P. O. W. Read Free

on her hide,
     and his hands slipped as she flexed her muscles and pulled three feet of her body through his grip before he realized what
     was happening. She turned her head and instantly bit down on the NVA soldier’s forearm.
    Dong Bec screamed.
    Lieutenant Van Pao saw what was happening and yelled for the rest of the platoon to run and assist the trapper, who was himself
     rapidly becoming trapped. The python, uncoiling from her sun basking, thrashed her coils against the soldier. She had the
     bite she needed on her prey, and now it was only a matter of starting to coil around it and remove the air from the ammonia-reeking
     animal’s lungs.
    “Help him!” The lieutenant screamed. She saw the whole platoon standing in shock, watching the snake coil around their comrade.
     Lieutenant Van Pao removed her pistol from its holster at her side and fired a round over their heads. “I will start shooting
     to kill!”
    She meant every word. She was not going to report back to Division that she had lost a man to a snake that she had been trying
     to capture.
    Dong Bec screamed again, but this time it came from the very pit of his stomach as he felt the first coil wrap around his
     leg and cold water touch his ankle. The python was pushing him into the river.
    The platoon reacted to the wrenching scream and attacked the snake in unison. The platoon sergeant found her tail and started
     pulling back on it, and slowly they had enough of her stretched out so that seven men could grab hold and lift ten feet of
     her off the rock. Too late, she realized what was happening to her, and before she could release her prey and escape, another
     ten feet of her body was lifted up in a nearly straight line and held off the rock by the ammonia-scented creatures. She was
     losing her traction; there was nothing to pull against.
    Dong Bec fell down on the rock, bleeding profusely from his left forearm. He was mumbling a Buddhist prayer that he had not
     recited since he had become a Communist.
    “Good! You have her!” Lieutenant Van Pao ran over to the line of soldiers and smiled.
    “Right now I don’t know who has who, Lieutenant!” The platoon sergeant released his hold on the python’s tail, and immediately
     the short, two-foot length tried wrapping itself around the next man in line, whose eyes bulged in fright.
    “Hold on!” Van Pao said, as she looked around for the large burlap rice bags they had brought along to put the snake in. She
     had had two of the bags sewn together and double lined, just in case. The lieutenant was very glad for this extra precaution
     now that she saw how big the python was close up.
    The platoon eased the snake into the sack slowly, ensuring that the head stayed inside the dark bag. They didn’t need to worry,
     because the python had mistaken the sack for a burrow and was cooperating, thinking that she was escaping from them.
    “Excellent!” Lieutenant Van Pao was thrilled. “Tie the sack shut and cut a sturdy bamboo pole for carrying her back to camp!”
    The lieutenant took a seat on the warm rock and lit up a Russian cigarette. She noticed that her hands were shaking when she
     held the match against the dry tobacco.
    The platoon sergeant and the platoon medic were helping Dong Bec. The medic was bandaging his arm where the python had left
     rows of teeth marks that would leave deep, permanent scars. The platoon sergeant had removed Dong Bec’s shorts and was rinsing
     them out in the river. The soldier had defecated and urinated during his struggle with the monstrous reptile.
    Lieutenant Van Pao smiled and then took a long drag from her cigarette. She now had a tool that could be put to very good
     use in her business.
    Colonel Garibaldi and Corporal Barnett had been locked up in their bamboo cages for the night when the NVA hunting party returned
     to the compound. The Americans were kept in individual cages, while the more numerous South Vietnamese and Montagnard CIDG
     prisoners were