A warning for listeners.

This podcast features stories of war, terrorism, and violence.

It's important to hear, but it can also be disturbing.

It's the early morning of August 26th, 2021.

The sun hasn't risen over Kabul yet.

A young Afghan named Hakeemi is in bed huddled over his phone.

The 22-year-old is frantically deleting pictures of his friends and family.

And he's getting rid of anything that shows him with the Americans.

I deleted all photos of myself from my phone.

I deleted my post to tweets, taxes, photos, and everything from social media.

Because we have known that Taliban had checked the phones.

Hakeemi has to be quiet.

He doesn't want to wake his family.

The eight relatives who share one roof.

They had been arguing for weeks.

With the US leaving, Hakeemi wanted to get out of Afghanistan.

But his family said they couldn't.

The Taliban had checkpoints on the roads, and they were looking for people like him.

Hakeemi was a journalist and a civil society activist.

And some of his family members worked for the Afghan government.

They told me that if you go to Kabul airport, Taliban will find you and they will arrest

you.

...