley.

The air was getting cooler and the sun was completely down, and she decided to make a small fire. After eating a small snack to tie her over for the night Solara fell asleep comfortably behind a big rock. Her blanket and her backpacks were all she had for her bed but the ground beneath her was soft.

Solara fell into a deep sleep after her long day and dreamt about the village past the valley. This time there were indications that dragons existed and from her dream she could see some of them were good, and some of them were bad. Suddenly she awakened in the dawn by a loud screeching. Grabbing the knife from under her blanket she looked over the rock and saw nothing. There were no signs of any dragons anywhere or anything else.

She quickly gathered her belongings in her backpacks and folded up her blanket to keep moving. There was still no sign of anything as she was getting ready to keep walking. Something told her that it was just part of her dreams, but without being able to see anything Solara was uncertain. The uncertainty stayed with her the rest of the day and she didn't see anymore dragons.

They were unexplainably not there anymore and confusion lingered over Solara as she continued her journey. The sun was hot and she wondered if maybe they were only out during dusk, and so she prepared herself for that. Where they were hiding made Solara curious, and she assumed they were probably in the caves and hills. By the time that the sun was going down again she found out she was right.

All she could do was move as silently as possible through the valley while they all came out of hiding. Some of them looked right through her and made no reaction to her presence while she kept walking. Manipulating the space around her to be a mirror image of her surroundings was working well and she decided she wouldn't have to use energy stopping time to save herself.

Unsure where she was going to sleep for the second night it came to her attention that there were no large rocks around her. Everything was open for what looked like miles and she had no choice but to leave it to chance. All she could do was hope for the best, but be prepared for the worse as she laid her bags down in complete exhaustion from the heat. There was a layer of humidity in the air and she fell asleep without worrying about a fire.

Her dreams were more vivid than the night before and the village was in trouble. People were being taken from their homes and some of the huts were burning to the ground. Solara woke up in tears in the middle of the night only to nearly jump out of her skin. There was a baby dragon sniffing her and staring down at her. Even as a baby it was still fairly large and she didn’t know what to do.

When the baby noticed she was awake it stepped backwards intimidated and made the same screeching sound she heard the night before. Solara knew that where there was a baby the mother had to be close by, and stopped time around her. Quick to her feet she gathered her things together quickly and ran. She looked back at the baby dragon and thought it was kind of cute.

It reminded her of a cartoon and she stopped to admire its innocence from a distance. Its wings were still growing and it had bumpy pink and orange flesh. It made her wonder what the mother looked like and she was curious. Why was it watching her sleep, and how long had it watched her? The questions went through Solaras' mind as she finally stopped running so she could catch her breathe.

Letting time go she mirrored her surroundings instead so she could conserve her energy. She had gotten far enough that she wasn't worried anymore and didn't feel like she was in danger. The other side of the valley was getting close and her mind was racing with the possibilities. Her dream seemed to have been indicating there was serious trouble amidst, and the tears came rushing back.

Solara didn't know what she was going to do if her dream was true, but she hoped it wasn't. Maybe she would be able to help some of the people from the village escape making it not as bad after all. Maybe it was for a reason and if she got there in time to help her family survive with her abilities. Something told her that if her dream was current than she was running out of time.

Solara was tired from using her powers and not getting enough sleep. The space around her was beautiful and it was so alive. Dragons were flying around her and one by one they started going away as the sun rose over the valley. She sat down and quit blending in with everything around her and took a deep breathe of fresh air in. Almost halfway through the valley and she had no idea what she was getting herself into, but was ready for whatever was next.

Fantasy
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About the Creator

Ruby Estelle

Im Kezia, Family oriented & fun, loving, nature, people, music & animal lover. photographer, writer, cook, artist, lover & creator! I aspire world venture, vlogging, making a foundation, having a positive impact & inspiring you💕

🙏🌍🌏🌎☮️

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