Catch-22 Chapter 41: Snowden

Yossarian awakens in the hospital where several incompetent doctors quibble over performing unnecessary surgery on Yossarian's wound. The chaplain visits and praises Yossarian for protecting Colonel Cathcart from a Nazi assassin. Yossarian recognizes the lie and tells the chaplain that it was Nately's whore who stabbed him, not a Nazi murderer. The chaplain is disappointed when Yossarian explains Colonel Cathcart's despicable bargain. Yossarian redeems his honor when he decides against the deal.

Hungry Joe has died in his sleep, suffocated by Huple's cat, and Yossarian realizes that most of his friends are gone. A mysterious man in a bathrobe seizes Yossarian in the night and torments him by repeating, "We've got your pal, buddy. We've got your pal." Chapter 41, pg. 446. Disturbed, Yossarian lies awake in a cold sweat and thinks of Snowden. Neatly bandaging the large wound in Snowden's thigh, Yossarian thought the poor kid was in the clear. Upon closer inspection, though, Yossarian realized a chunk of flak had ripped through his side. Covered in Snowden's gory entrails, Yossarian would long be haunted by Snowden's dying whimpers and his own inability to comfort or cure him.