He stood still as the elevator slowly descended to the place which will soon be his prison. He hummed and tapped his feet as if to forget his plight, but was immediately reminded of his current predicament when the elevator stopped and its doors opened. The two guards next to him shoved him and urged him forward in glee waiting to watch him shuffle forward to his destination as his arms and legs were shackled. They paraded him in front of their peers who also responded in kind with smiles of their own. He moved slowly through the underground cave which contained numerous tunnels like an anthill. Yes, this was the place he heard so many rumors about, The Hills.

The Hills which were interconnecting tunnels under the earth which were created by a race living under the earth while humans lived on top of the earth. The race grew tired of the underground and wanted to explore the world above, thus the tunnels were created. They made it to the top but ended meeting humans who possessed similar physical structures to them but lacked their brute strength, aggression and bestial instincts. For these reasons the races waged war against each other and humans were losing in hand to hand combat and only gained an edge through the use of weapons. In the end the race was pushed back underground and sturdy vault like doors were put in each of these tunnels.  Humans new that mere doors will not keep these brutes at bay for too long, and so they faced the dilemma of who to send to a job that no one wants to do. They finally decided on using prisoners who were prisons and chose the tunnels to be their place of captivity.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This decision suited the majority of humans who heard this suggestion as it did not involve them who were ‘innocent’, ’law abiding citizens’ and ‘believers of justice’. Criminals were therefore forced to serve they sentences in those tunnels were they acted as gate keepers to defend the human race from the invasion of these aliens. The fatality rate was high but the prisoners served their purposes as cannon fodder and protectors of humanities survival. These new prisons were called the Hills. It has been a hundred years since this has been practiced, and it served its purpose despite its inhumane method. The Hills became a place of fear for people and survivors from the place never returned the same as they were. The scars they revealed showed their struggle and in the end the government decided to provide prisoners who finished their sentence in the tunnels a pension depending on the duration of their sentence.

The young man gave a slight sigh after recalling the history of his current home for the next 5 years and a self-depreciating smile to cover the trembling in his heart, hands and feet. Truly he wasn’t prepared for the life he is about to live in there.