I hope it was exciting the whole time! Anyways, nothing is going to change, except for the topics our original writers are typing away about. Expect a ton of articles on the problems of the present world from Ren, as well as stories (Maybe even a whole new series, who knows?) from Matthew that’ll keep you in a scrolling frenzy. Alright, no more small talk. We’re hitting you with it. Enjoy!

Updates

WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER JOINING SVM!! His name is _______ ________.

You guessed it!

His name is Airjuan Vupuyama!

Yeah, no way you guessed it.

He will be supplying you guys with a handful of articles. You guys are welcome to check the “About” page on our website to find his bio and picture.

Newsfeed

Super Bowl LIX

One of the biggest annual sports events in the United States of America, the Super Bowl, took place on February 9th, 2025.

The Philadelphia Eagles soared to victory in Super Bowl LIX, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs by 18 points in a thrilling rematch from two years ago. The final score was 40-22. The win marked the Eagles’ second Super Bowl title.

Jalen Hurts, the Super Bowl MVP, delivered an outstanding performance. After he threw an interception in the starting minutes, he led the team with 72 rushing yards and 221 passing yards.

The halftime show was a spectacle, featuring Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Kendrick performed “squabble up”, “HUMBLE”, “DNA”, “euphoria”, “man at the garden”, “peekaboo”, “Not Like Us”, “tv off”, “All The Stars”, and “luther”. With SZA being featured on “All The Stars” and “Luther”. The NFL also paid tribute to victims of recent US tragedies, such as the New Orleans New Year’s Day attack and the LA fires.

An Update on the LA Fires

The LA wildfires started in early January and are still ongoing. Although now there are major improvements on the containment of the fires. Due to the painstakingly difficult work of the firefighters working to contain the fires the Eaton, Palisades, and Hughes fires are all 100% contained. There is also an update on the damages that the fires have caused. So far we know that more than 24 lives have been taken due to the fires, about 40,000 acres of land has been burned, and thousands of homes have been destroyed.

We have also found a possible cause for the Eaton fires. Allegedly the Southern California Edison’s equipment was a possible reason for the start of the fires. Some videos show fire sparking near SCE equipment due to them allegedly not complying with essential electrical safety standards. We have also pinpointed the spot where the Palisade fires originated from. The fires have originated from a very popular hiking spot called Skull Rock. The high amount of people visiting this spot is the most likely reason for the Palisades happening.

For everyone being impacted by the fire, and those related to them, SVM gives our deepest condolences.

Literature

SVM doesn’t want to disappoint, but we’re posting the last few issues of Unit 48! Enjoy it while it lasts:

Unit 48: Undead Mud

Part 1: SFC Clyde

“Brazil? Come on, tell me you’re kidding. We cannot possibly drive all the way to Brazil. We’d just run out of supplies before we even made it to the Equator,” Clyde groaned. Isaac grinned. “Who said we were driving? We’ll just take a plane, like normal people, at the airport,” he said. Clyde relaxed. Jacob sprinted out of a side corridor. “Sorry I’m late, gang. We can go now,” he said, panting a bit. The three walked out to the garage. The air smelled like fresh soil—the smell one often gets after springtime rain. The ground was darkened with the rainwater. Jacob’s Nissan Frontier was parked on the third deck. The three piled in, and sped out.

After a good half an hour, they reached the airport. One hour more, and they were at their gate. Groaning, Isaac sat down. “Man, those guards are strict. I got caught for my lucky bullet,” he said. Clyde rolled his eyes. “Dude, it’s a bullet in your pocket. You think they won’t question that?” he replied. Isaac shrugged sheepishly, pulling the manila folder out from his jacket. “Right, down to business,” he said, and Jacob and Clyde both leaned in.

“Business…with a little personal space.”

The hours dragged on. The file said that, apparently, a failed, illegal bio experiment in Brazil had been dumped into the Amazon to hide the tracks. However, it had done the opposite thing, as the skeletons in the river, rotting away after piranha attacks, were given a second life, with mud to replace any body part missing. The gruesome part was that some of the skin could be hanging onto the zombie, so they’d be skin, mud, and bones. Clyde shuddered. He barely touched his food on the plane, thinking about the rotting faces, mud hands, brown water dripping off bones…he shook the thoughts off and began to eat.

The plane landed in Macapa, and the now shivering trio ran for their luggage and jackets. Word was that the military in Brazil had supplied the weapons. Clyde opened locker 112, and found three Chimera rifles. “Where’s Isaac?” Clyde said, noticing he was missing. “Went to get a rental. Should be back with a nice SUV in no time,” Jacob replied. Clyde and Jacob waited in the rental garage, until Isaac drove to them in what looked like a tiny minivan, with the Fiat logo on the sides. “Dude, you chose a car called a ‘Panda’? Seriously?” Jacob asked. Isaac shrugged, stomping on the gas. Thankfully, the airport they landed in was right next to the Amazon River. They spent the night in a nearby hotel. At 10:00 A.M., they headed out, and ditched the Panda at the roadside.

The trek took all day. Clyde, Isaac, and Jacob slowly made their way through the mud. As the sun began to set, they pitched the tent, and grabbed some instant food to eat. They went into their sleeping bags as darkness enveloped the campsite. Clyde and Isaac went to sleep, while Jacob went on night watch, soon to be relieved by Clyde. Clyde slept fitfully. Just as he closed his eyes, and let sleep envelop him, he sat bolt upright. Something was shifting in the tent. The mud bubbled. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He looked desperately at Jacob, outside of the tent. He’d fallen asleep on watch! Not something a guy like Jacob normally did. Clyde tried to call out to Jacob, but his voice wouldn’t work. The mud bubbled, forming a face, then arms, then the arms ripped past the tent floor, tapping Clyde. A whispery voice was heard. “Clyde…wake up…” Clyde sat up, panting. It was Jacob. The mud zombie in his dream must have been Jacob tapping him. “Clyde…you’re on watch,” he said, in the same whispery voice that Clyde had heard. Clyde relaxed, finding that reality was back. He stepped out of the tent and grabbed one of the three Chimera rifles.

An hour down. No zombies screaming or crawling out of the bushes. Clyde’s eyes drooped, so he helped himself to a gummy bear packet. Reinvigorated, he went back out on watch. He tensed, as he heard a rustling behind him. He whirled around…nothing was there. “Probably just Isaac shifting in his sleep or something,” he said. Then, he squinted. One of the guns was missing, apart from the one he had in his hand. He could’ve sworn Jacob had brought three…. At that moment, his flashlight went out. He tapped the faulty device, and it lit up again…to reveal a horrific sight. The mud was bubbling, just like in his dream. Out of the mud, a human rose, rotted skin caked with mud, lost body parts replaced by it. It stretched its arms towards Clyde and began limping towards him. Clyde ripped open the tent flap, and shouted. “Isaac, Jacob, wake up! Zombies in the campsite,” he shouted. The two were instantly awake. They stepped out, Clyde leading the way, shooting the zombie in the chest. The bullet zipped through the zombie. It seemed unfazed, a bit of mud pouring down to cover the bullet hole. The bushes behind them rustled, and another zombie came hobbling out, carrying the missing Chimera rifle. “Ah, so you did bring three, Jake. I could’ve sworn-” Isaac screamed abruptly as the zombie pulled the trigger, a bullet grazing a nasty cut into his leg, but it didn’t kill. Still, Isaac was in shock. No one on the job thought that it would be them that got shot on the day they did. Thank god the zombies had bad aim, though, or he would be finished. He hopped on one leg with Clyde and Jacob through the forest, every rotting tree stump seeming like a zombie, sometimes turning out to be zombies. At one point, Jacob slipped, and a gleeful zombie began to sink into the earth, dragging Jacob with him. Clyde stuck his knife between the zombie’s wrist and hand, severing it better than the bullet did, and dragged Jacob out. At last, they made it out of the forest, crammed into their Panda, started the engine, and sped away. Something told Clyde that they would be back here, and when they were, the zombies would give them an unpleasant, muddy welcome.

Part 2: SGT Lydia

Lydia sat in the airport and pulled out her computer. The screen glowed with the many files she had obtained over the years. She logged onto Zoom, and emailed the meeting code to Isaac. At last, Isaac hopped on. “Yo, Lydia, you at the airport?” he asked. “Yep. Just got here. Talk to me, Isaac. What’s going on down in Brazil?” She said, brow furrowing. Isaac’s face clouded. “It was all a blur…” he said, but was cut off. “It was chaos! One minute my flashlight died, the next, it’s shining on a zombie!” Clyde shoved his way onto the couch next to Isaac. Isaac sighed. “I’ll give you and Lydia a bit of time…” he muttered, walking away. Lydia wasn’t sure she even wanted to hear the rest of this, given Clyde’s outburst, but she asked anyway. Clyde filled her in. The zombies couldn’t be harmed by bullets. The mud would cover the wound. The only way was to make a bigger cut, he said. Lydia shuddered. Sounded like these zombies were invincible. “You brought the empty suitcase, right?” Clyde asked. Lydia nodded. She’d thought that was a strange request, and it had aroused a lot of suspicion at the baggage check-in. Clyde finished off the call. “Remember, locker 97. We got an oversize in there,” he said, before a voice in the backdrop called him, and he logged off. Lydia sighed, a bit fearful about whatever weaponry was in the lockers in Brazil, waiting for her. Thoughts flashed through her head. What if I break the weapons? What if they aren’t enough for the mission? At that moment, the plane landed, and Lydia shook those thoughts off.

With a roar, the plane touched down in Macapa. Lydia hopped off, grabbed her luggage, and rushed for the lockers. The locker #97 was practically exploding. Typical of Isaac. Lydia opened it, and four blade launchers (crossbows that shot buzz saws) fell out. The passersby gawked. Lydia hastily scooped up the launchers, shoved them into the suitcase, raised her badge to the crowd, then took off.

A little red minivan-looking car sped into the terminal drop-off point. Isaac was at the wheel. He gestured to Lydia to hop on. “I’m sure Clyde or Jacob has questioned this, but why a ‘Panda’ of all cars?” Lydia said. Isaac rolled his eyes. “It was the only large car left. Now, come on, Clyde is dancing around at the rental like he needs the restroom. He’s been dying to tell you about the zombies,” he said, stomping on the gas.

The rental house was a modest, baby blue brick house, one floor, with a square driveway that the Panda barely fit in. Clyde bounced out the door, and practically dragged Lydia back into the house, where Jacob was making lunch. As soon as the two sat down, Clyde started rambling.

“So, our plan is to have two diversion troops. The other two will go round the side, and cut through the zombies. One blade disc isn’t large enough to cut the front side. That’s why you and Jacob are going on the side. You two are the best shots, and the discs will have enough speed to cut them down. The frontmen will do as much as they can.” Lydia nodded. It made sense, after all. “Order up! Pork skewers, corn dogs, everything on a stick,” Jacob yelled.

At 3:00 P.M., the crew bundled into the Panda as Isaac drove the little thing down the streets. They reached the old parking spot, and stopped there. The gear practically exploded out the trunk as Jacob opened it. Lydia smiled slightly at the scene. That smile soon faded as they entered the forest. Mosquitoes buzzed around them like an annoying gray cloud. Frogs leapt from place to place. The mud squished under their feet. Rotting tree stumps were dotted around the landscape. The forest seemed alive…and undead.

The squad set down the tents in a clearing, which looked like it got burned away. Lydia had her own little tent, while the other two had a bigger one. At all times, one person would be out on watch. Clyde went down to the river, and almost scooped up some water, when he stopped, remembering the bio experiment that had been the cause of this mess. He shook his head, sighing, and took out a water bottle, pouring it into the pot, and letting it boil.

Dinner was served at sunset. Under Jacob’s instruction, Isaac lobbed a bunch of random food packets into the boiling pot, which somehow tasted good. As night fell, the crew waited for the first of the undead to rise. Jacob busted out the iced coffee, and everyone was wide awake the whole time. At last, the mud bubbled, and the distinctive groaning of a hungry zombie was heard. Then another. And another. Soon, a good fifty zombies hobbled into the campsite. Lydia and Jacob each grabbed a blade launcher, and took off. The squelching of zombies being sliced was heard behind them. The two crouched in the bushes, and looked at the zombies down the aim line. Lydia pulled her trigger, and one of the zombies gurgled as they were severed.

It would’ve worked, were it not for one oversight Clyde had: gravity. As soon as the blade cut through, the severed zombie’s upper body simply fell back to its lower body without zipping away, as its half-liquid body gave no resistance to the blade. Lydia cursed silently. “Blast,” She muttered. The zombie turned towards her, and began limping in her direction. Suddenly, a blade whizzed through the oncoming undead…and cut Lydia across the cheek. She fell back onto the dirt, groaning. Her arm felt warm. She tried to raise it to her eyes…but felt it being dragged into the mud. Lydia looked down, and saw a brown, muddy hand sinking into the Earth…with her hand and the rest of her body. She thrashed and kicked, to no avail. After what seemed like an eternity of fighting, Lydia stopped, exhausted. She saw the figure of Isaac, sprinting towards her, and sighed, somewhat relieved. Isaac grabbed onto her hand, and tugged. Lydia sank further, her body disappearing. Isaac heaved with all his strength, but Lydia wasn’t coming back up. Her chin sank under. Then her mouth, eyes, nose…she couldn’t breath. Couldn’t think. Just panic. Suddenly, she felt as though her arm was going to be wrenched out, as Clyde and Jacob joined in with their efforts. At last, Lydia, covered in mud, squelched out of the ground.

The zombies had come closer by now, and some of them were holding sticks from the fire. As the first torch came closer to Clyde, Lydia could feel the heat radiating. Clyde, paralyzed in fear, and cornered at a tree, stared at the flame as it went closer to his face. Lydia screamed. “NO!”. She batted desperately at the zombie’s hand. To her surprise, the torch spun into the air. The zombie looked at the spinning, fiery stick in awe…before it screeched as the torch made contact with its muddy body, and slid down with a small flow of mud. After the heat came the cooldown. The zombie seemed unfazed, and limped towards Lydia. She backed up. Gradually, his movements became more choppy, until the cold night air cooled the hot mud…and he turned into a mere statue, as one might see in a park square…if statues that lived in the park squares could resemble a zombie. Lydia looked around. Isaac had disarmed two zombies, and was waving the torches at the rest of the mob. The front lines limped forward, then hesitated, looking at their motionless brethren. Then, glaring at the torchbearer, they sank back into the ground. Isaac held the torches as the other three of them packed up, Jacob carrying his comrade’s bag. They trudged through the dark forest. Zombies came out at them, but at the sight of the torches, they shrank back into the dirt.

At last, they made it out of the forest. Isaac extinguished the sticks. A few zombies gleefully ran out of the forest for them. However, as soon as they made contact with the non-infected concrete, they collapsed into a puddle, seeping into the ground, groaning as their second life was taken. As they piled into the Panda, Lydia covering the backseat with mud, Isaac smiled. “Well, gang, that was intense, but when we come back, we can stop them,” he said. Clyde frowned. “What do you mean?”. Isaac grinned. “You saw how the zombie Lydia saved you from, it turned into a statue after fire. Now, all we gotta do is get a few flamethrowers from the Brazilian military forces, come back to this mud pit, and boom…we got ourselves a porcelain army of the undead.”

Part 3: SGT Isaac

The fog shrouded the little highway. Out of that fog, a red Panda roared down the road, Isaac at the wheel. Clyde asked Isaac the question for the 23rd time. “Are you sure this is the right way? I mean, there should be more traffic and less fog if we’re going to a military base,” he said. Isaac jerked his finger at the GPS. “It’s 3:00 in the morning, Clyde. Of course there’d be fog and no traffic. You remain quiet and question me once the roads look…questionable,” he said, mildly irritated. Clyde slumped against the seat, groping around in the trunk for a waffle.

Isaac swerved off the highway after about an hour, and Clyde sighed in relief. Lydia chuckled, staring at the GPS. “Still got another fifteen minutes of local roads,” she said. Finally, they turned onto a dirt road, still packed into mud by the overnight rains. Isaac shuddered, wondering if the mud here was infected, and if so, were the zombies strong enough to pull the Panda under? A rusty gate marked a dead end. After a quick exchange of sign language with the officer on duty, they were in the base. The grass was yellow, the runways already bustling with planes. Palm trees grew in abundance. People ran about, shouting instructions, fetching equipment, drilling. Isaac and Clyde stepped out of the Panda. They walked straight for the main building, the trooper that had let them in escorting through the corridors.

They reached a metal door, a bit more like a bank vault. The trooper gave a hard twist on the door, and it swung open silently. Inside, many other members of their army were picking up rifles, inspecting them, testing them on a shooting range, taking them out…it reminded Isaac of the inventory at Unit 48, but this one was more organized, bigger…and had better lighting. Isaac strolled through the racks, confusion etched onto his face when he didn’t find a flamethrower in the ‘F’ rack. He reached the L-rack in desperation, but to his surprise, found what he needed. The label read “lança-chamas”. “Oh…everything’s in Portuguese,” he said, grabbing four flamethrowers. The trooper whistled. “Very dangerous. You sure?” he asked in English. Isaac nodded, and they headed back out to the squat little Panda waiting for them in the car park. After a quick shove, Isaac and Clyde were back on the road, the backseat creaking ominously as the flamethrowers threatened to break the little car.

Back at the little rental house, Isaac opened the trunk, and got swamped with four flamethrowers before lugging them inside. The sun turned the once cold and soggy morning into a hot and sticky noon. Jacob let out the hot sauce on some tacos, and they ate their meal. All the while, Isaac was thinking about the flamethrowers. What if the trigger catches, and the Panda goes up in flames? What if I set a tree on fire? What if my hypothesis doesn’t work out?

“Yo, Isaac? Do you not like my tacos, ‘cause I can make some other options,” Jacob asked. Isaac shook off his hypothetical thoughts, and began to eat.

The afternoon was a sticky, humid one. Mosquitoes began to group in the bushes. With dread, Isaac pulled over at the same old spot as before. The crew of four piled out with the flamethrowers, fire extinguishers (in case of emergency), and fire blankets (also in case of emergency). The mud squelched under them. They reached the old clearing, and set up camp. Isaac practically dove into his bag in search of supplies, and found some instant food. The campsite soon began smelling of curry.

As the sun dropped under the mountains in the distance, the coffee was brought out. Isaac sat with his flamethrower in his lap. Tonight, the zombies weren’t as aggressive as they were the last time. Most likely because one of them was still a statue a few yards away. It was around 9:45 P.M when the first zombie rose up. Isaac, almost casually, flicked the trigger, and the flames shot out of the tube. The zombie screamed, turning into another porcelain statue. Isaac cheered. “Woo! Too hot for ya?” he shouted into the night. There was silence for a second. Then, suddenly, the whole clearing was alive…with the undead. Hundreds of zombies, more than they’d ever seen, poured up from the mud, surging towards the crew. They fumbled for their flamethrowers and sprang into action. Isaac laughed at the ease of it all, zombies roaring menacingly, then staying in that position forever, until either their brethren smashed through them, or gravity took over, and they toppled.

The mob had been going for thirty minutes, when suddenly, a scream was heard. The familiar shout of Jacob. Isaac looked towards it, and his eyes widened in horror. The flamethrower had set a tree on fire. However, Jacob couldn’t attend to it, for fear of being mauled by the zombies. Isaac showered the zombies in flame, before sprinting for the bags. He could hear the crashing of the zombie as it turned to porcelain and cracked behind him.

Isaac rushed through the crowds of zombies, fire extinguisher in hand. The flames had spread up the tree, and were licking the touching leaves from its neighbors. This would soon turn into a wildfire. Isaac opened fire upwards. The fire extinguisher put out the flames, dowsing Isaac in dry ice in the process. He shook it off by running into the second tree on fire. He then used the rest of the fire extinguisher on the second tree. However, the fire was spreading too fast. Suddenly, Lydia was there to join him, spraying the next tree while Clyde ran to get a fourth. Fire extinguisher empty, Isaac dropped the canister and ran to Jacob. “Go take a fire extinguisher, and help those two. I’ll keep them at bay,” he said urgently. Jacob nodded, rushing off.

Slowly, hope was being lost. Too many trees were on fire. Isaac was slowly being surrounded. Suddenly, an insane idea struck him. He made a run for the fire blankets, and came back to where the other three were. “Get these on, and run into the fire! These will protect us, and the zombies can’t get through the flames!” he shouted. “Are you crazy? We can’t leave without our bags!” Jacob said. “He’s right. We’ll be lucky to leave with our lives,” Lydia shouted over the roar of the flames. They ran to a spot amongst the trees, threw the fire blankets onto themselves, and crouched. The flames roared like a hungry bear, ready to break them as soon as the blankets were lifted. Isaac could still feel the scorching heat. He felt like what a lamb rib might feel like on his backyard grill. This is what hell’s like, he thought.

Eternal torment…

One hour later

Groaning, Isaac struggled his way out of the fire blanket. Clyde, and Lydia did the same. Jacob, probably dying of paranoia, did not. Isaac looked around, surveying the forest. What was once a green mass, teeming with life, was now a gray, depressing, burnt treeline. Apart from the brown mud, the clothes the three were wearing were the only color that wasn’t gray. Isaac smiled, walking over to Jacob’s blanket, lifting it…and screamed in sorrow, fear, and rage. Jacob, beautiful, innocent Jacob, was now gray, burnt badly from the fire that had spread to the grass he lay on. Lydia and Clyde looked, shocked, at their fallen comrade. Isaac sobbed. “No, no, no…” he said quietly, tears streaming down his face. Clyde and Lydia knelt on one knee, and took off their army caps, putting it to their chests. Then the forest echoed as Isaac raised his head to the sky and screamed.

“NOOOOO!”

Part 4: SFC Clyde

They arranged a funeral in Macapa. The hearse came by, and the singed and dead Jacob was shipped off, to be buried somewhere in Brazil. Clyde sighed, eyes puffy with tears. Lydia and Isaac sported the same red marks on their eyes. Word was that Vincent was sending them two people to replace Jacob. The two were Bradley and Carol, whom they had known from a firefighting job in Vegas . Isaac got in the Panda to go pick up the pair. However, it was notable that he drove slower than usual. Clyde could definitely see why.

Half an hour later, the Panda was back. Bradley and Carol crawled out of the back. Clyde greeted them. “Come on in. I hope one of you two can cook good food, cause none of us three can,” he said. Lydia stifled a giggle. “Been surviving on instant ramen and microwavable packages left behind by Jacob,” she said, her face darkening as she said the name of their dead comrade. There was silence for a moment, as the trio were caught in their loss again. Carol tried to lighten the mood. “I mean, I know my way around steak, if that’s what you want,” she said hopefully. Isaac nodded, silent.

The entire rental house was silent, save for the sound of the steak sizzling, and the occasional sounds of footsteps. Lunch was eaten in silence. It seemed absurd to Clyde that the world could still function after a loss that big. However, it made each of them more determined than ever to finish what they had started. That evening, the five of them, with Bradley somehow getting stuffed in between Carol and Clyde on the tiny middle seat, headed for the forest again. Between them, Bradley had a pistol, while the other three had the flamethrowers. They marched into the forest with a silent determination, Isaac wiping the last tear from his face.

The sky was already dark, which saved the wait that had taken place in the past. Clyde sat on a burnt tree stump, sighing with fatigue from the trek. Barely two minutes after he’d done so, and all the crew had unpacked, the mob arose, way more suddenly than the last time. The ground seemed to lose a good meter of altitude as the muddy undead swarmed out of it. Clyde reeled off his stump in shock as a zombie popped out right in front of him, and groped for the flamethrower. Just in time, he turned the zombie into a statue. Across the big clearing, Isaac, Lydia, and Carol were all hard at work. Sweat beaded down the squad’s faces as the flamethrowers radiated their deadly fire. At last, the masses of zombies turned into porcelain, and cracked to the deadly shots of Bradley’s pistol. All was silent. Carol raised a fist in a mock victory cheer.

Suddenly, the clearing erupted again. However, unlike the mob that they had just faced, this uproar was simply a mountain of mud. Slowly, it took shape. The mud began branching off, forming arms and legs. Through all the mess, Clyde could see a tiny head, about the size of a regular human, dwarfed by the fact that the chemically contaminated mud seemed to be making a titan out of this body. The giant roared. Isaac roared back, spraying it with fire. The giant was far too massive, and only one arm turned to stone. It raised that arm, and brought it down on the ground. The hard mud shattered, shards leaping into the air like little knives. One cut Clyde across the face. He licked the drop of blood away, and ignored it. He noticed they were at last standing on rocks. The mud was gone, used up by the giant. “Open fire!” he cried. Four streams of flame shot towards the giant, engulfing its limbs. The head and torso of the giant separated from its limbs. The giant thrashed and snapped its mouth, in hopes of devouring its attackers. With a combined effort, they managed to turn that into a statue as well. Bradley then dealt the final blow. Raising his pistol, he pointed it at the giant. “This is for Jacob,” he said quietly, pulling the trigger. The giant shattered as the bullet hit a crucial point, turning into hundreds of shards of stone. There was silence in the clearing, save for some crickets chirping, and the usual night sounds of the Amazon Rainforest. Out of the darkness, Clyde could see a green shape. He bent down, smiling softly at the little sapling that would soon become a powerful tree.

“Hello, little one,” he said.

A month later, back in South Dakota, Clyde scrolled idly through the New York Times. The decontamination had begun. While they were on their escapades, the scientists and biologists had been hard at work to find a chemical to reverse the effects the bio experiment had on the ecosystem. The criminals had been apprehended and arrested. The people had done everything they could to revive the dead environment. Clyde looked at the bottom of the article and smiled softly. It went as such:

“Despite danger and loss, a group of five heroes has saved this nation, this ecosystem, and all who call it home.”

Credits:

We’d like to thank…

Ren Cai for his article about the Super Bowl.

Matthew Fu for his short story.

Airjuan Vupuyama for his article updating us about the LA wildfires.

Silicon Valley Middle School News

SVM News – February Issue

Introduction