A mist had settled over the jungle, and in the...
A mist had settled over the jungle, and in the darkness the men felt disembodied
Wyman was sitting on his pack, and when he closed his eyes and let the rumble of the truck shake through him he felt as if he were in a subwayThe tension and excitement he had felt when Croft had come up and told them to pack their gear because they were moving forward had abated a little by now and Wyman was drifting along on a mood which vacillated between boredom and a passive stream of odd thoughts and recollectionsHe was thinking of a time when he had accompanied his mother on a bus trip from New York to PittsburghIt was just after his father died, and his mother was going to see her relatives for moneyThe trip had been fruitless and, coming back on a midnight bus, he and his mother had talked about what they would do and decided that he would have to go to workHe thought of it with a little wonderAt the time it had been the most important night of his life, and now he was going on another trip, a far more eventful one, and he had no idea what would happenIt made 925 tiffany and co. jewelry him feel very mature for a moment; these were things which had happened just a few years ago, insignificant things nowHe was trying to imagine what combat would be like, and he decided it would be impossible to guessHe had always pictured it as something violent, going on for days without haltAnd here he had been in the platoon for over a week and nothing had happened; everything had been peaceful and relaxed
"Do you think we'll see much tonight, Red?" he asked softly
"Ask the General," Red snortedHe liked Wyman, but he tried to be unfriendly to him because the youth reminded Red of HennesseyRed had a deep loathing of the night before themHe had been through so much combat, had felt so many kinds of terror, and had seen so many men killed that he no longer had any illusions about the inviolability of his own fleshHe knew he could be killed; it was something he had accepted long ago, and he had grown a shell about that knowledge so that he rarely thought of anything further ahead than the next few minutesHowever, there had been lately a disquieting chanel bucket bags uncomfortable insight which he had never brought to the point of words, and it was bothering himUntil Hennessey had been killed, Red had accepted all the deaths of the men he knew as something large and devastating and meaninglessMen who were killed were merely men no longer around; they became confused with old friends who had gone to the hospital and never come back, or men who had been transferred to another outfitWhen he heard of some man he knew who had been killed or wounded badly, he was interested, even a little concerned, but it was the kind of emotion a man might feel if he learned that a friend of his had got married or made or lost some moneyIt was merely something that happened to somebody he knew, and Red had always let it go at thatBut Hennessey's death had opened a secret fearIt was so ironic, so obvious, when he remembered the things Hennessey had said, that he found himself at the edge of a bottomless dread
Once he could have looked ahead to what he knew would be bad combat with a repugnance for the toil and misery of it, and a replica tiffany jewelry dour acceptance of the deaths that would occurBut now the idea of death was fresh and terrifying again
"You want to know something?" he said to Wyman
"Yeah?"
"They ain't a thing you can do about it, so shut up Wyman was hurt and lapsed into silenceRed felt sorry immediately afterward, and drew out a bar of tropical chocolate, bent out of shape and covered with tobacco grains from the silt of his pockets"Hey, you want some chocolate?" he asked
They felt the night about themIn the truck there was no sound except for an occasional mutter or curse as they hit a bumpEach vehicle by itself was making all the noises that trucks can make; they creaked and jounced and groaned over the bogholes, and their tires made wet singing soundsBut, taken all together, the line of trucks had a combined, intricate medley of vibrations and tones which sounded like the gentle persistent lapping of surf against the sides of a shipIt was a melancholy sound, and, in the darkness, the men sprawled uncomfortably on the floor, their backs propped against the knees of the man replica louis vuitton purses behind them, their rifles pitched at every odd angle or straddled clumsily across their kneesCroft had insisted they wear their helmets, and Red was sweating under the unaccustomed weight"Might as well wear a goddam sandbag," he said to Wyman
Encouraged, Wyman asked, "I guess it's gonna be rough, huh?"
Red sighed, but repressed his annoyance"It won't be too bad, kidYou just keep a tight ass-hole, and the rest of you'll take care of itself
Wyman laughed quietlyHe liked Red, and decided he would stay near himThe trucks halted, and the men moved around inside, shifting their positions and groaning as they flexed their cramped limbsThey waited patiently, their heads dropping on their chests, their damp clothing unable to dry in the heavy night airThere was barely a breeze and they felt tired and sleepy
Goldstein was beginning to fidgetAfter the trucks had remained motionless for five minutes, he turned to Croft and asked, "Sergeant, is it all right if I get out and take a look at what's holding us up?"
Croft snorted"You can stay right here, replica watches rolex Golds