1/31/2025
By Ren Cai and Matthew Fu
WELCOME 2025!!
Deadly LA Fires Devastate City 3
DeepSeek: The New AI Sensation 5
Welcome Back!
Hello, my fellow middle schoolers! Welcome back to a new year and a new issue of SVM News!
Updates
- Unfortunately, last month we weren’t able to post an issue due to the break. All of us were spending time with our families and enjoying our vacations. We hope that you guys can understand.
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Deadly LA Fires Devastate City
Los Angeles wildfires have caused terrible devastation, with the number of casualties more than 25, along with a massive property loss. The two major blazes, The Palisades and the Eaton, have spread across the city. Even as firefighters gain some control over these two main fires, forecast high winds till January 15th raise concerns over the blazes spreading or newer ones getting triggered. The largest, the Palisades fire, has burned more than 23,000 acres and is only 14% contained while the Eaton fire, blamed for 16 deaths, has burned over 14,000 acres and is 33% contained. More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed in total, and tens of thousands of homes are gone without electricity.
These fires are among the most destructive in LA’s history, with damages estimated as high as 150 billion dollars. A red flag warning exists, with the strongest Santa Ana winds forecasted. The causes of the fires are under investigation, with negligence filings against Southern California Edison Company, better known as SCEE, for the Eaton fire. However, the company has pledged to investigate the complaint and support the affected neighborhoods and communities. Adding to the blazes, dry weather and strong winds, which help in the spread of wildfires, were experienced, and the fire was still being monitored and extinguished by officials.
DeepSeek: The New AI Sensation
In a world that’s increasingly moving at a rapid pace into the realms of artificial intelligence, a new entrant has taken center-stage, garnering maximum attention by tech enthusiasts and industry experts alike. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, introduced its highly innovative model DeepSeek R1, which is making waves across the AI community.
What Sets DeepSeek Apart
DeepSeek R1 is remarkable for a number of reasons. First and foremost, DeepSeek R1 outperforms OpenAI’s highly acclaimed o1 model on key reasoning benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 was developed with much fewer resources and has shown very impressive performance, even outperforming larger open-source models.
Efficiency and Innovation
The most surprising thing about DeepSeek R1 is its efficiency: the researchers working on DeepSeek concentrated on generating training data that could be automatically generated, particularly in domains like mathematics, where correctness is unambiguous. This, combined with very efficient reward functions, allowed DeepSeek to reach strong reasoning without using expensive human-labeled datasets or massive compute.
Open-source and Accessible
DeepSeek has also made its models open-source, meaning that anyone can study and replicate how they were built. By democratizing this powerful AI technology, it’s providing developers with strong new options for building applications without the extensive resource requirements that have traditionally been required.
The Future of DeepSeek
It remains to be seen what new level of disruption in the AI space there might be with DeepSeek continuing to forge ahead. Possibly, this company’s approach could mean that many startups would put in much emphasis on the efficient creation of AI with domain expertise.
DeepSeek’s rise is a standing and proud witness to the innovative leap and efficiency in the industry of AI. Moving on, it would be interesting to see how the company takes things further beyond their current boundaries while shaping the future with the help of its models and techniques in artificial intelligence.
Literature of the Month
Unit 48: Paradise Closet
Part 1: Bradley
“Infection? Easy, Warren. Come on, you know me,” Bradley said easily. Warren grunted. “Regardless, I’m sending you in with a few others,” he said. Bradley sighed, giving in. Warren began to count off his fingers. “Clyde, Jacob, Lydia, Isaac, oh, and Carol,” he said. Bradley nodded. Sounded like a crack team.
That afternoon, the squad assembled. They loaded up into two vans, and sped out of the garage. Their mission was awaiting them in Nevada. Quite a way away. Apparently, an unknown suspect had mixed together a chemical reaction that had turned the park into complete chaos. People were being evacuated from the fires that could not be contained, even on the dirt. Bradley didn’t dare look in the back, but he hoped the van had enough fire extinguishers, given the intense rattling in the trunk as its contents rolled around.
After a few days of sitting at the wheel, driving nonstop, Bradley and his tired crew reached Monticello, Utah, in search of a place to stay. Isaac, aggressive as he was, had been held up in a traffic jam back in La Sal, while an even more aggressive Bradley had caused it and drove away unharmed. They pulled over at a motel. The neon sign was faded, and if it was glowing, no one could tell in the afternoon sun. The heat was insane. Bradley felt like what a beef rib might be like in his oven back at home. The parking lot they’d parked in was cracked concrete, the dust making it look like dirt. Though the parking lot was practically overflowing with cars, the atmosphere was very lonely, silent. “I wonder when Isaac’s gonna pull through. It’s so quiet out here,” Clyde said. Right on cue, a tumbleweed rolled by.
The interior was even more quaint than the exterior of the motel. The rugs were chewed away by little insects. The walls were brown and unpainted. Everything gave off that “old motel from the 1800s” vibe. Bradley wouldn’t have been surprised if a ghost had come out of the wall wearing a cowboy hat. At least the inside had air conditioning. Behind the reception desk was a woman, around her mid-fifties, pale-skinned, plump, and with a warm smile. “Ah, welcome! Please stay out of the heat, you’ll be barbecued if you stay out there any longer. I am Agatha. I own this plot of land. Most people are having an afternoon snooze at this moment, away from all the flies and heat. There’s almost no rooms! But, you’re in luck. We’ve had a few cancellations, so you can have the room to yourself,” she said, beaming. Bradley wondered for a moment if he should bring up the fact that their B-Team was still stuck in La Sal at the moment. Carol beat him to it. “We have another group of friends…I’m wondering, can we make a reservation for their room? They’ll be here at around sunset,” she said. Agatha smiled warmly. “Of course, dear. I’m very flexible. Oh, and a few things. Dinner is served at 6:30 on the dot, every day. Also, here’s your room key. Floor thirteen,” she replied, handing over, quite literally, a key, instead of a card. Bradley frowned slightly. Shouldn’t have been that easy, but he let it pass. After all, it was for their benefit.
The tired crew of three trudged up the stairs, and promptly dropped all their luggage as soon as they got to the room. Carol and Bradley slept on the beds, while Clyde took the couch. They remained prone on the mattresses until 6. Then, they had a change of clothes and a shower, then went down to eat. A few dusty patrons were just entering. Isaac had finally gotten the B-team out of the jam. “Hey, there’s the troublemaker,” Isaac laughed, walking towards Bradley. Bradley smiled sheepishly. “My bad. Clyde was dying for a bathroom stop,” he said. Isaac smiled. “Quite alright. So, dinnertime already? I’m gonna go up to the room, then come back for food. Come on, you two,” he addressed the last words to Lydia and Jacob. The three trooped up the stairs, as Bradley went down for the promise of food.
The eating commons were surprisingly empty. No one was there, save for the kitchen staff, the trio of hungry heroes, and a family of four, with one father, one mother, a daughter, and a grandfather. That evening was spaghetti dinner, washed down with some ice water, a good counter to the unbearable heat still radiating in through the walls. The downside was that the maggots were still crawling around in the marinara sauce. “Think of it as the meat,” Bradley said, unhelpfully. Agatha came by, beaming. Bradley couldn’t help but wonder how she could smile through the whole day. His mouth would certainly get tired. “Enjoying the meal, dears?” She asked kindly. Carol nodded. “Yep…but I wonder…why are we and the family the only ones dining?” she asked. Agatha laughed. “Oh, that. Most customers think they’re so smart. They think that if they wait until after the main bustle, they can eat. However, everyone got that idea, so the rush hour is towards the last hours now,” she said. Bradley nodded. It was logical. The B-team showed up, as Bradley, Carol, and Clyde started up the stairs.
That night, Bradley lay in bed, when he heard a faint whirring sound. Must be the air conditioner, he thought. It came from the closet. Ok, definitely not the air conditioner, he corrected himself. He got up, and walked towards the closet, tripping over Clyde in the process. “Oi-Brad, what’re you doing?” he asked. Bradley raised his hands in apology. “Sorry. Just gotta get something from the closet,” he said. Clyde grunted, going back to sleep. Bradley tiptoed to the closet and opened it. What was filled with jackets and hats was now a blue swirling pool of…something. It wasn’t solid, as Bradley couldn’t touch it, but it definitely looked like glitter paint. “Bradley, quit watching TV, it’s like 11PM,” Carol whispered softly. Bradley turned slowly. “That’s not the TV,” he said. Carol hopped out of the bed, her pajamas crumpled. “What the heck is that?” she said, confused. Clyde tumbled off the couch to join them, his saggy pajamas making him look quite like a koala. “What…are you trying to hide our jackets behind cardboard, Bradley?” he asked suspiciously. Bradley shook his head. “It’s not cardboard. It ain’t solid,” he said. Carol snorted. “Not solid? Check this out—whoa!” she said, as the blue swirl couldn’t support her weight, and she fell through. No sound was heard. Clearly, she hadn’t just fallen to the other side of the closet. “Wait for me!” Clyde exclaimed, running in after her. Bradley sighed. “And me,” he said tiredly, running after the two towards whatever was on the other side of that blue swirl.
Part 2: Lydia
“KEEP IT DOWN OVER THERE!” Lydia shouted, pounding on the wall that separated Bradley’s room from theirs. Silence. No voices. “Lydia, go back to bed. They’re probably watching time travel movies or something,” murmured a sleepy Jacob. Lydia grunted acknowledgement, and crawled back into bed. Suddenly, the sound doubled. It was as if it was coming from both Bradley’s room and…their closet? Lydia opened it to find a blue swirl of what looked like vaporized paint. Isaac whistled from the couch. “Dang, Lydia, what the heck?” Lydia could hear him crawling off the couch bed. A few moments later, he and Jacob joined Lydia by the closet. “Weird…” Jacob muttered. Lydia shrugged, and dove head first into the portal. She collapsed, and grunted as her face made contact with something firm but fuzzy. She looked down at it. A reddish-pinkish color of fur lay all around the landscape. She scraped at it, and it fell away like moss, revealing that it had blue roots, and a layer of green that held it to the ground. She stared at it, fascinated…before the combined weight of Isaac and Jacob squashed her back into the fuzz, which, at this point, she had come to see as an altered grass. Isaac, at the top of the pile, groaned, and heaved himself up. “God, what is this place?” he wondered aloud. Jacob looked around in wonder. “It’s like an alternate dimension. I’d love to stay and just study biology out here,” he said. Lydia got herself up. Out in the distance, three figures were wandering aimlessly around. “Oi! Brad! Carol! Over here!” she shouted, hopping around like a kangaroo, waving madly. One figure, presumably Bradley, given the height, turned, saw them, waved in acknowledgement, and began jogging towards the trio. Clyde heaved up behind the group, panting. “What the hell is this place?” he asked. Isaac shrugged. “I dunno. We fell through a portal, I guess you guys did the same. Well, I’d love to come back at noon. It’s 11pm right now,” he said, lumbering tiredly off in the direction of the portal…to find it gone. “Well, there goes the ride back,” Jacob mused. Lydia groaned. She was dying of fatigue from the hours stuck in Bradley’s traffic jam, and now here she was in a sunny place, with red grass that had blue roots, with no way back to their room. “We’re stranded here?!” she cried. Carol shrugged. “Could be. Unless we find another way back,” she replied. The crew began trudging away, in a random direction. As they went, Lydia noticed more and more strange organisms. Purple stalks, firm but rubbery, protruded out of the ground. At the top, they split like a family tree, and copper tufts of fur sprang out of them. Presumably, these were the trees. At a point up a hill, Isaac fell over, and Lydia saw that he was entangled in the purple stalks, laughing at the slapstick that had just taken place. These were probably the “tree’s” roots. So far, there were only plants. Over the hill, Carol sighed in relief. “Look! There’s a motel, just like the one that got us here, but with a glow-up!” she exclaimed. A sleepy Jacob grunted. “Let’s go, then,” he slurred, tired. The group of six went down to the motel, and opened the door. Agatha, the Agatha from the front desk, was there to greet them. “Ah, hello, dears! Bradley, you know, I was up outside your room to collect and trash you may have put outside, when I heard you all falling through a whirring something. Strange, no?” she said cheerily. Bradley nodded. Though she would question it later, Lydia had not the energy to wonder how this Agatha knew all their names. They checked into their rooms (The same ones as in the real world). No sooner had they gotten to the rooms had Lydia collapsed onto the mattress…and woke up to the dingy room of the real world. She sat up, groaning. Around her, Isaac and Jacob did the same. “Was it all a dream?” she thought. Jacob grinned. “Guys, you would not believe the dream I had. I dreamed that we fell through a portal, and on the other side, there was red grass with blue roots, a better motel, and weird trees all over the place,” he exclaimed. Isaac frowned. “I had the same dream. You were all there,” he said. Lydia said nothing.
No way this is a coincidence…
Part 3: Clyde
The table of six was quite a hard arrangement. Agatha had to lug all the tables together herself. Clyde sat down, and asked everyone. “Raise your hand if you had a dream about a world where the grass was red,” he said. All hands were up, and Clyde almost reeled off his chair. “Me too!” he exclaimed. Lydia looked confused. “Something’s up. Either that wasn’t a dream, which I can believe, or Agatha’s got some sort of gas that can make us dream the same stuff, which I can believe, but not as much,” she murmured to herself. Bradley had his head buried in his bacon. “We should check it out again tonight. Maybe it was some crazy coincidence that we all had the same dream,” he said. Lydia frowned. “I’m not even sure it was a dream…” she said quietly.
Later, up in the room, Clyde hung up and sighed. “What’s the news?” Carol asked. Clyde grunted. “Warren said there’ll be a delay, the firefighters are still trying stuff,” he said. Bradley shrugged. “That gives us some time to figure out what this mess with the other world is,” he said. Clyde grunted. Even at 10:00 in the morning, it was unbearably hot. “I’m gonna go dunk,” he said, heading for the bathroom. A moment later, he turned on the sink, and threw his head into the cool water. There was a burst of noise, and something got into his hair. He picked at it, and found he was holding a rusty circle of woven metal. He inspected the tap. It was just a hole now. “Dang, this place needs refurbishing,” he said. Bradley came in. “I don’t know, this place is a bit creepy,” he said. Clyde shrugged. “In what way?” he said. Bradley sighed. “Maybe it’s just that this thing’s in the middle of nowhere, maybe it’s how old it is, maybe–SPIDER!” he shrieked, taking off at speed. Clyde saw what Bradley had seen. A huge, furry spider was crawling around on the wall…very close to him. He shrieked, and went out as well. Carol went in, calmly. “You two, calm down, it’s just a spider,” she said, grabbing a piece of tissue, easing the spider onto it, and tossing it out of the second floor window. Clyde and Bradley, on the other hand, were huddled on the couch. “I can’t wait for those firefighters in Vegas to give up,” Clyde said shakily.
The day went by relatively quickly. Clyde spent the day with Carol to watch World War II documentaries. Bradley went out a good 53 miles to refill on gas with his nearly-empty van. He had one third of the tank on the way out. The trip back had burned one eighth of his tank. The tired officer returned to find that Clyde was staring numbly at the TV, which had broken, from years of not maintaining it, and was now just hissing and flickering. Clyde turned it off. Bradley smiled. “It’s time for dinner, anyways,” he said. Carol shook her head. “I’d rather eat instant ramen every day than maggot-filled spaghetti,” she said.
That night, Clyde lay in bed, wide awake. From the lack of snoring, he could tell Bradley was doing the same, but didn’t want to talk for fear of waking their non-snorer, Carol. Again, at around 10:30 to 11:00, the whirring began again. Clyde and Bradley bounded to the door, and opened the closet to find the same portal. Carol promptly threw off the sheets and stumbled over as well. Clyde grinned. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked. “That there’ll be better food than maggoty spaghetti and instant ramen?” Carol asked. Clyde grunted, the happy moment shattered. “That works. Let’s go!” he said, diving through the portal without hesitation. Bradley and Carol followed…once again landing in the strange new world with red grass. A good fifty meters away, Isaac, Lydia, and Jacob tumbled through as well. From the memories of last night, they figured out the way to the better motel, the roots of the trees gently shifting under their feet, tickling them. The crew was tired and hungry from avoiding the food at the motel. They stumbled into the hotel, to find that Agatha wasn’t at the reception desk as usual, but was supervising the kitchens. Clyde’s mouth watered, and his stomach growled at the smell of sausages on the grill. “Hello, all!” Agatha greeted them warmly. Clyde nodded. They sat down, and the hot dogs were served. Agatha sat by as Carol questioned her. “Are we dreaming?” she asked. Agatha tapped Carol’s arm. “You can feel that. No, dear, this is not a dream,” she said sweetly. Clyde had his face buried in the hot dog, but was still listening to the two. “How does a place like this exist?” Carol continued. “Oh, I don’t know. I got here the same as you. It just popped up in my closet, and I stepped through. I run two jobs now, one back in the real world, and one here. I must say, this one is busier, while the real world is simply…harsher,” Agatha said. Clyde looked up from his hot dog. “Busier? Aren’t we the only ones here?” he asked. Agatha smiled. “Oh no. There have been people, coming and going. It’s always a one-night stay, then they go on their merry way back to the real world,” she replied. Clyde nodded; it made sense to him. Agatha’s eyes glinted. “You know…if you guys are planning on staying here for a week, you could just stay in this world while you’re at it,” she whispered, as if this was a 1 in a million deal. Clyde shrugged. “Give us a bit to think about it,” he said politely. Agatha nodded. “Don’t be long,” she said, smiling as she retreated to the reception desk. The crew huddled together. “I say yes,” Isaac whispered. “I think so, too. I mean, what harm is this place?” Bradley asked. Even Lydia shrugged. “I don’t see anything wrong. It’s just a better stay than the real world. If our week is up, we just waltz right back and fight fires in Vegas,” she said. Jacob nodded. “Is it unanimous? Carol?” he asked. Carol sighed. “I don’t know…seems a bit too good to be right…” she murmured. Isaac patted her back. “Come on, Carol, it’s just a hotel? What, is the spaghetti out here gonna eat us?” Isaac said cherrily. Carol shrugged. “I’ll keep away from most things, just in case,” she replied. “Good enough. Agatha!” Jacob called. The old woman came back with an expectant look on her face. “Well, you’ve decided?” she asked. “Yep. We’re all in!” Bradley exclaimed. Agatha nodded. “Perfect, perfect…now, I just have to give you the keys,” she said as she walked back towards the reception desk, and sorted through the drawers until she returned with two keys. “Rooms are cheap here, we don’t have that many customers staying. Only $100 per room, pay with card on the day you check out,” she said. The crew nodded, and headed up. The rooms were much more vibrant than the drab, gray old ones in the real world. The walls were a peachy orange, and the beds were well made. Once in the room, Clyde looked at Carol funny. “Why were you so hesitant?” he asked. Carol shrugged. “I don’t know…it just feels wrong…like something’s watching every move we make out here,” she mused.
As the night fell, the crew didn’t go out to eat dinner, as they were so full. At around 9:00 P.M., Agatha knocked on the door. “There’s a performance down outside,” she said excitedly. Five people went down and out the door. Carol stayed behind to read. They found a man singing and a woman on an acoustic guitar. Though it wouldn’t be the Day of the Dead for another 5 months, they wore colorful clothing and had their faces painted like skulls. The music made Clyde a bit drowsy. He tried to stay awake for the sake of the performers, but the music was just so tranquil, so serene, as if inviting him to take a rest on the roots they sat on. The performers stopped playing after half an hour, the woman rubbing her fingers, the man taking a swig of water. The audience of six clapped loudly, despite the sleepiness. The couple took a bow…and melted into nothing but two skeletons. Isaac flinched. “Whoa,” he said. Lydia backed away from the grinning skulls. “Are these, like, those skeletons at the doctor’s office?” she asked. “No, my dear. All real. Just as your impending dooms are very, very real,” Agatha said behind them. Clyde turned, hoping she was joking. “Our…what?” he asked. Agatha’s eyes went blank. She walked away silently, a contrast to her usual cheerfulness. The sky grew darker, though Clyde wasn’t sure how that could be possible. Then, rain began to fall on the paradise world. The roots under them turned green, resembling vines. They snared the six people, and began to slither along the grass. Clyde’s face was rubbed in the red grass. He could hear the shouts of fear and surprise of the others around him. He was sure the trees could come rushing up at him and all would be black, but the vines kept pulling into an unknown section of the world they’d never seen before. They went down a tunnel, dirt flying into their mouths, noses, and eyes. Clyde got a number of scrapes on the way down. Finally, he saw the end of the vines, planted into the ground. Then, they tumbled into a huge room, with natural rock walls. A dozen candles hovered in the air, casting an eerie orange glow on the room. A human form sat in a chair, facing away from them. It looked from the back as though she was using some invisible typewriter. At last, she stopped, turning around, and Clyde could see that she was doing that puppet thing, with strings attached to a puppet of Agatha, as well as a few loose ones of the performers. Clyde tried not to scream as his heart crept up into his throat. The person seemed to be a woman, but her face was pale white, like marble. Her yellow eyes were framed by black rings, as though she’d been beaten on the face many times. “Hello, young ones!” her voice was raspy, but with a sweet, soft tone inside. “I’m the Puppeteer. I hope you enjoyed the show. That’ll be the last time you see any world, because for the next few…oh, millenia, your souls will be slowly devoured. So, who’s excited to die?” said the Puppeteer.
Part 4: All
Carol
She paced around the room, thinking about what to do. She was the last one out here. Agatha was sure to come back and get her to the vines, which had sprung back after abducting her friends. Most likely, I’ll have to save those knuckleheads, she thought anxiously. She checked her pockets. “Darn,” she muttered. Her knife was still on the table back in the real world. She went around the room, looking for anything that would prove to be a useful weapon. All she came out with were a few clothes hangers, and a ball of string. Nothing much, but she tucked them down the back of her shirt. At that moment, there was the sound of a key rattling in the door. Agatha must have some sort of spare key for each room. The door handle began to turn. Then, suddenly, it swung open. Carol threw a clothing hanger, and leapt out the window. A groan from behind meant that the missile had found its mark. She took off into the dark night of the other world.
Isaac
“Die? How?” Isaac asked, considerably surprised. The Puppeteer giggled. “Well, you see, I made this world. I made my puppets, too. I use them to spy on your lives in the real world, and make you happy in this one. That old motel is abandoned. No one but my puppets have been in it for more than a month. The food is intentionally bad, a way to get you to want to stay forever…and slowly have your souls devoured,” she said. Isaac looked up through the vertical hole the roots had dragged them into. No way out. “You haven’t answered my question. Is this a sort of vacuum-style soul eating or just straight up teeth eating?” he demanded. The Puppeteer actually seemed to pull a straight face as she thought. “Well…it’s more of neither. You rot here. Then, when you die, I’ll…vacuum your soul up, in your words. Might as well make yourselves comfortable,” she said, cheerful again. Bradley growled. “You’re not getting any of our souls,” he muttered, charging the Puppeteer. Just as he was about to swing an uppercut at her, the Puppeteer held her fingers in a way like she was about to play the piano. Bradley froze mid stride. Then, the Puppeteer made a finger stick man with two fingers, and mimed it walking. Bradley, somehow controlled, ran straight into the wall. When the Puppeteer relaxed her hand, Bradley fell to the ground, groaning in pain. Isaac gestured to the remaining of the crew, and they spread out in a circle around the Puppeteer. At the same time, they all ran at her, sure that with her limited fingers, she could only control two at a time. Isaac soon found out they were wrong, as the puppeteer raised eight fingers, four on each hand, and simply wiggled them about. Instantly, Isaac lost control of his body, running headlong into Jacob. From the grunts of pain, he guessed that Clyde and Lydia got the same treatment. “Stay down,” Bradley murmured from his spot near the wall. They were happy to comply. The Puppeteer, to their surprise, didn’t attempt to torment them any further. “I bet she enjoys this process…watching us slowly die of hunger and thirst,” Isaac whispered to Clyde. No more attempts were made to attack the powerful woman.
Carol
Carol ran through the endless forests, following the scuffs in the dirt where, presumably, her teammates had scraped some body part or another on the ground. She kept following them until she ran up to a rock cave. Clothes hanger in hand, she walked carefully into the cave, and backpedalled quickly when she saw the huge, yawning hole in the center. Orange light came from it. Voices chatted casually down below. One sounded like Isaac. Carol could swear Lydia was replying. If they’d just been violently dragged down here, why were they so casual about it? It was as if they were on a playdate with the vines. “Maybe they’ve given up already,” Carol murmured, a pang in her heart. She sat in the cave alone. Rain was still falling. Her shirt was soaked through. She began to grab a clothes hanger, and unravel the ball of string. In the middle, the bit, and, after gnawing a bit, managed to cut it in half. She then began tying clothes hangers onto the ropes, in an effort to make a ladder.
Isaac
The five people huddled together, strategizing, while still adding in random words of casual conversation to keep the Puppeteer ignorant. “All five of us can rush her. She can’t use her thumbs,” Isaac said. “I wonder what it feels like to be dead,” Clyde said, loudly, to keep the Puppeteer unsuspecting. Lydia ignored him. “Even then, how can we finish her? If we knock her unconscious, more people are just going to come to her and die,” she said. “I think she’s like those wind-up toys. I see a little thingamajig turning in the back,” Bradley said. “It won’t feel like anything. Wait…how does it feel to not feel?” Isaac asked, in response to Clyde. Jacob was now in the conversation. “Yeah, we can pull the wind-up, and boom, she goes down,” he said. Lydia shrugged. “Worth a try,” she said. “Hey, Puppeteer! You know what it feels like for those people to be dead?” Isaac asked. The Puppeteer walked towards them. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said airily. “After all, I’ve never tried it,” she giggled at the morbid joke. “Well, you’re about to find out,” Isaac growled, gesturing to the other four. No one moved. “Wait, this soon?” Clyde asked. “YES! Before she figures us out, hurry!” Isaac yelled. Immediately, all five of them were in action. The puppeteer was desperately trying to gain control of them, waving her fingers. Lydia turned upside down. Clyde did a cartwheel. Bradley ran into the wall a second time. Generally, it was chaos. Bradley crumpled to the ground. “He won’t be getting up any time soon,” the Puppeteer remarked. Isaac’s heart turned to ice. One down. Now, the Puppeteer was going to be able to do whatever she wanted with the remaining four. Jacob nodded to the unconscious Bradley, and the remaining four took to the Puppeteer again. Once again, the chaos ensued. This time, Clyde suffered the head-against-wall treatment. “Any other ‘tricks’?” the Puppeteer sneered. Now, only Jacob, Lydia, and Isaac were left. Out of the corner of his eye, Isaac could see Bradley slowly tiptoeing towards the Puppeteer. As Bradley came closer to the Puppeteer, Isaac couldn’t help but smile. The Puppeteer turned…and Bradley leapt onto her back. She screeched. “No, no, don’t go there! It tickles!”. Bradley kept on wrenching at the knob. It did no good. Once again, he was slumped against the wall. Isaac panicked. Out of desperation, he leapt onto the Puppeteer’s back.
Carol
At last, Carol finished the ladder. She tied it to a vine, and tested it. One rope snapped. She groaned in despair. Better to just grab the vines, she thought. Scurrying down the vine like a squirrel, she could just see what was going on down below. Isaac was locked in a deadly battle with a woman. She was pale, marble white, with black rings around her yellow, maniacal eyes. Isaac was pulling at the knob. Nothing happened. Just as the lady was about to raise her hands for something, Isaac twisted hard on a knob sticking out of her head. A click sounded. The lady cried out in pain. “Too far! Ow, ow, ow,” she shouted. Isaac smiled slightly, and continued to twist the knob. The woman writhed in pain. At last, with a great heave, the tightened knob came clean off. The woman’s eyes glazed over, mouth locked in a pained cry, and she toppled over. The yellow eyes dimmed out, and she remained lifeless on the ground. Isaac panted, stepping away from the woman. In the corner, Bradley and Clyde were coming too. At that moment, a huge rumbling sound was heard. Looking out of the cave, Carol could see the colors in the world bleaching out. The motel collapsed, sending debris flying all the way to where she was. The ground shook. It was as if this other world was shattering, just as the lady had. “Up, up!” Carol shouted. Isaac looked up, and the five began scrambling up the vines. Once upon ground level, they sprinted for their lives, trees turning gray and falling around them. “I told you we shouldn’t have checked in,” Carol said, breathless. “We didn’t know at the time! Be smug about it in the van,” replied an equally breathless Isaac. They ran and ran, but couldn’t find their portals. They were trapped. Suddenly, Carol’s hopes were rekindled as portals began opening up all around them. “To the real world!” Bradley shouted over the rumbling, as they all dove through a portal…and Carol felt pain, as she ran straight into a bed frame on the other side of the closet. The rumbling echoed through the dinghy motel. Thank goodness they hadn’t unpacked much. Hastily, they shoved their things into their bags, and ran outside. The motel kept rumbling…until all was silent. “There goes the Puppeteer and the rest of that place,” Isaac said, clicking on the van keys. As they left, Carol saw the date on her phone. It was five days since the day they went into their doom. A fire probably wouldn’t be the first thing they reported to Warren.
Credits
We’d like to thank…
Ren Cai for his two articles.
Matthew Fu for writing the wonderful story.