obliterate the reality; strapped to the missile
instead of taking action and nailing a blanket or something over the window they opted instead to obliterate the reality of the eye-scalding light and began truly bingeing on Blues, flirting with an O. D.
Context
The choice at the heart of using stated as a preference for obliterating a problem over solving it — the sun too bright, and rather than hang a blanket they blot out the reality of the light itself with more drug. And the loss-of-control datum that separates the maintenance user from the binger: once Gately actually starts, there is no governing the length or momentum, the man riding the Substance the way a payload rides a missile, no hand on the throttle. Deciding to begin is the last decision he gets to make.