03/31/2025
By Matthew Fu, Ren Cai, Arjun Vanam
Huh…weirdly familiar…
Introduction
Hey everyone! Welcome back to another issue of SVM news!
Anyone recognize the picture up front? If you were with us in the early days of Stratford Elemonthly, those long lion days of mulch wars, getting hit by soccer balls, throwing grass…
Alright, I sort of made up the throwing grass part. In any case, that picture was the very same from the first issue of Stratford Elemonthly! Don’t believe me? Try this…
Yeah, I know, this company’s a real survivor. Anyways, I’m taking too much of this page up for the intro. Keep reading for some fresh articles and stories!
Updates
- WE FINALLY GOT TO THE END OF UNIT 48 (yay, right?)!!! Is it over? Well, this season is unfortunately over. BUT, Matthew will be providing us with a new series of stories. Called what? Stay tuned to find out.
Newsfeed
Recent Stock Market “Crash”
Major stock indices fell sharply amid growing investor concerns over trade policies and inflation. The S&P 500 dropped 2% on March 28th and marked one of its worst days in the last two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 1.7%, and the Nasdaq composite went down by 2.6%. Lululemon Athletica, dropping the most, dropped 15.4%. Along with these companies, many other companies witnessed a stock fall. One of the main reasons why the stock market is lowering is that Donald Trump is escalating tariffs that might cause American businesses to “freeze”. People are also spending less than usual because of their increased concerns about inflation.
Signal Group Chat Leakage
The signal group chat was a group chat of presidential officials that had gotten leaked. The group chat discussed War Plans and the contents had a multitude of confidential secrets that could expose many high-ranking officials. The individuals in the group chat, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, and many other government officials, were talking about conducting airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. This whole scandal poses a huge cybersecurity threat and makes many officials and citizens harbor concern for their cybersecurity. California congressman Ro Khanna stated “We need to take cybersecurity far more seriously”. Cybersecurity is more important than ever before due to the rise of dependence on the usage of the internet. This makes it so that we have to create even stricter measures to making our cybersecurity even safe. Due to this scandal happening at a presidential level it is a huge risk due to how secure and safe the cybersecurity at the presidential level is. Overall this scandal has taught the Trump administration and many others to be safer with their cybersecurity.
Literature
Unit 48: Strands Forest
Part 1: SGT Isaac
The mud squelched under Isaac’s feet, reminding him of the unpleasant experience they had in Brazil. “I can’t see mud without expecting a Panda outside the forest and a few zombies popping out of the ground,” Clyde commented, trudging along beside him. “You bring your rifle, Clyde?” Isaac asked, changing the subject. “Yep. The M11. Why? Did you forget your own?” Clyde responded. “Not my rifle…but between us and our instant food is a two hour plane ride to South Dakota,” Isaac said sheepishly. His forgetfulness was rewarded with a light punch in the shoulder. “Never hunted game before, but hey, first time for everything,” Clyde said, looking off into the endless mass of trees.
The pair of them were covered to the knees in mud by the time they reached the clearing. Moss was all over the bases of the trees. Sunlight filtered through the canopy overhead. Clyde sighed, heaving the heavy folded tent off of his shoulders. “That can wait. I haven’t even opened the file,” he said. “You had two hours on the plane,” Isaac said, mildly confused. It was Clyde’s turn to look sheepish. “Mad Max was a very interesting movie,” he said, taking a folder out of his backpack. Isaac sighed in exasperation, and pulled out the foldable chairs.
Word on the street, or rather, on the trail, was that some happy campers had encountered a beast like none other on the trail. A guy was out hunting when he saw the silhouette of a creature, similar to the minotaur from Greek mythology, but with the head of a deer, and fur all over. Its orange eyes glowed in the dark, and it seemed to be carnivorous, very cleverly deduced by the fact that it ate a squirrel, and not the bushes and grass nearby. A rifle shot simply bounced off its hide, and led to the hunter being chased out of the forest by the beast. Isaac looked around the darkening clearing, as if expecting a deer to suddenly come into the clearing, develop glowing orange eyes, and stand on two legs. Clyde stood up. “I’ll go shoot us something,” he said. “You’re not going anywhere without me,” Isaac said, fetching his rifle.
They came back to the clearing with a couple geese. Clyde and Isaac grimaced as they cut the bird for eating. “Where’d you learn all this, Isaac?” Clyde asked, shaking feathers off of his hand. “Youtube. Where else? You don’t find this sort of valuable stuff on TikTok,” Isaac said.
That night, Clyde and Isaac both sat wide awake. Thirty minutes of silence passed. Suddenly, Clyde sat up. Isaac could hear it, too. A snuffling sound, like a bear with a cold. The rustling of massive limbs in the bushes. Isaac slowly cocked his rifle. Suddenly, the ground shook. A huge, pale arm snaked out of the treeline. It was matted with coarse fur, and seemed to have scars all over it, as if it had picked fights with grizzlies. Another arm, then the body. Clyde promptly fell over, fainting at the sight of the beast. It had the head of a deer, orange eyes, a lean, emaciated body, and the longest arms Isaac had ever seen, with huge hands, each the area of a bush. Its legs, in comparison to its arms, were relatively small. Isaac opened fire, before instantly regretting it. The shot bounced off of the thing’s chest, lodging into the dirt. It lowered its head to the ground, and charged. Isaac dove out of the way…and scrambled back to take the unconscious Clyde out of the way of the rampaging beast. The beast rammed into the chairs, and Clyde’s rifle was sent spinning across the clearing, out of Isaac’s reach. He thumped Clyde, and the man came to. “What-oh wow. You see that deer thing, Isaac? I think I’m hallucinating,” Clyde murmured. “You’re not hallucinating. Remember what the file said!” Isaac said, slapping Clyde’s face to bring him back to full awakeness. Clyde’s eyes widened. “Well, then, why are we still here? Run!” he exclaimed, as the beast turned its orange, hateful eyes on him, and roared, showing sharp teeth. Isaac and Clyde scrambled away, sprinting out of the clearing…and into the dark forest.
They ran for what seemed like hours. Isaac could almost feel the warm, musty breath of the creature as it pursued its next meal. He half expected those long fingers and strong hands to wrap around him and Clyde. At last, the emaciated monster slowed down, and the two pulled away, hiding behind a clump of trees. “What is that thing?” Clyde asked. “Some kind of monster,” Isaac said, breathless. Clyde rolled his eyes. “I guessed that much,” he said. Isaac wondered why he’d asked, then. “What I mean was, what’s its name?”. Isaac shrugged. “I don’t know. It looked like a Fredrick to me,” he said. Clyde groaned. “I mean, is it called, like, deer-man or something?” he asked, exasperated. Isaac shrugged again. Suddenly, he froze up, hearing the familiar snuffling of the creature. Framed perfectly in the moonlight, he could see the thing, head down, sniffing their footprints. Isaac was terrified. The creature sniffed, getting closer and closer to their spot. Apparently, its orange eyes were almost entirely decorative, as it stood in front of Isaac, looking at the air above him. Then, the creature turned a 180, and investigated the next tree. Isaac slowly got up, signalling for Clyde to do the same. They tiptoed away, trying not to snap any twigs. When they were sure the beast couldn’t sense them anymore, Isaac led Clyde on a run in the direction of their clearing. Tree roots twisted their ankles like crazy. When they got back to where they thought the clearing was…it was devoid of any trace of the two being there. “Wrong clearing?” Isaac guessed. Clyde nodded. “Most likely. If I were to guess, our clearing would be to the east,” he said, pointing left. They kept going, but couldn’t find their clearing. At last, they came to the campsite, and Isaac groaned. Someone had taken their tent, the chairs, basically everything, leaving behind only a saw and a packet of matches. Clyde grunted. “They took the flare gun, too, whoever it is,” he muttered. A realization dawned on Isaac.
“This place is called Strands Forest for a reason,” he said quietly.
Part 2: CPL Clyde
When Clyde returned victorious from his hunting trip, Isaac practically did a football tackle to him in relief. The two tumbled onto the dead animal Clyde had been dragging. “You’re an hour overtime,” Isaac said. Clyde smiled weakly. “Had to drag this big hunk of meat all by myself,” he replied, gesturing to the deer that they were resting against. Isaac whistled. “That’ll be meals for a few days,” he said. Clyde pumped his fist triumphantly. “Come on, we have some work to do,” he said.
Isaac covered his nose as he buried the knife in the meat again. Skinning the deer had taken long enough. They kept the hide, because why not? The ribs, shanks, all of it, were hung up on a high branch, and could be pulled down if needed. “Do we just…eat it flavorless?” Clyde asked, not appetized at the prospect. Isaac chuckled. “I found a camper’s abandoned bag. Had food seasoning, a few packets of food, and a water filter. Clyde sighed in relief. “I do hate bland meals, even at this stage,” he said. Isaac snorted. “Well, count yourself lucky. We’ll eat like the noble class of cavemen,” he said.
Clyde’s mouth watered as he smelled the cumin. Isaac sprinkled it on the four of the deer ribs, with a little red pepper and salt to go with it. The fat dripped off the meat as Isaac cooked it on the embers with some foil from the bag. The food sizzled as it was served up. Clyde dug in immediately, the pepper, cumin, and salt adding just the right amount of flavor. “Back in Brazil, you said you couldn’t cook! Been holding out on me, Isaac?” Clyde said, mouth full. Isaac chuckled. “I prefer to keep my mysterious demeanor,” he said innocently. “Man, you gotta teach me how,” Clyde said. No more was said, as the two started eating again.
The sun started to set as the coffee was made. The night was chilly. Clyde and Isaac put on their jackets, and sat in the darkness. “No way we’re leaving this site again. We need the meat,” Clyde remarked. Isaac grunted. “We don’t have much of a choice if they come again tonight. Which they probably will, given what’s hanging off the branches over there,” Isaac replied. Clyde’s eyes lit up. “What if we just take the meat, wrap it in whatever’s in the pack, and take off with it if the deer men come by?” he asked. Isaac shrugged. “It could work…but there’s the chance they’ll follow us all night for the deer meat,” he said. Clyde loaded his rifle, a tad bit anxious.
Stuffing a cut-up deer into a backpack was no easy task. For one, they had no plastic wrapping. All they had were a few plastic bags, far too small for the job. At last, Clyde slumped on the ground again. It was full dark by now. “Let’s just stuff it in without wrappings. When we need it, we take whatever we’re eating and wash it by the river. There’s one not far from here,” he said. Isaac shrugged. “Alright, alright,” he murmured. Just then, a lowing sound cut through the quiet night. It could’ve just been any other deer, but Clyde knew all too well that it wasn’t, judging from the sounds of two-footed things running towards them. Half a dozen deer men bounded into the clearing, their heads lowered, eyes staring unblinkingly at Isaac…no, at the pack slung over his shoulder. “No way we can leave this site. It’s the best we ever had out here,” Clyde said defiantly. “They aren’t leaving us much of a choice,” Isaac said, looking around at the deer men that were closing in. Clyde hoisted his rifle. “I’m not giving this place up,” he said through gritted teeth, firing at the deer man in front of him. Most shots didn’t do anything except make it more aggressive. Heads lowered, the herd charged. Clyde saw his life flashing before his eyes. Any moment now, those antlers were going to crush him…
Clyde gasped in shock as Isaac tugged on his arm, sending him stumbling away from the deer men just as they ran into the campfire. One of the beasts bellowed with pain and anger, flames licking it, until it dissolved into powder. The pair retreated to the far corner of the campsite as the monsters closed in. Desperately, Isaac shot at one of the deer men’s faces. Clyde groaned under his breath in despair. None of the shots had ever worked before. However, to their surprise, one of Isaac’s bullets hit the deer man smack dab in the eye. The creature froze, rigid like a block of ice. Its eyes glowed. It thrashed on the ground as its comrades watched, helpless. Then, the light seemed to explode inside it, and it turned to dust. Before Isaac had time to celebrate, Clyde saw him slammed to the ground as a deer man ran headlong into him from the back. Clyde shook Isaac as the beast ran back to join its four other comrades. “Wake up, Isaac you idiot, wake up,” he whispered. Isaac wouldn’t respond. Clyde slowly got up, facing five of the beasts alone. They grunted in what seemed like laughter, ready to finish off the easy prey. Clyde watched down the sights as they approached at their leisure. Once he had one of the creatures’ eyes in range, he shot. The recoil threw him off his aim, but the bullet went straight and true into its target. The unfortunate deer man also disintegrated. Then another. The remaining trio eyed Clyde hatefully. One of them made a run at him. He dove out of the way, hearing a victorious bellow behind him. One of them was holding up the sack of venison as if it were the holy grail. “That was our dinner!” Clyde shouted, firing his shots at the creature’s eyes. Having rushed the process, the shots only bounced off the deer man. The beast with the bag turned to him with a smug face (As much as a carnivorous deer can be smug), before snuffling and slinking away into the night, his two companions in tow. A groan came from the heap of flesh and clothing that was Isaac. The man sat up, and Clyde knelt next to him. “You good, buddy?” he asked. Isaac blinked hard, then looked at Clyde. “I’m fine, I’m fine. So, uh, what’d I miss?”
Part 3: CPL Clyde
The mood was depressing, to say the least. It had been months since Clyde and Isaac had first been stranded. Isaac had figured out how to string a few logs over their heads, they had a roof. It was a large, conical shelter, with roofs made of leafy branches. The winter had come, and so had the snow. Food was becoming sparse. Clyde and Isaac had survived on an unappealing diet of random plants Isaac identified as edible, and the game Clyde could find. Once in a while, they’d have some luck and shoot a deer. On this fine day, the snow was particularly bad. It had stopped, but not before it had accumulated up to their knees. All Clyde had that day was two rabbits. They were already dead when he found them, but they were freshly dead (one could wonder how that works). Lunch was one rabbit alone. That was because while cleaning them by the fire (to prevent their hands from freezing off), Isaac walked out for the sharpening stone, tripped, stumbled away from the fire, and accidentally flung the rabbit into the fire. Clyde and Isaac lay on their makeshift bunk, watching as the remaining rabbit cooked over the fire. “I mean, normally I’d be in the mood for some of your cooking, but today seems to be an exception,” Clyde said, sniffing loudly. The two both developed dry eyes and runny noses. Isaac sighed nasally. “Yeah. I just want to drink some cold water, and splash warm water on my ears and hands,” he muttered. Clyde snorted with laughter, gesturing to the snowy forest. “Well, you got the cold water. That on the fire solves your hot water needs,” he said. He closed his eyes…and heard the crunch of snow underfoot as Isaac ran away. “Oi, where are you going?” Clyde demanded. Isaac returned with the rabbit, the bottom of it burnt, but the rest perfectly fine. “I mean…it’s edible,” he said, sheepishly.
That night, Clyde’s face felt like it was burning up. His nose was stuffed. He could barely breathe, unless through his mouth. He’d been chugging cool water for the past hour. Isaac sighed above him. Both were laying in their wood beds, rifles across their bodies. The overnight snow had begun again, filling up to shin level, despite their efforts during the day to cut it down. The moon was covered by the clouds. “I feel like the deer men should be out here by now,” Clyde said. Isaac grunted. “It’s snowing like crazy out there. They’ll probably all be in whatever dens they have,” he replied. Just then, a cry cut through the night. Clyde fixed Isaac with a baleful glance. “What? It’s not like any of us jinxed it or anything,” he said innocently. A trio of deer men, possibly the ones from a few months back, lumbered through the snow, eyes shining like old headlights in the night. Isaac and Clyde opened fire with the rifles, slowly. One deer man went down. It never got any less than that. “Abandon camp!” Clyde said, as soon as he saw the sharp-toothed maw of one of the beasts. Then, he and Isaac sprinted into the darkness.
For a long while, the snuffling of the deer men was audible. The snow hampered their progress, but, luckily, did the same to the deer men. Isaac and Clyde got behind a clump of trees, panting quietly. “If we’re staying out here, we should’ve thought to get our stuff,” he muttered. Isaac raised a finger to his lips. The creatures had approached. Clyde tensed. No way that much sniffing can be two creatures. “I think they’re all around us,” Clyde whispered. Isaac got in his last few words. “If we’re caught, you get out of here. Don’t worry about me,” he replied. Suddenly, a grunt came from above, and Clyde felt himself leaving the ground as a deer man picked him up. He squirmed, and by the yelling, guessed that Isaac got the same treatment. All Clyde had access to right then was a little knife, and his arms were pinned to his sides. He desperately used his hand to fumble out the knife. It fell, and Clyde caught it neatly with his shoelaces, trapping it. As the monster began lifting him to its mouth, Clyde aimed a roundhouse kick at the beast. It vaporized, and he fell to the ground, looking around…and groaning. Fifty deer men, possibly an entire herd, were surrounding him. Just then, Isaac landed beside him with a thud. “I had access to…well, just my foot. Turns out that works,” he whispered. Then, swiftly, he lunged towards the rifles that were theirs, and brought them back. Shots rang out. Only two of the herd disintegrated. Clyde aimed, shot, and repeated three times, each bullet finding its mark. The herd looked uneasy, but closed in all the same. Clyde and Isaac fired and fired. Each time they reloaded, the herd rushed up, but were pushed back again. At last, concentrated fire made a small gap in the circle. Clyde broke into a sprint. Gray arms with tattered fur grabbed at him. He shot blindly. The sound was enough. However, the circle closed in on Isaac again. Clyde turned back, ready to free him. “Run, Clyde! I’m not makin’ it outta here!” Isaac roared, just as a huge hand smacked him across the face, and he went reeling. “I’m not violating unit code: never leave a man behind!” Clyde shouted. Isaac coughed out blood, as well as something white, as another fist went to his jaw. “I’m fine…go…listen to the sarge…” he croaked, a red rivulet trickling down his chin. Clyde nodded, silently keeping tears in, and ran. By some luck, he made it out of the forest, wandering aimlessly down the road. A sedan rushed up to him. He stood to the side. It pulled over. Warren was at the wheel. “We got a notice from the park rangers. Get in,” he barked. Clyde complied easily. “Where’s Isaac?” Warren asked. Clyde sighed. “He’s…well, being beaten up by a group of fifty. Told me to leave him,” he replied. Warren nodded, stepping on the gas. Clyde touched the window, looking behind him at the dark forest. “I’m sorry, Isaac,” he whispered.
The End
…Or is it…?
Stay tuned to find out…
Credits:
We’d like to thank…
Ren Cai, for his article about the stock market.
Matthew Fu, for his last story about Unit 48.
Arjun Vanam, for his article about the signal group chat leakage.