Heaven in Hell

PREP CONTINUES!

I can feel each muscle of my core burning at the pace I have been going at. No matter how hard I grit my teeth, the pain clearly shows on my face. God, I do hope he does not expect a poker face now too.

I'm dying each time I come up and Chief colorful tirade on my tortoise speed is the only thing that keeps me going right now. When I can no longer keep going, I gather the courage to ask Chief what time is left. Though it never gets an answer and generally increases the fire on you, I ask "Chief, may I..?" The man knows it all.

"It just turned red, Prescott. You have 20 more minutes to go. I would say that means a bare minimum of 1000 still to go. "

"Yes, Chief. Thank you, Chief" already thinking of words which I would need for apologising at failing this task. I think I have given Roshesh proper instructions for my funeral. Atleast that would be well done.

Before I can just roll over on my stomach and give my core some relief, Chief places his feet on my bent feet and says, "If you stop Prescott, I'll arrange for shifting Stuart's family to your workspace during day and your bed-mates for the night"

If I want to live, it can't be happening. I grunt at his words and close my eyes trying to ignore the pain hitting my body each second.

"Chief, please, just 5 seconds" I beg desperate for some rest.

For a long time, my ears are ringing from his words but all I can hear is the tightening and pulling of my muscles from my core. Each one like a rubber band being pulled to the maximum, seconds away from snapping.

I make it to almost 587 before I feel even my reserve strength going away.

"5 seconds" That's all I needed to hear to roll on my stomach and massage the ache away.

But before there is enough relief, the seconds are over and the burn is back- slowly morphing into discomfort and then pain.

I barely make it to 1000 in 20 minutes with involuntary tears pooling in the sides of my eyes and a burnt core.

However, these crunches don't do much for my salvation. It seems like the debt collection has just started. Thankfully, Hades does not deep fry you in his hell in one go. In fact, he does it layer by layer with breaks in between. Wait, I have yet to decide if this is something to be thankful over or not?

His words still bring a shudder down my spine "When your feet fail you, you tear them apart and build them back up." Oh boy! I really need to upgrade my curse dictionary to find better curse words to cuss situations which are shitty.

I have lost count of the sit-ups I have done since the start of this session but Chief has not once said anything about being close to the damned red color. My knuckles have kept a count though. My hands are behind my back in fists and each sit-up is counted only when my knuckles touch the floor. My legs are shaking but I dare not fall on my ass. Chief made it very clear at the start of this, 'If I stop or fall more than five times in any session, one of the team members gets early gifts, just like my own'

The device is a walking Adolf Hitler who would bring you to muscle failure before it shows a red. I have embarrassed myself enough in front of my juniors. There is no way I'm failing this, especially when Chief can point the bands to Colonel Sir when he visits and tell him exactly why some of my team members are wearing them.