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A powerful body writhed between my fingers. It was a gigantic ant, incredibly strong. I squeezed off its head with my fingernails, and the contorted body finally grew still. I let it fall between my legs and dug the head out from where it clung to my thumb. The little son of a bitch! It must have crawled in while I was getting my bed ready.

Then another bite, more pincers. One near my knee and another by my waist. I hastily reached out for them. The ants dug in deeply. I tore their bodies apart, happily listening to the crunch they made.

‘How are you getting in, you little mothers? I’ll kill you!’

I was wrapped up in several layers, airtight, in two mosquito nets and a poncho. There was no way for them to crawl in. Perhaps there had been a few of them on the palm fronds, and they had dropped down on me. But what had they been waiting for? Why had they only now started biting?

I didn’t have long to spend pondering that question, for I was immediately subject to still another attack and panicked. The ants bit, pinched in several places at once, and it hurt like hell. These ants didn’t burn like fire ants but were bigger and stronger and sliced into my body with their pincers.

I fought them like a madman, dismembering one after another. I wanted to get up and run away, but where would I go? It was dark, and I was barefoot. Where could I run? I would never find