John has gone missing, and the ominous music that plays as Lee searches his house suggests he isn't going to be found anytime soon; there's «absent,» and then there's «
maggots crawling over the chicken wings that were left on the kitchen table.»
To me the most shocking thing was the degree to which the filth, mold, and vermin and
maggots went so that they were totally unable to meet even their most basic needs, such as eating, drinking, sleeping in safety without rats
crawling over them, going to the bathroom, cleaning themselves, that they walked
over slippery, dangerous layers of mushy, filthy, sludgy paper.