death defier mandatory post

Death Defier starts off on a highway in the middle of Mazar and Kunduz, two cities in Afghanistan. Four men are trying to escape from the war that is going on directly behind them. The place is a dusty, empty, dry desert. No matter where you look, there is nothing to see. The men who are stranded there seem to have negative outlooks on things, but how could they not? They have been through so much (Donk has been through 3 wars, Graves has had malaria, they were robbed). The setting reinforces the fact that the main characters seem to be stern and empty inside. I also think they are somewhat indifferent to certain things that happen to them.
One theme that is present in this story is definately death. It is evident everywhere. The story takes place as a war is happening. Donk is a photographer who has seen his share of death. He was there when his father died. Yet death does not seem to affect him the way it wold affect others.
A second theme in this story is chaos. Again, the story takes place during a war which is always chaos. Donk talks about how there are Chaos people and Order people. He says that Afghans were Chaos People and knew it, and that Chaos People's countries went insane and typically stayed that way.
The third theme I found is that the story is very grim and bleak. Not one positive thing happens throughout the entire thing. Death is present everywhere, which adds to the mood. Both Donk and Graves watched at least one parent die in the hospital. And now Donk was watching Graves die. The story is really pretty depressing.
My question about the story is if Donk hated death so much (as he says on page 201), why did he surround himself with it?