Johnny Got His Gun #1

Joe's situation is that he is bandaged up in a hospital and deaf due to battle injuries. In a dream we find out that he worked in a bakery as a child. Also through this dream we find out his father has died from sickness. So far we know he was in a bunker when he obtained the injuries and some explosion went off near him taking his hearing and injuring him badly. He wasn't to distraught about it because he wouldn't have to listen to the calamities of war. It also severely injured his arms, which the doctors had to remove, along with the ring Kareen gave him.

He compares his situation with drowning because of the constant struggle to stay conscious. "As he came to the surface each time he fainted into reality and as he went down again he fainted into nothingness." He was fighting and struggling for air and life, similar to how someone gasps for air when drowning. He explains how it was a sensation of drifting in and out of reality, as if floating. Everytime he got above the water he would just sink back into the water, so to speak. Joe then noticed he could just float on his back as he did when swimming as a child.