overture Joan.Li Deli woke up from her sleep, still palpitations.Was it a scream just now?She sits up.The pale blue gleam of the morning sun pierced through the thin curtains.In the early morning, day after day, there will always be forest concerts and birds contending, occasionally only interrupted by the wailing of eagles, the screaming of long-tailed monkeys or the stomping of elephants. She listened carefully for a while, and her heartbeat gradually calmed down.The scream must have come from a dream.She stretched her limbs on the thin mattress soaked in by the moisture, trying to fall asleep again.There is still a long journey waiting for her today!She had to find the eighth group of gorillas.She hadn't seen them in a while, and the last time she saw the group of twelve wild gorillas was on the slopes of the Sabinyo volcano.It is the junction of the three countries of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

She jumped up from the bed, put on a camouflage uniform with brown and green dots, hesitated for a moment, then took off the holster containing the revolver from the hook by the door, and pinned it on her body.She hadn't seen a leopard in the vicinity for a long time, and the possibility of encountering an animal that feared humans was extremely unlikely.Still, it's better to be cautious. In the morning mist, the Karisoke Research Base was peaceful.Most of those simple thatched huts are empty.Diane, the founder of the base.Fox is a legend.She studies orangutans and is also a conservationist.She lived here until she was killed.At this moment, Joan was standing in front of the thatched hut where she lived.The original base was destroyed during the Rwandan Civil War.Together with the Orangutan Conservation Agency, Joan tries to put the base back together, but it can never regain its former bustle.Diane.After Fosse's death, scientists' interest in wild gorillas waned, thinking that enough was done to study their behavior, as long as their genetic code was stored.As one of the world's endangered animals, the gorilla has at least survived in the records of scientists.Although two university students participated in the long-term gorilla research project in the Villagan Mountains, their interest in adventure was far greater than the urgency of academic research.The two still live in a patchwork of corrugated iron and wood.

Joan let them continue to sleep, walked into the chicken coop, took out two eggs, took them to the kitchen of the small hut, and fried an omelet.After that, she sorted out her equipment and brought binoculars, a digital video camera, a voice recorder, a military canteen filled with water, and two pairs of nutritious dry food in case of emergency.While she was doing this, a picture emerged in her mind: an orangutan the size of King Kong followed her closely on the slope of the volcano, and was chopped into pieces by hundreds of people with big knives. She shook her head, dismissed the image, and took a sip of freshly ground espresso.The loneliness on the mountain sometimes has some uncomfortable side effects.Still, she doesn't want to change any job in the world.Her role model Diane.Foss calls gorillas gentle giants.Joan loves gorillas and treats them like family.In her opinion, gorillas are some of the friendliest, most compassionate creatures on earth.Her research report on gorillas' sense of humor was often ridiculed or ridiculed by academic circles.So far, however, she has amassed a wealth of video evidence that gorillas love to sting, showing what people interpret as a smile.

She has thought more than once: What would the world be like if gorillas were not Homo sapiens who ruled the earth?She was sure it must be a better world.If there is a God, then he must have made a huge mistake in choosing the dominant species on the earth. She drank her coffee, washed the cup, and walked out of the hut.The summit of Karisimbi, nearly 4,500 meters above sea level in the Villagon Mountains, was shrouded in thick fog.She had a brief encounter with a fifth group of gorillas on the slopes there yesterday.That group of gorillas belonged to a group of orangutans that were less taboo against humans.During peak tourist season, it is visited by tourists several times a week.

She has always had mixed feelings about tourists.Almost every day, a small group of tourists pass through the base, in Diane.Taking photos in front of Fosse's tombstone.They stared at Joan as if she, too, was an endangered species.Although there were warnings from all parties, those tourists were still too noisy, leaving garbage everywhere in the base, and stepped into the virgin jungle like a herd of elephants.But on the other hand, gorilla tourism is an important source of foreign exchange income for Rwanda. It also brings wealth to the people in the Parc National des volcanic (Parc National des volcanic) area and has greatly reduced poaching.Diane.During his lifetime, Fosse fought tirelessly against poaching.In nearly two decades, gorilla populations have rebounded slightly.It had been more than a month since Joan had last cleared the hunting lasso.It seems that the only chance of survival is when rare creatures become human ornamental items.

The scream she was sure she heard just now resurfaced from the bottom of her heart.A wave of uneasiness welled up.It's ridiculous, it must be the aftermath of my confused nightmare.But she can't rest assured until she's sure that Cato, the silverback, and his group of gorillas are safe.So she decided to turn right on the road before looking for the eighth group of gorillas, and take a detour to the slopes of Karisimbi. The journey was smooth, but she still walked slowly and steadily.She has walked the narrow road leading to Calisimby hundreds of times, but she still knows the consequences of being too eager.On the one hand, there are many steep cliffs. Once you step on a wet and slippery place, you may break your waist and legs if you fall. On the other hand, there is often the danger of accidentally encountering bison .In the early morning, bison like to stand quietly under the bushes.Over the years, more people have been killed by collisions with large, easily provoked bison than by lions or other big cats.In this arbor forest, apart from the fearful mountain leopard, the bison is the most dangerous animal, far more dangerous than other animals.Her pistol was useless against an enraged bison.

The sun quickly rose above the woods, flickering and flickering, shining through the shiny leaves and dispelling the morning mist.Joan did not stop to admire the view.There was an indescribable uneasiness in her heart.The anxiety gradually increased with the steps, urging her to keep moving forward. Half an hour later, she was on the slopes of Mount Karisimbi where she had last seen the fifth group of gorillas.The grass is empty and the gorilla droppings have cooled.Presumably this group went to high places at night to find a safe overnight place sheltered by bushes. Joan paused for a moment to let her heart beat and readjust her breathing.She could not lose her professionalism in science by losing her footing.Apparently, chronic loneliness made her neurotic, though she wouldn't admit it.Maybe it was time for her to go home, to her parents who lived by the Atlantic Ocean, and adjust for a few weeks away from it all.She took a deep breath, still unable to dispel the depression in her heart.

She looks around.For someone like Joan who has worked with gorillas for many years, she can easily tell what this family of thirteen has done here.They stay here for two or three hours, then set off at dusk to find a more secluded shelter for the night.Before that, they used to eat and rest here.A patch of shrubland was crumbling and littered with broken branches and leaves, a typical black-backed gorilla courtship track.On another dwarf tree, hanging broken branches indicated that two juveniles had climbed up and down.Joan finally found the location where the group of orangutans had left, and walked up the mountain along the trail.

The first thing she noticed was the smell, a disgusting, metallic smell of blood mixed with excrement from anxiety.Then, the buzzing of a large group of flies was heard. She realized that her worst premonition had been confirmed, and she was breathless for a while.She forced herself to push aside the branches of a thick undergrowth. The first thing that appeared before her eyes was a female gorilla.The gorilla has always been a bit bossy, tricky ghost, so Joan named her Lucy, a character in the cartoon Snoopy.At this moment, Lucy fell on a tall fern protruding upwards, her empty eyes stared straight at the thick leaves covering the top, where the light and shadow flickered, and the original wisdom and aura in her eyes disappeared forever .

Joan flicked away the flies that landed on Lucy's battered body.Lucy's shiny black fur was clogged with blood, multiple deep wounds were exposed on her neck and chest, and her entire shoulder and left foreleg were gone. She was out of breath with astonishment.She had seen pictures of gorilla corpses brutally mutilated by poachers with machetes, but not to the same degree.Lucy's wound was rough and uneven, with knots at the edges, as if someone had stabbed it with a dagger or spikes that were no longer sharp. It took a long time for Joan's brain to think again.What happened?Where are the rest of the fifth group?Why didn't she hear a violent cry, or the palpitating thump of the gorilla's hands beating its chest?She wiped away the rolling tears and forced herself to continue following the trail of the other gorillas.

A few minutes later, all was horribly confirmed.The other four female gorillas Kando, Lisa, Jenny, Mira, two young gorillas Benny and Bob, and even the strong silverback gorilla Cato were killed in the same way, distributed hundreds of thousands of miles away. on a square meter plane.The corpses of the two young chimpanzees, Yoyo and Alfred, were in a strange position: they were hugging each other tightly, as if they were trying to get closer to each other, cuddling and leaning on each other as they were dying.The two little orangutans, Tom and Jilly, lay side by side on the ground.A bloodstain passed through the leaves, as if a gorilla crawled away from the scene of terror with its seriously injured body in its arms. Joan stiffened.She walked back and forth between the corpses with almost robot-like steps, and took pictures of sharp heads with her eyes, but her brain refused to process them.She was numb all over.Everything that happened here cannot be cut into her brain. It is impossible to imagine that this disaster originated from nature.No wild animal in the forest has the ability to harm a healthy gorillas in such a way.Only one life form could be so cruel. Joan could barely feel the tears streaming down her cheeks.She examined the revolver with its safety on.There is no target to be found, and there is nowhere to vent the helpless anger.The perpetrators had apparently left long ago.She was almost relieved by this, if she met her, she would become a murderer. Gorillas have been brutally killed by humans before.They were caught in traps set by poachers and then viciously maimed, killing many gorillas.Humans shoot adult gorillas so they can haul off baby gorillas and send them to zoos.In some cases, however, the gorillas themselves encountered poachers, or confronted herders.Those people violated the ban and drove cattle into the national natural park for grazing.Joan once saw a silverback gorilla killed by grenade shrapnel in a photo during the Rwandan civil war, but it couldn't compare to the brutal atrocities in front of him. Nothing made people more angry than this! It's unbelievable that the whole family was killed!These are thirteen animals!For the continuation of wild gorillas, it is a huge disaster. She was leaving the scene of the body, looking for signs of the killer, when she realized that there were only twelve gorillas here, minus Uncle Sam, the oldest of the chimpanzees.Obviously, it escaped the robbery, perhaps escaped in time, or dragged its heavily injured body to hide in the bushes, waiting to die in pain.She has to find it! Joan forced herself to dispel the horrible scene in her mind and focus on finding Uncle Sam.Nauseous, hands shaking, knees like rubber, she finally stood up straight.Bloodstains appear between a low bush and ferns.So she walked up the hill carefully along the bloodstains. She recalled her first encounter with this group of gorillas.It was her first time in the mountains of Khalisoke for several weeks.At first, she did it very stupidly. Instead of shaking the branches to attract the attention of the gorillas, she just walked quietly to observe unobstructed.She believes that in this way, the behavior of gorillas can be better studied.She is too close!Uncle Sam immediately hid behind a thicket.The thrilling scene that followed made her terrified.The silverback gorilla roared and approached her step by step, while all the other members gathered behind the silverback.Seeing death coming, Joan squatted on the ground, curled up into a ball.But Cato clearly doesn't see humans as a serious threat at all.It stopped very close to her, snorted contemptuously at her, then turned and walked away.It used this experience to warn her forever: gorillas don't allow humans to get close to them.Joan never made the same mistake again. The blood trail extended to a scrubland area of ​​ferns and bamboo.A hoarse voice came from the forest.Joan stood still.what to do?Getting close to an injured gorilla was dangerous, but she couldn't just leave Uncle Sam in the woods to die. She carefully pushed aside a few thick branches, and behind her came a wide strip of overwhelmed plants and broken bamboos, leading to the dense jungle behind.Dense foliage forms a natural cave.Uncle Sam was squatting there, only a dozen meters away from her.Its eyes are wide open, and it can even distinguish the red and white circles around the black pupils.It held something in its hand that looked like shriveled banana bark.No, it's fabric.Perhaps it was the fragments of clothing on the murderer's body.The gorilla bared its teeth and roared again, but it remained calm. Joan approached it slowly until it was about eight meters away.She whispered softly, speaking comforting words.Sam's fur was also stained with blood, but there were no exposed wounds, and Joan couldn't tell how bad it was. Suddenly, it jumped up suddenly, and with a thrilling roar, it rushed towards Joan. She was taken aback and unable to react.The gorilla was dexterous and agile, and there was no visible damage, so the injury must not be serious.She knew that Sam must be delirious.Gorillas are very gentle creatures. It took her four months to build mutual trust with this group of gorillas.But now, everything is ruined by poachers.At this moment, the gorilla must have decided that she too was a cruel enemy. She knew she had no chance against an animal with razor-sharp teeth nearly twice her weight.Uncle Sam would kill her. Gunshots rang out. Sam stopped abruptly and looked at her suspiciously.It took a second for Joan to realize that he was the one who fired the shot in panic. She didn't wait for the gorilla to wake up from the shock, turned around and ran down the mountain quickly.Behind her she heard the snap of branches and the angry panting of the gorilla, listening to it growl.She fired another shot, but could no longer stop the gorilla.It let out a drawn-out roar.Being so close to her, Joan felt as if he could feel its breath on his neck. She tripped over something, fell to the ground, and got up immediately.She has no chance of escaping Uncle Sam at all.In an environment Sam was familiar with, it ran much faster and more stable than her.But she would rather die than point a pistol at the last survivor of the fifth group and turn herself into the murderer of this amazing creature. Suddenly, the ground under her feet loosened.Behind a high fern wall, the slope collapsed vertically, and she fell, doing several somersaults.The gun slipped from her hand.She tumbled down the steep slope until her head hit hard on a piece of weathered basalt rising high from the fern.She heard a thankful call from above, and sank into darkness.