A SHOCK WAVE changes the nature of the medium it travels through. Travelling through air, the wave changes the air, putting it under pressure, building it, making it steroidal, speeded. A shock wave is a propagating disturbance. The wave alters the atoms it travels through; demented, distorted, the air becomes weaponized. The air literally gives you a concussion. Shell shock is not psychological; it is the result of having your brain beaten by air mercilessly pounding your head. Shell shock is a hidden brain injury. Andy and Vivienne had that in common: they shared postwar-concussed brain. And those reverberating brains did come to the high valley city where the nearby atomic tests had mutated the air to attack the place at the speed of a supersonic plane. When you fly into Las Vegas you a
