This “awful death” Alma speaks about is outer darkness. Although all people will be given every opportunity to repent of their sins and accept the love of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, a small portion of the human race will choose this cursed fate for themselves. It is very interesting that this concept of hell mentions no fires or pitchforks or devils; what Alma suggests is instead a hell in the worst possible interior sense. Those people who prefer banishment in outer darkness to repenting of their sins will be “consigned to partake of the fruits of their labors or their works, which have been evil.” One imagines that these individuals might be forced to relive their own actions over and over again and possibly also to feel how the “fruits” of their evil deeds could have affected others. This is of course speculation, but such a karmic future would certainly fit Alma’s definition of a “bitter cup.”