The scream was Alice's.
The girl barely spoke unless someone spoke to her first. Most of the time she kept to herself, quiet enough that a room could forget she was there if the others got loud. Hearing that voice tear through the jungle like that meant one thing.
Something had gone very wrong.
It was still night, though dawn could not have been far. The jungle remained dark, but darkness had never meant much to Neo. Back in Zone 0, night turned whole streets into blind pits where broken glass, hungry men, and worse things waited without needing to announce themselves. His sight had learned how to live with that a long time ago. Compared to those alleys, a jungle full of ruins and roots felt like the same problem wearing different clothes.
He was moving before the thought fully caught up.
