How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
His chief fear up to the moment the shooting started being that of f***ing up. Life in the Army is miserable that way. You f*** up, they scream at you, you f*** up some more and they scream some more, but overlying all the small, petty, stupid, basically foreordained f***ups looms the ever-present prospect of the life-f***ing f***up, a f***up so profound and all-encompassing as to crush all hope of redemption. (Thing Begins.13)
That would be one heck of a mistake to make, right? There are no "whoopsies" when live ammunition is in play.
Quote #2
They take the steps two at a time. A few people call out greetings from the stands, and Billy waves but won't look up. He's working hard. He's climbing for his life, in fact, fighting the pull of all that huge hollow empty stadium space, which is trying to suck him backward like an undertow. In the past two weeks he's found himself unnerved by immensities—water towers, skyscrapers, suspension bridges and the like. Just driving by the Washington Monument made him weak in the knees, the way that structure drew a high-pitched keening from all the soulless sky around it. (Cures.8)
Billy, along with most of the men of Bravo, is definitely suffering from PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, at least to some extent. We're not trying to play armchair psychiatrist (okay, maybe we are, just a little bit), but it's not usual to just develop sudden agoraphobia. Or to weep from the stress of fireworks. Or to want to kill someone just because that person has the audacity to pack heat at a football game.
Quote #3
It seems to Billy a flat-out miracle that any of them are still alive. So they've lost Shroom and Lake, only two a numbers man might say, but given that each Bravo has missed death by a margin of inches, the casualty rate could just as easily be 100 percent. The freaking randomness is what wears on you, the difference between life, death, and horrible injury sometimes as slight as stooping to tie your bootlace on the way to chow, choosing the third s***ter in line instead of the fourth, turning your head to the left instead of the right. Random. How that s*** does twist your mind. Billy sensed the true mindfucking potential of it on their first trip outside the wire, when Shroom advised him to place his feet one in front of the other instead of side by side, that way if an IED blew low through the Humvee Billy might lose only one foot instead of two. (Cures.44)
That's some intense stuff right there. We all know war isn't easy, but it's one thing to know it and another to experience it. Can you imagine having those thoughts going through your head all the time? That where you decide to pee and how you place your feet when you get in the car could mean life or death? That must be exhausting.