Darkest Hours

"No, I must be hallucinating. How else could my world have been destroyed by those Gorthak? Tell me, Zyolax, what did you feel when you saw our home being destroyed by them?"

Zyolax was stunned and unable to speak. "What I felt? I... don't know. We Varnak don't have a deep concept of emotions, so I don't know how I felt at that moment. My kids, my wife, all of them were killed by them, slaughtered like animals. They didn't even care if they were women or children."

"Do you know what I feel, Zyolax? I feel helpless, seeing my home turned into a living hell by them. Well, don't get ahead of yourself, kid. Where we're going is worse than hell."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"Back there, in that room, those Gorthak told me something. We're being sold to Nexus."

My eyes widened. "Wait a minute! We're being sold? What do you mean by that?"

"Yes, the main thing the Gorthak are feared for is their slave trade. Raiding a world, capturing its people, and selling them for credits to merchants is one of the many things they excel at. Where we're going is one of those hells. Many species call this planet Aabuya, or in human language, the 1st Circle of Hell."

My eyes widened. "The 1st Circle of Hell? You're joking, right?"

"I'm dead serious, kid... Jumping into hyperspace in 3... 2... 1... Hyperspace initiated." The voice from the speaker stopped. The space around us started to distort, as if we were jumping from one place to another. "Exiting hyperspace in 3... 2... 1... Hyperspace exited."

I saw a giant red planet surrounded by one moon. "That's where the 1st King of this hell lives. He lives on that moon. Yes, from there he oversees the whole planet. There are a total of nine hells in this universe," Zyolax said, "each overseen by one king, each of whom works under one lord, and that lord works under the Great Ancestor."

"Great Ancestor?" I stuttered.

"Yes, the one who led the Gorthak in the Great Intergalactic War and won!"

"Intergalactic War?" I stuttered.

"Yes." Zyolax looked outside. "We're going to enter the atmosphere soon. Brace yourself."

The ship started to descend into the atmosphere. The whole ship started to vibrate. "Ughhh!" Luv grumbled. The ship landed, and the hatch opened. Many of the aliens stepped out of the ship. Zyolax and I were the last to exit. "Ahhh, this heat!" I placed my hand in front of my face.

"Get used to it, kid. We're going to spend the rest of our lives here." I looked forward and saw something out of a nightmare: thousands of aliens working in the scorching heat, their hands and legs tied in chains, mining and moving carts filled with minerals. As we both started to move, Zyolax relayed what the Gorthak had said. "They told us we have to mine a particular mineral called Bombax, and we have to mine it for the rest of our lives or die by their hands."

We heard a scream and saw an alien running in the distance, screaming. A giant, monster-like alien jumped from a cliff and landed right in front of him. That alien had one eye and was ten feet tall, towering over the screaming alien. He grabbed him by the legs and started to smash him against the ground until only his leg was intact, while the rest of him was turned into paste. We were both stunned by the scene unfolding. The Gorthak handed us pickaxes to dig and told us to follow them. We quietly followed them in fear, along with the other aliens. We all knew that this was our end, but little did we know, things were about to change."