#Chapter 117: Vice grip

Alexander The sun was just starting to set when I reached the pit. The men down at the bottom of it looked truly miserable. They were hot, thirsty, tired, hungry. Covered in dirt and dried mud. I could see marks on the walls of the trench that told me they’d done their best to try to scramble up and out during the hours I’d been keeping them down there. When they looked up and saw that it was me peering down at them, the men bowed their heads and fell to their knees. “Your punishment is complete,” I told them. “I’ll pull you up one at a time.” I unspooled the rope from around my body and lowered it down. Once there was enough slack to reach the guys, I got a vice grip with the remaining portion that I was holding, looping it around my waist, then my forearm, before I told them to send someone up and braced myself to pull. When all seven men were out of the pit and kneeling on the hillside before me, I finally addressed them as a group. “Do I need to remind you,” I ask