Heaven in Hell

PLANS OF SUNDAY

OFFICER SIDDHARTH MISHRA

As promised, Roshesh kept adding one exercise alternate days. Agent Prescott would sit or exercise, for all I know, in one dark corner of the room and watch us. The only indication of him being there were his occasional threats and hisses when we slowed down our intensity or took a break. I swear the fear of him taking over the class was the only reason we were able to manage getting better each day. The cadets had pulled through, though only by one or two seconds each day. Normally, a few seconds progress each day is a good progress, but I'm not sure 30 seconds faster is enough for Agent Prescott, let alone our trainer. Just thinking about Agent Prescott's condition gives me the chills.

Stamina and speed, like Rome, can't be built in a day. Once in a while, one of the cadets has to be sent to the infirmary before he is severely dehydrated or ends up injuring himself. Cutting them slack during the day is not an option. They signed up for this, it is now their cross to bear. As instructed by Agent Prescott, I had appointed them as the co-heads of their batch. So, with the nightly sessions, extra duties and the pressure of performing the best in their batch, they are also part of any punishment dished out to any cadet of the batch.

Naturally, I felt this was not enough, so I added a competition between the three of them to make life more entertaining. At lunch every day, I would count who topped the most in last 24 hours. The winner gets to pick or create a form of torture and the other two get to enjoy being tested. If I find the torture not creative enough, the winner joins them. If it is creative, I get to sit back, relax and enjoy the sight. Let me tell you, Kyra has come up with some devious ideas. I like that girl.

However, icing on the cake for this week has to be Roshesh's idea. I'm not sure if it is his idea or words forced out of his mouth yet.

The extra hours that we used to voluntarily train after the cadets were dismissed are now our classes with four instructors, though three of them are dummies. Dummies who get us in more trouble with their stupidity and sleepy-ness and lack of knowledge in instructing a class.

To improve the stamina of cadets to stay awake, alert and standing, Roshesh had decided to make them our instructors. They would keep a count for us and point out when we don't do a rep right. Agent Prescott decided that this would adversely harm our training so he modified the plan and decided to become our lead instructor. That is how we have entered a whole new world of pain.

The cadets are awake with eyes half open, half unresponsive and lacking awareness of their surroundings. Therefore, every time one of them fails to identify our mistake, forgets count or is not quick enough, we end up spot jogging till he is awake, has found the right count after the push-ups or identified the mistake on his own. Till now, Arjun holds the record for the best screw-up. Stupid hippo slept with his eyes wide open till the morning bell at 0500 hours, making us spot jog for nearly 2 hours. Thankfully, that was the last time he fell asleep. No one forgets a lesson after a few hours of spot jogging.

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DAY 15 OF THE TRAINING MONTH

2300 HOURS

AGENT ROSHESH VAZA:

Thank God, another Sunday is gone. There is only one more to bear before this nightmare is over and I can sleep on Sundays. Who am I kidding? Our trainer does not seem like the type to let you sleep on any given day. Please God, let him like his Sunday and some alone peaceful time with the outside free world really very much.

Except the last 30 minutes spent eating our dinner in peace, the whole day felt like a long walk on the highway to hell. Agent Prescott woke each of us with the ice water bucket challenge whistling a happy song. I was the first lucky winner and also the person who was made to wake others up with the same treatment.