America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 4: Demilitarized Zone by Walter Knight Read Free Book Online Page B

should
go home and suck milk with the hatchlings. Private Krueger knocked
the spider marine off his barstool with one punch. Other spider
marines jumped Private Krueger. Sergeant Green ran over to separate
the fighters and to save Krueger. Spider Hell’s Angels bouncers
spun Private Krueger and the spider marine into web cocoons and
hung them upside down from the ceiling.
    When the spider commander finally arrived, I
chugged another drink and staggered in his direction. Captain Lopez
nodded to Sergeant Green, who nodded to Corporal Washington. They
grabbed me just before I got to the spider commander. I threw my
bottle. It missed the spider commander, but smashed off his table.
Bouncers hung me upside down from the ceiling, too. I spent the
evening cursing Lopez, and thrashing about next to Private
Krueger.
    “It’s not so funny now, is it?” asked Krueger
as he swung back and forth, struggling with his restraints.
“Welcome to my world, sir.”
    “This is insubordination,” I fumed,
struggling to reach a throwing knife I had concealed in my boot.
“I’ll have everyone involved shot when I get out of this damned
spider web!”
    Private Wayne came over to gloat. The big
spider legionnaire was obviously drunk, bracing himself on a table
as he looked up. “How are you doing, sir?” he asked. “Can I get you
another whiskey?”
    “You will be joining me up here before the
night is over, you insubordinate bug!” I shouted. “I will get the
last laugh!”
    “No one here is big or bad enough to string
me up,” boasted Private Wayne, sizing up the crowd. “Fools have
tried, fools have died.”
    Private Wayne contemplated the profoundness
of his vodka-induced poetry, obviously believing he should be
published. One of the Arthropodan marines bumped into Private
Wayne, causing Wayne to spill his drink. Ordinarily Private Wayne
would have been upset, but tonight he was in an exceptionally good
mood.
    “Excuse me,” said the spider marine. “I did
not see you.”
    “No harm done,” replied Private Wayne. “I’ll
get another drink. I will buy you one, too.”
    “I am new here,” said the spider marine. “New
Gobi is an interesting place. I think I like it.”
    “Yes it is,” said Private Wayne, amicably.
“It grows on you.”
    “What do you think of that human pestilence
statue out front?” asked the spider marine.
    “You mean Madam Liberty shaking her fist?”
asked Private Wayne. “The sculpture is magnificent.”
    “I wonder,” said the spider marine, “what it
would look like to see a traitor like you hanging by your neck from
the top of that abomination? Scum like you even smell like your
human pestilence masters.”
    Private Wayne immediately pulled a large
jagged combat knife from behind his belt and took a swipe at the
spider marine’s throat. The spider marine adroitly stepped back to
avoid the knife, and drew his own knives. Bouncers fired shotgun
nets at both spiders, and clubbed them into submission after they
fell to the floor. Both were strung up and hung upside down next to
me and Krueger. I laughed at Private Wayne the rest of the
night.
    Towards the end of the evening, the spider
commander and his aides came over to gloat. By now about a dozen
disorderly spider marines and legionnaires were hanging from the
ceiling. Private Krueger vomited on the table below, scattering
legionnaires, and upsetting Captain Lopez.
    “You are a disgrace,” said the spider
commander. “You set a poor example for your soldiers. No wonder
they are so poorly disciplined.”
    “That’s what I told him,” said Captain Lopez,
too drunk to get up from his table, and still upset about
Krueger.
    “If you are the best leadership the Legion
has to offer, defeating the human pestilence should be easy,” added
the spider commander. “I look forward to the day.”
    “Screw you!” I yelled, thrashing about again
as I swayed back and forth.
    The spider commander then threw his drink in
my face. The vodka stung