Day Zero / Season 1, Episode 9
Locked in Chaos
Nina’s shoulder slams into the doorframe as the security guard yanks it shut behind her, the metal edge biting into her skin through the thin scrub top. A hand—calloused, grimy, reaching from the other side—claws at the gap just as the lock clicks. The thud of a fist against steel echoes in the narrow corridor of Houston Methodist’s west wing, a drumbeat of rage that doesn’t let up. Her chest heaves, air scraping her throat raw, and she can still hear the shouts beyond the door, muffled but close. Too close. The boy on the gurney wheezes, a wet, rattling sound, his face gray under the dim emergency lighting that flickers like a dying pulse. Jamal’s hands are on the kid’s chest, pressing down, keeping rhythm, but his eyes dart to Nina, wide and glassy with something that looks too much like surrender. “Keep going,” she snaps, her voice cracking like brittle glass. She doesn’t mean to sound sharp, but there’s no softness left in her. Not after the last hour, not after dragging this gurney through ankle-deep floodwater, not after the crowbar she saw swinging in the dark just minutes ago. Her hands shake as she checks the boy’s IV line, the plastic tubing slick with sweat or water or blood—she can’t tell anymore. The bag’s almost empty. They’re...