Day Zero / Season 1, Episode 6
Knife's Edge Crisis
Nina Reyes grips the edge of the gurney, her knuckles pale under the dim flicker of a battery-powered lantern. The teenage boy beneath her hands wheezes, his chest rising and falling in shallow jerks, the knife wound bandaged but still seeping through the gauze. The air in Houston Methodist’s ER stinks of antiseptic and sweat, the kind of thick, sour heat that clings to the back of your throat. Somewhere down the hall, glass shatters—another window, another looter. Her heart thumps against her ribs, a drumbeat she can’t ignore, but her hands stay steady. She’s got no choice. “Jamal, suction—now,” she snaps, her voice cutting through the muffled shouts echoing from the lower floors. The hospital’s backup generators gave out an hour ago, leaving them with nothing but handheld lights and the distant roar of floodwater outside. Jamal, his scrub top soaked through with perspiration, fumbles with the manual suction pump, his fingers slick on the plastic. He’s shaking, but he’s here. That’s more than she can say for half the staff who bolted when the looting started. “Got it,” he mutters, leaning over the boy, the pump making a wet, gurgling sound as it pulls fluid from the kid’s chest cavity. The boy’s eyes flutter, unfocused, pupils blown wide under the lantern’s weak glow. Nina’s stomach twists—she knows that...