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creatures immediately crumpled to the ground. Some of the creatures in
back stumbled over their fellows but others managed to leap over the obstacle.
More shots rang out and more of the creatures fell. James sighed as his gun
clicked empty.
    James glanced behind him and saw the same for the officers
behind him. They were all out of ammo. How many did they put down? He was
fairly confident his shots had been kills. He frequently went to the range to
hone his skill. He'd always felt that the best way he could use his gun was to
shoot what he was aiming at. He wasn't sure about the other officers. He knew
that a number of them trained just enough to pass their annual evaluation.
Looking forward, he sighed as he saw the result of that attitude.
    Some of the creatures were getting back to their feet. They
were wounded but they were somehow able to push past pain that would leave a
normal man crippled on the ground. The creatures roared and charged the
officers. James drew his asp and flicked his wrist to expand it.
    "Hand to hand. Get ready!" James krav maga
training kicked in. He'd been in a few scrapes on the job. This was the first
time he'd needed to fire his weapon at a live target but he had been in his
share of fights. Normally he held himself back as his krav maga training made
him a deadly opponent. Krav maga focused on ending the fight as quickly as
possible. That wasn't something he could normally do on the job. But right now
he knew, this was kill or be killed. If he didn't fight with everything he had,
he wouldn't be seeing his family again.
    James met the first creature to reach him with a hard strike
to the throat that put it back on the ground. It stopped moving. He sidestepped
the next creature and managed a hit to the back of its knee that sent it to the
ground. Moving quickly he finished it with a blow to the back of the head.
Turning around he barely manged to block a blow with his asp. He responded with
an elbow strike to the creature’s throat that had it gasping for breath. James
put it out of its misery with a strike to the head.
    The next creature that reached James received a kick in the
groin for its efforts. James smiled inwardly as it crumpled. They had high pain
tolerance, but they still felt that. Two strikes to the back of its head
stopped it from moving. Movement from behind caught Jame's attention but he
couldn't move in time. He turned only to be tackled to the ground. The creature
struck at him but James managed to trap its arm with his against his body. With
his other hand, he jabbed the creature in the eye. The gloves cushioned some of
the blow but it was enough to make the creature howl in pain. A strike to the
throat had the creature holding its throat and James was able to shove it off.
Three quick punches knocked it unconscious.
    James looked about for his asp. He'd lost it when he'd been
tackled. Seeing it he grabbed it and looked for another opponent. He sighed in
relief when he saw they were done. He walked over to the creature he'd just
knocked out and finished it off. He didn't want to fight it twice. Who knew how
quickly it might have recovered?
    Looking around, James took stock. Of the ten officers that
had started the fight, only four of them were still standing. They were all breathing
heavily. James looked around in disgust. What was this thing? What could turn a
man into a raving animal? James noticed a rip in his suit and checked the skin
beneath. He sighed in relief as he found the skin unbroken. But the suit was
now useless. He might as well lose it and get some mobility back. Some of the
officers looked on him in shock as he started taking off his suit.
    "Suit got ripped," he explained. "Hopefully,
it doesn't spread that easily."
    A few officers nodded and followed suit. All of them had
suffered a rip of some sort. One of them cursed in disgust when he looked at
his arm. One of the creatures had managed to bite him.
    "Look around," James said. "See if you can
find some clean