I stare at the ceiling of the room I was assigned to. I was apparently caught by the guards and sent to prison after being knocked out. I cursed Athena profusely as she was the sole culprit for this misfortune. She placed me in the accursed deathrow for god’s sake. I’d have to stay here for the rest of my life.
“Hey, its not my fault.” A pretty woman with short brown hair chimes in. She wore orange clothes with a number on its right chest. Her number was G-549 while mine was G-550. I wouldn’t give a damn about her being caught, but she was caught after knocking ME out. Any respectable burglar would steal first and fight later. This woman didn’t know the rules, the rules that keeps us out of prison.
“You knocked me out!” I shouted.
“But you couldn’t have escaped anyways.” She interjected.
“I would have fucking tried!”
Silence reigned the room as she did a little self reflecting. But ignorance came over reflection and she started arguing back. The best course of action was to keep quiet, so I complied with my thoughts.
“Hey, why did you quiet down all of a sudden?” She asked with a worried expression.
After a small pause, she snorted and turned to the wall. The cell at least had two beds and a toilet with a sink, albeit revealed.
A guard slipped in two military meals consisting of some dried material and a canteen of water and took it back. It tasted bad, but kept malnourishment away from us. Days passed, stopped counting after the first month. The toiled had running water and we each turned away while the other was using it. Life in a prison wasn’t much different than back at home. Gave some information to the guard about my employer to get a set of playing cards. That was the best trade of my life, if I say so myself.
I almost feel… like Athena’s friend now.
“You won again. I’m never playing Blackjack with ya again.” She threw a tantrum.
I laughed maniacally “Hahaha, it’s just you are so bad at it. Who draws after 16 anyways?”
“I’m lucky.” She argues back.
“I count.” I answered as she looked at me in disbelief.
“How?”
“Just memorizing the used cards will get you far.” I answered with a chuckle. She was a complete newbie at the game.
“Let’s try Thirteen this time then.” Athena said as she started assembling the cards.
“Carlos, when are we landing?” I asked turning to the cell’s door. There standing was a middle aged man with unkempt bird and a bald head. We sometimes talked about politics and whatnot. The cells were placed in different chambers, and we were on a cruiser that shipped criminals to prison planets.
“In a day or two. You should manage.” He said while taking a seat on the ground. It was sad that the guards were in worse position than the prisoners, except they had a concealed toilet. “And if you are truly who you say you are. You can probably get out fast.”
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“Space Hell.” I answered. “Probably the only way to get out.”
“What? You are a maniac!” Athena shouted.
“Haha. I guess I am. And the pay is nice as well.” I said.
“It’s the 1000th anniversary this year, and they’re accepting 10’000 instead of 1’000.” Carlos added. “Probably the prisons will be empty for a while. I envy those pigs.”
“You are some kind of prisoner, like us, I guess.” Athena said with a sad look.
“It pays well. Mostly because no one would accept this kind of job and they need more of us.” Carlos said.
“What planet is it going to be on.” Athena asked.
“On Val Zarin. The Green Hell.” He said. “And you don’t have a choice, Black Hawk. They’ll most likely force your hand.”
“Damn that’s harsh. But better than living out my entire life in prison, don’t you think so, Athena?” I asked while looking at the woman. She was only 20 or so years old, a little younger than me.
“I won’t participate in that suicide fest. It’s too crazy and it’s on Vol Zarin of all places.” Athena shouted.
“You’re not a big name like Hawk, so you should be fine. I think. There are nearly 15’000 death row inmates in prisons all over the world, and that would be more than enough to fill it up.” Carlos explained.
Idle chatter continued on as we passed the time. At some point, I grew sleepy and went to bed. The ship was humid, annihilating the need for blankets or such. It was stuffy overall, but better than where I’d be located for the next year.
Vol Zarin, also known as Green Hell. It was located in the center of the known galaxy, quite close to our planet. In fact, it was the first one we discovered. We found life, but not what we expected.
It was small planet, maybe half the size of Earth, covered in thick trees and had turned into a jungle planet. There were probably sentient creatures like the Xenos on the planet, but it was so infested with horrifying creatures that would make any grown man wet their pants, that they might have been driven to extinction. That was the only explanation for the occasional shrines in the shape of Mayan pyramids.
Not only the animals, even the plants tried to kill you. It was Australia all over again, only deadlier and a few thousand years back in time when it was still thriving with natural life. My great grandfather once said that his great grandfather said it was a place where everything tried to kill you from the fruits to the animals. I doubt that, since I never saw it as anything else than a district of a megapolis.
Experiments were done with some of the poisons from there, but it was too gruesome to be known to the public and was classified information. Of course a hacker friend of mine and I once hacked into it. There weren’t any security measures other than ‘watch at your own risk’ or something.
What we saw made us vomit all our prior breakfast and never speak of it again.
A death row Xenos inmate was injected with the serum of a particular wasp from there and his eyes bulged out before exploding. The same was done to a cat and… the same happened, only more gruesome.
Then another was from a bee-like creature. That thing would sting you AND die, injecting one with its poison. This time a human inmate called Reaper was subjected to the torture. He had destroyed several planets using the residual energy from a supernova, an action forbidden by the galactic low. And in these cases, they used execution. Torture and execution.
The man started screaming after a minute and it was the most terrifying thing I have ever heard in my entire life. He begged the doctors to help him, all the while strapped to a chair. He didn’t move in the slightest, only shouting like a madman, which he probably was. His skin started melting off and… his muscles were left exposed. But the man didn’t die. The muscles rotted after several minutes and they fell off, revealing the skeleton. His eyes liquidified and the brain came oozing out as well. It didn’t end there.
The bones started turning whiter than they were supposed to. Then they crumbled to dust. We never watched anything with the same sign. But I’d be participating in a tournament on a planet like that. The adrenaline was killing me and unknown to me, a grin had been plastered on my face as I slept.