i've got command, captain.
i'm wade, that's spelled, w-a-d-e, i'm small but wiry, with piercing, steel-gray eyes, and a rough-hewn but handsome face, i'm from colorado, my father's a mining engineer, don't you take notes?
since i was nine years old. they got a lot of explosives around mines. me and my little brother could get into any warehouse you ever saw. damn, we had fun!
so what? i've got three satchel charges, six gammon grenades, a dozen- and-a-half pineapples, and all my regular gear. you don't hear me complaining.
no, i just happen to take the captain's advice and look at the bright side of things.
it's easy, it runs in my family, take my grandfather, for example.
as i was saying, before i was so rudely interrupted, my grandfather got old, as grandfathers tend to do. he needed someone to take care of him. we move around all the time, going from one mine to another, so we had to put him in a home. nice enough place but kind of depressing. but not for granddad. he just convinced himself he was on a cruise ship, going to tahiti, he had his own cabin, first class, with room service. it just so happened that the weather was always lousy, so he never bothered to go up on deck. happiest guy you ever saw until the day he died.
who knows? it worked.
reiben, you can be very unpleasant to be around sometimes.
look at upham, you don't hear him complaining.
they can't kill him.
we all have, he's got nine lives, or he's bulletproof, or some damn thing.
hell, i don't mind this mission, sir, as long as there's something up at ramelle for.
captain.
how fast?
shit, that's nothing, i ran twenty- two flat.
i would have won the states if some bastard hadn't tripped me in the finals.
yes, sir.
ten more yards. too slow. a deadly row of bullets kick up dirt toward him.
on a slight rise. can't hit the dirt. a line of bullets. desperately sprints.
lies in the grass. holding his belly. astonished by the pain.
wide-eyed. not even writhing. too much pain.
frozen in agony. looks at miller. sees him preparing the morphine shot. they both know.
yeah. morphine. make it a double. huh. captain?
feels the effects of the first shot. he sees upham and manages a pained smile.