I think the last might have been asking JD to take Carla's shoes home for her, crawling all the way there.

I could see him maybe doing that.

Dr Cox quizzed JD on what treatment he was giving, then went into I Am Imparting Something Serious mode and said something to the effect of 'look, you still think you can just walk out of here when the day ends, but patients always need us and the job is always happening'. I also remember him listing off three doctors who'd famously gone Too Far in trying to keep patients alive, to the extent of causing suffering, and following the list with 'How is that abuse?' - the message was that (in Dr Cox's eyes) nothing is more important than keeping people alive, even if you have to hurt them to do it.

That is extremely him. Your dreams may not be accurate about geography or history, but they are excellent at characterization!

But the walk proved to be longer than expected. It was still light, but I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be there by nightfall, and there was a sense that some unspecified terrible thing would happen once the sun went down, something along the lines of 'there is a chance a specific group will take to the streets and start hunting people for sport'.

I was debating whether to press on or turn back when I met a man, maybe in his forties, jogging the other way; he was white and had dark hair greying just a little at the temples. On seeing me walking, he came to a stop and gave me a friendly warning that I wouldn't find anywhere before dark if I kept going this way.

This reads like the beginning of a story! A world very much like ours, except there are unpredictable and normalized You Will Be Hunted For Sport nights.

agonising temporary tattoos? Lots of little skin-transfer temporary tattoos that were required to achieve some sort of goal but were somehow very painful, although I can't remember whether it was physically or emotionally.

Yeah, that means they're rubbing them on way too hard.