74.
   I stumbled and fell under a table. They came at me like starving rats. I kicked at them as they crawled up my legs. I opened up their faces with the stiletto and pulled myself up again. They had handfuls of our hair in their fists. Claudia fell to her knees as they swarmed over her. The dogs tore them off her. We fought our way through overturned chairs and tables toward an open window.

   Boris ripped off the hood and filled the air with a cloud of the creatures. “Get out of the city as fast as you can!”, he bellowed. “I’ll take care of these insects!” His heavy boots smashed them. His hands crumpled them, but they were all over him biting at his ears and pulling at his face. One of them balanced on his head. It threw its arms in the air and screamed in delirious ecstasy. “It’s my money! It’s my money!”
   More and more tumbled over us. Their eyes spun in their sockets. Their tongues flapped in their mouths. “Mine! Mine! Mine!”, they squawked. “Bite the tits off that bitch! Cut the head off that worm!”
   We were overwhelmed. Claudia and I were on the windowsill. I had one by the throat while another one pulled at my hair. Their bites and scratches drew blood. They went for our ankles and wrists and necks. The dogs spun in every direction biting off limbs and heads and they still came at us.