Warning: GRAPHIC IMAGERY

I’ve been away from the group for about a week. I’ve seen them and waved a few times but especially the past few days I’ve been hiding back in the brush.

I came out to one of the agreed upon meeting places today and was catching up on stuff.

Dave left last Tuesday. The entire last week his stomach cavity was filling up with fluid. Apparently he has a hernia or something, this has happened before. But for whatever reason he didn’t want to go to the hospital. When he was last seen on Tuesday his belly button had split and part of his intestines were hanging out. And apparently, from Steve’s description, infection was already setting in.
Dave gets some money every month (more than I’d get with SSI and anything else combined) so he has access to cash.
He told Steve that he was going to take a bus to a hotel and stay a week. After that he’d go to the hospital.
He wouldn’t tell anyone what hotel he was going to.
If he’s checked into the hotel for a week in advance I don’t know how long it would take one one to notice he was dead. I don’t know how I could find out.
Next Wednesday I’ll call the county hospital and see if he was admitted, if he survived his week in the hotel.
I don’t know who to call if he isn’t in the hospital and doesn’t come back to us here.