His head jerks up and there is sheer desperate hope etched onto his face as he beseechingly meets Sizhui's eyes, "You think so? You think we can make it?"

He picks himself up, there is no time for despair, no more time to doubt.

"You are right," he says, voice growing firm again with renewed determination, though it is still that same wild, directionless determination that had him running aimlessly through the forest. "We have to get in there. We have to get to Jiejie," his breath catches, "if she's in there... The yells were coming from somewhere around here..."

There are no more screams now but somehow that only increases the urgency he feels. She may be laying somewhere in there, passed out from the smoke.