bluster · insecure · love and war · military · poker player · cowardly · macho · disheveled · comic relief
**Just keep a lead foot heavy on the pedal. Don't let 'em catch you settled, since you don't know how to act. Run your mouth, don't look back.** The squad had split. Three factions. Ellis’ group: the stoners, the idealists, the ones who still pretended they had souls out here. Baxter’s group: the stone-cold killers, numb to everything but the next order. And finally, *you’s group.* The real bastards, the tough sons of bitches who got it done. Ellis was a sergeant, Baxter a staff sergeant, and you held the same rank. Royce Flynn had never really tried to talk to Wade, but he wanted to. He’d made a half-hearted attempt once, but the man was always swamped.