How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In this second Randy made an important decision. Yesterday, he would have stopped instantly. [...] But yesterday was a past period in history. (5.69)
This is an important moment for Randy. There's a car crash on the side of road, with a dead or wounded woman lying nearby. Does he stop? Or does he keep driving? Randy ultimately stops and checks on her, but the fact that he considers ignoring her shows how much the world has already changed.
Quote #2
On the bed lay a mound of gray flesh [...] Randy felt no sense of surprise or shock whatsoever. He had become a familiar of sudden death in Korea. (5.101)
Randy's experiences in the Korean War help him a great deal in the aftermath of The Day. He witnessed a lot of gruesome stuff over there—death, suffering, the whole kit and kaboodle—which steels him for the horrors he witnesses in the remnants of Fort Repose.
Quote #3
Most of those who died in North America saw nothing at all, since they died in bed, in a millisecond slipping from sleep into deeper darkness. (6.2)
If it makes you feel any better, those who die in the initial strikes don't suffer much. It's over before they even know what's happening. The people who are really up a creek are the survivors. They have no choice but to struggle and suffer in a newly harsh world.