The forest where Ellus hunts, located northwest of the South Valley Lumber Mills.

Dr. Sky asked Martin, a colleague of Elous's colleague and the middle leader of the South Valley Lumber Mills, about his last hunt.

Martin describes Elous's whereabouts as follows:

One morning, Aelous drove his old SUV northwest along the mountain road south of the South Valley Lumber Mill in the small town of Case, passing two local tribes and then encountering a small river with a wide green meadow where black buffalo were grazing.

Irus drove far around the buffalo and found a valley.

Parking the buggy outside the valley, Irus entered the valley with a shotgun and a trap cage for hunting.

The valley is lush with trees, where the monkeys live, and where Ellus sets traps to catch them.

Eros chose a good place in the valley, and hid the cage trap in a spot frequented by monkeys, waiting for the monkeys to break into the trap and harvest the prey the next day.

That night, Elous stayed in a cave above the valley.

From the valley to the cave, there are traces of a herd of elephants passing by, and the herd of elephants has made a path through the forest, and Elous has followed the path to find the cave.

The cave is large, with sharp, shiny, transparent stones and a lot of bats.

After spending the night in the cave, Elous went to the valley early the next morning to see the cage traps laid down.

There was prey in each cage, and two wild monkeys broke into the trap, and Eros easily caught two monkeys.

Irus lifted the cage and the monkey onto the buggy and returned the same way.

Back in Case, Irus sent the monkeys to the monkey farm, where the larger one sold for $20 and the smaller one for $18.

Nan Zhiqiao concluded:

Elous's trip to the forest, it took two days and one night, passing through two local tribes on the way, encountering a small river, and the black buffalo on the green grass by the river, and finally found a valley, set a trap in the valley to catch monkeys, and stayed in a big cave above the valley for one night, there are traces of elephants passing near the cave, there are strange stones in the cave, and a lot of bats, that night, Elous may have had close contact with bats, and the next day, he caught two monkeys in the valley, carried the monkeys into the car, and returned to the town of Case。

Analyzing the entire process of Ellus's trip to the forest, Nan no Qiao speculated that the most likely host animal for the new virus was bats.

Vera Ye and Dr. Sky expressed surprise at Nan Zhiqiao's speculation.

Minami no Qiao explained, "Do you remember that when I dissected the body of Irus at the Infectious Disease Control Center on the outskirts of Kenema, there were two rows of tiny, symmetrical wounds on his arm?"

Both Ye and Dr. Sky participated in the autopsy, and both had memories of the wounds Nan Zhiqiao had mentioned, which were two small scabbed wounds, as if they had been bitten by some small animal.

Ye Zhenzhen felt that the wound was very familiar, Senior Nan had also had such a wound on his neck before, and it was bitten by a bat on the cliff of the sinkhole when the two of them went to the Southern National Forest Park together last year.

"It's a bat bite wound. Ye Zhenzhen blurted out her own opinion.

Dr. Sky also reacted that this kind of wound is often seen on the villagers of nearby villages, all of them are inadvertently bitten by bats, and this is also the case in the urban area of Kenema, where fruit bats often inhabit the green trees, and if disturbed, they will attack humans, but the wound from the fruit bat bite is larger than the wound on Aelous's arm.

Fruit bats are large in size and have large teeth, smaller than fruit bats are insectivorous bats, and the size of the wound on Erous's arm is more like that left by insectivorous bats.

"It's an insectivorous bat!" Dr. Sky said more specifically.

Nan no Joe: "So, the purpose of our trip to the forest is to find the insectivorous bat that bit Eros with the new virus, as well as other animals that may have been infected with the new virus and are still alive, such as monkeys and the like. ”

——

Before entering the rainforest, the trio made full preparations.

Buggy for mountain trails, biohazard suits, biosampling kits, small bat cages, large monkey cages, two days of food and water, two shotguns, a map of the nearby rainforest, and of course, most importantly, a local guide.

The guide is a black man in his thirties, a hunter in the local village, named Elusine, who usually does the business of tour guides for outsiders, and many employees of the South Valley Lumber Mill from China have asked him to visit the surrounding rainforest, Elusine is very familiar with the nearby rainforest, often goes to the rainforest to hunt, and has hunted black buffalo, gorillas, and monkeys.

Dr. Sky described to Elusine the scenery of the forest that Elous had visited, and Elusine said that he had been to the same place before, and could find the river, the valley, and the cave where Elous had stayed.

With all the belongings ready, Nan Joe, Vera Ye, Dr. Sky, and Guide Elusine set off.

Elusine drove the car, Dr. Sky sat in the passenger seat, Nan Zhiqiao and Ye Zhenzhen sat in the back seat, and the accompanying supplies were placed in the back compartment.

When the off-road vehicle departed from the small town of Case and passed through the military checkpoint south, Nan Zhiqiao showed the passage documents specially approved by the local government department for this trip to the forest, and the guarding army let it go.

The buggy leaves the small town of Case and follows the road south of the South Valley lumber mill in a northwesterly direction.

This is also the route that Irus drove in the first place.

After more than an hour of walking through the rainforest, a relatively primitive village came into view.

The village is nestled in the rainforest, with several rooftops looming in the shadows of the trees, and a path into the village is blocked by thick branches.

Ye Zhenzhen remembered the situation outside Sange Village and asked, "Is there an epidemic here?

Dr. Sky sighed helplessly: "These small villages in the rainforest, traffic and information are blocked, there is very little contact with outsiders, strangers are not welcome to enter, the whole village is also drifting, the rainy season is here, and the dry season goes to another place, so it is difficult to understand their situation, and it is even more difficult to isolate them." ”

Elusine, the guide, ignored the small village and drove the SUV up and down the forest road, which quickly disappeared into the rearview mirror.

After another twenty minutes or so, a smaller tribe emerged deep in the rainforest, this time only glimpsing it from a distance, and the guide Elusine slammed on the accelerator, and the buggy jolted even harder.

It wasn't until the second tribe disappeared again that Elusine, the guide, spoke slowly: "That little tribe is very barbaric and has a tradition of cannibalism, so it's best not to get close." ”

Ye Zhenzhen had only heard of cannibals in Africa before, but she had never seen them, and when the guide said this, she suddenly became interested and asked, "Are they cannibals?"

Vera spoke in English, and Elusine, the guide, replied in English, "Sort of, but unlike the cannibals in the outside world, they don't eat people when they see them, they only eat enemies, that is, people who have a conflict of interest with their tribe." ”