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STORY BY CHAD HUSKINS It's Christmas Eve. And a Wednesday. John Hark has few friends, no job and no prospects. Since leaving the marines, he’s found little to motivate him beyond his martial arts training. His girlfriend has left him, his sister harasses him, and his best friend is stuck somewhere in Atlanta traffic. John settles in for a subdued Christmas Eve of video games in his lousy apartment with his tabby cat Reese. But neighbors have gone missing, lights are cutting in and out, and a major snowstorm is brewing outside. It seems this night can't get any worse. Until an assassin attacks John in his kitchen. Barely surviving this harrowing attack, more of them show up. "Shinobi," some call them. Shadow warriors. Ninja. By the dozens they come for him, then hundreds. An infestation of ninjas. John grapples to make sense of this fight for his life that makes no sense. Along the way, John makes some allies, a man called the "Iron Priest," and a beautiful Japanese woman from a secret organization, with her samurai father. But John must carve a bloody path through his apartment building, through ice-covered roads and a night blacker than any he's ever seen. All he has to do is survive until dawn. Comparable works include The Shining by Stephen King, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris