the Second Fall of Kabul

The Second Fall of Kabul

345 words

         Abdul Rahman was 20 when the Taliban took Kabul for the first time. When the Americans came to kick out the Kabul, Abdul was so grateful that he ended up working for the Americans as a translator during the long semi-war that soon broke out.

         Abdul enjoyed working for the Americans and got along with them. He saved his money and opened a bar near the base and befriended many Americans. He even married an American woman whom he met through his work.

         But Abdul knew the Taliban would one day return to power and prepared for that day. He got his green card approved the week before the Taliban seized power the second time. Through his cousin in the secret police, who was a secret Taliban supporter, he had enough time to flee to the airport with his wife and children in tow. He had to pay a huge fine to get through the lines and onto the plane before Kabul fell a second time.

         Abdul was horrified at the idea that the Taliban would soon be back in power but was glad he and his wife had made it out safely. He went to Fremont, California, and Little Kabul, and opened a restaurant that became the center of the Afghan government in exile. Through his army contacts, he became a CIA informant and ran an underground Free Afghanistan radio internet and YouTube Chanel broadcasting the voice of the resistance across the Afghan diaspora in the US, the Mideast, and in Afghanistan itself. And he became a human smuggler, smuggling out desperate Afghan refugees and helping them get sponsorship for refugee status. He knew he could never go back as long as the Taliban remained in power, as his cousin reminded him he was on the Taliban hit list.

         One day he opened his restaurant. and three Taliban fighters came in and shot him dead, yelling “death to the enemies of Allah.” Sadly, this was not the first such case in the U.S. as revenge killings by the Taliban occurred all over the world.

On October 14, 1066, the Normans defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.
On October 14, 1322, Robert the Bruce defeated the English at Byland, establishing Scotland's independence.

Not a good date for the English!

Write a story or poem set in the context of a military battle/conflict, where your POV character is on the losing side just as the battle is being lost.

One of your genres should be WAR.

Be creative. Your character may be on the front lines, or back at headquarters getting the news or even back home hearing about the defeat on the radio (or tri-v hologram or faerie grapevine or whatever suits your genre and setting).