Jwala Vayu
Chapter 10
Rahul says, "What the epic hell!!!"
Bala seems confused. Sanju says, “Can you explain again???”
Venkat says, “At that time, we needed funds to buy machinery and data analysis-related technology, and at that time, we had no resources; the only thing climate agencies were for was daily weather updates and analysis. USA teams approached us and picked the three best experts, but I was not selected. I was in the backend. So we approached Ashok Shirke, a huge millionaire, who became our funder.”
Bala says, “And he also came to Alaska?”
Venkat says, “He insisted, ‘my money, my tech so that I will be on the team’, sort of like that…”
Rahul says, “Like father, like son!!!”
Venkat says, “We sent the experts with the USA Teams, and they were there for weeks in the cold temperatures below zero degrees. We could get updates once a week. I still remember some of the instances.”
Years ago,
Four Indian experts- Ashok, Malik, Brahma, and Niraj.
Ashok says, “We have been here for a month and have been struggling with these anomalies.”
Malik says, “I talked to the USA Teams, we have nothing on the radars.”
Niraj says, “We have dug deep, and soon our equipment will run out; we will run out of energy.”
Ashok says, “Waste of money, time, and effort, Indian government needs to pay back well or else I will sue them.”
Brahma says, “Sue!!! Seriously, suing your own country is not the first time we have had false data, and there have been negative results. These anomalies could be a danger, which is why we are here. You are here because you are investing your capital. We are here for a national purpose, to serve the nation.”
Malik says, “Well said, brother!!!”
Ashok says, “This better get over soon, so I can meet my year-old son and get to the USA and enjoy some martinis and the beach.”
USA team member, John, comes and says, “We need to dig ahead for another week, if not, we head back home.”
Two days later,
Venkat from USA Base says, “The digging is good, check the powers, and proceed.”
Brahma uses the machine, gets stuck, and says, “Guys, we are stuck!!!”
They dig manually and find some particles frozen, and John says, “Beautiful!!!”
They take pictures, and Niraj says, “What do we do? Break them and take them with us, or don’t we know the seriousness?”
Malik and others click pictures of it, and Ashok says, “Cmon, take some stuff and let’s get out of here…”
Ashok breaks one of the ice poles, and his hand gets cut, and blood hits the pole. All poles and branches shiver and crack. The pole breaks, and one USA expert sees this and disintegrates on the spot. They all panic and run. One pole hits Ashok, and he falls. Brahma tries to save him, but an earthquake begins, and Ashok says, “Save me, please, for my son!!!”
A massive ice block hits Brahma, and he falls off and the whole cave gets destroyed and Ashok gets submerged in. Venkat coordinated and sent a rescue team ahead. Brahma was injured hours later, taken back to the base, and then returned to India.
(Flashback ended)
Venkat says, “I never thought, so many years later, the storm anomaly would come back and release its fury on the world.”
Sanju says, “So, Ashok’s spirit controls the storm???”
Rahul says, “Seems so!!!”
Bala says, “Why were you guys disturbed when you heard the name Ashok Shirke?”
Rahul says, “I am not telling you the flashback, dude!!!”
Sanju says, “His son, Pratap, is in military prison, due to his acts, and so thinking we need to talk to him, aches Rahul!!!”
Bala says, “Ok, I got the gist!!!”
They arrive at a military prison in the Military Cantonment, where they see a fight club happen between prisoners and some soldiers. Sanju arrives, Suraj, there, and says, “Some entertainment!!!”
Sanju says, “I see!!! You got our message?”
Suraj nodes, and suddenly a prisoner is thrown in the air and crashes on the table, where Suraj was seated, and the crowd clears, and it happens to be PRATAP who had thrown him!!!
Pratap smiles and says, “Hey boys!!!”
Sanju walks toward him and says, “We need your help!”
Pratap and the other prisoners laugh, and he says, “Rahul must have puked in his mouth when you said this sentence.”
Sanju says, “He did, but not the point, this is for national interest.”
Pratap says, “So India needs my help???”
Sanju nods and says, “YUP!!!”
Pratap says, “What makes you think I will answer your request?”
Sanju says, “Because the military has caught you for bad and illegal activities, and literally, we own your ass.”
Pratap says, “Look around, you are in my yard!!!”
The prisoners shout ‘Pratap’s name, and they cheer him. Pratap says, “Let's do one thing, I couldn’t do it with Rahul, why not you, one-on-one, fight, you win, I will think of helping you, I win, piss off!!!”
Sanju cracks his neck and says, “DEAL!!!”
Suraj and Bala get seated, and Sanju removes his military Kevlar and jacket. Bala says, “Pratap is a huge guy, like that Kingpin from Spiderman series!!!”
Suraj says, “We wish Sanju luck!!!”
They look at each other, and the cage closes, and Sanju runs and kicks Pratap in the face, Pratap takes a step back and Sanju goes for another one. Pratap catches the leg and throws him at the cage wall. Pratap punches him and suplexes him around. Pratap takes praise from the other prisoners. Sanju spits some blood and punches Pratap in the abdomen. They both are bruised and in blood. Pratap powerbombs him on the cage door, and they come out. Other prisoners catch and hold them. Suraj fires his gun in the air. Sanju kicks some prisoners and attacks Pratap. Sanju gets crazy and uses barbed wire to keep Pratap, and he says, “It's about your father, help us, dammit!!!”
Pratap listens, taps, and gets up. Sanju punches him again and says, “That was for SAMARTH!!!”
They are in Suraj’s cabin, treated by the medical staff, Pratap says, “My father?”
They tell him the flashback Venkat narrated, Pratap says, “Sounds like my father! I was a year old when he left for that project, and someone told me that he died on the expedition. Then he left me with the wealth to my uncle and me, and I was in and out of India.”
Sanju says, “We don’t know if your father’s blood controls the storm or what, we don’t have any idea. We have to try.”
Pratap says, “What do I get in return if we win?”
Sanju says, “You leave India forever, and wherever you shift, USA, UK, you will be their problem if you do anything illegal.”
Pratap says, “DEAL!!!”
Sanju, Bala, and Pratap fly to Delhi, as they come out of the flight, Rahul is seen waiting for them and says, “DAMN!!!”
Pratap says, “You seem surprised!!!”
Rahul says, “I like the bruises on your face. I'm glad you are leaving India when this is done!!!”
Mona comes in running, and says, “GUYS!!! We have a new problem!!”
She played a video recording from a security drone in Rajasthan.
In the footage, a desert village stood still. The wind was picking up, forming strange shapes in the sand.
Rahul frowned. “Weird. Just another storm?”
Then, suddenly—
People screamed as shadowy humanoid figures emerged from the sandstorm.
Their eyes glowed gold. Their bodies were tall, skeletal, shifting like dust.
One of them grabbed a villager. The moment it touched him, his body dried up instantly, turning into dust as the demon absorbed his form.
The video cuts to static. Sanju and Rahul stood frozen.
Rahul swallowed. “What… the hell was that?”
Venkat’s voice came over the comms. “We just analyzed the footage. The storm isn’t just evolving. It’s learning.”
Mona looked at Sanju. “What do we do now?”
Sanju exhaled. “First, we find out what these things want. Then we find a way to kill them.”
Jwala Vayu
Chapter 11
Rahul says, “Sand, Demons! What!!!”
Venkat says, “As I said, the Storm is learning and has evolved.”
Rahul says, “Evolved in demons, seriously!!!”
Pratap says, “See, we need to stop this Storm!”
Rahul looks confused and says, “When did we become we!!! You killed one of my friends, and now we are, we!!!”
Sanju says, “Enough!”
Venkat says, “The same theories will apply to them if they attack. More serious explosions will be taking place as we know.”
Venkat brings them to a base of operations and shows advanced weapons with more power and control. Rahul and Sanju try them.
Suddenly, an earthquake occurs, the doors of the base rip out, the two Sand Demons walk in colossal size, and Rahul looks and says, “They are huge!”
The desert wind howled as the first Sand Demon stepped forward, emerging from the golden storm. Its skeletal frame shifted unnaturally, grains of sand peeling off and reforming with every movement. Its hollow golden eyes locked onto the human figures before it.
They attack the people, Sanju says, “The people didn’t vanish???”
Suraj takes a grenade and throws it, and Rahul uses the new weapon to fire. The demons stand back and roar out, massive sand attacks and collide with the weapons, Rahul fires again and his gun cracks, and the demon shows an evil smile and creates a sand ball in his hand and Pratap jumps and saves Rahul. Rahul, shocked, Pratap says, “Thank me later!”
Pratap sees a petrol barrel and sees another weapon available, and shoots the demon again and again, one of them gets pushed at the barrel and he shoots again and a massive explosion takes place, and kills one of them. Another look, and his eyes become blank and Pratap sees some visions and says, “DAD???”
A figure stood within the storm, watching him.
Ashok Shirke.
His father looked exactly as he had 25 years ago, standing in a lab coat, arms crossed, proud, powerful.
Pratap’s pulse raced. “You’re… dead.”
Ashok smiled. “Am I?”
Pratap stepped forward. Everything around him blurred—the battle, the alarms, the gunfire.
“You always wanted to prove yourself, Pratap,” Ashok said. “But you were never good enough.”
Pratap clenched his fists. “You destroyed the world.”
Ashok stepped closer. “And now, you can fix it.”
Pratap felt an overwhelming pull toward his father, as if drawn by an unseen force.
Suraj gets close and shoots the weapon many times, and the demon becomes a glass structure, comes crashing down, and says, “HELL YEAH!!!”
Sanju says, “What happened to you???”
Pratap says, “I saw something!”
Sanju says, “The storm and sand demons didn’t vanish anyone; everyone is safe.”
Venkat says, “Seems his stomach is full!!”
A while later,
The storms occur, the demons are attacked at close range, becoming a glass structure or being killed on the spot. Venkat says, “The storms are taking place, yes, but people are not going away, but let the precautions be taken at most.”
Sanju says, “What would be the end plan we are looking at?”
Venkat says, “Practically, we go to Alaska and end the storm’s origin!”
Sanju says, “-40 degrees and cold as hell, people don’t survive in nine degrees when it takes place in India!”
Venkat says, “That’s an idea, one of the ideas.”
Pratap is seen inside the room and remembers the visions he saw, and Rahul knocks on the door and says, “Busy?”
Pratap nods and says, “No, was sup?”
Rahul says, “ I wanted to thank you; you saved me from those demons.”
Pratap says, “It was a small thing, it is fine!”
Rahul says, “When that demon made that sand ball like, I saw my whole life, in a second, Mona, the baby which is on the way, etc. I was scared, never thought I would make it alive.”
Pratap says, “I wanted to apologize as well, for Samarth, my hate over you and everyone went high, and I forgot what goodness is, what humanity is. When I was in jail, I saw people worse than me, which made me realize what my bad deeds had done, due to drugs and everything, call it Karma, but it came back, somehow.”
Rahul says, “Reality check hits hard!!!”
Pratap says, “Sure!”
Rahul says, “Can I ask, when that other demon looked at you, you saw something and paused, what happened?”
Pratap says, “Um, you won’t believe!!!”
Rahul says, “Dude, we are fighting sand-shaped demons, what else is left?”
Pratap says, “I saw my father, it was like a psychic thing, it showed me the visions of him being there when he tried to mess up and things went crazy.”
Rahul says, “That’s weird!”
At night, the storm particles react, and Sanju is seen sleeping. Sanju suddenly hears a voice—soft, familiar, achingly painful.
“Sanju…”
His breath caught. Meera. His wife.
Sanju goes outside his room and looks around, and a voice calling his name comes. He sees the storm happening, and he sees visions of Meera and himself as they have their best moments before the storm, and he smiles, and a voice says, “Sanju, I am here for you, come!”
Sanju’s eyes become black, and he says, “Yes, I am coming, dear!”
He puts the code for the door to open, and Rahul holds him back and says, “What are you doing?”
Sanju says, “Meera, my dear, she is outside, I need to ask her to come in!”
Rahul says, “No one is outside, (closes the code) get in!”
Bala calls for Rahul, Pratap’s eyes black out, and he says, “DAD, I am coming, I am coming!”
It goes around everywhere with everyone, as they get psyched by the storm particles, when they step outside, realizing there is nothing, the demons attack them and vanish them, causing a drop in population.
Venkat says, “We need a plan, ASAP!!!”
PM gets on the screen live, makes an announcement, and says, “The Jwala Vayu wants to test our psychology of our minds, everyone. He is showing the lost ones and making us think, they are alive, they are not, unfortunately, they won’t come back, we have lost them. Please control yourself, and don’t let the storm take control of you; control your own emotions.”
He turned to his generals. “Issue nationwide sound barriers—earplugs, noise-canceling gear. We need to limit auditory exposure to the storm. And we fight back.”
Across India, people began blocking out the whispers.
The Sand Demons had made their move.
Now, humanity was making theirs.
Pratap and Sanju are seen tied to their beds as they see visions of their dear ones, and Rahul says, “This is getting weirder and tougher.”
Bala says, “And dangerous!”
Rahul says, “WHAT??”
They see an army of sand demons coming at the base of operations.