September 10th, 2001. This is the first year that we have been at war against the United States.

I lived in the outskirts of Afghanistan where nothing usually happened. Heat waves radiated off of the dry desert floor, gunshots came from a nearby village. Screaming filled my ears as I packed my belongings into my backpack and rushed out of my house to a village opposite of the gunfire. I arrived at this village expecting it to be desolate, but I was mistaken as I saw a girl sitting on her porch. She looked to be in her early 20’s. Everyone else must of evacuated. I yelled “What are you doing here?”, she replied “I’m trying to gather my belongings!” Her long black hair cascaded over her slender shoulders. What could she be doing here all alone? I thought.

I heard more gunshots, it seemed to be getting closer. She ran into her house and packed the last of her belongings. I asked her to follow me. We ran towards Ariana, a city in Afghanistan. We finally ran away from the misery and terror. Ariana wasn’t attacked, but people around us were alert. “What is your name?” I asked, she told me it was Emma. We grabbed a quick drink and talked about leaving and where to go.  “We need to go to the U.S.” She said. We concluded that we should bike to the airport, and fly to the United States. We purchased bikes and started biking 20 miles to the Ariana Afghan Airport. Around halfway to the Airport, Emma and I both heard bullets being fired in our direction. I was fearful that the bullets were being fired at us. Thankfully they were not, but I have never biked faster in my life. Emma struggled to keep up and we eventually both lost energy. We both sat under a tree and took time to unwind. There was still 10 miles to bike. Both of us grabbed our water bottles out of our backpack and drank quickly. We threw the water bottles in my backpack and Emma and I hopped on our bikes and vacated the subtle area.

We arrived at the Ariana Airport around 5 am. We dropped off our bikes near a tree to never be seen again. We walked into the Airport, had our bags checked, and boarded the plane. The plane was heading to New York. Around 10 minutes elapsed until we took off to New York. The flight was a few hours. Both of us saw many planes as we made our way to New York. We landed around 8:15 am. It was a beautiful day, sunlight reflecting off of these two huge towers. We went inside these towers just to examine the interior. We exited the building and walked around the city. I looked at my watch, it read 8:45 am. Emma and I looked up as we saw a plane getting closer and closer to one of the two enormous buildings. People in the streets were in awe as a Boeing plane was nearing one of the two towers. “THAT PLANE IS GOING TO CRASH” I yelled. Everyone screamed as a plane crashed into one of the towers. Fire was building up, people were jumping out of the building.

It was the most horrifying sight I’ve ever seen.