Coming directly towards her, flying low over the trees, were two war machines – giant steel insects with stub wings, each with spinning blades that cut through the air, blurring the blue sky above them. They had windows at the front, a bulb of glass – a terrifying huge monster eye. The flying machines were so low she could see the man seated inside, the pilot’s face hidden by a helmet. As they passed overhead, it felt possible to reach out and touch their steel bellies. Sayed was shouting to her but she couldn’t hear what he was saying, just the thump-thump of the spinning blades. A gust of air, a man-made storm passed through the trees. She gripped the branch tightly. The entire tree was shaking. Ignoring Sayed’s calls for her to come down, Zabi watched as the two giant steel insects circled her village.

The first explosion was so powerful Zabi was punched out of the tree, a force hitting her in the chest, knocking her backwards. She fell, branches breaking beneath her. She would’ve hit the ground but Sayed caught her. There was intense heat from a fire. A plume of smoke mushroomed above them, rising up into the sky, an angry spirit unleashed. The orchards nearest the village were ablaze, the tops of trees burning. A second explosion, a rush of air, its heat curling her eyelashes. Sayed reacted, he ran, carrying her under his arm like a rolled-up rug. Clods of earth thumped down around them.

Looking back, she saw black smoke ballooning through the trees, rolling towards them like the edge of an evil cloud. Suddenly the cloud broke apart – a flock of mountain ponies burst through the smoke. Their eyes were huge, their manes on fire, skin blackened and burnt. Some were blind, or blind with panic, crashing head-on with the narrow trunks of the apricot trees, the trees splintering, the ponies dropping to the ground. Their hooves ripped up the soil. One pony continued to run even with its stomach gashed open, charging past, while another collapsed to the ground beside them, legs buckling underneath it, tongue hanging out.

The mechanical thumping noise returned. One of the flying machines pushed through the black cloud, hovering directly overhead. Sayed ran faster, his eyes wild with same panic as the ponies crashing about them on either side. There was nowhere to hide.

Zabi saw the irrigation channel ahead. Before they could reach it, a third explosion – the ground collapsing and giving way, every clod of soil, every leaf vibrating. Sayed threw her forward. For a moment she was in the air, then crashing down, landing in the channel, smashing through the surface, submerged beneath the freezing current. She rolled over, looking up through the water. There was no sign of Sayed. A burning pony leaped overhead, hooves clipping the concrete walls. The blue sky disappeared, replaced by fire. The freezing water began to bubble and boil.

Greater Province of Kabul